and punishment are linked together with chains of adamant Of sin wee may say as Isidore doth of the Serpent Tot dolores quot colores so many colours so many dolours The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. ult The same in effect with this sentence of Solomon But to the righteous good shall bee repaid Or hee that is God shall repay good Now hee is a liberal pay-master and all his retributions are more than bountiful Never did any yet do or suffer ought for God that complained of an hard bargain L. Brooks discourse of Episcop God will recompence your losses saith that thrice noble Lord Brook who lost his precious life in this late unhappy wars at Litchfield as the King of Poland did his noble servant Zelislaus having lost his hand in his wars hee sent him a golden hand Caius Agrippa having suffered imprisonment for wishing him Emperor when hee came afterwards to the Empire the first thing hee did was to prefer Agrippa and gave him a chain of gold as heavy as the chain of iron that was upon him in Prison Those that lose any thing for God hee seals them a bill of Exchange of a double return nay an hundred fold here and eternal life hereafter Vers 22. A good man leaveth inheritance to his childe Personal goodness is profitable to Posterity God gives not to his servants some small annuity for life onely as great men use to do but keepeth mercy for thousands of generations of them that fear him Exod. 34.7 Where the Masorites observe Nun. Rabbath a great N in the word Not for keepeth to note the large extent of Gods love to the good mans posterity God left David a Lamp in Jerusalem 1 Kings 15.4 although his house were not so with God 2 Sam. 23.5 And the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just as Nabals was for David Hamans for Mordecai the Canaanites for the Israelites Howbeit this holds not perpetually and universally in every wicked person for some of them are full of children and leave the rest of their substance for their babes Psal 17.14 Hereupon their inward thought is that their houses shall continue for ever c. they call their Lands after their own names as Cain called his new built City after the name of his son Henoch Gen. 8.4 This their way is their folly or is their constant hope for the word signifies both and their Posterity approve their sayings and vote the same way Psal 49.11 13. But together with their lands they bequeath their children their sins and punishments which is far worse than that legacy of Leprosie that Joab left his issue 2 Sam. 3.29 Confer Job 27.16 17. Isa 61.5 Vers 23. Much food is in the tillage of the poor Who have but a little and look well to it That of the Poet is well known Laudato ingentia rura Exiguum colito It is best for a man to have no more than hee can master and make his best of Vigil Geog. lib. â— Lib. 1. cap 3. The ground should bee weaker than hee that tills it saith Columella The earth is a fruitful mother and brings forth meat meet for them by whom it is dressed Heb. 6.7 But there is that is destroyed for want of judgement viz. in plowing and sowing Isa 28.26 or in managing and husbanding what hee hath gotten for the best For non minor est virtus quam quaerere parta tueri Wee must bee good husbands and see that Condus bee fortâ—or Promo our comings in more than our layings out Bonus Servatius facit bonum Bonifacium saith the Dutch man in his blunt Proverb A good saver makes a well-doer Vers 24. Hee that spareth his rod hateth his son It is as if one should bee so tender over a childe as not to suffer the wind to blow upon it and therefore hold the hand before the mouth of it but so hard as hee strangleth the childe It is said of the Ape that shee huggeth her young one to death so do many fond Parents who are therefore peremptores potius quam parentes rather Paricides than Parents Eli would not correct his children God therefore corrected both him and them David would not once cross his Absolom and his Adonijah Bern. and hee was therefore singularly crost in them ere hee dyed The like befell old Andronicus the Greek Emperour in his unhappy Nephew of the same name and Muleasses King of Tunes in his son Amida whom hee cockered so long till Absolom-like hee rose against his father Turk hist 745.747 and possessing himself of the Kingdome put out his father and brethrens eyes slew his Captains polluted his Wives and took the Castle of Tunes But hee that loveth him chasteneth him betimes And this is a God-like love Prov. 3.12 Rev. 3.19 See the Notes there 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Ethic. l. 2. Correction is a kinde of cure saith the Philosopher the likeliest way to save the childes soul where yet curam exigeris non curationem saith Bernard it is the care of the childe that is charged upon the Parent not the cure for that is Gods work alone But hee usually worketh by this mean and therefore requires that it bee soundly set on if need so require A fair hand wee say makes a foul wound A weak dose doth but stir bad humours and anger them not purge them out In some diseases the Patient must bee let blood even ad deliquium animae till hee swoon again So here Quintilian tells us of some faults in a childe that deserve not a whipping And Chrysippus is ill spoken of by some because he first brought the use of the rod into the Schools It was hee I trow that first offered that strict and tetrical division to the world Aut mentem aut restim comparandam Either a good heart or a good halter for your self and yours The condemned person comes out of a dark prison and goes to the place of Execution so do children left to themselves and not nurtured come from the womb their prison to the fire of hell their execution Severitas tamen non sit tetra sed tetrica Corrections must bee wisely and moderately dispensed Sidonius Ep. lib. 4. Col. 4.21 Parents provoke not your children to wrath lest they bee dispirited and through despondency grow desperate or heartless Our Henry 2. first crowned his eldest son Henry whilst hee was yet alive and then so curbed him that through discontent hee fell into a Feaver whereof hee dyed before his Father A Prince of excellent parts Daniels hist who was at first cast away by his Fathers indulgence and afterwards by his rigour Vers 25. The righteous eateth to the satisfying of his soul Have hee more or less hee hath that which satisfies him Nature is content with a little grace with less Cibus potus sunt divitia Christianorum If Jacob may but have bread to eat
of thy least love as blessed Bradford was with his Miserrimus peccator Ioh. Bradford as Mr Dod and Mr. Cleaver your and my old and good acquaintance were with whom we well remember it was usual Agur like to vilifie yea to nullifie themselves to the utmost And this comes 1. From increase of light 2. From much and long experience of their unavoidable failings and infirmities 2. He is very heavenly minded as having by the constant practice of mortification comfortably subdued his corruptions seen through the vanity and vexation of outward things set one foot upon the battlements of heaven had here much sweet intercourse and communion with God gotten a full gripe of Christ laid fast hold upon eternal life for the full fruition whereof he therefore dearly and daily longs and labours Hence also it comes to pass that this good old Saint this earthly Angel is so heavenly in his Spirit fruitful in good speeches innocent in his life abundant in deeds of Piety and Charity still doing something that may further his reckoning and add weight to his crown which he ever eyeth and even reacheth after The former instances might be here called over again all whose humility was not more low then their aims were lofty 3. This good old disciple of Christ is very able to bear and forbear like as a man at maturity can bear with little childrens follies and not set his wâ—t to theirs as we use to phrase it Thus Abraham bore with Lots rudeness Moses with the peoples petulancies and insolencies Paul with the buffoneries and indignities put upon him by the Corinthians and Galathians Ye have not injured me at all saith he Gal. 4.12 Your disrespects and affronts reach me not I am far above them I am out of your gun-shot So Fulgentius an Ancient of the Church being abused by one who was far his inferiour Maluit tolerare quà m deplorare put it off with Plura adhuc pro Christo toleranda This is a small Trial I must frame to bear more yet for Christ As an old Porter that had been beaten to the Cross he went singing under his burthen holding it no small grace Elegantissimum Oxymoron Casaub to be disgraced for the name of Jesus as it is said of those Disciples of our Saviour Acts 5.41 who soon after his Ascension were all upon the suddain of Babes become Grandees in Grace 4. Lastly he is much affected with the state of others Good Abraham could not rest in his bed that night for thinking of poor Sodom Gen. 19.27 as Luther observeth But especially he is affected with the well-fare or ill-fare of the Churches as being himself of a publick that is of a noble spirit and as a living member of Christs mystical Body he feels twinges whensoever others are hurt in the least See this in Daniel Nehemiah EZra but especially in Paul upon whom lay the care and cumber of all the Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11.28 it came upon him as an armed man and gave him no rest or respite Cyprians Cum singulis pectus meum copulo is well known And of Calvin it is recorded in his life by Beza that he was no otherwise affected toward the Churches though far remote then if he had born them on his own shoulders This is a sure Note of a Father Indeed Babes and young men are so cumbred with their own corruptions have so much work of their own to do within doors that they have little leisure or list to look abroad Neither are they therefore so much affected with other mens conditions To speak a little of those two also in their order And first of the young man in Christ Where let it be I beseech you no trouble or offence of heart singultus cordis some render it 1 Sam. 25.31 to You Noble Colonel together with your * Jungat epistola quos junxit conjugium immò charta non non dividat quos Christi nectit amor Hier. praefat in Proverb elect or choice Lady to be set among the second sort of good Christians though I must needs say for your very eximious and exemplary Piety and Prudence you may well claim place in the upper form of this lower world But you know who it was that said long since Cicero Honestum est ei qui in primis non potest in secundis tertiisve consistere And to have a door-keepers place in Gods house David held no small preferment Psalm 84.10 But to go on with our business A young man in Christ may be thus Characterized 1. He is strong in grace but withall he hath some one or more strong corruption suppose Passion evil Concupiscence Worldliness or the like that holds him play and puts him shrewdly to 't so that sometimes he could almost find in his heart to sin My feet were almost gone my steps had well-nigh slipt Psalm 73.2 But afterwards he better bethinks himself forbears and forgoes it as a man would do a Serpent in his way or poison in his meats He maketh strong resistance and reneweth his well-knit resolutions against sin A mighty combat and coil there is other whiles as it useth to be in a thunder-clap caused by a hot dry vapour wrapt up in a cold moist cloud which ends in a great rumble and dreadful crack Patient Job and devout David for instance the one abhorring himself for his impatient out bursts the other be-beasting himself for his precipitancy his rash resolves one time when sick of the Fret Psalm 73.22 2. Next the weapons of this young mans warfare are not carnal such as natural reason shame of the world fear of Hell c. have put into his hand but spiritual mighty through God to the pulling down of Satans strongest holds the digging down of his deepest trenches 2 Cor. 10.5 He fights against the enemies of his soul with Gods own Arm and with Gods own Armour he is strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and taking the sword of his Spirit mingling with faith in his heart the Precepts Menaces and Promises he layes about him lustily and prevails accordingly driving the field of that old Man-slayer 3. He is much affected with his success If he get the better in any measure so that he doth not so much and oft break out as he was wont if his corruption be any whit abated his strength increased a little he is marvellous glad and thankfull Was not David so when disarmed by the discretion of Abigail 1 Sam. 25. and detained from shedding innocent blood As on the other side if wounded and worsted at any time he is all amort sorely disquieted restless as on a rack like a man thrust thorough the body he bleeds and sinks till with Peter he run to Christ the right Chirurgeon in this case with tears in his eyes bitter complaints in his mouth and utmost self-abhorrency in his heart and is cured set right again 4. Lastly
It is reported of a worthy Divine of Scotland Zacheus convert preface that hee did even eat and drink and sleep eternal life This is to walk with God this is to live by Faith this is to see him that is invisible Moses his optick this is to go the upper way even that way of life that is above to the wise that hee may depart from Hell beneath Prov. 15.24 See the Note there And hee shall direct thy paths As hee carefully chose out the Israelites way in the wilderness not the shortest but yet the safest for them So will God do for all that make him their guide The Athenians had a conceit that their Goddesse Minerva turned all their evil counsels into good unto them The Romans thought that their Vibilia another heathenish Deity set them again in their right way when at any time they were out All this and more than this is undoubtedly done by the true God for all that commit their waies unto him and depend upon him for direction and success Loe this God is our God for ever and ever hee will bee our guide even unto death Psal 4â— 14 Vers 7. Bee not wise in thine own eyes Bis desipit qui sibi sâ—pit Hee is two fools that is wise in his own eyes This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marres all Socrates his Hoc scio quod nihil scio gat him the name of the wisest among men Arachuâ— apud Ovid. Metamor lib. 6. Consilii satiâ— in me mihi is the proud mans posiâ— Hec that would bee wise must bee a fool that hee may bee wise 1 Cor. 3.18 Intus existens prohibet alienum A conceit of wisdome bars out wisdome Fear the Lord This makes a modest opinion of a mans self Joseph a man famous for the fear of God when Pharaoh expected from him an interpretation of his dream as having heard much of his skill It is not in mâ—â— said hee Gen. 41.16 God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace Loe hee extenuates his own gifts and ascribes all to God Wherefore suddenly after as Joseph had said to Pharaoh Without mee shall God make answer to Pharaoh so Pharaoh is heard say to Joseph Without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the Land of Egypt vers 44. So that here was exemplified that holy Proverbâ— Prov. 22.4 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honour and life The Original runs thus By humility the fear of the Lord are riches c. There is no And in the Hebrew Humility and the fear of the Lord are so near akin this being the Mother of that as if the one were predicated of the other as if they were one and the same grace And depart from evil Another effect of this clean fear of God as David calleth it Psal 19.9 Cave spectat Caâ—o was a watch word among the Romans A reverend and religious man had these words following written before him in his study Noli peccare Nam Deus videt Angeli astant Diabolus accusabit Conscientia testabitur Infernus cruciabit Take heed of sin for God seeth thee Angels stand by thee the Devil will accuse thee thy Conscience will testifie against thee and Hell will torture thee Psal 134.4 Hos 3.5 But besides all this there is mercy with God that hee may bee feared and the children of Israel shall fear the Lord and his goodness Vers 8. It shall bee health to thy navel That is Thou shalt bee in good plight both for the outward and inward man Thy bones full of marrow thy breasts full of milk thy spirit also lively and lifted up in the waies of the Lord. And as it is with children in the womb for to these is the allusion here that by the navil nourishment is ministred unto them yea even to the strengthening of the inward parts So the godly in the Church are â—ed and bred by the Faith and fear of God And as without marrow in the bones Munster Mercer T. W and others in loc no part of man no not that which is of greatest value and force is able to do any thing So the strength that they have from God is as the marrow which strengtheneth the bones and maketh them apt to do good things And as a man that hath his bones filled with marrow and hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body hee can indure to go with less cloaths than another because hee is well lined within So it is with a heart that hath a great deal of grace and peace hee will go through difficulties and troubles though outward comforts fail him Act. Mon. fol. 1358. It is recorded of Mr. Saunders Martyr that himself should tell the party that lay in the same bed with him in prison that even in the time of his examination before Steven Gardiner hee was wonderfully comforted not onely in spirit but also in body hee received a certain taste of that holy Communion of Saints whilest a most pleasant refreshing did issue from every part and member of the body to the seat and place of the heart and from thence did ebbe and flow to and fro unto all the parts again Vers 9. Honour the Lord with thy substance Freely expending it in pious and charitable uses Exod. 25.19 Deut. 26.2 See the Notes there See also my common place of Almes Vers 10. So shall thy Barus bee filled The Jews at this day though not in their own Country Godw. Heb. Antiq. 277. Thegualer â—ischilshe the guasher nor have a Levitical Priest-hood yet those who will bee reputed Religious amongst them do distribute the tenth of their increase unto the poor being perswaded that God doth bless their increase the more for their usual Proverb is Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tythes that thou mayest bee rich See the Note on Mat. 5.7 Vers 11. Despise not the chastening of the Lord Slight it not but sit alone Lam. 3.28 and consider Eccles 7.14 Some think it a goodly thing to bear out a cross by head and shoulders and wear it out as they may never improving it As a Dog that getting out of the water into which hee is cast shakes his cars or as a man that coming out of a shower of rain dryes again and all is as before Perdidistis fructum afflictionis saith Austin of such Scapethrifts Thus the proud Greeks having lost two Castles in Chersonesus Miserrimi facti estis pessimi permansistis Aug. de civit Dei l. 1. c. 33. Turk Hist fol. 185. taken from them by the Turks commonly said that there was but an Hogsty lost alluding to the name of that Country Whereas that was the first footing that the Turks got in Europe and afterwards possessed themselves of the Imperial City of Constantinople Shortly after Anno 1358. Callipolis also being lost the mad Greeks to extenuate the matter when they had any talk thereof in
