â—…a Effigies IOHANNIS TRAPP A. M. Aetat Suae 59. 1660. A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION UPON These following Books of holy Scripture Proverbs of Solomon Ecclesiastes the Song of Songs Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel Being a Third Volume of ANNOTATIONS Upon the whole BIBLE By John Trapp M. A. once of Christ-Church in Oxford now Pastour of Weston upon Avon in Glocester-shire LONDON Printed by Robert White for Nevil Simmons Bookseller in Kederminster and are to be sold by Henry Mortlock at the Phenix in Pauls Church-yard and by Thomas Basset in Dunstans Church-yard in Fleet-street Anno Dom. 1660. To the Worshipful his much honoured Friends Edward Stephens of Sadbury Esq together with the Worshipful Colonel Thomas Stephens Esq and his thrice-thrice-Worthy Consort Mris Katharine Stephens as also to their only Son Mr. Thomas Stephens the younger Much honoured and dearly beloved in the Lord I No sooner bethought me of this Dedication then there came likewise into my mind that Apostolical Distinction of true Christians into Fathers Young men and Little children 1 John 2.12 13. All these taken conjunctim Saint John had by a most kind compellation called Little children ver 1. My little children saith he these things write I unto you as in an Epistle Dedicatory that ye sin not sc sinningly as chap. 3.6 and mortally as chap. 5.16 But if any man do sin as alas we can do no less we have an Advocate with the Father appearing for us as a Lawyer appeareth for his Client Heb. 9.24 even Jesus Christ the just one Vorstius the Judges own Son and he is the propitiation that is the Propitiatour by a Metalepsis for our sins Learn this in general saith the holy Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 and hold it fast as with both hands for it is of the very foundation As for particulars I have yet somewhat more to say to you divisim severally and asunder And first for you Little children or Babes in Christ who have had your spiritual Conception Gal. 4.19 Birth 1 Pet. 1.23 and are now in your child-hood 1 Cor. 3.12 Heb. 5.13 as well appeareth 1. Because your sins are forgiven you for his names sake ver 12. for an assurance whereof God hath given you the Sacrament of Baptism to signifie as by sign to ascertain you as by seal to convey to you as by instrument Christ Jesus with all his benefits 2. Because ye have known the Father in some degree at least whilest he hath inwardly sealed you up by his Spirit set his mark upon you and sent you word as it were how well he loveth you Now then the lesson that I have to lay before you Little Ones is only this That it is the last hour and as ye have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists abroad ver 18. look well to your selves therefore that ye be not beguiled as little ones are apt to be that ye fall not from your own stedfastness but for a Preservative grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to him be glory both now and for ever Amen 2 Pet. 3.18 Next for you Fathers you that are old Disciples as Mnason is called Acts 21.16 you that are already gray-headed and experienced Christians Saints of the first magnitude Ephes 4.13 such as the Psalmist celebrateth Psalm 92.14 I grant that ye have known him that is from the beginning ver 13. and I say it again for your singular commendation and encouragement Ye have known him that is from the beginning ver 14. even that Antient of daies whose head and hair are white like wool as white as snow Rev. 1.14 You know him I say with a knowledge not only Apprehensive and Disciplinary but also Affective and Directive of your whole life Nevertheless I must friendly forewarn you of this one thing Old Melancthon was much delighted with that saying of Achilles in Philostratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though ye know it already Love not the world neither the things that are in the world ver 15. 'T is strange you should and yet 't is often seen you do dote over impotently on these things here below even then when you have one foot in the grave and should have the other foot in heaven whether ye are hasting The higher the Sun the shorter surely should be the shade The nearer to the Sea the sooner should come in the tide And as in a Piramide the higher you go the lesser compass you find So ought it to be with you Reverend Fathers upon whose heads God hath set a silver crown of hoary hairs already and will shortly set upon them an immarcessible crown of glory Lastly for you Young men that are not only past the spoon but come to a well-grown age in Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have to praise you for this and again I praise you that ye have in a good measure overcome that wicked One the Troubler ver 13 14. because ye are strong and the word of God abideth in you ver 14 But yet as strong as ye are and the glory of young men