those six Martyrs burnt by Harpsfield Archdeacon of Canterbury when Queen Mary lay a dying One of those six that were then burnt and those were the last John Cornford stirred with a vehement zeal of God when they were excommunicated pronounced sentence of excommunication against all Papists in these words In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of his holy Spirit and authority of his holy Catholick and Apostolick Church wee do give here into the hands of Satan to bee destroyed the bodies of all those blasphemers and hereticks that do maintain any errour against his most holy Word Act. Mon. fol. 1862. or do condemn his most holy truth for heresie to the maintenance of any false Church or feigned religion so that by this thy most just judgement O most mighty God against thine adversaries thy true religion may bee known to thy great glory and our comfort and the edifying of all our Nation Good Lord so bee it Vers 8. I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem Being evill intreated by her enemies shee turns her to her friends those damsels or daughters of Jerusalem See chap. 2.7 3.5 so the Lord Christ being tired out with the untractableness of his untoward hearers turns him to his Father Mat. 11.25 26. Kings as they have their cares and cumbers above other men so they had of old their friends by a specialty as Hushai was Davids friend 2 Sam. 15.37 to whom they might ease themselves and take sweet counsell Psal 55.14 The servants of God are Princes in all lands Psal 45. and as they have their crosses not a few so their comforts in and by the communion of Saints The very opening of their grievances one to another doth many times ease them as the very opening of a vein cools the blood Their mutual prayers one with and for another prevail much if they bee fervent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.26 Prov. 27.17 or thorough-well wrought as in this case they likely will be for as Iron wheâ—s Iron so doth the face of a man his friend And as ferrum potest quod anrum non potest Iron can do that sometimes that Gold cannot An Iron-key may open a chest wherein Gold is laid up so a meaner mans prayer may bee more effectual sometimes than a better mans for himself His own key may be rusty or out of order and another mans do it better Hence the Church is so importunate with the daughters of Jerusalem who were far behinde her in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as appears by that which follows to commend her and her misery to Christ to tell him where ever they meet with him Behold shee whom thou lovest is sick thy Church in whom thy love is concentrate as it were and gathered to an head doth even languish with love and is in ill case Tell him saith shee What shall yee tell him as the Hebrew hath it An earnest and passionate kinde of speech somewhat like that in Hosea Give them O Lord Hos 9.14 What wilt thou give them as if shee should say would you know what you should tell him even that which followeth that I am sick of love See chap. 2.5 Vers 9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved This capital question is here doubled for the more vehemency as also for the strangeness of the matter wherein they desire much to bee better informed and the rather because shee so straightly chargeth or rather sweareth them Something they must needs think was in it more than ordinary sith good people do not use to bee hot in a cold matter But as in the Revelation whensoever heaven opened some singular thing ensued So when the Saints bee so serious in a business sure it is of very great concernment Great matters are carried with great movings as for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart Judg 5.15 16 great impressions great searchings It is a common saying Admiratio peperit Philosophiam Wonderment at the works of God set men a work to enquire into the natural causes of them Semblably these damsells of Jerusalem friends to the Church little knowing the love of the Spouse to Christ which passed their knowledge and yet willing to comprehend with all Saints the several dimensions thereof Eph. 3.18 19 first they acknowledge her amidst all her miseries to be the fairest among women See chap. 1.8 as gold is gold though found in the dirt or cast into the furnace and stars have their glory though we see them sometimes in a puddle in the bottom of a well nay in a stinking ditch Secondly they propound to her two most profitable questions The one concerning his person Whereof wee have here a very lively and lofty description both generally and in his parts The other concerning the place of his abode and where hee may be had chap. 6.1 to the which she makes answer vers 2. and so her faith begins to revive vers 3. which was the blessed effect of this their gracious communication Conference in all arts and sciences is a course of incredible profiting Est aliquid quod ex magno viro vel tacente proficias the very sight Prov. 31.26 Prov. 20.5 nay thought of a good man oft doth good how much more when hee openeth his mouth with wisdome and in his tongue is the Law of kindness And surely it is a fine art to bee able to pierce a man that is like a vessell full of wine and to set him a running Elihu would speak that hee might bee refresht Job 32. It would bee an ease to him it would bee a great benefit to others as the mother is in pain till the childe hath suckt and the childe not at quiet till hee hath done so Foolish and unlearned questions about those things whereof wee can neither have proof nor profit wee are bound to avoid 2 Tim. 2.23 knowing that they do gender strifes and breed crudities fill men with winde and make them question-sick 1 Tim. 6.4 But profitable questions are frequently to bee propounded with a desire to learn and resolution to practice as the Virgin Mary demanded of the Angel Luk. 1.34 the Disciples of our Saviour John 16.17 19. c. and hee resolved them which hee refused to do for the Jews that asked him the same question John 7.35 36. because not with the same mind and desire So that frollick self-seeker with his fair offer of following Christ was rejected when those that had more honest aims and ends heard Come and see Mat. 8.19 20. John 1.46 These daughters of Jerusalem do not therefore ask because they were utterly ignorant of Christ but 1 That they might hear the Church what shee had to say of him as they that love Christ love to hear talk of him his very name is melâ—in ore melos in aure c. 2 That by her discourse they might better their knowledge for
locum Heyl. Geog. that it should not be lawful for housholders to pray with their families and that of the Jesuites at Dola forbidding the common people to say any thing at all of God either in good sort or in bad That whosoever shall ask a petition of any god or man What not of their own gods nor yet of Cyrus who was compartner with Darius in the Kingdom But like enough these complotters might think hereby the rather to ingratiate with the old dotard Darius who feared the virtue and valour of his Nephew and colleague Cyrus and would say with tears as Xenophon reporteth that Cyrus was more glorious then he and had more applause of the people Ver. 8. Now O King establish the decree Confirm it that it may receive the force of Law According to the Law of the Medes and Persians that altereth not This was too much to be given to any law made by man so mutable a creature I have read of a people whose laws lasted in force but for three dayes at utmost This was a fault in the other extream The Persians laws were therefore irrepealable because they worshipped Truth for a goddesse to whom Inconstancy and Change must needs be opposite and odious But this was no good reason neither unless the Lawmakers shall be supposed such as cannot erre nor will any thing unjust which can be truely attributed to none but God only Ver. 9. Wherefore King Darius signed the writing As well enough content to be so dignified yea deified So was Alexander the Great Antiochus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod Domitian Dominus Deus noster Papa Vah scelus Ver. 10. Now when Daniel knew that the writing was signed Which he knew not belike till it was proclaimed and published and then it may be he did as much against it as Latimer did herein like case by writing his mind unto King Henry the eighth after the Proclamation for abolishing English books See his letter in the book of Martyrs and marvel at his heroical boldnesse and stoutnesse Act. Mon. 1591. who as yet being no Bishop so freely and fearlesly adventuring his life to discharge his conscience durst so boldly to so mighty a Prince in such a dangerous case against the Kings law and Proclamation set out in such a terrible time take upon him to write and to admonish that which no counsellor durst once speak unto him in defence of Christs Gospel He went into his house He left the Court as no fit aire for piety to breath in and get him home Exeat Aulâ— qui vâ—lit esse pius where he might more freely and comfortably converse with his God Tutissimus est qui rarissime cum hominibus plurimum cum Deo colloquitur saith a good Divine that is he is safest who speaketh seldom with men but oft with God And his windows being open in his chamber This was his wont belike at other times and now he would not break it to the scandal of the weak and the scorn of the wicked who watched him and would have charged him with dissimulation should he have done otherwise Say not therefore What needed he thus to have thrust himself into observation could he not have kept his conscience to himself and used his devotions in more secrecy our Politick-Professours and Neuter-passives indeed could and would have done so But as Basil answered once to him that blamed him for venturing too far for his friend Non aliter aware didici I never learned to love any otherwise so might good Daniel here have done his zeal for God would not suffer him to temporize or play on both hands It shall well appear to his greatest enemies that he is true to his Principles and no flincher from his religion His three companions were alike resolved chap. 3. and Paul Act. 21.13 and Luther when to appear at Wormes and many more that might here be mentioned Toward Jerusalem For the which he was now a petitioner sith the time to favour her yea the set time was come Psal 102.13 There also sometime had stood the Temple not without a promise of audience to prayers made in or toward that holy place 1 King 8.43 which also was a type of Christ c. He kneeled upon his knees Constantino the Great as Eusebius telleth us would have this as his portraiture a man on his knees praying to shew that that was his usual practice and posture Three times a day At morning noon and night thus constantly beside other times also upon emergent occasions All the power and policy of Persia could not keep God and Daniel asunder no not for a few dayes Philip. 