and wretched Cardinal found by woful experience in the reign of Henry the sixth For perceiving death at hand hee asked Wherefore should I dye being so rich If the whole Realm would save my life I am able either by policy to get it or by riches to buy it Fox Martyrol vol. 1. p. 925. Fye quoth hee will not death bee hired will mony do nothing No mony in this case bears no mastery Death as the jealous man will not regard any ransome neither will hee rest content though thou offer many gifts Prov. 6.35 Aug. de civit Dei l. 5. c. 25. And in her left hand riches and honour Bonus Deus Constantinum Magnum tantis terrenis implevit muneribus quantâ— optare nullus auderet The good Lord heaped so much outward happiness upon his faithful Servant Constantine the Great as no man ever durst to have wished more saith Austin If God give his People a Crown hee will not deny them a crust If they have bona throni the good things of a Throne they shall bee sure of bona scabelli the good things of the footstool Vers 17. Her waies are waies of pleasantnesse Such as were those of Adam before his fall strawed with Roses paved with Peace Some degree of comfort follows every good action as heat accompanies fire as beams and influences issue from the Sun Which is so true that very Heathens upon the discharge of a good conscience have found comfort and peace answerable This saith One is praemium ante praemium a fore-reward of well-doing In doing thereof not onely for doing thereof there is great reward Psal 19.11 Vers 18. Shee is a tree of life A tree that giveth life and quickeneth or as one interprets it a moâ—â— assured sign of eternal life whatsoever it is hee alludeth no doubt to the tree mentioned Gen. 2.9 3.22 See the Notes there And happy is every one that retains her Though despised by the world as a poor Sneak a contemptible caytiff We usually call a poor man a poor soul a poor soul may be a rich Christian as Roger sirnamed Paupere censu was Son to Roger Bishop of Salisbury Goodwins Catal p. 338. who made him Chancellour of England Vers 19. The Lord by wisdome By his essential wisdome by his eternal word Prov. 8.30 the Lord Christ who is the beginning of the Creation of God Rev. 3.14 See the Note on John 1.3 In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth Gen. 1.1 that is In his Son as some interpret it Heb. 1.2 Col. 1.16 This interpretation is grounded upon the Jerusalimy Targum who translates that Gen. 1.1 bechochmatha in sapientia So doth Augustine and others and for confirmation they bring Joh. 8.25 but that is a mistake as Beza shews in his Annotations there Hee established the Heaven Heb. Hee aptly and trimly framed and formed them in that comeliness that wee now see The Heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy-work Psal 19.1 Upon the third Heaven hee hath bestowed a great deal of curious skill and cunning workmanship 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 11.10 But of that no natural knowledge can be had nor any help by humane arts Geometry Opticks c. For it neither is aspectable nor moveable The Visible Heavens are for the many varieties therein and the wonderful motion of the several sphears fitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coelum maximè co nomine intelligunt Graci Mercer The Original word here used ratione conjugationis plus aliquid significat quam paravit vel stabilivit Conen Mirum in modum disposuit Hee hath cunningly contrived And hence haply our antient English word Koning and by contraction King comming of the Verb Con which signifies as Becanus noteth Possum Scio Andeo I can I wot I dare do it Vers 20. The depths are broken up viz. Those great chanels and hollow places made in the earth to hold the waters Gen. 1.9 that they may not overflow the earth and this the very Philosophers are forced to confess to bee a work of divine wisdome Others by depths here understand fountains and floods breaking out and as it were flowing from the nethermost parts of the earth even as though the earth did cleave it self in sunder to give them passage And the clouds drop down the dews Clouds the bottles of rain and dew are vessels as thin as the liquor that is contained in them there they hang move though weighty with their burden How they are upheld and why they fall here and now wee know not and wonder Vers 21. Let not them depart Ne effluant haec ab oculis tuis saith the Vulgar Ne haec à tuis oculis deflectant in obliquum huc illuc So Mercer Let thy eyes look right on Chap. 4.25 look wishly and intently on these great works of God and his wisdome therein set forth and conspicuous as on a theatre Eye these things as the Steersman doth the Load-star 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Archer doth the mark hee shoots at 2 Cor. 4.18 or as the Passenger doth his way which hee findes hard to hit and dangerous to miss Yea let them bee the delight of thine eyes with the sight whereof thou canst not bee sated or surfeited Vers 22. So shall they bee life unto thy soul For by these men live and this is the spirit of my life saith Hezekiah Isa 38.16 Even what God hath spoken and done vers 15. A godly man differs from a wicked as much as a living man from a dead carkass The wicked are stark dead and stone cold The Saints also want heat sometimes but they are soon made hot again because there is life of soul in them as Charcoal is quickly kindled because it hath been in the fire And grace unto thy neck Or to thy throat that is to thy words uttered through the throat See the Note on chap. 1.9 Vers 23. Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely Fidneialiter saith the Vulgar confidently and securely Every Malvoy shall bee a Salvoy to thee thou shalt ever go under a double guard the Peace of God within thee Phil. 4.7 and the Power of God without thee 1 Pet. 1.5 Thou shalt bee in league also with the stones of the field and the beasts of the field shall bee at peace with thee Job 5.23 Vers 24. Thou shalt not bee afraid See this exemplified in David Psal 3.5 6. Peter Act. 12.6 and Mr. Rogers our late Protomartyr Act. Mon. fol. 1356. who when hee was warned suddenly to prepare for the fire hee then being sound asleep in the prison scarce with much shogging could bee awaked Thy sleep shall bee sweet As knowing that God thy Keeper Psal 121.4 5. doth wake and watch for thee Psal 120.1 Wicked mens sleep is often troublesome through the workings of their evil consciences Danielâ— Hist of Eng. as our Richard the third after the murther of his
such an affliction Rebecca was weary of her life by reason of the daughters of Heth brought in to her by Esau Gen. 27.45 If they lye lusking at home mothers have the misery of it if they do worse abroad the worst is made of it to the mother at home by fame that loud lyer Vers 2. Treasures of wickedness Our Saviour calls it Mammon of iniquity Luke 16. â— that next odious name to the Devil Most mens care is how to grasp and get wealth for their children rem rem quocunque modo rem Virtus post nummos c. But what saith a grave Author Mr. Bolton Better leave thy childe a Wallet to beg from door to door than a cursed heard of evil-gotten goods There is for most part lucrum in arca damnum in conscientia gain in the purse August but loss in the conscience But righteousness delivereth from death Piety though poor delivereth from the second death and from the first too as to the evil of it For as Christ took away the guilt of sin not sin it self so hee hath taken away not death but the sting of death from all beleevers making it to such of a curse a blessing of a punishment a benefit of a Trap-door to hell a Portal to heaven a Postern to let out temporal life but a Street-door to let in eternal life Vers 3. The Lord will not suffer the soul of the righteous That refuseth to inrich himself by evil arts and to rise by wicked principles For it might bee objected If I strain not my conscience I may starve for it Ob. Sol. Fear not that saith the Wise-man Faith fears not famine Necessaries thou shalt bee sure of Psal 37.25 26. Psal 34.11 Superfluities thou art not to stand upon 1 Tim. 6.8 The Hebrews by righteousness in the former verse understand Almsdeeds as Dan. 4.24 27. See the Note on Matth. 7.1 and so the sense here may bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The righteous though hee give much to the poor shall â—â—e never the poorer sith not getting but giving is the way to thrive See my Common-place of Alms. But hee casteth away the substance of the wicked For either they lose it or live beside it and are little the better for it Hee that gotteth riches and not by right shall leave them in the middest of his dayes and in his end bee a fool God will make a poor fool of him quickly Quo mihi divitias queis non conceditur â—ti Jer. 17.11 And the like may bee said of the illiberal and tenacious person See the Note on Chap. 3.27 Niggards fear to lose their wealth by giving but fear not to lose their wealth and souls and all by keeping it Ob. Sol. Vers 4. Hee becometh poor Lest any should say If God do all wee need do the less Doing you must bee saith the Wise-man or else the beggar will catch you by the back Labour also you must with your hands working the thing that is good that yee may have to give to him that needeth Ephes 4.28 But the hand of the diligent Or of the nimble that do motitare saith Kimchi are active and agile that will lose nothing for looking after but take care of smallest matters that all go right being frugal and parcimonious of time husbanding the opportunity of thriving and plenty How did Boaz follow the business himself How were his eyes in every corner on the servants and on the Reapers yea on the Gleaners too Hee doth even lodge in the midst of his husbandry Ruth 2. and 3. as knowing well the truth of that proverbial sentence Columel Procul à villa sua dissitus jacturae vicinus Hee that is far from his business is not far from loss Vers 5. Hee that gathereth in Summer A well-chosen season is the greatest advantage of any action which as it is seldome found in haste so it is too often lost in delay The men of Issachar were in great account with David because they had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do and when to do it 1 Chron. 12.32 So are they in great account with God for their wisdome who observe and use the season of well-doing But hee that sleepeth in harvest i. e. That lets slip his opportunity as Plutarch writes of Hannibal that when hee could have taken Rome hee would not when hee would hee could not And as its storied of Charles King of Sicily and Jerusalem that hee was called Carolus Cunctator Charles the Lingerer not in the sense as Fabius because hee stayed till opportunity came but because hee stayed till opportunity was lost Vers 6. Blessings are upon the head Plentifully and conspicuously they shall abound with blessings Prov. 28.20 As the fear of the Lord is not onely in them but upon them 2 Chron. 19.7 so blessings of all sorts a confluence of all spiritual and temporal comforts and contentments shall bee not onely with them but upon them so that nothing shall hinder it See Gal. 6.16 They are blessed and they shall bee blessed Gen. 27.33 Neither shall any roaring or repining Esau bee able to reverse it But violence covereth the mouth of the wicked They shall bee certainly shamed condemned executed as Haman whose face they covered Esth 7.8 and shortly after strangled And as Sir Gervaise Ellowayes Lieutenant of the Tower hanged on Tower-hill for poysoning Sir Thomas Overbury his prisoner This Sir Gervaise being on the Gallows freely confessed that hee had oft in his playing at Cards and Dice wished that hee might bee hang'd if it were not so and so and therefore confessed it was just upon him Vers 7. The memory of the just is blessed Demetrius had a good report of the truth 3 Joh. 12. In the Hebrew tongue the same word signifieth a good name and a blessing This is one of those blessings mentioned vers 6. that shall bee heaped upon holy men Holy and reverend is his Name Psal 111.9 How comes Gods Name to bee reverend but by being holy Bee good and do good so shall thy name bee heir to thy life yea when thou art laid in thy grave thy stock remains goes forward and shall do till the day of Doom But the name of the wicked shall rot and stink as putrified flesh Hypocrites then must bee detected though they carry it never so clearly how else shall they bee detested and stink above ground Simon Magus so handled the matter that Philip mistook him for a Beleever and baptized him but Peter soon smelt him out and laid him open in his colours Hee that perverteth his wayes shall bee known Prov. 10.9 The Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity for all their cunning contrivances Psal 125.5 Vers 8. The wise in heart shall receive Commandement i.e. Submit to Gods holy Word without replies and cavils This is check to the brave gallants of our age which exercise their ripe heads and
Grief is like Lead to the soul heavy and cold it sinks downward Homer Odyss 1. Mans mind is like the stone Tyrrhenus which so long as it is whole swimeth but being once broke sinketh and carries the soul with it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How decrepit was David grown with much grief at seventy years of age The like wee may say of Jacob who attained not to the daies of the years of the life of his Fathers Gen. 47.9 as being a man of many sorrows And this some think was the reason that our Saviour Christ at little past thirty was reckoned to bee toward fifty Joh. 8.57 Hee was the man that had seen affliction by the rod of Gods wrath Lam. 3.1 But a good word maketh it glad Such as was that of our Saviour to the poor Paralytick Son bee of good chear thy sins are forgiven thee The promises are called a good word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jer. 29.10 so David found them Psal 119.92 Physick for the soul more truly so called than the Library at Alexandria cordials of comfort breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 Wells of salvation Isa 12.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 miseriarum as Plato said of Wine and Musick that which mitigates mans miseries and without which Wine Musick merry company c. will prove but miserable comforters and at the best but the Devils Anodynes Vers 26. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour Let him dwell by whomsoever hee is ever a better man than his neighbours hee is a Prince of God amongst them as Abraham was amongst the Hittites The Jews say that those seventy souls that went with Jacob into Egypt were as much worth as all the seventy Nations in the world Nemo me major nisi qui justior said Agesilaus when he heard the King of Persia stiled The great King i. e. I acknowledge none more excellent than my self unless more righteous none greater unless better Upon all the glory shall bee a defence Isa 4.5 that is upon all the righteous those onely glorious those excellent of the earth Psal 16.2 that are sealed up to the day of redemption Eph. 4.30 Now whatsoever is sealed with a seal that is excellent in its own kinde as Isa 28.25 hordeum signatum excellent barly The poorest Vilage is an Ivory palace in quo est Pastor credentes aliqui saith Luther if it have in it but a Minister and a few good people But the way of the wicked seduceth them i. e. The wicked will not bee perswaded of the just mans excellency hee cannot discern nor will bee drawn to beleeve that there is any such gain in godliness any such worth in well-doing any such difference betwixt the righteous and the wicked betwixt him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Hee therefore goes another way to work but is fearfully frustrated For who ever yet hardened himself against God and prospered Job 9.4 They think themselves far better than the righteous and so they were indeed if they could finde that felicity in wicked wayes which their deceitful hearts promise them But this they can never do Vers 27. The sloathful or deceitful man roasteth not that which hee took in hunting Hee shall never enjoy his evil-gotten goods but though hee heap up silver as the dust and prepare raiment as the clay hee may prepare it but the just shall put it on and the innocent shall divide the silver Job 27.16 17. I read of a false Butcher that having stoln an Oxe and caused it to bee drest on his wedding day was on that very day apprehended and not long after executed I read of Tecelius the Popes Pardonmonger in Germany that having by sale of Indulgences scraped together a huge mass of money and returning for Rome hee was met and eased of his cash by an odde fellow who being afterwards prosecuted for a felon produced a pardon for future sins granted him by Tecelius himself and being thereupon acquitted by the Judge hee roasted that which that other old Fox had taken in hunting But the substance of a diligent man is precious Great in value whatsoever it bee in quantity as a small box-full of Pearls are more worth than mountains of pibbles Ps 37.16 Prov. 15.16 and v. 2. The house of the righteous hath much treasure though there bee but curta suppellex Res angusta domi hee is without that care in getting fear in keeping grief in losing those three fell Vultures that feed continually on the heart of the rich worldling and dissweeten all his comforts Jabal that dwelt in Tents and tended the herds had Jubal to his brother the Father of Musick Jabal and Jubal diligence and complacence good husbandry and a well-contenting sufficiency dwell usually together Vers 28. In the way of righteousness is life And life in any sense is a sweet mercy a precious indulgence Life natural is but a little spot of time between two Eternities before and after but it is of great consequence for ex hoc momento pendet Aeternitas and given us for this purpose that glory may bee begun in grace and wee have a further and further entrance into the Kingdome of heaven here as Peter saith 2 Ep. 1.11 And in the path thereof there is no death Christ hath unstinged the first death and made it of a punishment a benefit Mors janua vitae porta coeli Bern. of a postern to let out temporal life a street-door to let in eternal life Surely the bitterness of this death is past to the righteous there is no gall in it as the Hebrew word there signifies nay there is hony in it as once there was in the corps of Sampsons dead Lion And for the second death there is no danger for they shall pass from the jaws of death to the joyes of heaven Yea though hell had closed her mouth upon a childe of God it could as little hold him as the Whale could Jonah it must perforce regurgitate and render up such a morsel CHAP. XIII Vers 1. A wise son heareth his Fathers instruction HEbr. Is the instruction or discipline of his Father Philostratus hee was not natus sapiens as Apollonius sed factus not born wise to salvation but made so by his Fathers discipline as Solomon Prov. 4.4 See the Note there But a scorner heareth not rebuke Or heareth and scareth as Lots sons in law as Elies sons and afterward Samuels Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross as well as in his place though not in his sin of indulgence God will shew that grace is by gift not by inheritance or education Ciceroni degenerem fuisse filiâ—â—â— constat sapiens ille Socrates liberos habuit matri similiores quam patri saith Seneca Cicero had a son nothing like him so had Socrates Vers 2. A man shall eat good by the fruit of his mouth See the Note on Chap. 12. vers 14. and on Chap. 10. vers 6. and on Mat. 12.37 Vers 3.