Heb. of choice young men is their strength Prov. 20.29 well improved by you because made use of against the devil yet let me caution you also as well as Elder Saints to beware of the world a subtile a sly enemy and very insinuative into the best breasts Love not the world neither the things that are in the world is your lesson too ver 15. Divorce the flesh from the world and then your Adversary the Devil can do you no hurt Hitherto worthy Sirs you have heard the beloved Disciple only glossed and paraphrased a little and a better you cannot hear for he was à secretis to the wonderful Counsellour and leaned on his bosom Shall I now take the humble boldness Gentlemen after so great an Apostle to bespeak you severally in like sort only with a little inversion of the Apostles order And first for you Sir the Grand-sire the Antientest and most honourable of this thrice-worthy Ternio besides your singular sagacity and prudence both civil and sacred the holy Apostles character of a Father these four Notes of an old man in Christ are all fairly pensil'd out and exemplified in your religious and righteous life and practice absit verbo invidia as in any mans I know alive at this day 1. Such an one is exceeding humble as Abraham was Gen. 18.27 I am but dust and ashes as Jacob was Gen. 32.10 I am less then the least of thy loving kindnesses Lord as David was Psalm 22.6 I am a worm and no man as Nehemiah was when he prayed for pardon of his Reformations chap. 13 22. As Paul was with his Minimissimus sum so Estius rendereth him Ephes 3.8 as Ignatius was with his Tantillitas nostra our utmost meanness as Austin was with his Non sum dignus quem tu diligas I am utterly unworthy
they can the pictures of their young age that in old age they may see their youth before their eyes This is but a vanity yet may good use bee made thereof So contrarily the Preacher here draws out to the life the picture of old age that young men may see and consider it together with death that follows it and after death judgement And the strong men shall bow themselves Nutabunt the leggs and thighs shall stagger and faulter cripple and crinkle under them as not able to bear the bodies burden The thigh in Latine is called femur a ferendo because it beareth and holdeth up the creature and hath the longest and strongest bone in the whole body The legg hath a shin-bone and a shank-bone aptly fitted for the better moving The foot is the base the ground and pedestal which sustaineth the whole building These are Solomons strong men but as strong as they are yet in old age they buckle under their burden and are ready to overthrow themselves and the whole body Genua â—abant Virg. Hence old men are glad to betake them to their third legg a staff or crutch Membra levant baculis tardique senilibus annis Hence Hesiod calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let them learn to lean upon the Lord as the Spouse did upon her Beloved Cant. 8.5 and hee will stir up some good Job to bee eyes to them when blinde and feet to them when lame chap. 29.15 Let them also pray with David Cast mee not off in the time of old age forsake mee not when my strength faileth Psal 71.9 And the grinders cease because they are few The teeth through age fall out or rot out or are drawn out or hang loose in the gumms and so cannot grind and masticate the meat that is to bee transmitted into the stomach for the preservation of the whole Now the teeth are the hardest of the bones Lactant. de opif. Dei if that they bee bones whereof Aristotle makes question They are as hard as stones in the edges of them especially and are here fitly compared to Mill-stones from their chewing office The seat of the teeth are the jaws where they have their several sockets into which they are mortised But in old men they stand wet-shod in slimy humor or are hollow and stumpy falling out one after another as the coggs of a Mill so that Frangendus misero gingiva panis inermi Juvenal And those that look out at the windows The eyes are dim as they were in old Isaac and Jacob. An heavy affliction surely but especially to those that have had eyes full of adultery evil eyes windows of wickedness for the conscience of this puts a sting into the affliction is a thorn to their blinde eyes 2 Pet. 2. and becomes a greater torment than ever Regulus the Roman was put to Plut. Oculus ab occalendo Turk hist when his eye-lids were cut off and hee set full opposite to the Sun shining in his strength Or than that Grecian Prince that had his eyes put out with hot burning basons held near unto them Vers 4. And the doors shall bee shut in the streets The ears shall grow deaf the hearing weak which hearing is caused by two bones within the inside of the ear whereof one stands still and the other moves like the two stones of a Mill. And hee shall rise up at the voice of the Bird Being awakened by every small