3.20 Ephes 2.19 't is a part of our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our City-employment or spiritual-trading with God to pray and if prayer stand still the whole trade of godliness standeth still too Clean Christians therefore typed by those clean beasts in the law Levit. 11.3 must rightly part the hoof rightly divide their time giving a due share thereof to either of their callings as Daniel did sanctifying both by prayer and at hours of best leisure Psal 55.17 And prayed and gave thanks before his God Chald. Confessed either his sins that he might get pardon thereof or else Gods benefits the glory whereof he thankfully returned unto him Prayers and praises are like the double motion of the lungs Let every breath praise the Lord. As he did aforetime An excellent custome doubtlesse and most worthy to be kept up Arist Ethic. lib. 8. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 11. Then these men assembled But for ill purpose as did also our Saviours enemies Luk. 22.6 and Stevens Act. 7. the Popish Councels at Rome they have a meeting weekly de propaganda fide for the propagating of the Romish Religion and abolishing of heresie as they call it And found Daniel praying The Sun shall sooner stand still in heaven then Daniel give over to pray to his Father in heaven Ver. 12. Hast thou not signed a decree But should wickednesse be established by a law Psal 94.20 See on ver 7. So in France there was published an edict whereby the people were forbidden on pain of death D. Arrowsus Tact. Sacr. p. 89. to have in their houâ—â— any French book wherein the least mention was made of Jesus Christ Ver. 13. That Daniel He was principal president and deserved a better attribution then That Daniel But ill will never speaketh well of any Which is of the Captivity This also is terminus diminuens q. d. This royal slave whom thou hast preferred above us all and hast moreover some thoughts to set him over the whole realm ver 3. New men shall be much spighted 'T was therefore no ill counsel Fortunam reverenter habe quieunque repâ—â—te Auson Dives ab exili progrediere loco Regardeth not thee O King Chald. putteth no respect on thee This is common falsely to accuse Gods most faithful servants as
And in his answer to Staphylus hee ingenuously confesseth or rather complaineth Quos fugiamus habemus quos sequamur nondum intelligimus Wee know whom wee are to flye from meaning the Papists but whom to follow wee as yet know not Such divisions there were amongst themselves and such lack of light at the beginning of the Reformation that it was an ingenuous thing to bee a right reformed Catholick A young man one Vincentius Victor as Chemnitius relates it when learned Augustine demurred and would not determine the point concerning the original of a rational soul censured boldly the Fathers unresolvedness and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo by God For which peremptory rashness the Father returned the young man a sober reprehension a milde answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat respondere humiliare negotiari as the Hebrew word here used importeth not so sharp as that of Basil to the Emperours Cook who yet well enough deserved it For when the fellow would needs bee pouring forth what hee thought of such and such deep points of Divinity which hee understood not Basil rounded him up with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is for thee man to look well to thy porridge-pot and not to meddle with these disputes Vers 29. The Lord is far from the wicked Hee was so from the proud Pharisee who yet gat as near God as hee could pressing up to the highest part of the Temple The poor Publican not daring to do so stood aloof off yet was God far from the Pharisee near to the Publican Videte magnum miraculum saith Augustine Altus est Deus erigis te fugit à inclinas te descendit ad te c. Behold a great miracle God is on high thou liftest up thy self and hee flyes from thee thou bowest thy self downward and hee descends to thee Low things hee respects that hee may raise them proud things hee knows a far off that hee may depress them When a stubborn fellow being committed was no whit mollified with his durance but the contrary One of the Senatours said to the rest let us forget him a while and then hee will remember himself Such is Gods dealing with those that stout it out with him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction if ever they will seek mee early Hos 5.15 Hos 5.15 And it proved so Chap. 6.1 But hee heareth the prayer of the righteous The Lord is near to all that call upon him Psal 145.18 His ears are in their prayers 1 Pet. 3.12 Yea hee can feel breath when no voice can bee heard for faintness Lam. 3.56 when the flesh makes such a din that it is hard to hear the Spirits sighs hee knows the meaning of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 27. and can pick English out of our broken requests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea hee hears our afflictions Gen. 16.11 our tears Psal 39.12 our chatterings Isa 38.14 though wee cry to him but by implication onely as the young Ravens do Psal 147.9 It is not with God as with their Jupiter of Creet Non vacat exiguis Lucian Dialog that had no ears that was not at leasure to attend small matters that had cancellos in coelo as Lucian feigns certain crevises or chinks in heaven thorough which at certain times hee looks down upon men and hears prayers whereas at other times hee hears them not though they call upon him never so long never so loud Neither is it with God as with Baal that pursuing his enemies could not hear his friends nor yet as with Diana that being present at Alexanders birth could not at the same time preserve her Ephesian Temple from the fire Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Jer. 23.23 Yes yes hee is both and delights to distinguish himself from all dunghil-deities by hearing prayers Hereby Manasseh knew him to bee the true God 2 Chron. 33.13 and all Israel hereupon cryed out with one consent The Lord hee is God the Lord hee is God 1 King 18.39 See the Note on vers 8. of this Chapter Vers 30. The light of the eyes rejoyceth the heart Light and sight are very comfortable Hee was a mad fool that being warned of wine by the Physicians as hurtful to his eyes cryed out Vale lumen amicum If they will not bear with wine they are no eyes for mee Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Plutarch Eccles 11.7 Eudoxus professed that hee would bee willing to bee burnt up by the Sun presently so hee might bee admitted to come so near it as to behold the beauty of it and to see further into the nature of it And a good report maketh the bones fat Fama bona vel auditio bona A good name or good news Ego si bonam famam servasso sat dives ero saith hee in Plautus It is riches enough to bee well reputed and reported of It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenophon the sweetest hearing It pleased David well that whatsoever hee did pleased the people It pleased St. John well that his friend Demetrius had a good report of the truth 3 Joh. 12. and hee had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth Pindarus could say that the Bath doth not so refresh the bones as a good name doth the heart Vers 31. The ear that heareth the reproof of life That is lively and life-giving reproofs Veritas aspera est verùm amaritudo ejus utilior integris sensibus gratior quam meretricantis linguae distillans favus Truth is sharp but bee it bitter Joh. Saris de nugis curialium yet is it better and more savoury to sound senses than the hony-drops of a flattering tongue Vers 32. Hee that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul Is a sinner against his own soul as Core and his complices were and sets as light by it as if it were not worth looking after Oh is it nothing to lose an immortal soul to purchase an ever-living death wilt thou destroy that for which Christ dyed 1 Cor. 8.11 What shall a man give in exchange for his soul There is no great matter in the earth but man nothing great in man but his soul said Faverinus Whose image and superscription is it but Gods Give therefore unto God the things that are Gods by delivering it up to his discipline But hee that heareth reproof getteth understanding Hebr. Possesseth his heart This is like that sentence of our blessed Saviour Mat. 20.22 Luke 21.19 In your patience possess yee your souls They have need of patience that must hear reproof for man is a cross creature and likes not to bee controlled or contraried But suffer saith that great Apostle the words of exhortation suffer them in Gods name sharp