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
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
him drunk As Ale Beer Sider Perry Metheglin c. Of this Pliny cries out Hei mirâ vitiorum solertiâ inventum est quemadmodum aqua quoque inebriaret Portentosum sanè potionis genus Lib. 14 cap. ult quasi non ad alium usum natura parens humano generi fruges dedisse videatur So witty is wickedness grown now that there is a way invented to make a man drunk with water a monstrous kinde of drink surely as if Dame nature had bestowed corn upon us to such a base a base See the Note on Chap 23.29 Saint Paul very fitly yoaketh together Drunkards and Raylers 1 Cor. 6.9 And whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise For when the wine is in the wit is out They have a practice of drinking the Out 's as they call it all the wit out of the head all the money out of the purse c. And thereby affect the title of Roaring Boyes by a woful Prolepsis doubtless here for hereafter Vers 2. The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion See Chap. 16.14 and 19.12 Vers 3. It is an honour for a man to cease from strife To stint it rather than to stir it to bee first in promoting peace and seeking reconciliation as Abraham did in the controversie with Lot Memento said Aristippus to Aeschines Plutarch de cohib ira with whom hee had a long strife quod cum essem natu major prior te accesserim Remember said hee that though I am the elder man yet I first sought reconciliation I shall well remember it said Aeschines and whiles I live Laer. l. 2. I shall acknowledge thee the better man because I was first in falling out and thou art first in falling in again But every fool will bee medling Or mingling himself with strife hee hath an itching to bee doing with it to bee quarrelling brabling lawing Caesar com Once it was counted ominous to commence actions and follow sutes Now nothing more ordinary for every trifle treading upon their grass or the like This is as great folly as for every slight infirmity to take Physick Vers 4. The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold So the spiritual sluggard either dreams of a delicacy in the wayes of God which is a great vanity or else if heaven bee not to bee had without the hardship of holiness Christ may keep his heaven to himself Mat. 19.22 The young man in the Gospel went away grieved that Christ required such things that hee could not bee willing to yeeld to The Hebrews have a common Proverb amongst them Hee that on the even of the Sabbath hath not gathered what to eat shall not at all eat on the Sabbath Meaning thereby that none shall reign in heaven that hath not wrought on earth Man goeth forth saith the Psalmist to his work and to his labour untill the evening Psal 104.23 So till the Sun of his life bee set hee must bee working out his salvation This is to work the work of him that sent us as our Saviour did Which expression of working a work notes his strong intention upon it as Jer. 18.18 to devise devices notes strong plotting to mischief the Prophet So Luke 22.15 With a desire have I desired c. yea how am I straightned till it bee accomplished Luke 12.50 Lo Christ thirsted exceedingly after our salvation though hee knew it should cost him so dear Is not this check to our dulness and sloth Vers 5. Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep water See Chap. 18.4 As the red Rose though outwardly not so fragrant is inwardly far more cordial than the Damask being more thrifty of its sweetness and reserving it in it self So it is with many good Christians But a man of understanding will draw it out And surely this is a fine skill to bee able to pierce a man that is like a vessel full of wine and to set him a running Vers 6. Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness As the Kings of Egypt would needs bee called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bountiful or Benefactors many of the Popes Pit and Bonifacii c. The Turks will needs bee stiled the only Musulmans or true Beleevers as Papists the onely Catholicks The Swenk feldians Stinkfeldians Scblussenb Luther called them from the ill savour of their opinions intituled themselves with that glorious name The Confessours of the glory of Christ Histor Dav. Georg. David George that monstrous Heretick that was so far from accounting Adulteries Fornications Incests c. for being any sins that hee did recommend them to his most perfect Scholars as acts of grace and mortification c. yet hee was wonderfully confident of the absolute truth of his tenets and doubted not but that the whole world would soon submit to him and hold with him Hee wrote to Charles the Emperour and the rest of the States of Germany an humble and serious admonition as hee stiled it written by the command of the Omnipotent God diligently to bee obeyed because it contained those things whereupon eternal life did depend But a faithful man who can finde Diaconos paucitas honorabiles fecit saith Hierome The paucity of pious persons makes them precious Perrarò grati reperiuntur saith Cicero It is hard to finde a thankful man Faithful friends are in this age all for the most part gone in Pilgrimage Daniels Hist and their return is uncertain said the Duke of Buckingham to Bishop Morton in Richard the third his time Vers 7. The just man walketh in his integrity Walketh constantly not for a step or two onely Continenter ambulat when the good fit is upon him See the Note on Gen. 17.1 His children are blessed after him Personal goodness is profitable to posterity yet not of merit but of free grace and for the promise sake which Jehu's children found and felt to the fourth Generation though himself were a wicked Idolater Vers 8. A King that sitteth in the Throne of Judgement c. Kings in their own persons should sit and judge of causes sometimes to take knowledge at least what is done by their officers of Justice I have seen the King of Persia many times to alight from his horse saith a late Traveller onely to do justice to a poor body The Preachers Travels by John Cartwright Hee punisheth theft and man-slaughter so severely that in an age a man shall hardly hear either of the one or of the other Vers 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean That can I saith the proud Pharisee and the Popish Justitiary Non habeo Domine quod mihi ignoscas I have nothing Lord for thee to pardon said Isidore the Monk When Saint Paul that had been in the third Heaven complains of his inward impurities Rom. 7.15 and though hee should have known no evil by himself yet durst hee not look to bee thereby justified 1 Cor. 4.4 And holy Job
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
the Mad-man without good reason To what end saith he should a man toyl and tire out himself with hard labour to compasse commodity making a drudge and a beast of himself for a little pelf sith he knows not who shall have the spending of it and he is sure to be either squeezed by his Superiours as vers 1. of this Chapter or else envied by his neighbours as vers 4 Is not a little with â—ase better a penny by begging better than two pence by true labour It is well observed by an Interpreter that this sentence uttered by the sluggard is in its true meaning not much different from that of the Wise-man Prov. 17.1 but ill applyed by him Good words are not alwayes to be trusted from ill men especially Vers 7. Then I returned and saw vanity c. i. e. another extream of vanity visible where-ever the Sun is seen Dum vitant stulti vitium in contrariae currant Fools whiles they shun the sands rush upon the rocks as Herod would needs prevent perjury by murther The sluggard here seeing those that doe best to be envied of others resolves to doe just nothing Again the covetous Miser seeing the sluggard lye under so much infamy for doing nothing se laboribus conficit undoes himself with over-doing Sed nemo ita perplexus tenetur inter duo vitia quinexitus pateat absque tertio saith an Ancient But no man is so held hampered betwixt two vices but that hee may well get off without falling into a third What need Eutyches fall into the other extream of Nestorius or Stancarus of Osiander or Illyricus of Strigelius but that they were for their pride justly given up to a spirit of giddinesse Vers 8. There is one alone and there is not a second A matchlesse Miser a fellow that hardly hath a fellow a solivagant or solitary vagrant that dare not marry for fear of a numerous off-spring Child he hath none to succeed him nor brother to share with him and yet there is no end of all his labour he takes uncessant pains and works like an horse neither is his eye satisfied with riches that lust of the eye as St. John calls covetousnesse is as a bottomlesse gulf 1 Joh. 2.15 as an unquenchable fire as Leviathan that wanteth room in the main Ocean or as Behemoth Job 40.23 that trusteth that hee can draw up Jordan into his mouth Neither saith he for whom doe I labour and bereave Si haec duo tecum verba reputasses Orat. pro Quintio Quid ago respirasset cupiditas avaritia panlulum saith Cicero to Nevius If thou wouldst but take up those two words and say to thy self What doe I thy lust and covetousnesse would bee somewhat rebated thereby But lust is inconsiderate and headlong neither is any thing more irrational than irreligion The rich glutton bethought himself of his store and resolved to take part of it Luk. 12.17 1 Cor. 9 So did Nabal but this wretch here hath not a second he plants a Vineyard and eats not of the fruit c. And bereave my soul of good i. e. deprive my self of necessary conveniencies and comforts and defraud my Genius of that which God hath given me richly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. Or bereave my soul of good of God of grace of heaven never thinking of eternity 1 Tim. 6.18 of laying up for my self a good foundation that I may lay hold upon eternal life but by low ends even in religious duties making earth my throne and heaven my footstool This is vanity in the abstract this is a sore travel because Nulla emolumenta laborum no good to be gotten by it no pay for a mans pains But as the Bird that sitteth on the Serpents eggs by breaking and hatching them brings forth a perillous brood to her own destruction so doe those that sit abrood on the worlds vanities Vers 9. Two are better than one Friendly society is farre beyond that wretched alonenesse of the covetous Caitiff vers 8. Hee joyns house to house and land to land that he may live alone in the earth Esay 5.8 Horat. Quin fine rivali seque sua solus amato Let him enjoy his moping solitarinesse if he can It is not good for man to bee alone Gen. 2. Aristot Polis 1. saith God And he that loves to be alone is either a beast or a god saith the Philosopher Man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature he is Natures good-fellow and holds this for a Rule Optimum solatium sodalitium There is great comfort in good company next to communion with God is the communion of Saints Christ sent out his Apostles by two and two Mar. 6.7 He himself came from Heaven to converse with us and shall we like Stoicks sty up our selves and not daily run into good company The evil spirit is for solitarinesse God is for society He dwels in the Assembly of his Saints yea Dupla compaginata pleraque fecit Deus ut coelum terram solem lunam marem foeminam Orig. in Gen. 1 Vid Eâ—â—sm in Adagio 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there he hath a delight to dwell calling the Church his Chepht sibah Esay 62.4 and the Saints were Davids Chaphtfibam his delight Psal 16.2 Neither doth God nor good men take pleasure in a stern froward austerity or wild retirednesse but in a mild affablenesse and amiable conversation Vers 10. For if they fall the one will lift up his fellow Provided that they hold together and be both of a mind That which is stronger shoreth up that which is weaker While Latimer and Ridley lived they kept up Cranmer by intercourse of Letters and otherwise from entertaining counsels of revolt Bishop Ridley being Prisoner in the Tower had the liberty of the same to prove belike whether he would goe to Mass or no which once he did And Mr. Bradford being there Prisoner and hearing thereof Act. Mon. fol. 1930. wrote an effectual Letter to perswade him from the same which did Mr. Ridley no little good for he repented c. Bishop Farrar also being in the Kings-bench Prisoner was travelled withall by the Papists in the end of Lent to receive the Sacrament at Easter in one kind who after much perswading yeelded to them and promised so to doe But by Gods good providence the Easter-even the day before he should have done it was Bradford brought to the same Prison Ib. 1457. where the Lord making him his instrument Bradford only was the means that the said Bishop revoked his promise and would never after yeeld to bee spotted with that Papistical pitch Ibid. Dr. Taylor for like cause rejoyced that ever he came into prison there to be acquainted with that Angel of God John Bradford so he called him for the good he received from him One man may bee an Angel to another in regard of counsel and comfort nay a God to another as
ward off his blow to moâ— up ones self against his fire Why should vain man contend with his Maker Why should hee beat himself to froth as the surges of the Sea do against the Rock Why should hee like the untamed Heifer unaccustomed to the yoke gall his neck by wrigling make his crosses heavier than God makes them by crosseness and impatience The very Heathen could tell him that Deus crudelius urit Tibul. Eleg. 1. Quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi God will have the better of those that contend with him and his own Reason will tell him that it is not fit that God should cast down the bucklers first and that the deeper a man wades the more hee shall bee wet Vers 12. For who knoweth what is good for man Hee may think this and that to bee good but is mostly mistaken and disappointed Ambrose hath well observed that other creatures are led by the instinct of Nature to that which is good for them The Lion when hee is sick cures himself by devouring an Ape the Bear by devouring Ants the wounded Dear by feeding upon Dittany c. in ignoras O homo remedia tuo but thou O man knowest not what is good for thee Hee hath shewed thee O man what is good saith the Prophet and what doth the Lord require of thee but this instead of raking riches together to do justly and to love mercy and instead of contending with him to humble thy self to walk with thy God Micah 6.8 For who can tell a man what shall bee after him When the Worms shall bee scrambling for his body the Devils haply for his soul and his friends for his goods A false Jesuite published in print Camd Elis Dilexi virum qui cum corpore solveretur magit de Ecclesiarum statu c. some years after Queen Elizabeths death that shee died despairing and that shee wished shee might after her death hang a while in the air to see what striving would bee for her Kingdome I loved the man said Ambrose of Theodosius for this that when hee died hee was more affected with care of the Churches good than of his own CHAP. VII Vers 1. A good name is better than precious ointment YEa than great riches Prov. 22.1 See the Note The initial letter of the Hebrew word for Good here is bigger than ordinary Majusculum to shew the more than ordinary excellency of a good name and fame amongst men If whatsoever David doth doth please the people Rom. 1.2 if Mary Magdalens cost upon Christ bee well spoken of in all the Churches if the Romans Faith bee famous throughout the whole world if Demetrius have a good report of all good men and St. John set his seal to it this must needs bee better than precious ointments the one being but a perfume of the nostrils the other of the heart Sweet ointment olfactum afficit spiritum reficit cerebrum juvat affects the smell refresheth the spirit comforts the brain A good name doth all this and more For First As a fragrant scent it affects the soul amidst the stench of evil courses and companies It is as a fresh gale of sweet air to him that lives as Noah did among such as are no better than walking dunghills and living sepulchres of themselves stinking much more worse than Lazarus did after hee had lain four daies in the grave A good name preserveth the soul as a Pomander and refresheth it more than musk or civil doth the body Secondly It comforts the conscience and exhilatates the heart cheers up the mind amidst all discouragements and fatteth the bones Prov. 15.30 doing a man good like a medicine And whereas sweet ointments may bee corrupted by dead flies a good name proceeding from a good conscience cannot bee so Fly blown it may bee for a season and somewhat obscured but as the Moon wades out of a cloud so shall the Saints innocency break forth as the light and their righteousness as the noon-day Psal 37.6 Buried it may beee in the open sepulchres of evil throats but it shall surely rise again A Resurrection there shall bee of names as well as of bodies at the last day at utmost But usually a good name comforts a Christian at his death and continues after it For though the name of the wicked shall rot his lamp shall bee put out in obscurity and leave a vile snuff behinde it yet the righteous shall bee had in everlasting remembrance they shall leave their names for a blessing Isa 65.15 And the day of death than the day of ones birth The Greeks call a mans birth-day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the beginning of his Nativity they call the begetting of his misery Man that is born of a woman is born to trouble saith Job chap. 14.1 The word there rendred Born signifieth also generated or conceived to note that man is miserable even so soon as hee is warm in the womb as David hath it Psal 51.5 If hee lives to see the light hee comes crying into the world Ad Marc. cap. 11. a flet is vitam anspicatur saith Seneca Insomuch as the Lawyers defined 〈◊〉 by crying and a still-born childe is all one as dead in Law Onely Zoâ—â—staâ— is said to have been born laughing but that laughter was both monstrous and ominous Justin lib. 1. For hee first found out the black Art which yet profited him not so far as to the vain felicity of this present life For being King of the Bactrians hee was overcome and slain in battel by Ninus King of the Assyrians St. Austin who relates this story saith of mans first entrance into the world Nondum loquitur tamen prophetat Ere ever a childe speaks hee prophesies by his tears of his ensuing sorrows Nec prius natus quam damnat no No sooner is hee born but hee is condemned to the Mines or Gallies as it were of sin and suffering Hence Solomon here prefers his Coffin before his Cradle And there was some truth in that saying of the Heathen Optimum est non nasci proximum quam celorrime mori For wicked men it had been best not to have been born or being born to dye quickly sith by living long they heap up first sin and then wrath against the day of wrath As for good men there is no doubt but the day of death is best to them because it is the day-break of Eternal Righteousness and after a short brightness as that Martyr said gives them Malorum ademptionem bonorum ademptionem freedome from all evil fruition of all good Hence the antient Fathers called those daies wherein the Martyrs suffered their birth-daies because then they began to live indeed sith here to live is but to lye a dying Eternal life is the onely true life saith Austin Vers 2. It is better to go to the house of mourning To the terming-house as they term it where a dead corps is laid forth for