noise and this proceeds not from the quickness of the hearing but from the badness of sleeping For as Hierome speaketh Frigescente jam sanguine c. Hieron in hunc vers The blood now growing cold and the moisture being dried up by which matters sleep should bee nourished the old man awakeneth with a little sound and at midnight when the Cock croweth hee riseth speedily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicitur quia nos a lecto exsuscitat being not able often to turn his members in his bed Thus hee Cocks crowing saith another unto old men is the scholars bell that calls them to think of the things that are in Gods Book every morning And all the daughters of musick shall bee brought low Old men as they cannot sing tunably Nam quae cantante voluptas Juvenal but creak or scream whence Homer compares them to Grashoppers propter raucam vocem for their unpleasant voice so they can take no delight in the melodious notes of others as old Barzillai confesseth 2 Sam. 19.35 they discern not the harmony or distinction of sounds neither are affected with musick They must therefore labour to become Temples of the Holy Ghost in whose Temple there never wants musick and sing Psalms with grace in their hearts for Non vox sed votum non musica chordula sed Cor Non clamans sed amans psâ—llit in aure Dei Vers 5. Also when they shall bee afraid of that which is high Hillocks or little stones standing up whereat they may stumble as being unsteddy and unweildy High ascents also they shun as being short-winded neither can they look down without danger of falling their heads being as weak as their hamms Let them therefore pray for a guard of Angels putting that promise into suit Psal 91. Let them also keep within Gods precincts as ever they expect his protection and then though old Eli fell and never rose again yet when they fall they shall arise for the Lord puts under his hand Psal 37.24 Contrition may bee in their way but attrition shall not Let them fear God and they need not fear any other person or thing whatsoever And the Almond-tree shall flourish The hair shall grow hoary those Churchyard-flowers shall put forth Plin. lib. 16. cap. 25. The Almond-tree blossomes in January while it is yet winter and the fruit is ripe in March. Old age shall snow white hairs upon their heads Let them see that they bee found in the way of Righteousness And the Grashopper shall bee a burden Every light matter shall oppress them who are already a burden to themselves being full of Gowt and other swellings of the leggs which the Septuagint and Vulgar point at here when they render it impinguabitur locusta The Locusts shall bee made fat Let them wait upon the Lord as that old Disciple Mnason did and then they shall renew their strength Act. 11. mount up as Eagles run and not bee weary walk and not faint even then when the youth shall faint and bee weary and the young men utterly fall Isa 40.30 31. And desire shall fail The lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life 1 John 2.15 And this Tully reckons among the commodities and benefits of old age quod hominem a libidinis estu velut a tyranno quodem liberet that it frees a man from the fire of lust 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It should bee so doubtless an old Letcher
a potent enemy that comes to dethrone thee then a ceiling of Cedar What if thy Cedar putrify not can it secure thee that thou perish not Ah never think it Did not thy father eate and drink Live chearfully and comfortably enjoying peace and prosperity through his righteousnesse and piety And then it was well with him Heb. then was good to him though he did not flaunt it out in sumptuous buildings But you have great thoughts and will not take it as your father did Ver. 16. He judged the cause of the poor and needy And so took a right course a thriving way Prov. 29.4 Was not this to know me saith the Lord i. e. To shew that he knew me soundly and savingly whilest he exercised his general calling in his particular and observed the first Table of the Decalogue in the second Ver. 17. But thine eyes and thy heart are not but for thy covetousnesse That 's all thou mindest and lookest after oculis atque animo intentus ad rem Hearts they have saith Peter of such exercised with covetous practices cursed children 2 Pet. 2.14 William Rufus is in story noted for such another Ver. 18. They shall not lament for him By his exactions he had so far lost his peoples affections that none were found either of his Allyes or others that bewailed his death but Jehorâ—m-like as he had lived undesired so he dyed unlamented Edwin-like Daniel Hist Turk Hist as he lived wickedly so he dyed wishedly Mahomet-like he lived feared of all men and dyed bewailed of none See the contrary promised to his brother Zedekiah for his curtesie to Jeremy chap. 34.5 Ver. 19. He shall be buried with the burial of an asse