force in it to make friendship Wealth wee are sure hath but as that is no sound love that comes out of cups it is but ollaris amicitia so neither are they to bee trusted that wealth wins to us Hired friends are seldome either satisfied or sure but like the Ravens in Arabia that full gorged have a tuneable sweet record but empty screetch horribly Flies soon fasten upon honey and vermine will haunt a house where food is to bee gotten But the poor is separated from his neighbour Who either turns from him as a stranger or against him as an enemy Nero being condemned to dye and not finding any one that would fall upon him and dispatch him cryed out Itane nec amicum nec inimicum habeo Have I now neither friend nor foe that will do this for mee Vers 5. A false witness shall not bee unpunished Many poor people care not to lend their rich friend an oath at a need And many rich though they think ill of Pillory-perjury yet they make little conscience of a merry lye Neither of these shall pass unpunished And this sentence may bee to them as those knuckles of a mans hand were to Baltasar to write them their destiny or as Daniel was to him to read it unto them Vers 6. Many will intreat the favour of the Prince Yea lye at his feet and lick up his spittle not being loyal in love for conscience but submiss in shew for commodity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orph. in Arg. Every man will bee thrusting in where any thing is to bee gotten The Poets make Litae or Petitions to bee the daughters of Jupiter and ever about him to signifie saith the Mythologist that Princes and great ones are seldome without suppliants and suters And every man is a friend c. See the Note on Chap. 17.8 Vers 7. All the brethren of the poor do hate him How much more then his hired friends These are like Crows to a dead Carcase which if they flock to it it is not to defend but to devour it and no sooner have they bared the bones but they are gone See the Note on Chap. 14.20 Vers 8. Hee that getteth wisdome Hebr. Hee that getteth or possesseth an heart For wee are born brutes and are compared to the horse and mule that have none understanding Psal 32. Hearts wee have all but our foolish hearts are darkned Rom. 1.21 yea a deceived heart hath turned us aside that wee cannot deliver our souls nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand Isa 44.20 Well may the rich have many friends but not many hearts For without wisdome no man can love his own soul much less can hee truly love another Therefore by how much better it is for a man to love his own soul as hee ought than to bee beloved of others for his gifts by so much it is better to get wisdome than to get wealth Vers 9. A false witness c. See Vers 5. Vers 10. Delight is not seemly for a fool Dignitas in indigno est ornamentum in luto saith Salvian Health Wealth Nobility Beauty Honour and the like are ill bestowed upon a wicked man who will abuse them all to his own and other mens undoing Secunda res etiam sapicutum animos fatigant quanto magis insolescent stulti rerum successu prospero Salust The wisest have enough to do to manage these outward good things What may wee then expect from fools See the Note on Chap. 14.24 if they make wise men fools they will make fools mad men Much lesse for a servant to rule over Princes As Abimelech that bramble did over the Cedars of Lebanus as Tobiah the Servant the Ammonite sought to do over Nehemiah and the Princes of Judah As the servants of the Emperour Claudius did over him and the whole State which occasioned that verse to be pronounced on the Theatre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As Becket and Wolsey affected to do in their Generations And as the Bridge-maker of Rome who stiles himself Servus servorum a servant of servants and yet acts as a Dominus Dominantium Rex Regum Lord of Lords and King of Kings Round about the Popes Coin are these words stamped That Nation that will not serve thee shall bee rooted out His Janizaries also the Jesuites are as a most agile sharp sword whose blade is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every Common-wealth but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain This made that most valiant and puissant Prince Henry the fourth of France when hee was perswaded by one to banish the Jesuites say Give mee then security for my life Vers 11. The discretion of a man deferreth his anger Plato when angry with his servant would not correct him at that time but let him go with Vapulares nisi irascerer I am too angry to beat thee A young man that had been brought up with Plato returning home to his Fathers house Sen. de ita lib. 3. c. 11. and hearing his Father chide and exclaim furiously said I have never seen the like with Plato See the Note on Chap. 14.29 Anger by being deferred may bee diminished so it bee not concealed for a further opportunity of mischief as Absoloms toward Amnon and Tiberiusses whom the more hee meditated revenge Lentus in meditando ubi prorapisset c. Tacit. the more did time and delay sharpen it And the farther off hee threatned the heavier the stroke fell And it is his glory to pass over a transgression Heb. To pass by it as not knowing of it or not troubled at it Thus David was deaf to the railings of his enemies and as a dumb man in whose mouth are no reproofs Socrates when hee was publickly abused in a Comedy laughed at it Polyagrus vero seipsum strangulabat saith Aelian but Polyagrus not able to bear such an indignity hanged himself Augustus likewise did but laugh at the Satyrs and buffooneries which they had published against him and when the Senate would have further informed him of them hee would not hear them The manlier any man is the milder and readier to pass by an offence this shews that hee hath much of God in him if hee do it from a right principle who bears with our evil manners and forgives our trespasses beseeching us to bee reconciled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 13 When any provoke us wee use to say Wee will bee even with him There is a way whereby wee may bee not even with him but above him and that is forgive him Wink at small faults especially Qui nescit dissimulare nescit vivere Hee that cannot lye is not fit to live Vers 12. The Kings wrath is at the roaring of a Lion Heb. Of a young Lion which being in his prime roars more terribly sets up his roar with such a force that hee amazeth the other Creatures whom hee hunteth Ambros Heâ—s lib. 6. cap. 5. so that though far swifter of foot
Ephes 2.14 New attendance Psal 91.11 New wages new work Isa 62.11 A new Commandement 1 Joh. 2.8 A new Covenant Jer. 31.33 A new way to Heaven Heb. 10.20 And a new Mansion in Heaven Joh. 14.2 2 Cor. 5.8 Vers 11. There is no remembrance of former things None to speak of How many memorable matters were never recorded How many ancient records long since perished How many fragments of very good Authors are come bleeding to our hands that live as many of our Castles doe but only by their ruines God hath by a Miracle preserved the holy Bible from the injury of times and Tyrants who have sought to abolish it There wee have a true remembrance of former things done in the Church by Abraham and his off-spring when the Grandees of the Earth Ninus Belus c. lye wrapt up in the sheet of shame or buried in the grave of utter oblivion Diodorus Siculus confesseth that all Heathen antiquities before the Theban and Trojan Warres are either fabulous relations or little better Ezra that wrote one of the last in the Old Testament lived afore any Chronicles of the world now extant in the world Neither shall there be any remembrance Unless transmitted to posterity by Books and Writings which may preserve and keep alive their memory and testifie for their Authors that such have one day lived Quis nosset Erasmum Chilias aeternum si latuisset opus Niniveh that great City is nothing else but a sepulture of her self no more shall Rome be ere long Time shall triumph over it when it shall but then live by fame if at all as others now doe Vers 12. I the Preacher was King over Israel And so had all the helps that heart could wish the benefit of the best Books and Records that men or mony could bring me in the happinesse of holy conference beside mine own plentiful experience and therefore you may well give credit to my verdict Mr. Fox had a large Commission under the Great Seal to search for all such Monuments Manuscripts Registers Legier-books as might make for his purpose in setting forth that worthy Work the Acts and Monuments of the Church of England And the like had Polydor Virgil for the framing of his History though with unlike successe for he had the ill hap to write nothing well saith one Peacham save the life of Henry the seventh wherein he had reason to take a little more pains than ordinary the Book being dedicated to Henry the eighth his Son See the note on vers 1. Vers 13. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdome God had given Solomon a large heart and great store of wisdome and this made him not more idle but more industrious more sedulous and serious in seeking and searching out by wisdome i. e. by the best skill that hee had maturely and methodically the causes properties and effects with the reason of all things that are and are done under heaven Neither did he this in pride and curiosity as Hugo de Sancto Victore here sharply censureth him but soberly and modestly setting down his disquisitions and observations of things Political and Natural for the use of posterity And forasmuch as these are now lost because haply too much admired and trusted to 1 King 4 3â— by those that had the use of them under the first Temple in and with the which some Jewes say they were burnt what an high price should we all set upon this and the other two Books of Solomon the wisest of men as not Apollo but the true God of Heaven hath called him and commended him unto us Surely as in the Revelation Heaven never opened but some great Mystery was revealed some Divine Oracle uttered So we may be confident that the Holy Ghost never sets any Pen-man of Scripture a work but for excellent purpose And if we dis-regard it he will complain of us as once Hos 8.12 I have written for them the great things of my Law but they were counted as a strange thing As for those other worthy Works of Solomon the fruits of this privie search into the natures of the Creatures here mentioned that the injury of time hath bereft us of how much better may we say of them Rolloc de vocatione p. 130. than a godly and learned man once did of Origens Octapla Hujus operis jacturam deplorare possumus compensare non possumus This great losse we may well bewayl but cannot help Vers 14. I have seen all the works that are done I have seen them and set down mine observations of them 1 King 4.33 Pliny did somewhat like unto this in his Natural History which work of his saith Erasmus Non minus varium est quam ipsa rerum natura imo non opus sed the saurus sed vere mundus rerum cognitu dignissimarum it hath as much variety in it as Nature her self hath To speak truth it is not a Work but a Treasury nay a world of things most worthy to be known of all men And behold all is vanity and vexation of spirit Nothing in themselves and yet of sufficient activity to inflict vengeance and vexation upon the spirit of a man so farre are they from making him truly happy They doe but feed the soul with wind as the text may be rendred wind gotten into the veins is a sore vexation Vers 15. That which is crooked cannot bee made streight Most men are so wedded and wedged to their wicked wayes that they cannot bee rectified but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes Hesiod speaking of God saith that he can easily set crooked things streight and only hee Holy Melanchthon being himself newly converted thought it impossible for his Hearers to withstand the evidence of the Gospel But after he had been a Preacher a while he complained that old Adam was too hard for young Melanchthon and yet besides the singular skil and learning that God had given him for the which he merited to be called the Phoenix of Germany Ad cum modum in hoc vitae theatro versatum Philippum Melanchthonem apparet saith a friend and Scholar of his i. e. It well appeareth that Melanchthon was Solomon-like on this wise busied upon the Theatre of his life that seeing and observing all he could he made profit of every thing and stored his heart as the Bee doth her Hive out of all sorts of flowers for the common benefit Howbeit he met with much crosness and crookedness that wrâ—ng many tears from him as it did likewise from St. Paul Phil. 3.18 not in open enemies only as Eccius and other Papists but in professed friends as Flaccius Osiander Melch. Adam in vita Mel Melanchthon mortuus tantum non ut blasphemus in Deum cruci affigitur Zanch. Miscel ep ded c. who not only vexed him grievously whiles alive but also fell foul upon him when he was dead
themselves about with the winding sheet that they purpose to bee buried in to shew themselves mindful of their mortality The Philosopher affirms that man is therefore the wisest of creatures because hee alone can number Bruta non numerant this is an essential difference Psal 90.12 but especially in that divine Arithmetick of so numbring his daies as to apply his heart to wisdome This speaks him wise indeed right in his judgement right also in his affections This will render him right in his practice too Pauperes de Lugduno as it did Waldus the Merchant of Lions who seeing one suddenly fall down dead before him became a new man and chief of those old Protestants the poor men of Lions called also Waldenses from this Waldus Prov. But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth See the Note one verse 3. As the heart of the wicked is light and little worth so it is their trade to hunt after lying vanities as the childe doth after Butter-flies to rejoyce in a thing of nothing Amos 6.13 hee wilders away his time either in weaving spiders webs or hatching Cockatrice eggs Isa 59.5 froth or filth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 7.22 is their recreation Sad and serious thoughts they banish and therefore love not to bee alone They hate to hear of that terrible word Death as Lewis the eleventh of France commanded his servants not once to mention it to him though hee lay upon his death-bed They live and laugh as if they were out of the reach of Gods Rod or as if their lives were rivetted upon eternity They can see death in other mens brows and visages not feel it in their own bowels and bosomes When they behold any laid in their graves they can shake their heads and say This is it wee must all come to but after a while all is forgotten As water stirred with a stone cast in to it hath circle upon circle on the surface for present but by and by all is smooth as before As chickens in a storm haste to bee under the Hens wing but when that is a little over they lye dusting themselves again in the sun-shine So it is here Good thoughts fall upon evil hearts as sparks upon wet tinder or if they kindle there fools bring their buckets to quench them run into merry company to drink or otherwise drive away those troublesome heart-qualms and melancholy dumps as they call them This is to excel in madness c. See the Note on Prov. 10.23 Vers 5. It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise Sharp truth takes better with an honest heart than a smooth supparasitation Seneca compares flattery to a song or symphony but it is a Syrens song and our ears must bee stopt to it for like the poison of Asps it casts one into a sleep but that sleep is deadly Those that had the Sudor Anglicus or sweating sickness died assuredly if suffered to sleep those then were their best friends that kept them waking though haply they had no thank for it So are wise and merciful reprovers Faithful are these wounds of a friend Prov. 7.26 See the Note there David was full glad of them Psal 141.5 So was Gerson who never took any thing more kindly saith hee that writes his life than to bee plainly dealt with The Bee can suck sweet hony out of bitter Thyme yea out of poisonous Hemlock So can a wise man make benefit of his friends nay of his enemies It is good to have friends as the Oratour said of Judges modo audeant quo sentiunt so they dare deal freely this an enemy will do for spite and malice though it bee an ill Judge yet is a good Informer Austin in an Epistle to Hierome approves well of him that said there is more good to bee gotten by enemies railing than friends flattering These sing Satans lullaby such as casts into a dead lethargy and should therefore bee served as Alexander the Great served a certain Philosopher whom hee chased out of his presence and gave this reason because hee had lived long with him and never reproved any vice in him Or as the same Alexander dealt by Aristobulus the false Historian who had written a book of his Noble Acts and had magnified them beyond truth hoping thereby to ingratiate and curry favour Alexander having read the book cast it into the River Hydaspes Curt. and told the Author it were a good deed to throw him after Qui solus me sic pugnantem facis Vers 6. For as the crackling of thorns under a pot Much noise little fire much light little heat So here is much mirth little cause a blaze it may yeeld but is suddenly extinct this blaze is also under a pot the gallantry of it is checkt with troubles and terrours it is insincere many times it is but the hypocrisie of mirth as one calls it It is truly and trimly here compared to a handful of brushwood or sear thorn under the pot Apul. Ecquando vidisti flammam stipula exortam claro strepitu largo fulgere cito incremento sed enim materia levi caduco incendio nullis reliquiis saith Apuleius a very dainty description of carnal joy and agreeable to this text Psal 58.9 And herewith also very well suits that of the Psalmist Before your pots can feel the thorns hee shall take them away with a whirlwind both living and in his wrath Fools themselves are but thorns twisted and folded together Nahum 1.10 briers Micah 7.4 brambles Judg. 9.14 Their laughter is also fitly compared to thorns because it choaks good motions scratcheth the conscience harbours the vermine of base and baggage lusts And as themselves like thorns shall bee thrust away and utterly burnt with fire in the same place 2 Sam. 23.6 So their joy soon expireth and proves to bee rather desolation than consolation as lightning is followed with rending and roaring as Comets out-blaze the very stars but when their exhaled matter is wasted they vanish and fill the air with pestilent vapours The Prophet Amos telleth the wicked that their Sun shall go down at noon-day chap. 8.9 Surely as metals are then nearest melting when they shine brightest in the fire and as the fishes swim merrily down the silver-streams of Jordan till they suddenly fall into the dead Sea where presently they perish So it fares with these merry Greeks that flear when they should fear and laugh when they should lament Luk. 6.25 Psal 118 1◠Woe to you that laugh saith Christ How suddenly are they put out as the fire of thorns Vers 7. Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad viz. Till such time as hee hath recollected himself and summoned the sobriety of his senses before his own judgement till hee hath reasoned himself and prayed himself out of his distemper as David did Psal 73. Anger is a short madness fury a phrensie and who so apprehensive of an injury as the wise