onely that delivereth from death The wicked may make a covenant with death but God will disanul it Shall they escape by iniquity saith the Psalmist What have they no better medium's No in thine anger cast down the people O God Isa 28.15 Psal 50.7 Every man should dye the same day that hee is born the wages of death should bee paid him presently but Christ beggs their lives for a season Hee is the Saviour of all men 1 Tim. 4.10 not of eternal preservation but of temporal reservation that his Elect might lay hold on eternal life and reprobates may have this for a bodkin at their hearts one day I was in a fair possibility of being delivered Vers 9. One man ruleth over another to his own hurt Not only to the hurt of his subjects but to his own utter ruine though after a long run haply vers 12 13. Ad generum Cereris c. What untimely ends came the Kings of Israel to and the Roman Caesars all almost till Constantine Vespasianus unus accepto imperio melior factus est Vespasian was the only one amongst them that became better by the Office Whiles they were private persons there seemed to be some goodnesse in them But no sooner advanced to the Empire than they ran riot in wickednesse listening to flatterers and hating reproofs they ran head-long to Hell and drew a great number with them by the instigation of the Devil that old Man-slayer whose work it was to act and agitate them for a common mischief Vers 10. And so I saw the wicked buried With Pomp and great solemnity funeral Orations Statues and Epitaphs c. as if he had been another Josiah or Theodosius so doe men over-whelm this mouse with praises proper to the Elephant as the Proverb hath it Who had come and gone from the place of the Holy That is from the place of Magistracy Seat of Judicature where the Holy God himself sits as chief President and Lord Paramount Deut. 1.17 2 Chron. 19.6 Psal 82.1 And they were forgotten in the City where they had so done A great benefit to a wicked man to have his memory dye with him which if it be preserved stinks in keeping Pemble and remains as a curse and perpetual disgrace as one very well senseth it Vers 11. Because sentence against an evil work c. Ennarrata sententia a published and declared sentence So that it is only a reprieve of mercy that a wicked man hath his preservation is but a reservation to further evil abused mercy turning into fury Hieron in Ierem Aeripedes dictae sunt Furia Aries quo altius erigitur hoc figit fortius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De utroque Dionysio Val. l. 1. cap. 2. Bucholc Morae dispendium fauoris duplo pensatur saith Hierom Gods forbearance is no quittance he will finde a time to pay wicked men for the new and the old The Lord is not slow as some men count slownesse 2 Pet. 3.9 Or if he be slow yet he is sure Hee hath leaden heels but iron hands the farther he fetcheth his blow or draweth his arrow the deeper hee will wound when hee hitteth Gods Mill may grind soft and slow but it grindes sure and small said one Heathen Tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensat he recompenseth the delay of punishment with an eternity of extreamity saith another He hath vials of vengeance Rev. 16.1 which are large vessels but narrow mouthed they pour out slowly but drench deeply and distill effectually Caveto igitur saith one ne malum dilatum fiat suplicatum Get quickly out of Gods debt lest yee be forced to pay the charges of a sute to your pain to your cost Patientia Dei quo diuturnior eo minacior God will not alwayes serve men for a sinning-stock Poena venit gravior quo mage sera venit Adonijah's feast ended in horrour Ever after the meal is ended comes the reckoning Therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set Heb. is full So full of wickednesse that there is no room for the fear of Gods wrath till wrath come upon them to the utmost Intus existens prohibet alienum God offers and affords them heart-knocking time Rev. 3.20 but they ram up their hearts dry their tears as Saul and are scalded in their own grease stewed in their own broath The sleeping of vengeance causeth the over-flowing of sin and the over-flow of sin causeth the awakning of vengeance Vers 12. Though a sinner doth evil an hundred times Commit the same sin an hundred times over which is no small aggravation of his sin as numbers added to numbers are first ten times more then an hundred then a thousand c. And truly a Sinner left to himself would sin in infinitum which may be one reason of the infinite torments of Hell hee can set no bounds to himself till he become a brat of fathomless perdition The Devil commits that sin unto death every day and oft in the day His Imps also resemble him herein Hence their sins are mortal saith St. John rather immortal 1 Joh. 5. as saith St. Paul Rom. 2.5 And his dayes bee prolonged By the long sufferance of God which is so great that Jonah was displeased at it chap. 4. Averroes turned Atheist upon it But Micah admires it chap. 7.18 and Moses makes excellent use of it when he prays Exod. 34. O Lord let my Lord I pray thee goe along with us for it is a stiff-necked people As who should say None but a God is able to endure this perverse people my patience and meekness is farre too short and yet Moses by Gods own testimony was the meekest man upon earth That the vilest of men may live a long while is evident but for no good will that God bears them but that heaping up sin they may heap up wrath and by abuse of Divine patience be fitted for the hottest fire in Hell Rom. 9.22 as stubble laid out a drying Nah. 1.10 or as Grapes let hang in the Sun-shine till ripe for the Wine-press of wrath Rev. 15.16 Surely as one day of mans life is to be preferred before the longest life of a Stagge or a Raven so one day spent religiously is farre better than an hundred years spent wickedly Non refert quanta sit vitae diuturnitas sed qualis sit administratio saith Vives The businesse is not how long but how well any man liveth Hierom reads this verse thus Quia peccator facit malum centies elongat ei Deus ex hoc cognosco ego c. Because a sinner doth evil an hundred times and God doth lengthen his dayes unto him from hence I know that it shall bee well with them that fear God c. And he sets this sense upon it Inasmuch as God so long spares wretched sinners waiting their return he will surely bee good to pious persons Symmachus Aquila and Theodotion read it thus Peccans enim malus mortuus est long
salvation when a Cardinal I feared my self but now that I am Pope I am almost out of hope And if the tree fall toward the South i. e. Which way soever it groweth it fructifieth so should rich men bee rich in good works 1 Tim. 6.18 and being fat Olive-trees Psal 52. â— they should bee as David green Olive-trees full of good fruits Or thus trees must down and men must die and as trees fall South-ward or North-ward so shall men bee set either at the right hand of the Judge or at the left according as they have carried themselves towards Christs poor members Matth. 25. Up therefore and bee doing whiles life lasteth and so lay hold upon eternal life Mors atra impendet agenti Where the boughs of holy desires and good deeds are most and greatest on that side no doubt the tree will fall but being fallen it can bear no fruit for ever Vers 4. Hee that observeth the wind shall not sow In sowing of mercy hee that sticks in such objections and doubts as carnal men use to frame out of their covetous and distrustful hearts neglects his seeds-time by looking at winds and clouds which is the guize of a lewd and lazy seeds-man A word in season saith Solomon so a charitable deed in season how good is it Hee that defers to do good in hope of better times or fitter objects or fewer obstacles or greater abilities c. it will bee long enough ere hee will do any thing to purpose When God sets us up an Altar wee must offer a sacrifice when hee affords us an opportunity wee must lay hold on it and not stand scrupling and casting perils lest wee lose the sowing of much seed and reaping of much fruit lest wee come with our talent tied up in a napkin and hear Thou idle and therefore evil servant Vers 5. As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit Or Of the wind as some render it grounding upon the former verse q. d. why should any so observe the wind the nature whereof hee so little understands John 3.8 and the inconstancy whereof is grown to and known by a common proverb But by spirit I rather think is meant the soul as by bones the body Who can tell when and how the body is formed the soul infused The body is the souls sheath Dan. 7.15 an abridgement of the visible world as the soul is of the invisible The members of the body were made all by book Psal 139.16 and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth that is in the womb Homo est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eurip. as curious work-men when they have some choice peece in hand they perfect it in private and then bring it forth to light for men to gaze at What an admirable peece of work is mans head-peece Gods Master-peece in this little world the chief seat of the soul that cura divini ingenii as one calls it There is nothing great on earth but man nothing in man but his mind said the Philosopher Favâ—rin Many locks and keyes argue the price of the Jewel that they keep and many papers wrapping the token within them the worth of the token The Tables of the Testament First Laid up in the Ark Secondly The Ark bound about with pure gold Thirdly Overshadowed with Cherubims wings Fourthly Inclosed with the veil of the Tabernacle Fifthly With the compass of the Tabernacle Sixthly With a Court about all Seventhly With a treble covering of Goats Rams and Badgers-skins above all must needs bee precious Tables So when the Almighty made mans head the seat of the reasonable soul and over-laid it with hair skin and flesh like the threefold covering of the Tabernacle and then incompassed it with a skull of bones like boards of Cedar and afterwards with divers skins like silken curtains and lastly Enclosed it with the yellow skin that covers the brain like the purple veil which Solomon calls the golden Ewre Eccles 12.6 hee would doubtless have us to know it was made for some great treasure to bee put therein How and when the reasonable soul is put into this curious Cabinet Philosophers dispute many things but can affirm nothing of a certainty as neither how the bones do grow in the womb how of the same substance the several parts as bones nerves arteries veins gristles flesh and blood are fashioned there and receive daily increase This David looks at as a just wonder Psal 139.14 15. Mirificatus sum mirabilibus operis tuis Montanus saith hee I am fearfully and wonderfully made and Galen a prophane Philosopher could not but hereupon sing an hymn to mans most wise Creator whom yet hee knew not Even so thou knowest not the work of God i. e. The rest of his works of creation and providence which are very various and to us no less unknown than uncertain Do thou that which God commandeth and let things fall out as they will Prov. 3.5 Isa 58.7 there is an over-ruling hand in all for the good of those that love God Trust therefore in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not to thine own understanding Hide not thine eyes from thine own flesh Hee that doth so shall have many a curse The Apostle useth a word for liberality 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 8.2 which properly signifieth simplicity and this hee doth in opposition to that crafty and witty wiliness of the covetous to defend themselves from the danger as they take it of liberality Vers 6. In the morning sow thy seed c. At all times bee ready to every good work as the Bee is abroad so soon as ever the Sun breaks forth Tit. 3.1 Sow mercy in the morning sow it likewise in the evening as those bountiful Macedonians did to the shame of those richer but harder Corinthians sending once and again to Pauls necessities 2 Cor. 8.3 with Phil. 4.16 Oh sow much and oft of this unfailable seed into Gods blessed bosome the fruit whereof you are sure to reap at your greatest need Men may bee thankful or they may not Perraro grati reperiuntur saith Cicero it is ten to one if any cured Leper turn again to give thanks But God is not unrighteous to forget your labour of love in ministring to his Saints Heb. 6.10 Haply you may not sow and reap the same day as the widow of Sarepta did haply the seed may lye under ground some while and not bee quckned except it dye but have patience nothing so sure as a crop of comfort to those that are duely merciful Up therefore and bee doing lose no time slip no season It but a morning and an evening one short day of life wherein wee have to work and to advance your blessedness Sow therefore continually blessed is hee that soweth besides all waters Acts and Mâ—n Blessed Bradford held that hour lost wherein hee had not done some good with his hand tongue or pen.
exercised and encreased at the Lords Table that heavenly Love-feast Ubi cruci haeremus Cyprian sanguinem sugimus inter ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam whereat wee climb the cross as it were suck Christs blood suck hony out of the Rock Deut. 32.13 feed heartily and hungerly upon his flesh as Eagles do upon the slain Matth. 24 38. This Luther calls crapulam sanctum a gracious gourmandise Luther whiles wee lean upon his bosome and feed without fear sending forth our sweet odours our pillars of incense by lifting up many an humble joyful and thankful heart to him living by his Laws and being a savour of life to others But what shall wee think of those that stink above ground poison the very air they breathe upon defile the visible Heavens which must therefore bee purged by the fire of the last day and by their rotten communication and unclean conversation spread their infections and send the Plague to their neighbours as those Ashdodites Gittites and Ekronites did 1 Sam. 5. Vers 13. A bundle of myrrhe is my Well-beloved c. The Bride proceeds to return all the glory to her Bridegroom of all that good that hee had praised her for before by a second similitude here and by a third in the next verse for in this argument shee thinks shee can never say sufficient It is the manner of Maids to wear Nosegaies of sweet flowers in their bosomes and to make no small account of them Myrrhe is marvellous sweet and savoury Psal 45.8 Prov. 7.17 See Plin. lib. 12. cap. 15 16. but nothing so sweet as the Lord Christ is to those that have spiritual senses Whom therefore the Spouse here placeth between her breasts that there-hence the sweet savour may ascend into her Nostrils Again Myrrhe hath a bitter root Mark 15.23 Christ seems bitter at first because of afflictions but if wee suffer with him 2 Tim. 2.12 Matth. 2 wee shall also reign together with him Thirdly Myrrhe was very precious Hence the Wise-men offered it to Christ at his birth Christ is of that esteem with his people elect and precious 1 Pet. 2.6 That as wise Merchants they make a thorow-sale of all to purchase him Matth. 13. Lastly Myrrhe is of a preserving nature and was therefore made use of at funerals see John 19.39 In like sort Christ as hee doth by his Spirits heat exsiccate or dry up the superfluity of our degenerate nature whereby body and soul is preserved to eternal life so after our bodies are turned to dust hee still preserves a substance which hee will raise again at the last day Hence the Saints are said to sleep in Jesus to bee dead in Christ who shall raise our vile bodies and make them like unto his own glorious body in beauty brightness grace favour agility ability Phil. 3.21 and other Angelical excellencies Hee shall lye all night betwixt my breasts This is Christs proper place My son give mee thine heart Christ should dwell in the heart by Faith Ephes 3.17 But too too often hee is shut out and adultery found between the breasts as Hos 2.2 there they carried the signs of their Idolatry as Papists now do their crucifixes to testifie that the Idol had their hearts But what saith Mr. Bradford Martyr in a certain letter As the wife will keep her bed onely for her husband although in other things shee is content to have fellowship with others as to speak sit eat drink go c. So our Consciences which are Christs wives must needs keep the bed that is Gods sweet promises a lonely for our selves and our husband to meet together to embrace and laugh together and to bee joyful together If sin the Law the Devil Act. Mor. 1503. or any thing would creep into the bed and lye there then complain to thy husband Christ and forthwith thou shalt see him play Phineahs part c. And again in another Letter Think on the sweet mercies and goodness of God in Christ Here here is the resting-place here is the Spouses bed creep into it and in your arms of Faith imbrace him Ib. 1â—9 Bewail your weakness your unworthiness your diffidence and you shall see hee will turn to you What said I you shall see Nay I should have said you shall feel hee will turn to you c. Vers 14. My beloved is unto mee as a cluster of Camphire My Beloved and unto Mee This particular application is the very quintessence and pith of Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the property of true Faith to individuate Christ to appropriate him to her self as if hee were wholly and solely hers Shee adjudgeth him in special to her self with My Beloved my Strength and my Redeemer my Lord and my God This when Thomas did Now thou beleevest said our Saviour John 20.29 Were it not for this word of Possession Mine the Devil might say the Creed to as good purpose as any of us Hee beleeves there is a God and a Christ but that which torments him is hee can say My to never an article of Faith Wicked men likewise may Credere Deum Deo sed non in Deum they may hear with joy and have a taste yea and apply the promises but they do it presumptuously and sacrilegiously because they accept not of Christ upon Christs tearms take not whole Christ in all his Offices and Efficacies would have him as a Saviour but not as a Soveraign they make not a total resignation of themselves to Christ as Paul did Gaâ— 2.19 20. As a cluster of Camphire Or As the Cypress-berry within his white flower sweet Plin. lib. 12. cap. 14. pleasant and very fragrant They thaâ— talk here of the Island Cyprus are as far from the sense as that Island is from Engedi which was a place in the Land of Canaan in the tribe of Judah near unto the Dead Sea Hither fled David one time when Saul pursued him And here Jehosaphat had that notable victory over his enemies by the power of prayer 2 Chron. 20. This was a fruitful soil for Gardens and Vineyards Ezek. 47.10 Now the Cypress-tree as also other Aromatical-trees grow best in Vineyards And the Church forgetting her self as it were and transported with love to Christ heaps up thus one similitude upon another Amor Christi est ecstaticus neque juris se sinit esse sui R. Solomon Jarchi doth out of their Agada note Rev. 22.2 that this Cophir in the text is a tree that bringeth fruit four or five times yearly Christ is that tree of life that yeelds fruit every month being more fruitful than the Lemmon-tree Sol. cap. 45. or the Egyptian Fig-tree that bears seven times a year as Solinus reporteth Our English Bibles call it Camphire which being smelled unto doth naturally keep under or weaken carnal lust saith one Now if that should bee here intended how fitly is it here
Churches hair here may bee meant the community of true Christians that being as the hair innumerable do adhere to Christ as to their head and have a promise that not one hair of that sacred head shall fall to the ground and that if any son of Belial shall offer to shear or shave them 2 Sam. 10. hee shall answer it as dearly as the Ammonites did the like abuse done to Davids Embassadours Vers 2. Thy teeth are like a flock of sheep c. Handsome teeth set forth a woman very well and they are then held handsome when they are 1. Even and well matcht 2. Fair and white 3. Thick and full All this wee have here daintily set forth in an allegory And by teeth the Chaldee Paraphrast will have meant and I dissent not the Priests and Levites of the Law the Pastours and Preachers think I of the Church who as they must bee eyes to see so they must bee teeth in another regard viz. 1. To chew 2. To bite First they must champ and chew the childrens meat for them as good Nurses such as Paul was 1 Thes 2.7 and before him Isaiah chap. 28.9 Whom shall hee teach knowledge and whom shall hee make to understand Not the wise and prudent not conceited persons that make Divinity onely a matter of discourse or come to hear onely to exercise their Criticks and to sit as Judges on their Ministers gifts But such as are weaned from the Milk and drawn from the Breasts And how will hee do to deal with such and to divide the word aright to them Hee will praemansum cibum in os indere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2.25 mollifie their harder meat for them that it hurt not the tender toothless gumms of these weanlings weaklings Precept saith hee shall bee upon Precept Precept upon Precept line upon line line upon line here a little and there a little They shall have it as they can take it neither will hee put that upon them that is not fit for them They shall have Milk and not strong meat or if they have it shall bee ready chewed for them Our Saviour spake as the people could hear and not as hee could have spoken Mark 4.33 If wee have spoken to you saith hee of earthly things that is of spiritual matters under earthly similitudes borrowed from wind water c. and yee beleeve not how shall yee beleeve John 3.12 if I tell you of heavenly things that is of more sublime matters and mysteries of eternal life Ministers must stoop to their hearers capacities and not bee up in their Altitudes or deliver their discourses in an high language in a Roman English c. For what is that but to beat the air to lose their labour and to bee as Barbarians to their hearers c Non oratorum filii sumus sed piscatorum nec verborum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed Spiritus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said that great Divine to Libanius the Rhetorician Wee are not Oratours but Preachers neither come wee with excellency of words but with evidence of the Spirit and of power and by manifestation of the Truth commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God 1 Cor. 2.4 2 Cor. 4.2 This is preaching the Art whereof plus operis habet quam ostentationis as Quintillian saith of the Art of Grammar is not a matter of shew but of service And to the ears of that which St. Peter calls the hidden-man of the heart the plain song alwaies makes the best musick But secondly As Ministers must masticate the childrens meat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cuttingly and make it fit for their eating so they are bound to bite that is to rebuke sharply those that are unsound in their Faith or enormous in their practice Tit. 1.13 to gore their very souls with smarting pain and to sting their consciences to the quick with the forked arrows of biting reproofs and unquestionable convictions Thine arrows art sharp in the hearts of the Kings enemies whereby the people fall under thee Psal 45.5 Ministers must not onely whet their teeth against the wicked as Boars do their tusks when provoked but set their teeth in the sides of those Boars that root up the Vineyard and those Foxes that destroy the Grapes Thus the antient Prophets prickt and peirced the hearts of their hearers so did the holy Apostles St. Peter for instance Act. 2. hee so handled the matter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they were punctually prickt at heart Act. 2.37 they felt the nails wherewith they had crucified Christ sticking fast in their own spirits and driven home to the head by that Master of the Assembly Eccles 12.11 Penitency and pain are words of one derivation and are very near of kin Hardly will men bee made to repent till toucht to the quick till the Preacher do mordaci radere vero Horat. deal plainly and roundly with them stab them to the heart with the menaces of the Law and lay them for dead at Christs feet that hee may revive them as the Pellican doth her young ones with her blood Oâ—iand hist Eccles Cent. 5. l. 1. c. 6. It is said of Chrysostome that hee took the same liberty to cry down sin that men did to commit it Of Mr. Bradford that as hee did earnestly perswade to a godly life and sweetly preach Christ crucified so hee did sharply reprove sin and zealously impugn errours Of Mr. Perkins that â—ee came so close in his Applications that hee was able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down and their hairs to stand upright This was preaching indeed preaching in the life of it I know well that most men are sick of a Noli me tangere and are apt to hate him that reproveth in the gate As loth they are to bee searched as Rachel when shee sate upon the Idols to have their lusts mortified as David was to have Absalom executed Handle him gently for my sake c. Cannot Preachers meddle onely with toothless truths say they as Balak bade Balaam neither curse nor bless at all But why hath Christ given his Ministers teeth but to bite and bee bitter against sin and wickedness personal invectives indeed proceeding from private grudge hee allows not Spiritus Christi nec mendax noc mordax The Rule here is Parcere nominibus dicere de vitiis Of Erasmus it is said that hee was Mente dente potens sharp with discretion Every Minister should bee so and his Doctrine should distill as hony as the property whereof is to purge wounds but to bite Ulcers it causeth pain to exulcerate parts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alex. Aphrod Probl. though of it self sweet and medicinable That are even shorn The commendations of a set of teeth whereof before 1. Even they must bee and well matcht so should Ministers bee like-minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind Phil. 2.2