His corps shall be cast out like carryon into some by-corner A just hand of God upon this wicked one that he who had made so many to weep should have none to weep over him he who had such a stately house in Jerusalem should not have a grave to house his carcasse in sed insepulta sepultura elatus Philippic 1. as Tully phraseth it but without the ordinary honour of burial should be cast out or thrown into a ditch or a dunghil to be devoured by the beasts of the earth and fouls of heaven Our Richard the second for his exactions to maintain a great Court and Favourites lost his Kingdome was starved to death at Pomfret-Castle and scarce afforded common burial King Stephen was enterred in Feversham-Monastery but since his body for the gain of the lead wherein it was coffined was cast into the River Let great ones so live as that they meet not in the end with the death of a dog the burial of an asse and the Epitaph of an Ox such as Aristotle calleth that of Sardanapalus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Or that of Pope Alexander the sixth and his Lucrece Hospes abi jacet hic scelus vitium Ver. 20. Go up to Lebanon and cry Johoiakim hath had his doom and his destiny read him Sub icit fata tristissima Jechonia followeth now Jehoiakims part and what for his obstinacy he shall trust to The Prophet beginneth this part of his discourse with a sarcasmae or scoffe at their carnal security and creature confidence Get up saith he into those high mountaines here mentioned Lebanon Bashan Abarim that look all toward Egypt and see if thence by crying and calling for help thou mayst be saved from the Chaldees who are coming upon thee but all shall be to small purpose But thy lovers are all destroyed The Egyptians to whom thou bearest a blind affection contrary to Gods Covenant Ver. 21. I spake unto thee in thy prosperity Heb. in thy prosperities or tranquillities Prosperity rendreth men refractory Demetrius called a peaceable and prosperous life a dead sea because being not tossed with any considerable troubles it slayeth the simple as Solomon hath it Prov. 1.32 Men are usually best when worst and worst when best like the snake which when frozen lyeth quiet and still but waxing warm stirreth and stingeth The parable of the sun and the wind is known Anglica gens est optimae fleus pessima ridens Some of those who in Queen Maries dayes kept their garments close about them wore them afterwards more loosly It is as hard to bear prosperity as to drink much wine and not be giddy It is at least as strong waters to a weak stomack which however they do not intoxicate yet they weaken the brain plus deceptionis semper habet quam delectationis able it is to entice and ready to kill the intangled In rest we contract rust neither are mens eares opened to hear instruction but by correction Job 33.16 God holdeth us to hard meat that he may be true to our souls Psal 119.75 This hath been thy manner from thy youth Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked is an old complaint Deut. 32.15 To have been an old sinner habituated and hardened in iniquity is no small aggravation of it Ezek. 20 13. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wildernesse c. there they murmured against God and Moses ten times forty years was he there grieved with that perverse generation They began as soon as ever they were moulded into a state like as Esau began to persecute Jacob in the very womb that no time might be lost Ver. 22. The wind shall eat all thy Pastors i. e. Vento vanitatis ut chamaleontes aere pascuntur The vain hope that thy Governours have in forreign helps shall deceive them for God will make the strongest sinew in the arm of flesh to crack and break Surely then shalt thou be ashamed When thou shalt see thy self so shamefully disappointed of humane helps which were never true to those that trusted them Ver. 23. O inhabitant of Lebanon Heb. O inhahitresse that is O Jerusalem who hast peirked thy self aloft and pridest thy self in thy strength and stateliness How gratious shalt thou be i. e. How ridiculous when thy lofty and stately roomes wherein thou art roosted shall be to thee but as groaning rooms to women in travel Ver. 24. At I live saith the Lord An oath which none may lawfully take but God himself who is Life it self It is therefore sinful for any one to say Aâ— I live such a thing is so or so That it is Gods oath see Num. 14.21 with Psal 95. ult Though Coniah So Jechoniah or Jehoiakin by an Apheresis is called in scorn and contempt Prepared he was of the Lord as his name signifieth for misery and yet he was now but eighten years old 2 King 24.8 Youth excuseth not those that are wicked This young King was scarce warm in his throne when carryed captive to Babylon Were the signet on my right hand Which is very carefully kept and carryed about See Cant. 8.6 Hag. 2.23 where good Zorobabel the nephew of this Jechoniah is called Gods signet Yet would I pluck thee thence This Nazianzen