with earth as Core and his complices were that they cannot resent or savour the things of the Spirit but as vultures they hunt after cation carcases and as Tygers they are enraged with the sweet smell of the Churches spices Let my Beloved come and eat his pleasant fruits For who plants a Vineyard or Orchard and eats not of the fruit thereof 1 Cor. 9.7 The Garden is Christs the pretious graces of his Spirit and all acts of grace those pleasant fruits are all his Hee alone is the true proprietary for of him Rom. 11.36 and through him and to him are all things Of him as the efficient cause Through him as the administring cause and to him as the final cause Well therefore may it follow to whom bee glory for ever Christ counts the fruits that wee bear to bee ours because the judgement and resolution of will whereby we bear them is ours This he doth to encourage us But because the grace whereby wee judge will and work aright comes from Christ ascribe wee all to him as the Church doth in the former verse Gen. 43.11 Cedren ad an 32. Justin. and presenting him with the best fruits as they did Joseph say as David and after him Justinian 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of thine own have wee given thee 1 Chron. 29.14 CHAP. V. Vers 1. I am come into my Garden SO ready is the Lord Christ to fulfill the desires of them that fear him Sometimes hee not onely grants their prayer Psal 145.19 but fulfills their counsel Confess l. 5. c. 1. Psal 20.4 fits his mercy ad cardinem desiderii as Austin hath it lets it be to his even as they will Or if he cross them in the very thing they crave they are sure of a better their prayers they shall have out either in money or moneys worth Christ though he be a God that hideth himself yet hee scorns to say unto the seed of Jacob Seek yee mee in vain Isaiah 45.15 19. that's enough for the Heathen Idols vers 16 18. Hee is not like Baal who pursuing his enemies could not hear his friends or as Diana that being present at Alexanders birth could not at the same time rescue her Ephesian Temple from the fire Non vacat exiguis c. Hee is not like Jupiter whom the Cretians painted without ears as not being at leisure to attend small matters and whom Lucian the Atheist feigneth to look down from heaven through certain crevisses or chincks at certain times at which time if Petitioners chance to pray unto him they may have audience otherwise not No no the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are always open to their prayers Psal 34.15 Flectitur iratus voce rogante Deus Basil compares prayer to a chayn the one end whereof is linked to Gods ear and the other to mans tongue Sozomen saith of Apollonius that hee never asked any thing of God in all his life that hee obtained not And another saith of Luther Iste vir potuit apud Deum quod voluit That man could do what hee would with God it was but ask and have with him I have gathered my myrrhe with my spice i.e. I have highly accepted of thy graces and good works these are to bee gathered onely in Christs Garden Hedge-fruits and wilde-hearbs or rather weeds are every where almost to bee had Moral vertues may bee found in a Cato who was homo virtuti similimus a man as like vertue as may be saith Velleius And he addes but I am not bound to beleeve him Qui nunquam recte fecit ut facere videretur sed quia aliter facere non poterat vell lib. 2. that Cato never did well that hee might seem to do so but because hee could not do otherwise than well But why then might a man have asked the Historian did your so highly extolled Cato take up the trade of griping usury Why did he so shamefully prostitute his wife so cowardly kill himself Was it not because he lived in the wilde Worlds waste and grew not in the Churches garden hence his fruits were not genuine his moral vertues are but shining sinnes beautiful abominations a smoother way to hell Civil honest men are but Wolves chained up tame Devils Swine in a fair meadow c. Operam praestant natura fera est as the Civil Law saith of those mixt Beasts Elephants and Camels they do the work of tame Beasts yet have the nature of wilde ones They are cryed up for singularly honest as ever lived by such as are strangers to the power of Godliness and aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel like as in Samaria's famine a cab of Doves dung was sold at a great rate and an asses head at four pound But Christ and such as have the minde of Christ are otherwise minded they look upon an unregenerate man though sober just chaste liberal c. as a vile person Psal 15.4 and upon all their specious works as dead works when as contrarily they honour them that fear the Lord and set an high price as Christ here doth upon their good parts and practices Myrrhe and spices or aromatical fruits are but dark shadows and representations of them I have eaten mine hony-comb with mine hony As it were crust and crumb together not rejecting my peoples services for the infirmities I finde cleaving unto them but accepting what is good therein and bearing with the rest I take all well a worth and am as much delighted therewith as any man is in eating of hony whereof hee is so greedy that withall hee devours the comb too sometimes Mr. Dudley Fenner Christ feedeth saith an Expositour here upon all the fruits of his garden hee so much delighteth in it as hee eateth not onely the hony as it were the most excellent duties or works of the Church see Heb. 13.15 16 21. but also the hony-comb as it were the baser services and fruits of his Spirit of least account that hee receiveth of all sorts most sweetly mingled together both the common and daily fruits of godliness understood in milk and the more rare of greater price as solemn fasts and feasts signified by wine both which hee drinketh together that is accepteth of them all Eat O friends That is O you holy Angels saith the former Interpreter which as my Nobles accompany mee the King of Glory in Heaven and have some communion with me in the gifts I bestow on you Mr. Diodate also thinks the same But I rather encline to those that by Christs friends here understand those earthly Angels the Saints see John 15.14 Isa 41.8 Jam. 2.23 whom hee cheareth up and encourageth to fall to it lustily and by a sancta crapula as Luther calls an holy gluttony to lay on to feed hard and to fetch hearty draughts till they bee even drunk with loves as the Hebrew here hath it being ravished in the love of God where they are
Samaria And what are the high places of Judah are they not Jerusalem Mic. 1.5 A people laden with iniquity Great and grievous offenders guilty of many and mighty or long sins Amos 5.12 quorum amplitudine pragravantur yet not sensible of their burden not heavy-laden as Mat. 11.28 nor labouring to be delivered of that hedg-hog that woundeth and teareth them in their tender inside A seed of evil-doers A race of Rebels a seed of Serpents Mali corvi malum ovum such as were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their Fathers had been Acts 7.51 generation after generation they held it out and were no changelings then neither are to this day Children that are corrupters Or destroyers ding thrifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stroy-goods such as the Roman Prodigal who gloried that of a large Patrimony left him by his Parents he had now left himself nothing praeter coelum coenum or that other in the Gospel who had drawn much of his portion through his throat and spent the rest on harlots Lo such ill husbands for their souls were these Jews here spoken of scipsis assidue facti deteriores whilest they wofully wasted their time and strength in the pursuit of their lusts cursed children 2 Pet. 2.14 They have forsaken the Lord which is such a foul enormity as good Jeremy thinks the very Heaven sweateth at and the earth groaneth under Jer. 2.12 13. They have provoked unto anger as if they had a mind to wrastle a fall and try masteries with him The Vulgar rendreth it They have blasphemed See the Note on ver 2. They are gone away backward Alienaverunt seretrorsum certatim exardescentes in Apostasiam as the Moon when fullest of light getteth farther off from the Sun They had turned upon God the back and not the face by a shameful Apostacy even then when they frequently trod his Courts ver 12. and departed not thence haply any otherwise then the Jews at this day do out of their Synagogues with their faces still toward the Ark like crabs going backward Ver. 5. Why should ye be striken any more This was the heaviest stroke that ever Judah felt from the hand of God like as Ephraims sorest Judgement was He is joyned to Idols let him alone Hos 4.17 q. d he is incorrigible irreclaimable let him go on and perish I le not any longer foul my fingers with him O fearful Sentence To prosper in sin is a grievous plague and a sign of one given up by God To be like the Smiths-dog whom neither the Hammers above him nor the sparks of fire falling round about him can awaken is to be in a desperate condition To wax worse by chastisements as 2 Chron. 28.22 is a sure sign of reprobate silver Jerem. 