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
maintain good works or honest professions for necessary uses these things are good and profitable to men Tit. 3.8 14. Some think that the Holy Ghost here alludeth to the order of old and still in use of strawing the wedding-house doors with sweet-smelling flowers Others to the customes of those that have Orchards to lay up their fruits over the gate-house New and old As a good storer that hath plenty and variety wherewith to please all palates new for delights and old for wholesomeness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 13.52 Extrudit copiosâ— alacriter The good Scribe well instructed to the Kingdome of heaven throweth out of his treasury things new and old new for the nice and old for the stronger stomach Some delight in the sweetness of things as in new wine David tells them the Word is sweeter than live-hony dropping from the hony-comb Others say the old is better are all for profit as elder people he tells them there 't is better than gold Psal 19. In the Churches store-house men shall bee sure to meet with all that heart can wish or need require Which I have laid up for thee Oh my Beloved Propter te Domine propter te 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dixit ille Graculus Augusto is the Churches Motto As all his springs are in her and all his offices and efficacies for her so all that shee has and is is onely for him and a great deal more shee could beteem him Let Ephraim that empty vine bear fruit to himself Hos 10.1 and those hypocrites Zech. 7.5 fast to themselves Christs hidden ones hide all for him set up and seek him in all they do or suffer are wholly devoted to his sole service CHAP. VIII Vers 1. O that thou wert as my Brother HEb Who will give thee for a Brother to mee q. d. Men may give mee many other things but God alone can give mee thy brother-hood love and communion which I wish above all saith the Bride here Ephes 1.3 Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ are chiefly to bee desired and indeavoured after Quaerito primum bona animi saith Philosophy Seek first the good things of the minde Quarito primum regnum Dei saith Divinity Seek yee first the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and then other things shall seek you shall bee cast into the bargain as it were Let the Many say Who will sheir any good David prefers one cast of Gods countenance before all the worlds wealth Aug. de pec mort l. 1. c. 11. Psal 4.7 Oh that Ishmael might live in thy sight said Abraham Oh that hee might bee written among the living in Jerusalem bee an heir of life truly so called for Aeterna vita vera vita The Lord make his face to shine upon you said the Priests to the people Numb 6. Grace bee to you and peace saith Paul what ever else be wanting Covet earnestly the best things saith hee 1 Cor. 12.13 With all thy getting get understanding saith Solomon Prov. 4.7 Hee desired wisdome above wealth and dispatcht the Temple in seven years space when as hee was thirteen years ere hee finished his own house as holding it a work of less haste and care Elisha begs a double portion the Spouse chap. 2. of this Book calls for whole flagons nothing less would content her The Prophet Isaiah chides men for laying out their mony on that which is not bread Isa 55.1 2. or but panis lapidosus bread made of gravell And our Saviour bids labour not for the meat that perisheth but for the meat that endureth to eternal life John 6.27 Mors privare potest opibus non operibus these dye not with us as Hortensiu his orations did with him but follow us to heaven when wee dye and shall be found to praise honour and glory at that day 1 Pet. 1.7 Hence the Church so earnestly desireth here to have more close conjunction and consociation with Christ as a brother yea as a most natural and kinde-hearted brother that had sucked the breasts of her mother that had been her collactaneus and so more inwardly affected toward her as Joseph was toward his brother Benjamin Gen. 43.29 30 34. In sum shee wisheth that shee may feel Christ dwelling in her heart that hee would remove all impediments of their happy conjunction and hasten the accomplishment thereof in heaven When I should finde thee without or at the door I would kiss thee As the Bride was wont to do the Bride-groom receiving and welcoming him with all comely familiarity and sweetness Kiss the son and covet his kisses Psal 2.12 Cant. 1.2 Bee not ashamed or afraid to perform all duties of an holy love and sound obedience toward him Hee was not ashamed of 〈◊〉 when wee had never a rag to our backs Ezek. 16. Hee stretcht the ski◠〈◊〉 love over us and said unto us Live when hee might well enough have loathed to look on us ib. vers 6. Yet I should not bee despised Heb. they should not despise mee Or if they did yet they should not dishearten mee from duty 2 Sam. 6.22 If this bee to be vile I will be yet more vile said David to his mocking Mâ—chal Wee may not suffer our selves to bee mocked out of our Religion Barren Michal hath too many sons that scorn the holy habit and exercises but they shall bee plagued as their mother was with continual fruitlesness they shall also one day viz. when they are in hell behold those with envy whom now they behold with scorn as the scoffers of the old world from the tops of the mountains that could not save them behold Noahs Ark floating upon the waters It is as impossible to avoid as necessary to contemn the lash of lewd tongues whether by bitter scoffes or scurrilous invectives as full of scorn commonly as the wit of malice can make them The Church here resolveth so to deport her self as that none shall have cause to contemn her or if they do bravely to slight all contumelies and contempts for her conscience taking them as crowns and confirmations of her conformity to Christ Vers 2. I would lead thee and bring thee With solemnity and joy Shee speaks it twice as fully resolved to do it and hereby to binde her self more straightly to a performnce I would not onely kiss thee at the door but bring thee into the house Many are strict abroad and in company but too too loose at home and in their own houses follow these stage-players to their crying rooms where they dis-robe themselves and you shall soon see what they are Heed must bee taken say the very Heathen Aedibus in propriis quae prava aut recta gerantur Religion admits not of that distinction between a good man and a good Governour If you will be for the publique bee good in private bear your own fruit work in your own hives reform your own hearts and houses man your own Oars
signifieth to deal perfidiously or treacherously as Isa 21.3 perhaps because it is tegumentum testimonium not more a covering of mans shame then a testimony of his first sin in falling from God So that a man or woman hath no more cause to brag of his fine cloaths or to be proud of them then a Thief of a silk-rope or then one bath of a Plaister laid to his filthy sore Ver. 24. And there shall be in stead of sweet smell stink Ex illuvie sordibus captivitatis carceris Martial and Marcellinus tell us of a natural stench the Jews have such as made the Emperour Aurelius coming amongst some of them and annoyed with their ill savour Ammian li. 2. to cry out O Marcomanni O Quadi O Sarmatae c. O Marcomans Quades and Sarmatians at length I have met with those that are more nasty and loathsome then you are These dainty Dames are threatened with dirty doings in captivity and prison such as should render them odious And in stead of a girdle a rent Or rags or a beating the Vulgar rendereth it a cord And instead of well set hair Heb. work of even or smooth setting or trimming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or hair-trimmers were anciently noted for effeminate Pompey is taxed in History for that he did Vnico digitulo caput scalpere scratch his well-set hair with his little finger only Baldness Pro crispanti crine calvitium pro fascia pectorali cilicium Pride is so hatefull to God that such as are guilty of it seldom escape his visible vengeance And burning instead of beauty Burning that is Sun-burning Ver. 25. Thy men shall fall by the sword for suffering and favouring the womens excesses such as are now adaies naked breasts and shoulders Abhorred filth Our King Henry the 6. at such a sight cryed Fit fie Ladies in sooth you are too blame c. Ver. 26. And her gates shall lament because unfrequented as Lam. 1.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian And the King desolate swept and wiped of all not as once with her turrified head and stretcht forth neck Sitteth upon the ground as a sad mourner Mony was coined by Vespatian with a woman sitting at the root of a Palm-tree and this inscription Judae capta CHAP. IV. Ver. 1. ANd in that day sc that day of desolation chap. 3.26 Seven women i. e. many women See the like Zach. 8.23 The women had been grievously threatened chap. 3. the men also for their sakes ver 25.26 and yet the Prophet hath not done with them so hainous is sin in either sex Shall take hold of one man who themselves were wont to be sued unto by many men and perhaps were not content with their own Husbands when they had them alive but were sick of a Plurisie We will eat our own bread c. whereas the husband giveth to his wife food rayment and due benevolence these would crave the last only which yet they could not do neither in this sort but by laying aside womanlike modesty Only let us be called by thy name As wives used to be by their husbands names both among the Jews and other Nations as Mary Cleophas Mary Zebedee c. Solomons wife was after his name called Shulamite Cant. 6.13 and the Roman Ladies were wont to say to their husbands Vbi tu Cajus ibi ego Caja To take away our reproach of want of husbands and children See Psalm 78.63 Judg. 11.36 37. Jer. 30.17 Ver. 2. In that day the branch of the Lord Here the Prophet draweth to a close of this excellent Sermon and he concludeth it as he began with a gracious promise of the coming and Kingdom of Christ and of the felicity of his Subjects which consisteth first in their sanctity ver 3.4 Secondly in their security ver 5.6 This is more amply set forth chap. 11. The branch of the Lord The Lord Christ the Consolation and Expectation of Israel called elswhere the Bud or Branch Chap. 11.1 Zech. 3.8 6.12 See the Notes there Luke 1.78 The Day-spring from on high is by Beza rendred the Branch from on high and the Branch of Righteousness Jer. 23.5 33.15 The Jew Doctors also understand it of the Messiah Istud germen quod de virga Jesse virore virgineo pullulavit saith Bernard The Branch of the Lord he is called saith Oecolampadius because being true God he hath God to his Father in Heaven and the Fruit of the earth because being also true man he had the Virgin to his mother in earth Ecce habet incarnationis mysterium Lo here we have saith he the great Mysterie of God manifested in the flesh Others by the Fruit of the earth here do understand the body of the Church which is as the Plant that groweth out of that Branch Shall be beautiful and glorious excellent and comly Heb. Beauty and glory excellency and comliness or gayness and goodliness all in the abstract and yet all too little All this Christ is and more to his Elect Evasores â—rd elis who are here set forth by many Titles as the escaped of Israel the residue in Zion the remnant in Jerusalem the written among the living there c. Saepe autem ad paupertatem aut pancitatem redigitur Ecclesia Howbeit known to the Lord are all his as well as if He had their Names set down in a book Ver. 3. He that is left in Zion See on ver 2. Shall be called holy Heb. holy shall be said to him or of him he shall have the Name and Note of a Saint the comfort and the credit of it Christs holiness shall be both imputed and imparted unto them He shall both expiate their sins and heal their Natures pay their Debts and give them a stock of grace and holiness so that men shall call them an holy people chap. 62.12 Even every one that is written among the Living written in Gods book of Life which is matter of greater joy then to have the Devils subdued unto us Luk. 10.26 for a man may cast out Devils and yet be himself cast to the Devil Mat. 7.22 23. but in Gods book of Life there is no blots no crossings out but as many as are ordain-to eternal Life believe 1 Pet. 1.4 See Ezek. 13. and the same are kept as in a Garison by the power of God through faith unto salvation The Prophet seemeth her to allude to that custom in Jerusalem of enrolling the names of all the Citizens Psalm 48.3 Christ Jesus is the Master of the Rolls in Heaven Rev. 13. wherein none are recorded but such as are designed to glory and vertue 1 Pet. 1.2 2 Thess 2.13 All others are said to be dead in trespasses and sins Ezra 2.63 Eph. 2.1 and to be written in the earth Jer. 17.13 Those Priests that could not produce their genealogy were cashiered by the Tirshata so shall those one day be by Christ whose names are not found written among the
shake his hand over the River The River Nilus The sense is he shall remove all obstacles and impediments This was fulfilled Acts 2. With his mighty wind The Chaldee paraphraseth in eloquio prophetarum suorum by the word of his Prophets quod Apostolis non parum congruit saith Oecolampadius which very well agreeth to the Apostles converting the Elect whom neither heighth nor depth could keep from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Rom. 8.39 The Jews expect but in vain that all these things should be fulfilled unto them in the letter by their Messias as once they were by Moses at the red Sea And make men go over dry-shod without boat or boot Ver. 16. And there shall be an high-way Agger via strata a Causey chap. 7.3 In the day that he came up out of the Land of Aegypt This signal deliverance was a clear Type of our Redemption by Christ And this Prophesie was fulfilled when thousands of the Aegyptians were converted by Mark the Evangelist and other Preachers as also when other Nations forsook Spiritual Aegypt Rev. 11.8 and embraced the Truth CHAP. XII Ver. 1. ANd in that day sc when there shall come forth a Rod out of the stem of Jesse as chap. 11.1 Blessed be God for a Christ See Psalm 96.1 13. Rev. 6.11 Thou shalt say It is not a dumb kind of thankfulness that is required of the Lords Redeemed but such as from an heart full of Spiritual Joy breaketh forth into fit words such as are here set down in this ditty or Directory I will praise thee The whole life of a true Christian is an holy desire saith an Ancient It is or should be surely continua laetitia laus Dei a continual Hallelujah Deo gratias was ever in Austins mouth Laudetur Deus laudetur Deus in Anothers i.e. Praised be God praised be God The Saints here with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 15.6 The Saints and Angels do so in Heaven uncessantly Rev. 4. hoc est juge eorum negotiosum otium otiosum negotium Thine anger is turned away My sins are forgiven me and hence I am of so good chear though otherwise distressed Feri Domine feri à peccatis absolutus sum said Luther Strike while thou wilt Lord so long as my sins are pardoned See Psal 103.1 2 3. And thou comfortedst me viz. with Gospel-comforts which are strong and satisfying I do over-abound exceedingly with joy in all our tribulation saith Paul 2 Cor. 7.4 Ver. 2. Behold God is my salvation Let such take notice of it as said when time was There is no help for him in God Salvation it self cannot save him Behold Oecolamp and My there is much matter in this Adverb and that Pronoun saith an Interpreter Behold God is my Jesus so Hierom readeth it according to that of old Simeon Mine eyes have seen thy Salvation And in this and the next Verse Salvation is thrice mentioned so sweet it was to those that thus sang of it See the Note on 1 Cor. 1.8 I will trust and not be afraid There is an Elegancy in the Hebrew that cannot be Englished This Spiritual security floweth from Faith Experience should both breed and feed it See Psalm 46.3 2 Cor. 1.10 For the Lord is my strength Salvation properly denoteth the privative part of mans happiness viz. freedom from evil but it includeth also position in a good estate and preservation therein whilst we are kept by the power or strength of God through faith unto Salvation Ver. 3. Therefore with joy shall ye draw water Joy is the just mans portion and Christ is the never-failing fountain whence by a lively faith he may infallibly fetch it John 4.10 14. 7.37 Christ was much delighted with this Metaphor see Joh. 1.16 Out of this Fountain only may men quench their Spiritual thirst after Righteousness Haec sola est aqua quae animas arentes maerentes squalidas reficit recreat These Wells of Salvation are those Words of Eternal Life John 6 68. Sanchez the rich and precious promises 2 Pet. 1.4 whereby we are made partakers of the Divine Nature and of the Holy Spirit which is frequently and fitly compared to water in regard of First Ablution Ezek. 36.25 Secondly of Fructification Job 8.11 Isa 35.6 7. 44.3 4. And thirdly of Refrigeration Psalm 42.1 Rom. 5.5 Some think the Prophet here alludeth to those softly-running Waters of Siloam chap. 8. or to the Rock-water that followed them in the Wilderness or to that famous Fountain Numb 21.16 18. whence they drew waters with so much mirth and melody Ver. 4. And in that day shall ye say Praise the Lord Viz. with us and for us Every true Confitebâ—r tibi hath its Confitemini Domino annexed unto it The Saints are unsatisfiable in praising God for the great work of their Redemption and do therefore call in help all that may be Call upon his Name Which is a special way of praising Him whilest we make Him the sole Object of our prayers professing our distance from him our whole dependence upon him c. See 1 Chron. 16.8 and Psalm 105.1 Declare his doings Sept. his glorious things those many Miracles of Mercy wrought in our Redemption which is a work much more excellent then that of making all things at first of nothing keeping Heaven still upon its hinges and upholding the whole Universe without a Foundation Magna sunt opera Dei Creatoris Recreatoris autem longe maxima saith Gregory Make mention that his Name is exalted Or celebrate his Name which is High far above all praise Ver. 5. Sing unto the Lord Or sing of the Lord. Sing a concise and short Song amputatis omnibus supervacantis He hath done excellent things Heb. Excellency or Majesty All other Spiritual Blessings meet in our Redemption by Christ as the lines do in the Center streams in the Fountain This is known in all the earth Or let this be known let all the world ring of it As when the Argives were delivered by the Romans from the Tyrannie of the Macedonians and Spartans the ayr was so dissipated with their acclamations and out-cries Plutarch that the Birds that flew over the place fell down amated to the ground Ver. 6. Cry out Heb. hinni neigh as Horses do that are full fed or fitted for fight Jubila quantum potes valide totis viribus clama claram laetam vocem ede For great is the Holy One of Israel in the midst of thee Or for the Holy One of Israel who is great is in the midst of thee How shouldest thou then do otherwise then well CHAP. XIII Ver. 1. THe burden That is the burdenous Prophesie it should not have seemed a burden See the Notes on Nah. 1.1 and on Mal. 1.1 Jer. 23.36 but it is a grievous burden to graceless persons to be told of their sins and foretold