on hell Whither shee is hastening and hurrying with her all her stallions and paramours See the Note on Chap. 2.18 19. and where by how much more deliciously they have lived by so much more they shall have of sorrow and torment Rev. 18.7 Vers 6. Lest thou shouldest ponder q. d. Lest thou shouldest perswade thy self that thou mayest imbrace the bosome of a stranger and yet lay hold upon the paths of life by repenting thee of thy folly this was Solomons errour sometimes Eccles 1.17 and 2.3 thou art utterly deceived herein for her wayes are moveable so that thou observest not whither shee tendeth shee wanders here and there and thou with her yet not so wide as to miss of hell lo that is the center whereunto shee is rowling that is the rendezvouz for all her associates in sin Vers 7. O yee children See Chap. 4.1 Shechem though at ripeness of age yet is called a childe Gen. 39.19 Neque distulit puer And the young man or the childe deferred not to do the thing A childe hee is called that is a fool quia non ratione sed affectu rapitur saith an Interpreter because not reason but lust over-ruld him Vereâ— As for thee thou shalt bee as one of the fools in Israel said shee to her libidinous brother Amnon 1 Sam. 23.13 Vers 8. Remove thy way far from her The Jesuits boast but beleeve them who will that they can dally with the fairest women without danger But hee that would not bee burnt must dread the fire Hee that would not hear the bell must not meddle with the rope Quid facies facies Veneris cum veneris ante Non sedeas sed eas ne pereas per eas Rom. 13.13 Exod. 23.7 Chambering and wantonness is a deed of darkness and dishonesty Come not nigh the doors Keep thee far from an evil matter saith Moses The plague and worse is at the Harlots house 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6. stand off To venture upon the occasion of sin and then to pray Lead us not into temptation is all one as to thrust thy finger into the fire and then to pray that it may not bee burnt Was not hee a wise man that would haunt Taverns Theatres and Whore-houses at London all day Sheph. Sincere convert 232. but yet durst not go forth without private prayer in the morning and then would say at his departure Now Devil do thy worst Vers 9. Lest thou give thine honour i. e. Whatsoever within thee or without thee may make thee honourable or esteemed as the flower of thine age the comeliness of thy body the excellency of thy wit thy possibility of preferment that good opinion that the better sort had of thee c. How was David slighted by his own children and servants after hee had thus sinned Confer 1 Sam. 2.30 with 2 Sam. 12.10 Chastity is a mans honour 1 Thess 4.4 Castus quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ornatus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vâ—â—erabilis Deut. 32.33 And their years i. e. according to some thy wealth that thou hast been many years in gathering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To the cruel That is to the harlot and her bastardly brood whom thou must maintain The Hebrews expound it of the Devil To the cruel i. e. Principi gehennae saith Solomon Angelo mortis saith another to the Prince of Hell to this Angel of Death Aczar the Hebrew word properly signifieth saith one the poyson of the Asp which paineth not at first but is deadly Vers 10. Lest strangers bee filled This sin is a purgatory to the purse though a paradice to the desires How soon had the Prodigal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wasted his portion when once hee fell among Harlots those sordida poscinummia Luke 15. those crumenimulgae Ask mee never so much gift and I will give it said Shechem Gen. 34.12 what pledge shall I give thee and shee said Thy signet thy bracelets c. Gen. 37.18 and if shee had asked more shee might have had it Ask what thou wilt and it shall bee given thee said Herod to his dancing Damosel Nay hee sware to her that whatsoever shee should ask hee would give it her to the half of his Kingdome Mar. 6.22 so strongly was hee inchanted and bewitched with her tripping on the toe and wanton dancing This detestable sin is able to destroy Kings as Solomons Mother taught him Prov. 31.