6.30 of a dead and dedolent disposition Ephes 4.18 God as a loving Father verba verbera beneficia supplicia miscuerat had done all that could be done to do them good but all would not do such was their obstinacy The whole head is sick and the whole heart is faint Head Heart Feet Princes Priests and common people as they had all sinned so they all had their payment Sin is an universal sickness like those Diseases which Physitians say are Corruptio totius substantiae a corruption of the whole substance And National sins bring National plagues wherein all sorts suffer as they did in the dayes of Ahaz de quibus haud dubie loquitur hic propheta saith Scultetus though others think the Prophet here speaketh rather of those miseries inflicted upon Judah by Hazael King of Syria 2 King 12. and by Joash King of Israel 2 King 14. wherein all sorts had their share none scaped scot-free Vers 6. From the sole of the head totum est pro vulnere corpus The whole body Politick was deadly diseased and it was our Prophets unhappiness to be the Physian to a dying State Tunc etenim docta plus valet arte malum There is no soundness Nec sanitas in corpore nec sanctitas in corde Heu heu Domine Deus But wounds and bruises and putrifying sores And those also such as would not be cured but called for cutting off Immedicabile vulnus Ense recidendum est They have not been closed Neither will be Non est malagma imponere say the Septuagint here You will not endure to have them searched or suppled what hope therefore of healing If the Sun of Righteousness shall shine upon us with healing under his wings we must repent and believe the Gospel Mar. 1.15 Ver. 7. Your Countrey is desolate Here the Prophet speaketh plainly what before parabolically thus many times the Scripture explaineth it self Joh. 7.39 Your Cities are burnt So that there is sometimes but an hours space inter civitatem magnam nullam saith Seneca betwixt a fair City and an heap Zar alienum significat hostem Your land strangers devour it that is Enemies In which sense also an Harlot is called a strange woman seemingly a friend but really an enemy she will destroy his peace who is overcome by her In your presence to your greater grief Witness the experience hereof in our late stripping and desolating times whereof we have here a kind of Theological â—icture Ver. 8. And the Daughter of Zion 1. Jerusalem which is called the Daughter of Zion say some because standing at the foot of that Hill as a Daughter it comes out from between the feet being also cherished and tendered by God as his Daughter Howbeit as dear as she was to him she fell into deep distress when she became undutifull Abused Mercy turneth into fury Is left as a cottage in a Vineyard As a shed or booth whereof after the Vintage there is little use or regard As a lodge in a garden of Cucumers Or Melons which when ripe lie on the ground So saith one do Gods ripest and best servants being humble and meanly conceited of themselves As a besieged City Besieged though at a distance as Rome was when Saguntum was beleagured Ver. 9. Except the Lord Jehovah the Essentiator Induperator the Maker and Monarch of the Universe Had left unto us a very small remnant which he reserved for Royal use pulling them as a brand out of the fire Zech. 3.2 or as two legs or a piece of an ear taken by the Shepherd out of the mouth of a Lion Amos 3.12 The Apostle after the Septuagint rendreth it a seed Rom 9.29 in allusion to store-seed kept by the Husbandman and there hence inferreth that the Elect Jews shall by faith in Christ be freed from the Tyrannie of Satan and terrour of Hell And this is here alledged for an allay to those foregoing dreadfull Declarations of bygone and direfull menaces of future desolations so loth is the Sun of Righteousness to set in a cloud surely in the midst of Judgement he remembreth mercy quamvis cecidere trecent Non omnes Fabios abstulit una
his heat in Venery and ill savour saith Plutarch He that offereth an oblation Unless withal he present his body for a sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God as Rom. 12.1 Is as if he offered swines blood Blood was not to be offered at all in an oblation or meat-offering but meal oyle wine Levit. 2. much less swines blood See Levit. 11.7 He that burneth incense In honour of me unless his heart ascend up withal in those pillars of sweet smoke as Manoahs Angel did in the smoke of the sacrifice Is as if he blessed an Idol i. e. Gave thankes to an Idol called here by a name that signifyeth vanity or vexation as if he were a God in doing whereof God holdeth himself less dishonoured then by their hypocritical services performed to himself Ezek. 20.39 Beâ—n Yea they have chosen their own wayes Which must needs be naught Nemo sibi de suo palpet Are ye not carnal and walk as men saith Paul that is as naughty men Horreo quicquid de meo est ut meus sim Ver. 4. I also will chuse their delusions As they have had their will so will I have mine another while I will make them to perish by their mockeries idque ex lege talionis See chap. 65.11.12 They thought to cozen me by an out-side-service but it shall appear that they have cozened themselves when I bring upon them mercedem multiplicis petulantiae corum as Piscator rendereth it the reward of their manyfold petulancies and illusions And will bring their fear upon them Inducam nivem super eos qui timuerunt à pruina They have feared the coming of the Chaldees and come they shall So their posterity feared the Romans Joh. 11. and they felt their fury See Prov. 10.24 with the Note Because when I called c. See chap. 65.12 Ver. 5. Hear the Word of the Lord ye that tremble c. Here 's a word of comfort for you who being lowly and meek-spirited are the apter to be trampled on and abused by the fat bulls of Basan where the hedge is lowest those beasts will leap over and every crow will be pulling off wooll from a sheeps sides Your brethren By race and place but not by Grace That hated you For like cause as Cain hated Abel 1 Joh. 3.12 for trembling at Gods judgements whilst they do yet hang in the threatnings And cast you out Either out of their company as not fit to be conversed with chap. 65.5 or out of their Synagogue by excommunications as fit to be cut off See 1 Thes 2.14 Papists at this day do the like whence that Proverb In nomine Domini incipâ—t omne malum Ye begin in a wrong name said that Martyr when they began the sentence of death against him with In the name of God Amen Let the Lord be glorified With such like goodly words and specious pretences did those odious hypocrites palliate and varnish over their abominations they would persecute godly men and molest them with Church-censures and say Let the Lord be glorified So do Papists and other Sectaries deal by the Orthodox Becket offered but subdolously to submit to his Sovereign salvo honere Dei so far as might stand with Gods glory Speed 508. Anno 1386. The Conspiratours in King Richard the seconds time endorsed all their letters with Glory be to God on high on earth peace good-will towards men The Swenck feldians stiled themselves The Confessours of the glory of Christ and Gentiles the Antitrinitarian when he was called to answer said that he was drawn to maintain his cause through touch of conscience and when he was to dye for his blasphemy he said that he did suffer for the glory of the most high God so easy a matter it is to draw a fair glove upon a foul hand c. Some for Let the Lord be glorified render it Gravis est Dominus The Lord is burdensom or heavy and they parallel it with those sayings in the Gospel This is an hard saying Thou art an austere man We will not have this man to reign over us c. But he shall appear to your joy Parallel to that your sorrow shall be turned into joy How did some of the Martyrs rejoyce when excommunicated degraded c. Diod. Ver. 6. A voice of noise from the City This is a Prophetical description of the last destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans A voice from the Temple Wherin they so much gloryed where they had oft heard Christ and his Apostles preaching repentance unto life but now have their ears filled with hideous and horrid outcries of such as were slain even in the very Temple which they defended as long as they were able and till it was fited That which Josephus reporteth of Jesus the son of Ananis a plain Country-fellow is very remarkable viz. that for four years together before the last devastation he went about the City day and night crying as he went in the words of this text almost A voice from the East Lib. 7. Bâ—lli cap. 12. a voice from the West a voice from the four Winds a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple a voice against all the people Woe woe woe to Jerusalem and thus he continued to do till at length roaring out louder then ordinary Woe to Jerusalem and to me also he was slain upon the wall with a stone shot out of an Engin as Josephus reporteth That rendereth recompence to his enemies So they are here called who pretended so much to the glorifying of God ver 5. False friends are true enemies Ver. 7. Before she travelled she brought forth Quum nondum parturiret paperit understand it of Zion or of the Church Christian which receiveth her children that is Converts suddainly on a cluster before she thought to have done Subito ac simul Margaret Countesse of Henneburg and in far greater numbers then she could ever have beleeved That Lady that brought forth as many as a birth as are dayes in the year was nothing to her nor those Hebrew women Exod. 1.10 She was delivered of a man-child For the which there is so great joy Joh. 16.21 and which is usually more able and active than a woman-child so good and bold Christians strong in faith unless he meaneth Christ himself saith Diodaâ— who is formed by faith in every beleevers heart Gal. 4.19 Ver. 8. Who hath heard such a thing who hath seen such things The birth of a man would seem a miracle were it not so ordinary miracula assiduitate vilescunt but the birth of a whole Nation at once how much more Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day Yes if the day be long enough as among the Hyperboreans of whom it is written that they sow shortly after the Sun-rising and reap before the Sun-set because the whole half year is one continual day with them But the words here should be rather read Can a land Heresbach