sacred solemnities And everlasting joy upon their heads As an unfadable crown 1 Pet. 1.5 and 5. 4. they shall passe from the jawes of death to the joyes of heaven Joy and gladnesse i. e. Outward and inward say some And sorrow and sighing Their joyes shall be sincere and constant CHAP. XXXVI and CHAP. XXXVII FOr these two Chapters see 2 King 18 and 19. with the Notes See also 2 Chron. 32. CHAP. XXXVIII Ver. 1. IN those dayes was Hezekiah sick See 2 King 20.1 2. 2 Chron. 32.24 with the Notes Ver. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8. See as before Ver. 9. The writing of Hezekiah Scriptum confessionis A song of thanksgiving set forth by Hezekiah and here inserted by the Prophet Isaiah as a publick instrument and lasting monument of Gods great goodnesse to him in his late recovery such a thankful man is worth his weight in the gold of Ophir Heathens in such a case were wont to hang up tables in the Temples of their gods Papists build Chappels erect Altars hang up Memories as they call them and vow presents to their hee-Saints and she Saints But amongst us alas it is according to the Italian Proverb When the disease is once removed God is utterly defrauded Sciapato il morbo fraudato il sancto Aegrotus surgit sed pia vota jacent We may be wondred at not without cause as the Emperour Constantine marvelled at his people that were newly become Christians I marvel said he how it comes to passe that many of my people are worse now than before they were Christians Ver. 10. I said in the cutting off of my dayes When I looked upon my self as a dead man Here he telleth us what passed betwixt God and him whilest he lay desperately sick The utmost of a danger escaped is to be recognized and recorded This will both instruct the judgement enlarge the heart and open the mouth I shall go to the gates of the grave He maketh the grave to have gates either by a poetical fiction or else by a proverbial expression So the gates of death Psal 9. 13. 107.18 See 1 Sam. 2.6 I am deprived of the residue of my years sc that I might have lived in a natural course Vox baec queritantis quidem est Quis enim vult mori prorsus nemo Nature shunneth death as its slaughter-man Ver. 11. I said I shall not see the Lord In the glass of his Ordinances his love whereunto made Hezekiah so loth to depart as also his delight in the Communion of Saints and his desire to do more good amongst them on all occasions This made good Paul in a strait also Philip. 1.23 24. I loved the man said Theodesius concerning Ambrose for that when he died he was more sollicitous of the Churches welfare then of his own Even the Lord Non videbo Jah Jah I shall not see the Lord of the Lord Leo Castrius Deum Dei vel Deum de Deo That is Christ in the flesh as I had well hoped to have done so some sense it Others say He redoubleth the word Jah to express his ardent affection to Gods service and to intimate his desire of life to that purpose Ver. 22. Ver. 12. Mine age is departed Or my generation or my habitation here I have no settled abode no continuing City but am flitting as a shepherds shed I have cut off like a weaver my life By my sins I have shortned my daies as Gen. 38.7.10 Or rather God as a weaver that hath finished his web cutteth me out of the Loom of life We know what the Poets fain of the Fates Clotho colum bajulat Lachesis trabit Atropos occat He will cut me off with pining sicknesse Or from the thrum for the same Hebrew word signifieth both because of the thinnes and weakness of it From day even to night So that by night I shall be dead as they story of the Ephemerobii and as Aristotle writeth that the River Hypanis in Thracia every day bringeth forth little bladders out of which come certain flies which are thus bred in the morning fledgd at noone and dead at night Ver. 13. I reckoned until morning And then at utmost I thought there would be an end of my life and pain together for what through troubles without and terrours within he was in a woe case even as if a Lion had broke all his bones Hoc sentiunt qui magnis febribus aestuant saith an Interpreter Now whereas some say All dye of a feaver let us take care we dye not of a cold shaking fit of fear Ver. 14. Like a Crane or a Swallow so did I chatter Ita pipiebam perapta sunt similitudines Broken petitions coming from a broken heart are of singular avayl with God Psal 51.17 Ah Pater brevissima quidem vox est sed omnia complectitur saith Luther i. e. Ah Father it a short prayer but very complexive and effectual So is the prayer here recorded O Lord I am oppressed undertake for me Miserere mihi misero Tu tuam fidem interpone Hezekiah though a most holy man begged pardon at his death and flyeth to Christ his surety So did Augustine he prayed over the seven penitential Psalms and Fulgentius and Arch-Bishop Vsher Some render it Pertexe me weave me out lengthen my life to its due period Ver. 15. What shall I say This he seemeth to speak in a way of wondering at Gods goodness in delivering him from so great a death The like doth the Apostle Rom. 8.31 What shall we then say to these things He hath both spoken unto me Dixit fecit and himself hath done it He no sooner bade me be well but he made me so Thus he attributeth his recovery to the most faithful promise of God and not to the lump of figs c. I shall shall go softly all my years in the bitterness of my soul Or I shall go quietly and chearfully all my years after my souls bitterness sc when it is past and gone Scultet Ver. 16. O Lord by these things men live By thy promises so performed the just do live by Faith and live long in a little while For life consisteth in action and some live more in a day then others do in a year An Elephant liveth two hundred years saith Aristotle three hundred and fifty saith Philostratus and yet man though of much shorter a continuance is not inferiour to an Elephant For this is not the best thing in nature saith Scaliger to live longest but to live to best purpose Now mans life is a way to life eternal Other creatures have that they live for Not so Man whilst here And in all these things is the life of my Spirit The godly esteem of life by that stirring they find in their souls Else they lament as over a dead soul So wilt thou recover me Or hast thou recovered me Ver. 17. Behold for peace I had great bitternesse Mar Mar the approach
it cannot trace him and by an assurance of adherence at least get to Heaven through mourning as Christ was taken up in a cloud or as the kine that carried the Ark went right but they lowed as they went And stay upon this God As the vine doth upon some support Faith hath a catching quality at whatoever is near to lay hold on like the branches of the Vine it windeth about that which is next and stayes it self upon it spreading further and further still Fides est quae te pullastrum Christum gallinam facit saith Luther Ver. 11. Behold all ye that kindle a fire That instead of relying upon God would relieve your selves by carnal shifts and fetches a fire of your own kindling or rather sparkes of your own tinder-boxes strange fire and not that of Gods Sanctuary Or say they be your own good works you trust to like as the Phoenix gathereth sweet odoriferous sticks in Arabia together and then blows them with her wings and burns her self with them That compass your selves about with sparks Away with those tinder-boxes of yours what are your sparkles but such as are smitten out of a flint which 1. Yields no warmth or good light 2. Are soon extinct 3. Neverthelesse you are sure to lie down in sorrow to be cast into utter darknesse where you shall never see the light again till you see the whole world all on a light fire at the last day Walk in the light of your fire Do so if ye thing it good but your light shall be put out into darknesse and worse like as lightning is followed by rending and roaring Thunder This shall ye have of my hand This I will assure of and having spoken it with my mouth I will fulfil it with my hand Ye shall lie down in sorrow As sick folk who being in grievous pain and teen would fain dye but cannot Cubatum ibitis adignes ad dolores cruciatus You shall make your beds in the bottom of Hell as it is said of the King of Babylon chap. 14.11 and as of Pope Clement the fifth it was reported that upon the death of a Nephew of his whom he had sensually abused Jacob. Revius hist Pont. p. 199. he sent to a certain Magician to know how it went with his soul in the other world The Magician shewed him to the messenger as lying in Hell in a bed of fire Whereupon the Pope was so struck with horrour that he never held up his head more but soon after dyed also CHAP. LI. Ver. 1. HEarken unto me ye that fellow after righteousnesse Heb. ye that pursue or follow hard after it as Paul did Philip. 3. The speech is directed to those Jews that embraced the Gospel perswading them to persist in the faith in nothing terrified by their adversaries sith Almighty God would keep and help them as he had done faithful Abraham and Sarah their Ancestours Banim meabanim to whom also he would of stones raise up sons in the conversion of the Gentiles and could do it as easily as he had hewed the Hebrews that great Nation out of aged Abraham and superannuated Sarah who are here compared to a dry-rock and a deep pit And to the hole of the pit whence ye were digged Est honesta periphrasis actus conjugalis The word here used is of the same root with Nekebah the female kind of all creatures Ver. 2. Look unto Abraham your Father Look and again Look hearken and again hearken These poor Jews before the coming of Christ in the flesh were vino somnoque sepulti drunk with the cup of Gods fury ver 17. and so fast asleep that they needed to be thus roused and raised up to the hope of better times which now were at hand And unto Sarah that bare you By the force of her Faith also Heb. 11.11 her son Isaac was emeritae fidei filius Now these domestical examples are alledged to assure them that God could do the like again in respect of spiritual children Abraham's right seed Gal. 4. For I called him alone Be not ye therefore troubled at your alonenesse And blessed him and increased him Gods benediction is his benefaction the Popes is not so fumos vendit fumo pereas Ver. 3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion As once he did Abraham by multiplying her children giving her in good store of Converts these were the Apostles and the Primitive Christians those earthly Angels who made the world which before was as a waste wildernesse to become a most pleasant and plentiful Paradise Chrysostom somewhere calleth them Angels and saith that they were puriores coel◠afflictione facti more clear then the azured sky Joy and gladnesse shall be found in them See chap. 35.10 Thanksgiving and the voice of melody Paul as the Pracentor sweetly sings and gives the Note to us all Eph. 1 3 4 5. c. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us c. Ver. 4. Harken unto me See on ver 2. For a Law shall proceed from me i. e. The Gospel of grace that perfect Law of liberty the Law of the Spirit of life Rom. 8.2 Diod. And I will make my Judgement to rest I will firmly and irrevocably establish the government of my Word and Spirit in the Church for a secure guide to bring it to eternal life Some render it thus My Judgement i. e. My Gospel shall be for a light of the people whereby I will give rest So that here is a double effect of the Gospel viz Saving light and Peace of Conscience Jam amodò iter ingressa est Hyper. Ver. 5. My righteousnesse i. e. my faithfulnesse or my Son that Sun of righteousnesse is already on the way and will be with you forthwith And mine arm shall judge the people i. e. All that set themselves against the Lord and against his Christ Psal 2.2 these shall feel his power to their perdition even the force of both his arms The Iles shall wait upon me They shall stretch out their souls as a line so the word importeth and direct them toward Christ And on mine arm shall they trust i. e. On my power or on my Gospel-promises Ver. 6. Lift up your eyes to the Heavens Man hath a muscle more then ordinary to draw up his eyes heavenward And look upon the earth beneath How fast and firm it standeth Eccles 1.4 Yet the whole engine shall be changed 2 Pet. 3.10 Shall dye in like manner Or like a louse as some render it But my salvation shall be for ever The Gospel together with the spiritual benefits thereby shall out last Heaven and Earth Ver. 7. Hearken unto me See on ver 2. Ye that know righteousnesse with a knowledge Apprehensive and Affective also The people in whose heart is my Law and not in your heads only Fear ye not the reproach of men Tertullian thinketh that our Saviour alludeth to this of Isaiah in that
for his own proper sins and in a way of vengeance was a gross mistake And afflicted Or humbled He was stricken smitten afflicted But then afterwards he was exalted extolled and made very high ch 52.13 We also who suffer with him shall be glorified together and in a proportion 2. Tim. 2.12 Ver. 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions Not for his own for he knew no sin neither was guile found in his mouth neverthelesse he took upon him whatsoever was penal that belonged to sin that we might go free he was content to be in the wine-press that we might be in the wine-cellar He was bruised for our iniquities 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Anacreon did upon a worse occasion Cernis ut in toto corpore sculptus amor Oh love that love of his as Bernard speaketh let it bruise our hard hearts into peices grind them to powder and make them fall asunder in our bosoms like drops of water Let us propagate our thankfulness into our lives meditating returns answerable in some proportion to our Saviours sufferings Oh that as Christ was crucifixus so he were cordifixus The chastisement of our peace was upon him They which offered burnt-offerings of old were to lay their hand upon the head of the beast thereby signifying the imputation of our sins unto Christ and that we must lay hand on him by Faith if we look for any comfort by his death and passion And with his stripes we are healed By the black and blew of his body after he was buffetted with dry-blows and by the bloody wailes left on his back after he had been scourged which was a punishment fit for dogs and slaves Nero they threatened to scourge to death as judging him rather a beast then a man But what had this innocent Lamb of God done And why should the Physicians blood thus become the sick mans salve We can hardly believe the power of Sword-salve c. Ver. 6. All we like sheep have gone astray Gone of our own accords as longing to wander Jer. 14.10 to wander as sheep lost sheep then the which no creature is more apt to stray and less able to return The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Ass his masters crib the very Swine accustomed to the trough if he goe abroad yet at night will find the way home again Not so the silly sheep Loe ye were all as sheep going astray saith Peter but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls 1 Epist 2.25 We have turned every one to his own way Quo variae errorum formae inuunntur dum suas quisque opiniones sectatur Each one as he is out of Gods way so hath his own by-way of wickednesse to wander in Wherein yet without a Christ he cannot wander so far as to miss of hell And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all i. e. Of all his Elect the iniquity of us all he hath made to meet on him so the Hebrew hath it or to light on him even the full weight of his wrath and dint of his dipleasure for our many and mighty sins imputed unto him Let the Jew jear at this and say that Every fox must pay his own skin to the fleare Let the Romist reject imputed righteousnesse calling it putative by a scoff there is not any thing that more supporteth a sinking soul then this righteousnesse which is through the faith of Christ the righteousnesse which is of God by faith Philip. 3.9 This Manus Christi as nailed to the crosse is the only Physick for a sin-sick soul believe it Ver. 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted Heb. It the punishment of our sin was exacted and he being our surety was afflicted Or It was exacted and he answered i. e. satisfied Yet he opened not his mouth Though he suffered the just for the unjust with the unjust upon unjust causes under unjust Judges and by unjust punishments Silence and sufferance was the language of this Holy Lamb dumb before the shearer insomuch as that Pilat wondered exceedingly The Eunuch also wondered when he read this Text In vita ejus apud Surlum Acts 8.32 and was converted And the like is related of a certain Earle called Eleazar a cholerick man but much altered for the better by study of Christ and of his patience I beseech you by the meeknesse of Christ saith Paul and Peter who was an eye-witnesse of his patience propoundeth him for a worthy partern 1 Epist 2.23 Vide mihi languidum exhaustum cruentatum trementem gementem Jesum tuum evanescet omnis impatientiae effectus Christ upon the Crosse is as a Doctour in his chair where he readeth unto us all a lecture of Patience He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter Or as a sheep that is led to the slaughter which when we see done we should bethink us of Christ and see Him as it were in an Optick glasse The Saints of old did so in their Sacrifices and this was that hidden wisdom David speaks of Psal 51.8 the Ceremonial Law was their Gospel And as a sheep before her shearer is dumb The word Rachel signifieth an Ew Gen. 31.38 32.14 This Ew hath brought forth many Lambs Act. Mon. fol. 811. such as was Lambert and the rest of the Martyrs who to words of scorn and petulancy returned Isaac's Apology to his brother Ishmael Patience and Silence insomuch as that the Persecutours said that they were possessed with a dumb devil This was a kind of blasphemy Ver. 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement Absque dilatione titra judicium raptus est sc ad crucem so Vatablus rendereth it He was hurried away to the Crosse without delay and against right or reason Or as others he was taken from distresse and torment into glory when he had cryed consummatum est It is finished Inauditâ causâ and Father into thy hands I commit my Spirit The Seventy render it somewhat otherwise as may be seen Act. 8.33 the Apostle Peter explaineth it Act. 2.24 And who shall declare his generation Or who can reckon his age or his race Or who can utter or describe his generation i. e. The wickednesse of the men of those times he lived in or the history of his life and death Some understand it of his eternal generation Prov. 8.24 25. Others of his Incarnation that great Mystery of godlinesse Quantus enim Deus quantillus factus est homo Others of his holy seed his Crosse being fruitful Aug. and his death giving life to an innumerable generation Revl 7.9 For he was cut off out of the land of the living Quasi arbor saevis icta bipennibus as a tree that is hewn down 2 King 6.4 For the transgression of my people Our iniquities were the weapons and our selves the traitours that put to death the Lord of Life Judas and the Jews were but our workmen This should draw