will not hearken unto them See Prov. 1.28 Zech. 7.13 with the Notes Ver. 12. Then shall the Cities of Judah go and cry unto the Gods Or Let them go and cry unto them q. d. Let them for me This is one of those bitter answers that God giveth to wicked suitors Ezek. 14. See Judg. 10.14 Or if he give them better at any time it is in wrath and for a mischief to them Ver. 13. For according to the number of thy Cities See chap. 2.28 And according to the number of thy streets See Ezek. 16.31 Ver. 14. Therefore pray not thou for this people See on chap. 7.16 When they cry unto me for their trouble It is not the cry of the spirit for grace but of the flesh only for ease it is but the fruit of sinful self-love In thee indeed it proceedeth from a better principle but I am at a point Ver. 15. What hath my beloved to do in mine house i. e. Mine once-beloved people which had the liberty of mine house and was welcome thither Vatab. but is now discarded and discovenanted as if an husband should say to his adulterous wife What maketh this strumpet in my bed sith she hath so many paramouts And the holy flesh The sacrifices sanctified by the Altar Is passed from thee Shall be wholly taken away from you together with the Temple When thou doest evil then thou rejoycest Thou revellest in thine impurities and sensualities as dreading no danger but slighting all admonition Ver. 16. The Lord called thy name a green Olive-tree Green all the year long fair and fruitful this was thy prosperous and flourishing condition but now thy best dayes are over For With the noise of a great tumult Barritu militari such as souldiers make when they storm a City Ver. 17. For the evil of the house of Israel That evil by a specialty that land-desolating sin of Idolatry Ver. 18. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it i. e. Of the treacherous plot of my country-men of Anathoth against me who should never have dreamt of any such danger Dius pro suis excubat Ver. 19. But I was like a lamb or an Ox Harmlesse and blamelesse busied in my function and not in the least suspecting any such evil designe against me Mâ—t. 10. I send you forth as lambs amongst wolves saith Christ who himself being the Lamb of God was slain from the beginning of the world his servants also are slain all the day long and counted as sheep to the slaughter Rom. 8. Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof Let us poison his food so the Chaldee senseth it Ponamus lignum taxi in sorbitiunculam Others let us destroy the Prophet and his prophecyes together Others let us make an end of him either by sword or by famine as the punishment threatned ver 22. pointeth us to That his name may be no more remembred Sic veritas odium peperit So the Papists have given order that wheresoever Calvins name is found it shall be blotted out and by a most malicious Anagram they have turned Calvin into Lucian One of them lately took a long journey to Rome only to have his name changed from Calvin to some other and that out of devilish hatred of that most learned and holy man Ipsa à quo virtus virtutem discere posset Ver. 20. But O Lord of hosts Thou who art potentissimus liberrimus a most powerful and free Agent That tryest the reines and the heart And so knowest with what mind I make this complaint and request Let me see thy vengeance upon them A prophetical imprecation guided by Gods Spirit and not lightly to be imitated So the Church prayed against Julian the Apostate whom they knew to be a desperate enemy and to have committed that sin unto death So perhaps had these men of Anathoth Ver. 21. Of the men of Anathoth that seek thy life Where shall a man find worse friends then at home A Prophet is nowhere so little set by as in his own countrey Epist famil lib. 7. ep 6. Mat. 13.57 Probatissimus optimus quisque peregrè vivit saith Ennius in Tully Saying Prophecy not in the Name of the Lord A desperate speech proceeding from an height of hatred and coasting upon the unpardonable sin Ver. 22. Behold I will punish them Sic tandem bona causa triumphat The visible vengeance of God followeth close at the heels the persecutors of his faithful messengers Ver. 23. And there shall be no remnant Behold the severity of God their bloody design was to destroy Jeremies stock and fruit stalk and grain together ver 19. God meteth unto them the self-same measure leaveth them not a remnant This is not ordinary justice chap. 4.27 Isa 1. and 10. A remnant shall be left saith he here not so Let Rome that shambles of the Saints and Prophets especially look to it God is now coming to make inquisition for blood c. CHAP. XII Ver. 1. RIghteous art thou O Lord when I plead with thee Or though I should contend with thee Est elegans 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This the Prophet fitly premiseth to the ensuing disceptation that he might not be mistaken Thy judgements saith he are sometimes secret alwayes just this I am well assured of though I thus argue Yet let me talk with thee of thy judgements Let me take the humble boldnesse so to do that I may be further cleared and instructed by thee Wherefore doth the way of the wicked prosper Viz. Whil'st better men suffer as now the wicked Anathothites do whil'st I go in danger of my life by them This is that noble question which hath exercised the wits and molested the minds of many wise men both within and without the Church See Job 21.7 13. Psal 37.1 and 73.1 2 12. Hab. 1.4 5. Plato Cicero Seneca Epictetus Claudian against Ruffin c. Wherefore are they all happy Heb. at ease Not all neither for some wicked have their payment here their hell afore-hand To this question the Lord who knoweth our frame Psal 103. being content to condescend where he might have judged calmly maketh answer ver 5. like as Christ in like case did to Peter Joh. 21.21 22. Ver. 2. Thou hast planted them and they have taken root All goes haile with them they have more then heart can wish Psal 73.7 And in lieu of Gods goodnesse to them they professe largely and pretend to great devotion but that 's all Thou art near in their mouth and far from their reines That is from their affections Tit. 1.16 Hypocrites are like that heap of heads 2 King 10.8 that had never a heart among them they have vocem in chorâ— mentem in foro virtutem non colunt sed colorant That Persian Embassadour of whom before when conversing with Christians he had so oft in his moth Soli Deo Gloria made believe that he gave glory to the only true God when as he meant the
as the motion of the heart and lungs is ever beating and t is a pain to restrain it to hold the breath so here Strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus Ovid. Trist Cogitur vires multiplicare suas Ver. 10. For I heard the defaming of many fear on every side This passage is borrowed from Psal 31.13 See the Note there Some render the text I heard the defamation of many Magor-missabibs many of his complices and Coryphaei spies set a work by him to defame and bespattle me Report say they and we will report Calumniare audacter broach a slander and we will blazon it set it afoot and we will set it afloat give us but some small hint or inkling of ought spoken by Jeremy whereof to accuse him to the King and State and we desire no more Athanasius was about thirty times accused and of no smal crimes neither but falsly The Papists make it their trade to belye the Protestants their chieftaines especially They reported of Luther that he dyed despairing of Calvin that he was branded on the shoulder for a rogue of Beza that he ran away with another mans wife c. And for their Authors they alledge Baldwin and Bolsecus a couple of Apostates requested by themselves and as some say hired to write the lives of these Worthies their profest enemies But any thing of this kind serves their turn and they cite the writings of these runnagates as Canonical All my familiars Heb. every man of my peace from such there is the greatest danger Hence one prayed God to deliver him from his friends for as for his enemies he could better beware of them Many friends are like deep ponds clear at the top but all muddy at the bottom Ver. 11. But the Lord is with me as a mighty terrible one Instar Gigantis robusti Vt formidabilis heros Pisc as a strong Giant and mine only champion on whom I lean Here the Spirit begins to get the better of the Flesh could Jeremy but hold his own But as the ferry man plyes the oar and eyes the shoar homeward where he would be yet there comes a gust of wind that carryeth him back again so it fared with our Prophet See ver 14.15 c. Ver. 12. But O Lord of hosts See chap. 11.20 and 17.10 Let me see thy vengeance on them Some pert and pride themselves over the Ministery as if it were a dead Alexanders nose which they might wring off and not fear to be called to account therefore but the visible vengeance of God will seise such one day as it did Pharaoh Ahab Herod Julian For unto thee have I opened my cause Prayer is an opening of the souls causes and cases to the Lord. The same word for opened here is in another conjugation used for uncovering making bare and naked Gen 9.21 Gods people in prayer do or should nakedly present their souls causes without all cover-shames or so much as a ragge of self or flesh cleaving to them Ver. 13. Sing unto the Lord praise ye the Lord Nota hic alternantis animi motus estusque Here the Spirit triumpheth over the flesh as in the next verses the flesh again gets the wind and hill of the Spirit Every good man is a divided man For he hath delivered the soul of the poor i. e. Of poor me as Psal 34.4 Ver. 14. Cursed be the day wherin I was born What a suddain change of his note is here out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing My brethren saith James these things ought not so to be Jam. 3.10 But here humane weakness prevailed and this part of the Chapter hath much of man in it The best have their outbursts and as there be white teeth in the blackest Blackmore and again a black bill in the whitest swan so the worst have something in them to be commended and the best to be condemned See on ver 7. Some of the Fathers seek to excuse Jeremy altogether but that can hardly be neither needeth it Origen saith that the day of his birth was past and therefore nothing now so that cursing it he cursed nothing This is lâ—ke those amongst us who say they may now without sin swear by the Masse because it is gone out of the Country c. Isidor that Jeremie's cursing is but conditional if any let that day be cursed c. Ver. 15. Cursed be the man Let him have a curse for a reward of his so good news Thus the Prophet in a fit of impatiency carrieth himself as one who being cut by a Surgeon and extreamly pained striketh at and biteth those that hold him or like him in the Poet Aeneid l. 2. Quem non incusavi amens hominumque Deumque Surely as the bird in a cage because pent up beats her self so doth the discontented person Look to it therefore Satan thrusteth in upon us sometimes praying with a cloud of strange passions such as are ready to gallow us out of that little wit and faith we have Resist him betimes The wild-fire of Passion will be burning whilst the incense of Prayer is in offering this scum will be rising up in the boyling pot together with the meat See Jon. 4.1 with the Note 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 exinde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jon. 4.4 Ver. 16. And let that man be A most bitter curse but causelesse The devil of discontent where it prevaileth maketh the heart to be for the time a little hell as we see in Moses Job David Jeremy men otherwise made up of excellencies These sinned but not with full consent A godly man hath a flea in his ear somewhat within which saith Dost thou well to be angry Jonah Ver. 17. Because he slew me not c. Why but is not life a mercy a living Dog better then a dead Lion See on Job 3.10 10.18 19. Vincet aliquando pertinax bonitas Rev. 2 10. Ver. 18. Wherefore came I forth c. Passions are a most dangerous and heady water when once they are out That my dayes should be consumed with shame Why but a Christian souldier may have a very great arrear 2 Tim. 4.7 8. CHAP. XXI Ver. 1. THe word that came unto Jeremiah from the Lord This History is here set down out of course For Jerusalem was not besieged till chap. 32. and Jehoiakim reigned Chapter 25. It was in the ninth year of Zedekiah that this present Prophecy was uttered Est hic hysterologia sive praeposterus ordo 2 King 25.1 2. This Zedekiah was one of those semiperfectae virtutis homines as Philo calleth some Professours cakes half-baked Hos 7.8 no flat Atheist nor yet a pious Prince Of Galba the Emperour as also of our Richard the third it is recorded that they were bad men but good Princes We cannot say so much of Zedekiah Two things he is cheifly charged with 1. That he brake his oath and faith plighted to the King of Babylon
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
unto her beloved and presuming upon his patience Heu rara hora parva mora Dern was in good hope to have had him at hand But patientia laesa fit furor Christ will not always bear with our evil manners but hide his face from us like as we have behaved our selves evil in our doings Micah 3.5 And whereas spiritual desertions are of three sorts 1 Cautional for preventing of sinne as Pauls seems to be 2 Probational for trial and exercise of grace as Jobs 3 Penal for chastisement of spiritual sloth and sluggishness as here in the Church this last is farre the heaviest My soul failed when hee spake Or because of his speech that sweet speech of his when hee so passionately wooed her ver 2. Then hee could have no audience nor admittance now if he would but offer himself hee might bee sure of both The word spoken doth not always presently take effect in the hearers but lies long as the seed under a clod till Christ the good husbandman come with some temptation as with his clotting-beetle and give it room to rise Then as the water casts up her dead after a time so do their memories cast up that which seemed buried therein by the help of the Holy Ghost their remembrancer John 14.26 John 2.22 The new birth of some the recovery of others out of their relapses is like the birth of the Elephant fourteen years after the seed is inserted into the womb Peter remembred Christs words and repented Mat. 26.75 If wee remember not what hath been preached unto us all is lost 1 Cor. 15.2 If we leak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and let slip actum est de nobis Heb. 2.1 If we keep the Word the Word will keep us Prov. 6.22 I sought him So soon as recovered out of my swoon I set to seek him The Church went not to bed again to sleep as before neither stays she longer within than to cast her veyl or her scarf over her head without any further dress abroad shee gets to seek him whom her soul loveth She sought him by serious and set meditation of the word and promises but after all that royl and travell shee took therein shee found him not This is the greatest grief that can befall a good heart in this present world it is to such little better than hell it self Thou hiddest thy face and I was troubled saith David Psal 30.8 Non frustra praedicant meptes hominum nitere liquido die coactanube flaccescere saith Symmachus Mens mindes are either clear or cloudy as the weather is but more truly good mens mindes are as Gods countenance is It is with the godly in desertion as with vapours drawn up by the Sun which when the extracting force of the Sun leaves them fall down again to the earth And as in an Eclipse of the Sun there is a drooping in the whole frame of nature so it is with the Saints when Christ withdraws himself Hell it self is said to bee a separation from his presence the pain of loss there is worse than the pain of sense the tears of hell are not sufficient to bewail the loss of heaven Bern. Laetemur igitur in Domino sed caveamus a recidivo I called him but hee gave mee no answer And it was but just for shee had dealt so by him ver 2. Christ loves to retaliate Such a proportion many times one may see between sins and punishments that you may say such a sin brought forth this affliction it is so like the father Howbeit his ear is not heavy that hee cannot hear but your iniquities have hid his face from you that hee will not hear Isa 59.1 2. And this the Saints take as well they may for a sore affliction Lam. 3.8 when to all other their miseries hee addeth this that hee will not come at them that hee casteth out their prayers that hee deals by them as the Lionness doth by her young ones which shee seems sometimes to leave till they have almost killed themselves with roaring This is to make them more carefull another time None look at the Sunne but when it is in the eclipse Neither prize we for most part Gods loving countenance till we have lost it In this case the course is to set up a loud cry after him as Micah did after his Gods Judg. 18.23 Or rather as the Church here doth after her beloved in many strong cries and bitter tears continuing instant in prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12.12 The Greek word imports a metaphor from hunting dogges that give not over the game till they have got it For incouragement See the happy success the Church here had and further take that saying of Brentius Etiamsi fides tuae nec lucem hominibus nec calorem cordi tuo afferat tamen non abjicit Christus modo incrementum ores i. e. Although thy faith as smoaking flax yield neither light to others nor heat to thine own heart yet Christ will not cast thee off so thou pray for more and follow thy work close till thou have gotten it Vers 7. The Watch-men that went about the City c. See the Note on Chap. 3.3 The Ministers that walk the round that watch for mens souls Heb. 13.17 Isa 61.6 that know how to time a word Isa 51.4 these smote her with the tongue they buffeted her by just and sharp reproofs for her negligence they unveiled her for being abroad at that time of night which she needed not to have been but for her own slothfulness they dealt little better with her than as if shee had been some light and lewd woman and all this they might well do out of zeal to God and godly jealousie for her souls good Unless it were that Hypocrisie of jealousie exercised by the false Apostles over the Galatians Chap. 4.17 Not Pastours but Impostours not Over-seers Non Episcopi sed Aposcopi but By-seers potius grassatores quam custodes homonymâ—s tamen sic dicti out-throats rather than Keepers wicked men taking upon them to bee Watch-men Church-officers in name but Church-robbers in deed Such were those Isa 66.5 that hated and cast out the true worshippers under a pretence of Let the Lord bee glorified Such an one was Diotrephes that prating prelate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that villanously intreated Gods faithful people 3 John 9.10 And such is that Man of sinne that Antichrist of Rome who for so many hundred years together hath smitten with the fist of wickedness hath wounded and drawn blood from Christs dearest Spouse and despoiled her of her veyl that is laboured to dispriviledge her and deprive her of that purity and soundness of Doctrine that hee hath committed unto her as a means to hold her in the duty of all holy obedience and subjection unto him 1 Cor. 11.5 6 10. Of these false friends and deadly enemies the Church here heavily complains and might well have proceeded against them as