obedient ye shall eat the good things of the land chap. 1.21 which that we may be Nolentem praevenit Deus ut velit Aug. volentem subsequitur ne frustra velit God worketh in us both to will and to doe of his own good pleasure Howbeit he expecteth that we shouâ—d go as far as we can naturally if ever we look that He should meet us graciously Though the Miller cannot command a wind yet he will spread his fails be in the way to have it if it come In those is continuance i. e. In those sins of ours and shall we be saved Or in those wayes of thine thy wayes of mercy and fidelity is permanency therefore we shall be saved our sins notwithstanding Ver. 6. But we are all as an unclean thing Both our persons and our actions are so for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean What a mercy is it then that God should look upon such walking dunghils as we are and accept the work of our hands And all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags Or as a coat of patches Panno ancumulenta Scultet a beggers coat vestis centonum vestis è vilibus paniculis consuta Heb. a cloth of separations a matury rag a menstrous clout nauseons and odious such as a man would loath to touch much more to take up Such are our best works as they proceed from us when there springeth up any sweet fountain of grace within us our hearts closely cast in their filthy dirt as the Philistines dealt by Isaac they drop down from their impure hands some filth upon that pure web the Spirit weaveth and make it a menstruous cloth Where then are Justitiaries our Merit-mongers c. Those that seek to be saved by their works Luther fitly calleth the Devils Martyrs they suffer much and take great pains to go to Hell We are all apt to weave a web of righteousness of our own to spin a thred of our own to climb up to Heaven by but that cannot be We must do all righteousnesses rest in none but Christs disclaiming our own best as spotted and imperfect And we all fade as a leaf That falleth to the ground in Autumn The Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hom And our iniquities like the wind have taken us away Out of thy presence and will hurry us to Hell if thou foresend not Ver. 7. And there is none that calleth upon thy Name i. e. Very few for that God had then a praying people this very prayer declareth Apparent rari nantâ—s in gurgite vasto but they were drowned in the multiude being scarce discernable That stirreth up himself to take hold of thee That rouseth up himself and wrastleth with God laying hold on him by faith and prayer resolved to retain him Let us go forth as Sampson did and shake up our selves against that indevotion and spiritual sloth that will creep upon us in doing good See for this Mr. Whitfield's Help to stirring up an excellent Treatise written upon this text For thou hast hid thy face from us Or though thou hast hid thy face Ne tuis quidem ferulis caesi resipuimus Ver. 8. But now O Lord thou art our Father Or Yet now O Lord thou art our Father therefore we shall not dye say they Hab. 1.12 boldly but warrantably See on chap. 63.16 We are the clay and thou art our potter This was grown to a Proverb among the Heathens also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Man is a clod of clay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a piece of clay neatly made up saith Arrian upon Epictetus Fictus ex argilla luto homulus Orat. ad Pison saith Cicero And Nigidius was sirnamed Figulus or the Potter saith Augustine because he used to say that man was nothing else but an earthen vessel See 2 Cor. 4.7 5.1 We are all the work of thy hands Both as made and re-made by Thee therefore despise us not Job 10.8 9 Psal 138.8 Look upon the wounds of thy hands and forsake not the work of thine hands prayed Queen Elisabeth Ver. 9. Be not wroth very sore O Lord Neither over-much nor over-long but spare us as a man spareth his own son that serveth him This is commended for the best line in all Terence Pro peccato magno paululum supplicii satis est Patri Ver. 10. Thy holy Cities are a Wilderness And is that for thine honour Behold see we beseech thee Ver. 11. Our holy and our beautiful house The Church riseth higher and higher in her complaints to God we must do likewise Where our Fathers praised thee Their own praises there they mention not as not holding them worth mentioning Ver. 12. Wilt thou refrain thy self for these things Or Canst thou contain thy self at these things No he cannot witness his answer hereunto chap. 65.1 The obstinate Jews do in vain still recite these words in their Synagogues as Hierom here noteth Wilt thou hold thy peace And by thy silence seem to consent to the enemies outrages and our calamities Habet acrimonianâ— saith Hyperius there is some sharpness in these short questions and yet because they were full of faith and fervency they were highly accepted in Heaven And afflict us very sore Heb. Vsque valde unto very much or unto extremity CHAP. LXV Piscat Ver. 1. I Am sought of them that asked not for me I am sought that is I am found as Eccles 3.6 Or I am sought to by those that asked not of me viz. by the Gentiles who knew me not enquired not of me See Rom. 10.20 21. where the Apostle then whom we cannot have a better Interpreter expoundeth this verse of the calling of the Gentiles and the next verse of the rejection of the Jews and herein Esaias was very bold saith St. Paul so bold say Origen and others that for this cause among others he was sawn asunder by his unworthy Countrey-men See on chap. 1.10 I am found of them that sought me not The first act of our Coversion then the infusion of the sap is of God our will prevents it not but followes it See 2 Cor. 3.5 Rom. 8.7 Joh. 6.44 1 Cor. 12.3 Deut. 29.3 4. Psal 36.10 Note this against the Patrons of Nature Free-will men Papists especially who not only ascribe the beginning of salvation to themselves in coworking with God in their first conversion but also the end and the accomplishment of it by works of condignity meritorious of eternal life I said Behold me behold me We are not easily arroused out of that dead Lethargy into which sin and Satan hath cast us hence this Lo I Lo I. And here we have both Gods answer to the Churches prayer chap. 64. and the scope of the whole book as Oecolampadius observeth set down in the perclose viz. the coming in of the Gentiles and the casting off of the Jews for their many and mighty sins Amos 5.12 Prov. 1.24 Act. 26.1 Ver. 2. I have
to a naked rock will God now reduce her Ver. 5. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets Of fishers nets hung up in the Sun to be dryed The Prophets usually fetch their comparisons from things the people were most acquainted with and accustomed to as here Let Ministers now do the like Ver. 6. And her daughters which are in the field i. e. Other Cities and colonies sent out by her and subject to her as she was olim partu clara urbibus genitis as Pliny saith of her the mother of many fair Cities Leptis Vtica Carthage Some take it literally for people of both sexes Ver. 7. Behold I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar A name as dreadful then as was at any time the name of the great Turk a man as famous for his valour and victories as ever was Hercules saith Megasthenes in in Josephus Antiq. l. 10. c. 13. and such as whom we may well call as Orosius doth Alexander magnum miseriarum gurgitem totius Orientis atrocissimum turbinem the great Trouble-world Ver. 8. He shall slay with the sword See on ver 6. He shall lift up the buckler Or a continued series of bucklers ut omnes Ferre queant jubter densa testudine casus Helepoles injiciet Ver. 9. He shall set engines of war A graphical description of a siege And with his axes Or battering-rams or slings Heb. with his swords Gr. with his launces ferramentis mucronatis helepoleos Vide Am. Marcell lib. 23. Ver. 10. Thy walls shall shake With the noise of one charret walls and windows seem to shake what then with the rattle of so many Me thought I heard the noise and fright that shall be at the last day said one that was at the taking of a Town in the Low-countries The fragour and terrour was so great say A Lapide the Turkish histories speaking of a bloody battel betwixt Amurath the third and Lazarus Despot of Sernia that the Angels in heaven so they are pleased to Hyperbolize Turk Hist amazed with that hideous noise for that time forgat the heavenly hymnes wherewith they alwaies glorifie God When he shall enter into thy gates As our Henry the eighth did into Tournay a City of France which was ever counted so impregnable that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates Jannes ton me a perdu ton pucellage i. e. Thou hast never lost thy maiden-head Ver. 11. And thy strong garrisons Or statues or idols Their chief idols were Apollo Hercules and Astarie See on ver 3. Curt. l. 4. Plut. Probl. Ver. 12. And they shall make a spoil of thy riches Raked together by right and wrong See on ver 2. Malè parta malè dilà buntur Sallust Ver. 13. And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease The Tyrians were much addicted to Musick Isa 23.16 Ezek. 28.13 Pleasure-mongers shall suffer deeply by pain of losse and pain of sense And the sound of thy harp Qua tu O Tyre mercatrix quasi meretrix mercatores ad te pellicis wherewith thou gettest custom Ver. 14. Thou shalt be built no more i. e. Not in haste and not at all by the same inhabitants nor with the like neatnesse and celebrity Some say it was not built in the same place with Palaetyrus or old Tyre yet was it a famous City again near unto which our Saviour wrought miracles Hieron Ulp. diget Tit. de â—ens in which Paul abode seven dayes with the brethren Here Origen dyed Vlpian the great Lawyer was born c. Of this City read Gul. Tyrius de bello sacro lib. 13. cap. 1. Ver. 15. Shall not the Isles See the like Esa 23. Ver. 16. All the Princes of the sea i. e. Of the neighbouring Islands Cloath themselves with trembling Luth. with mourning Ver. 17. And they shall take up a lamentation The like shall be done shortly at Rome Rev. 18.9 That wast inhabited of seafaring men Who are usually the worst of men whence the Proverb Maritimi mores c. On all that haunt it Haunt the sea littorales qui sunt ferè duri horridi immanes latrociniis dediti feri inhospitales tales olim Britanni Isidor Ver. 18. Now shall the Isles tremble And seeing thy shipwrack they shall look better to their tackling Alterius perditio tua sit cautio At thy departure Into captivity Or tuus exitus hoc est tuum exitium Ver. 19. When I shall bring up the deep upon thee As ver 3. great forces And great waters shall cover thee So that thou shalt be irrecoverably lost as places drowned and never seen any more Godwins sands here in Kent for instance These did once belong to Godwin Earle of Kent as his lands but in the reign of William Rufus they were overflowed and remain to this day a dangerous sandy place where perished this present year 1658. Col. Reynolds and others in their return from Mardike Ver. 20. With the people of old time The multitude of those that are dead from the beginning of the world Or with the people of the old world as Hierom will have it and that the Tyrians destruction both temporal and eternal is hereby hinted When I shall set glory in the land of the living i. e. In Judaes where the living and true God is worshipped and where are the right heires of life will I reestablish my Church which is my glory Or when I shall glorifie mine elect in mine heavenly Kingdom Ver. 21. Yet shalt thou never be found again See on ver 14. CHAP. XXVII Ver. 1. THe Word of the Lord See on chap. 18.1 Ver. 2. Take up a lamentation for Tyrus Fitly here compared to a goodly ship Apud Horat. Resp navis nomine sâ—gnificatur Carm. lib. 1. Od. 14. and her desolation to a dismal shipwrack Theodorets note on the text is that when we correct sinners or threaten them it should be done with commiseration and compassion Here we have Gods own example for it Ille dolet quoties cogitur esse ferex Ver. 3. O thou that art situate as the entry of the sea As now the City of Venice is Mediâ insuperabilis undâ Environed with her embracing Neptune to whom as the ceremony of throwing a ring into the sea implyeth saith one she marrieth her self with yearly nuptials But hath she so learned Christ and doth not the Nebuchadnezzar of Constantinople now threaten her sore Thou hast said I am of perfect beauty So that nothing can be added to me I am ocellus orbis But who made thee to differ is not all thy beauty borrowed will not this thy bulging wall down ere long Ver. 4. Thy borders are in the midst of the sea Wherewith thou art compassed and crowned as it were Isa 23.8 being half a mile distant from the continent till first Nebuchadnezzar and then Alexander the Great by casting earth wood and stones into the sea made it of an Island a Peniland c.
Matthew Zacâ—etu the Disciples after their shameful flight Austin all us who like sheep were gone astray c. But I will destroy the fat Pâ—nguem petulcam such as in whom fulnesse breedeth forgetfulnesse as in Jeshurun Deut. 32.15 Queen Elizabeth was told in a Sermon by Mr. Deering that once she was Tanquam ovis like a meek sheep but now tanquam indomita juvenca as an untamed heifer and therefore wished her to meet God by repentance Here good Oecolampadius complaineth and cause enough he had of some of Christs fatter sheep who were too too taunty and troublesome to their fellows The Lutherans of Suevia he might well mean who in their Syngramma used him very coursely and Luther himself in his book of private Masse set forth An. Dom. 1533. passeth a very uncharitable censure upon his disease and death And I will feed them with judgement Putting a difference and dealing with them as it is fit Ver. 17. And as for you O my flock I have a saying to you also such as are unruly especially as well as to your shepheards Behold I judge between cattle and cattle Between sincere Christians and hypocrites sheep and goats and can soon shed them and shew them to the world who are fierce rams and who are nasty goats at last day howsoever all shall out and a separation shall be made the precious shall be taken out from the vile Ver. 18. Seemeth it a small thing unto you Extenuant hypocritae suam culpam honesto titulo Hypocrites make the best and the least of their sins Oecol which good men acknowledge with aggravation but the works of the flesh are manifest and here we have a lively picture of the Popâ—sh Clergy who eat up the best and tread down the rest pro salutaribus aquis suam salivam hominibus obtrudunt and for wholesome obtrude brackish waters upon men to quench their thirst Ver. 19. And as for my flock they eat The poor misled and muzzled people are glad to eat such as they can catch they are fed with traditions legendary fables indulgences vowed pilgrimages pennances c. If Luther had not come in our way say they we could have perswaded the people to have eat grasse Ver. 20. I even I will judge between the fat cattle These are saith Austin those that presume of their own strength and boast of their own righteousnesse being proud insolent and void of charity Ver. 21. Because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder i. e. With pretence of law on your side and with power in your hand to do what you list Toto corpore et conatu for who can withstand you And pushed all the diseased with your hornes i. e. With your excommunications and persecutions See Esa 66.5 Till ye have scattered them abroad For how should they abide it they drive them out of the fold flock pasture so that they must either fly or dye Ver. 22. Therefore will I save my flock Viz. By Christ the true Shepheard who once found out him whom the Jews had unjustly excommunicated Joh. 9.35 and gave him encouragement He knows all his sheep by name as Exod. 33.12 17. and hath promised them safety here and salvation hereafter Joh. 10.27 It is not with the Saints as Esa 31.4 or as Amos 3.12 but as Jer. 31.10 11 12. See the places Ver. 23. And I will set up one Shepheard Who indeed is the only Shepheard Magistrates and Ministers are Shepheards but Christ is the good Shepheard Joh. 10.11 the great Shepheard and Bishop of souls 1 Pet. 2.25 Heb. 13.20 the true Shepheard above all for skill love and power above Jacob above David of whom he descended and by whose name he is here called so Jer. 30.9 Hos 3.5 Ezek. 37.24 Even my servant David i. e. Christ the Son and successour of David not David George as that odious heretike who dyed at Basile blasphemously applied this text to himself as if he had been the man here intended The Jews themselves confesse that Messias is here meant He shall feed them This is thus repeated as that which containeth a world of comfort It sheweth also that Christ will do it to the utmost Jacob was a sedulous Shepherd Christ much more Ver. 24. And I the Lord will be their God This is that Bee-hive of heavenly honey we so oft meet with in the Old Testament which therefore those Sectaries have so little reason to reject And my servant David a Prince among them Captain of the Lords hosts Josh 6.2 Captain also of his peoples salvation Heb. 2.10 Messias the Prince Dan. 9.25 Ver. 25. And I will make with them a Covenant of peace Pactum pacis pacis omnimodae Jer. 31.13 Esa 11.10 Joh. 14.27 And will cause the evil beasts That were wont to worry the flock I will set them safe from Satan and his impes his instruments such as was Nero the lion and bloody Bonner the Popes slaughter-slave here Ver. 26. And I will make them a blessing By blessing them with all spiritual benedictions in Christ Jesus Eph. 1.3 so that they shall be felices faecundi happy and fruitful There shall be shâ—wres of blessing Or very large showres 2 Cor. 9.6 of divine doctrine Esa 55.9 and of righteousnesse Hos 10.12 Ver. 27. And the tree of the field shall yield her fruit There shall be a confluence of all comforts and contentments When I have broken the bands of their yoke Freed them from the Babylonish bondage but especially from the Tyranny of sin and terrour of hell when I have broke the devils yoke from off the necks of their souls Out of the hands of those that served themselves of them As did the devil whose drudges they were and who had them wholly at his beck and check Ver. 28. And they shall be no more a prey to the heathen As the Jews then were and are to this day being used by the Papists as spunges The Christian Hebrews also suffered with joy the spoiling of their goods but then for an allay to their grief they knew within themselves that which did sufficiently support them and make up their losse Heb. 10.34 Sept. plantam pacis Ver. 29. And I will raise up for them a plant of renowne i. e. Christ the true tree of life Or the Church planted and rooted in Christ and much renowned all the world over Christ mystical is a vine covering the whole earth And they shall be no more consumed with hunger They shall have enough of all good things a sufficiency though not a superfluity a Davids sat habeo because the Lord hath heard the voyce of my supplications Psal 116.1 Neither bear the shame of the heathen any more God will bring them in credit with those which formerly slighted and reproached them God fashioneth mens opinions ruleth their tongues promiseth to them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life where the Saints
those fenns and quagmires Job 40 21. they are void of the Spirit Jude 18 19. they say unto God Depart from us we had rather dance to the Timbrel and Harp Job 21.11 whoredom and wine and new wine take away their hearts Hos 4.11 he who had married a wife or rather was married to her sent word flat and plain he could not come others excused themselves more mannerly Mat. 22. such persons chuse to remain in the sordes of their sins and so are miserable by their own election They shall be given to salt Delivered up to strong delusions 1 Thes 2.15 16. vile affections Rom. 1.26 just damnation Rev. 22.11 Ver. 12. Shall grow all trees for meat Arbores esibiles these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 useful Christians such as whose lips are feeding and their tongues trees of life Prov. 11.30 15.4 See the Notes there Whose leaf shall not fade They will not fail to make a bold and wise profession of the truth See on Psal 1.3 Jer. 17.8 Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed But as the Lemmon-tree which ever and anon sendeth new fruits assoon as the former are fallen down with ripeness Or as the Egyptian fig-tree which yeeldeth fruit seven times a year saith Solinus and if you pull off one fig another groweth up presently in the place thereof Because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary Hence their so great fruitfulness viz. from the divine influence Hos 14.8 the Word and Spirit going together Esa 59.21 hence it is that the Saints are neither barren nor unfruitful 2 Pet. 1.8 And the leaf thereof for medicine Gods people by their holy profession of religion do much good to many souls as did diverse of the Martyrs and Confessors Lucianus an ancient Martyr perswaded many Gentiles to the Christian faith by his grave countenance and modest disposition insomuch that Maximinus that persecuting Emperour durst not look him in the face for fear he should turn Christian And so Beda telleth us of one Alban who receiving a poor persecuted Christian into his house and seeing his holy devotion and sweet carriage Hist Ang. l. 1. c. 7. was so much affected with the same as that he became an earnest professour of the faith and in the end a glorious Martyr for the faith The like is recorded of Bradford Bucer and others Ver. 13. This shall be the border Here the Prophet returneth again to the dividing of the land begun chap. 45.1 2 c. having hitherto interposed many most memorable matters and of great use to the Church Joseph shall have two portions He had so by his fathers will and for his two sons adopted by his father Ver. 14. And ye shall inherit one as well as another Spiritual blessings are divided in solidum amongst the community of Gods people they all partake of one and the same saving grace of God righteousnesse of Christ and eternal life though there are several degrees of grace and of glory See Gal. 3.26 27 28 29. All Gods Sons are heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Ver. 15. And this shall be the border of the land i. e. Of the Christian Church the borders whereof are here set forth as far larger then those of the land of Canaan ever were From the great sea The Mediterranean sea The way of Hethlon From one end of the Kingdom of Damascus to another Ver. 16. Hamath Berothah Sibraim Towns of Arabia deserta All this is to set forth the amplitude of the Christian Church spread far and near upon the face of the whole earth and therefore rightly called Catholike Roman-Catholike is contradictio in adjecto for it is a particular-universal Ver. 17. And the border from the sea shoil be Hazar-Enan Forasmuch as the borders in this description of the land are set to be such as never were in the Israelites possession the Jew-doctours are will they nill they forced to confess that the land of Israel in the world to come shall be larger then ever it had been Now Heb. 2.5 Gospel-times are called the world to come Ver. 18. From Hauran A town of Arabia deserta Ptolomy calleth it Aurana but Felix in this This was Palmira afterwards Hadrianople that it is taken into the Church Ver. 19. From Tamar Hazazon-Tamar which was near the sea of Sodom v. 10. In Kadesh Not in Rephidim Ezod 17.7 Ver. 20 Till a man come over against Hamath To that place of the great sea from which lyeth a straight way from Hamath East-ward Ver. 21. So shall ye divide Epilogus est There is one and the same inheritance of the Saints in light Ver. 22. An inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you What can the spiteful Jews say to this who stick not to say that rather then the bastard Gentiles so they call Christians should share with them in their Messiah they would crucifie him a hundred times over and over Under the old Testament though strangers lived with the children of Israel yet they had no inheritance with them at any time as now they are appointed to have Ver. 23. See on ver 22. CHAP. XLVIII Ver. 1. NOw these are the names of the tribes Who are in this chapter assigned their several seats and the land divided amongst them but this division is much different from that of old which was a plain prediction of a perfect and total abrogation of the Mosaical polity and Levitical worship together with a new state of the Church of God after the coming of Jesus Christ To the coast of the way of Hethlon Chap. 47.15 16 17. Judaea was not say Geographers above 200 miles long and 50 miles broad But R. Kimchi here noteth that the Talmudists affirm that the possession of Israel shall extend unto the utmost coasts of the earth Oecol id quod ex spiritu dictum existima This was well and truely spoken though they understood not what they spake as dreaming only of an earthly Kingdom Psal 89.11 12. But as elsewhere so here the land of Canaan is put for the whole world whereof all true believers are heires together with faithful Abraham Rom. 4. whether they be Jews or Gentiles Christs Kingdom runs to the end of the earth Psal 28. 72.8 A portion for Dan This tribe which was for their shameful revolt from the true religion Judg. 18. cut out of the roll as it were 1 Chron. 7. Rev. 7. is here reckoned first of those who had partem sortem part and lot amongst Gods people So true is that of our Saviour Many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first Mat. 19.30 20.1 Judge not therefore according to the appearance c. Repent and God will reaccept The sable of Antichrist to come of this tribe is long since exploded Ver. 2. From the East side to the West The longitude is described not the latitude for why Christs Kingdom is limitless and
his dominion without dimension Ver. 3. A portion for Naphthali There are many portions of inheritance in Christs Kingdom there are also in heaven many mansions Joh. 14.2 all which shall be divided among the Elect. Ver. 4. A portion for Manasseh Which they do not of their own accord and as they see good seize upon but take their share set them out of the divine sentence Ver. 5. A portion for Ephraim An equal portion with his elder brother Manasseh In Christs Kingdom all is of grace nothing of merit Ver. 6. And by the border of Ephraim There is a continuity and conjunction of all the portions to set forth the communion that is betwixt the Saints a sweet mercy a heaven aforehand Ver. 7. A portion for Judah Who is set next to the sanctified oblation of the Lord wherein were the portions of the Priests Levites City and Prince He must be a Jew inwardly a confessour and witness of the truth who shall have part and portion in the priviledges of Gods people Ver. 8. Shall be the offering Whereof see chap. 45.1 2 3 c. Of 25000. reeds Which being exactly cast up saith one come to 45. miles and therefore cannot be meant of any City to be built by the Jews again after their return from Babylon but must be understood of the Church under the Gospel Ver. 9. Vnto the Lord As distinguishing it from other oblations here stood the Sanctuary Ver. 10. And for them even for the Priests No mention is here made of Cities of refuge as of old for they shall not hurt nor destroy in all Gods holy mountain but the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea Esa 11.9 Ver. 11. Of the sons of Zadok See chap. 44.15 16 c. Which went not astray To be faithful with God in a common defection is a singular praise See my Righteous mans Recompense pag. 695. Ver. 12. And this oblation of the land Ministers of Gods Word may lawfully take maintenance of the Church 1 Cor. 9. Ver. 13. The Levites shall have But after the Priests There are degrees of officers in the Church and good order must be well observed there Five and twenty thousand in length These several portions set together make up a perfect square which serveth well to set forth the beauty and firmity of the Church of Christ Ver. 14. And they shall not sell of it This law is here occasionally and by the way inserted It seemeth to hold forth that lands given to the Ministers of Christ under the New Testament may never be again taken away or put to any other use but to their maintenance for ever See Mr. Clarks Mirrour chap. of Sacriledge The first-fruits of the land i. e. This part thus consecrated to God as the first-fruits of the earth were Ver. 15. Shall be a profane place i. e. A common place and so all Israel were profane in a sense sc as compared to the Priests and Levites those consecrated persons Symmachus and Theodotion reader it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See Deut. 20.6 And the City shall be in the midst thereof Ten miles at least distant from the Temple some say many more to shew say they what a long way he must go that would attain to eternal life he must get above the world howsoever who would serve God acceptably Ver. 16. And these shall be measures thereof This representation is meerly figurative and mystical shewing us how specious and spacious the Church of Christ is Ver. 17. And the suburbs of the City These were much larger then the suburbs of the Temple as may be observed by comparing chap. 40. See chap. 45.2 Ver. 18. For food to them that serve the City To all the Citizens who all are to turn servitours to their fellow-brethren that come to the publike meetings to serve one another in love which they that do shall not lose their reward but verily they shall be fed Ver. 19. Shall serve it out of all the tribes i. e. At the common charge and by a general contribution Ver. 20. Ye shall offer the holy oblation foure square See on ver 13. All our dealings must be square or else we are not of the holy portion Epilogus est of the new Jerusalem Rev. 21.16 Ver. 21. And the residue shall be for the Prince His occasions are many and therefore his proportion is very large yet must he not be Regni dilapidator the Waster of the Kingdom by his profuseness as our Henry the third was called whereby he became ill beloved of his people Ver. 22. Being in the midst of that which is the Princes The Prince was taught by this position of his portion to have an equal care of Church and State Ver. 23. Benjamin shall have a portion The division of the land as it ended with Judahs portion in speaking of the seven former tribes ver 8. so here it beginneth with Benjamins in speaking of the five following Ver. 24 25 26 27. See the Notes on ver 2 3 4 5 6 7. Ver. 28. Even from Tamar Not Jericho but Palmira called afterwards Adrianople of the Emperour Adrian who rebuilt and beautified it And to the river The river of Egypt called Sihor Josh 13.3 Ver. 29. This is the land This is the Epilogue of the whole chapter as to the greatness of the holy City It remaineth only to touch at the situation and measures thereof the gates also and the Ministers together with their use and maintenance the elegancy lastly and perpetuity of the City For inheritance Not from the brook as Tremellius mis-translateth it Ver. 30. And these are the goings out of the City That is the utmost bounds as Rabbi Solomon glosseth Ver. 31. And the gates of the City Through which all the Israel of God both Jews and Gentiles from all parts Qua data porta ruunt do enter into the Church of Christ flowing and flocking thereto as waters do to the sea and as the doves to their windows Three gates Northward Twelve in all the reason whereof see in the Note on Rev. 21.13 One gate of Levi Who though he had no lot in the land yet he had a gate into the City as Vatablus here noteth Ver. 32. Four thousand and five hundred And the like on each side of all which are made up fifty and four miles at the least so large is the City of God Niniveh was nothing to it no more is Alcair Scandereon or Cambalu the Metropolis of Tartary which yet is said to be twenty eight miles about Ver. 33. One gate of Simeon Here all along the tribes are reckoned not as they were before in this Chapter but as they are set down in Numbers at the marching of the Tabernacle in the midst of them saving that whole Joseph hath here but one gate and Levi is taken into the number of the twelve tribes And forasmuch as it entreth not into the heart of man what God hath
he stirreth up himself and taketh better hold as resolved not to let him go without the blessing The like before him did good Hezekiah with whom he concurreth in the very letter of his request Esa 37.17 See the Notes there For our own righteousnesses Which are nothing better then a rotten rag a menstruous clout such as a man would not dain to take up or touch But for thy great mercies Through the merits of the promised Messiah Ver. 19. O Lord hear O Lord forgive This was to pray yea this was to strive in prayer Luk. 13.22 to strive as those of old did in the Grecian exercises some whereof were with fists and batts to strive and struggle even to an agony as the Greek word signifieth and as the Lord Christ did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 22.44 who being in an agony prayed yet the more earnestly he sweat and sweltered out as it were his soul through his body in prayer Be we now followers herein of Christ as dear children and of Daniel here who is a worthy pattern to pray by Cold suitours who want the aspiration of the spirit to pronounce Shibboleth do but beg a denial O Lord hearken and do defer not This is coelum tundere preces fundere Tertul. misericordiam extorquere as those Primitive Christians did to bounce at heaven gates Beneficium se putabit accepisse cum rogaretur ignoscere Ambr. orat de exit Theod. to tug hard with God to wring the blessing out of his hands who looks to be importuned and counts it for a kindness to be asked forgiveness as Ambrose saith of Theodosius the Emperour Ver. 20. And whilst I was speaking and praying When haply I had now new done and yet not so done but that my heart was yet lifting and lifting as a bell-rope is oft hoysing up after men have done ringing the bell And confessing my sins So precious a Saint was not without his sins These therefore he confesseth that he might be the fitter to beg mercy for the Church having first made his own peace with God and so in case to lift up pure hands in prayer The like doth David Psal 25 and 51. For the holy mountain of my God This was his main request and to God marvellous acceptable Surely if the Lord saw us Daniel like studying his share more then our own we might have what we would and God even think himself beholding to us as one phraseth it Ver. 21. Yea whilest I was speaking in prayer This he recognizeth and celebrateth as a sweet and singular mercy God sometimes heareth his people before they pray Isa 65.24 Psal 21.3 David was sure up betimes when he prevented the Lord with his prayer Psal 88.13 and 119.147 sometâ—mes whiles they are praying as he did those Act. 4.31 and 12.5 17. and Luther who came leaping out of his study where he had been praying with Vicimus Vicimus in his mouth that is we have gained the day got the conquest but if not so yet certainly when they have now prayed Isa 30.12 Jon. 2.1 Jer. 33.3 Mat. 7.7 Luther affirmeth that he oft gat more spiritual light by some one ardent prayer Ipse ego in una aliqua ardenti oratione meae plura saepe didici quam ex multorum librorum lectione aut accuratissima meditatione consequâ— potuissem Tom. 1. According to the account of Astronomers it must be abâ—ve 160. millions of miles from heaven to earth All this space the Angel came flying to Daniel in a little time then ever he could do by the reading of many books or by most accurate meditation thereupon Even the man Gabriel i. e. The Angel Gabriel in mans shape Whom I had seen in the vision And whom I had good cause to remember the longest day of my life for the good offices he had done me formerly Being caused to fly swiftly Heb. with wearinesse of flight Not that the Angels flee as fouls though a certain Frier a lyar certainly undertook to shew to the people a feather of the Angel Gabriels wings or that they are ever wearied with speeding Gods commissions and commands for the Churches good Sed datur hic assumptae speciei but these things are spoken to our apprehension Touched me With a familiar touch in token of encouragement prensando mimirum ut solent qui contactâ—â— familiari promptam benevelam que mentem indicant About the time of the evening oblation When the joynt prayers of Gods people were wont to come up before him quasi manu facta and Daniel hopeth they may do so again Qui nihil sperat nihil orat Ver. 22. And he informed me and talked with me Rather then the Saints shall want information and comfort God will spare one out of his own train to do them any good office Luk. 1.19 Gal. 3.19 neither will the greatest Angel in heaven grudge to serve them I am now come forth to give thee skill Not by infusion for so the Holy Ghost only but by instruction as was before noted It is well observed by one that this following Oration of the Angel containeth an Abridgment of the New Testament and a light to the Old for confirming Daniel is touching the ensuing deliverance out of Babylons captivity he further advertiseth and assureth him of the spiritual deliverance which Christ shall effect by his Gospel at his coming and therefore describing the times most accurately he plainly setteth forth the salvation of the Church Christian and the destruction of the stubborn and rebellious Jews who judge themselves unworthy of eternal life Ver. 23. At the beginning of thy supplications Thy prayer was scarce in thy mouth ere it was in Gods eare The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his eares are open unto their cry Psal 34.15 See the Note He heard at the very first but answered not till Daniel had tugg'd with him See Jam. 5.16 17. For thâ—â— art greatly beloved Kimchi readeth it a man of measures a man every inch of thee But the word is not Hamiddoth but Chamudoth a man of desires a favourite in heaven Rerum expetendarum cupidâ—â— Vatab. De deratissimâ—â— es Trem. because desirous of things truely desireable Christ is said to be totus totus desiderabiliâ— lovely all over Can. 5.16 The Saints are also so in their measure as on the contrary the wicked are not desired Zeph. 2.1 but loathed and abhorred Prov. 13.5 Therefore understand the matter Good men shall know Gods secrets Gen. 18.17 19. Psal 25.14 Ver. 24. Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people i. e. Seventy weeks of years ten Jubilees which make up four hundred and ninety years Thus the very time is here particularly foretold when the Messiah should be revealed and put to death The like hereunto is not to be found in any other of the Prophets as Hierom well observeth This therefore is a noble Prophecy and many great wits have been exercised about it Cornelius a Lâ—pide speaketh
third who well knowing it was no good policy to play the Devil by half deal resolved to leave never a rub to lye in the way that might hinder the running of his bowl and hence was he so infinitely hated of all Vers 16. Every prudent man dealeth with knowledge Observes circumstances and deports himself with discretion thrusts not himself into unnecessary dangers carves not a piece of his heart but to those hee is well assured of See an instance of this prudence in Ezra chap. 8.22 in Nehemiah chap. 2.5 Hee calls it not the place of Gods Worship such an expression that Heathen King might have disgusted but the place of his Fathers Sepulchres in Esther who concealed her Stock and Kindred till she saw her time in Christ when he was tried for his life in Paul Acts 23.6 Act. 19.10 he lived two years at Ephesus and spake not much against the Worship of their great Goddesse Diana vers 37. The prudent shall keep silence in an evil time Amos 5.13 'T is not good provoking evil men that are irreformable nor safe pulling a Bear or mad Dog by the ear But a fool layeth open his folly Plasheth it and setteth it a sunning as it were by his head-long head-strong exorbitances by his inconsiderate courses hee openly bewraies and proclaims what he is he sets his folly upon the cliffe of the rock that it should not be covered Ezek. 24.7 Vers 17. A wicked messenger falleth into mischief Incurs the displeasure and just revenge of them that sent him Or at least of God in case of their slacknesse How much more then wicked Ministers those Messengers of the Churches Jer. 4◠10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 8.23 that doe the Lords work negligently that corrupt his Message 2 Cor. 2.17 that huckster it and handle it craftily and covetously good evil and evil good c. Who is blinde but my servant or deaf as my messenger Isa 42.19 Such an Ambassadour was once worthily derided in the Roman State As at another time a certain stranger coming on Ambassage to the Senators of Rome and colouring his hoary hair and pale cheeks with vermilion hue a grave Senator espying the deceit stood up and said What sincerity are wee to expect at this mans hands whose locks and looks and lips do lye It was an honest complaint of a Popish Writer Wee saith hee handle the Scripture tantum ut nos pascat vestiat that wee may pick a living out of it and are therefore fain to preach placentia and so to put men into a Fools Paradise But shall they thus escape by iniquity Psal 56.7 have they no better Medicums But a faithful Ambassador is health To him that sendeth him to those hee is sent to and to himself So is a faithful Minister that delivers the whole counsel of God all that hee hath in Commission Jer. 1.17 Ezek. 3.17 Vers 18. Poverty and shame These two are fitly set together for poverty is usually slighted if not shamed Jam. 2.16 Nil habet infelix paupertas durius in se Quà m quod ridiculos homines facit The world looks over a poor though vertuous man Luke 15. This thy son not this my brother And why but because in poverty How much more an uncounselable and incorrigible man as here and that Prodigal had been till hee came to himself But hee that regardeth reproof shall bee honoured Though not haply inriched hee shall bee of good account with the wise and godly though in meaner condition Mr. Fox being asked whether hee knew such an honest poor man who had received succour and good counsel from him in time of trouble answered I remember him well I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such Vers 19. The desire accomplished is sweet to the soul Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est saith Augustine The whole life of a good Christian is one holy desire hee even spends and exhales himself in continual sallyes as it were and expressions of strongest affection to God whom hee hath chosen and with whom hee hath much sweet intercourse hee cannot bee at rest without some comings in from him every day And then O the joyes the joyes Mrs. Kath. Brettergh the unconceivable joyes as shee once cryed out O that joy O my God when shall I bee with thee These were the dying words of the young Lord Harrington Hee was in heaven aforehand as having let out his holy soul into God Fun. Serm. by Mr. Stock the fountain of all good But it is abomination to fools to depart from evil To bee pulled from their vain delights though never so sinful never so destructive Esau for a mess of pottage sold his birth-right Cardinal Burbon would not part with his part in Paris for a part in paradise Theotimus in Ambrose being told that intemperance would bee the loss of his eye-sight cried out Vale lumen amicum Hee would rather lose his sight than his sin so doth many a man his soul The Panther loves mans dung they say so much that if it bee hanged a height from him hee will leap up and never leave till hee hath burst himself in peeces to get it and this is the way they get that creature Like policy useth Satan by base lusts to draw many to hell It was a speech of Gregory Nyssen Hee that doth but hear of Hell is without any further labour or study taken off from sinfull pleasures Mens hearts are grown harder now adayes Vers 20. Hee that walketh with wise men shall bee wise Hee that comes where sweet spices and ointments are stirring doth carry away some of the sweet savour though hee think not of it so he that converseth with good men shall get good Holiness is such an Elixar as by Contaction if there bee any disposition of goodness in the same mettal it will render it of the property A childe having been brought up with Plato Sen. de ita l. 3. c. 11. and afterwards hearing his Father break out into rage and passion said I have never seen the like with Plato But a companion of fools shall bee broken There is an elegancy in the Original that cannot bee Englished Bede by a companion or friend of fools here understands those that take delight in Jesters Stage-players and such idle companions unprofitable burdens fruges consumere nati the botch and canker of the Commonwalth Plutarch Theatra juvenes corrumpunt saith Plato ludi praebeut semina nequitiae saith Ovid. The Lacedemonians would not admit of them that so they might not hear any thing contrary to their laws whether in jest or in earnest Func Chron. And Henry the third Emperour of Germany when a great sort of such fellows flocked together at his wedding sent them all away not allowing them so much as a cup of drink Anno Dom. 1044. Vers 21. Evil pursueth sinners Hard at heels Flagitium flagellum ut acus filum Sin