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tripudiabat Baccharum mâ—re And surely Solomon by the many women that hee kept was so exhausted in his estate for all his great riches that hee was forced to oppress his subjects with heavy taxes and tributes which occasioned the revolt of ten Tribes The whore lyeth in wait for a prey Prov. 23.20 and by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a morsel of bread to extream beggery Prov. 6.26 Vers 11. And thou mourn at the last Heb. And thou roar Zeph. 3.5 as being upon the rack of an evil conscience and in the suburbs of Hell as it were whiles the just Lord makes thee even here possess the sins of thy youth and writes bitter things against thee The word signifies to roar as a Lion or as the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est mâ—rit agitatio Hom. Iliad H. vide Eustath Venus ab antiquis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicta or as the Devil doth For the Devils beleeve and tremble or roar James 2.19 Grecians ascribe the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the roaring of the Sea When thy flesh and thy body By the word here rendred body there are that understand the radical humor the natural moisture that maintains life and is much impaired by this sensual sin Avicenna doubted not to say that the emission of a little seed more than the body could well bear was a great deal more hurtful than the loss of forty times so much blood Gouts Palsies Epilepsies c. oft follow upon this sin But the French disease is the natural fruit of it such as will stick by men when their best friends forsake them Jesabel is cast into a bed and they that commit adultery with her into great tribulation Rev. 2.20 The Popish libidinous Clergy are smitten with ulcers Rev. 16.11 Their Pope Paul the fourth died ex nimio Veneris usu Runius de vit Pontif. saith the Historian by wasting his strength in filthy pleasure as the flame consumeth the candle Vers 12. And say How have I hated c. When cast out with the Prodigal and hath nothing left him but a diseased body a distressed soul then all too late hee fills the air with doleful complaints of his former folly and cries out as hee did Totum vitae meae tempus perdidi quia perditè vixi Bern. O what a wretch what a beast what a madded Devil
had with wishing Nemo casu fit Sapiens Epist 77. saith Seneca Some have a kinde of willingness and velleity a kinde of wambling after the best things but it doth not boyl up to the full height of resolution for God Pers Virtutem exeptant contabescuntque relictâ Carnal men care not to seek after him whom yet they would fain finde saith Bernard Cupientes consequi sed non sequi have heaven they would but stick at the hard conditions like faint Chapmen they bid money for heaven but are loath to come up to the full price of it Balaam wished well to heaven so did the young Pharisee in the Gospel that came to Christ hastily but went away heavily Herod of a long time desired to see Christ but never stirred out of doors to see him Pilate asked Christ What is truth but never stayed his answer The sluggard puts out his arm to rise and pulls it in again hee turns upon his bed as the door doth upon the hinges which yet comes not off for all the turnings but hangs still and this is his utter undoing Men must not think that good things whether spiritual or temporal will drop out of the clouds to them Aemuli ipsius dormientem pinxeram Plut. in Sylla as Towns were said to come into Timotheus his toyl while hee slept Now perform the doing of it saith Saint Paul to those lazie Corinthians 2 Cor. 8.12 A thirsty man will not only long for drink but labour after it A covetous man will not only wish for wealth but strive to compass it Yet not every covetous man I confess For in the next verse it is said of the sluggard Vers 26. Hee coveteth greedily all day long But these greedy constant covetings come to nothing hee makes nothing of them Meteors have matter enough in the vapours themselves to carry them above the earth but not enough to unite them to the element of fire therefore they fall and return to their first principles So is it with our wishers and woulders Many came out of Egypt that never came into Canaan And why the Land they liked well but complained with those Spies of the strength of the Anakims and the impossibility of the Conquest therefore their Carcases fell in the wilderness their sluggishness slew them They lusted and had not they killed themselves with coveting as in the former verse and desired to have as here but could not obtain Jam. 4.2 But the righteous giveth and spareth not Neither necessity nor niggardise hindreth him hee hath it and hee holds that hee hath no more than hee giveth Hee is both painful and pittiful and what hee cannot do for the poor himself hee stirs up others to do so far is hee from forbidding or hindring any from shewing mercy Some render the words thus The righteous giveth and forbiddeth not Give a portion saith hee to his richer friend to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall bee up on the earth Eccles 11.2 See the Note there Vers 27. The sacrifice of the wicked c. See the Note on Chap. 15.8 How much more when hee bringeth it c As Balaac and Balaam did Num. 23.1 2. As those that present ex rapina holocaustum a sacrifice of what they have got by rapine and robbery And as those likewise that ask good things at Gods hand that they may consume them upon their lusts Jam. 4.3 Let the wicked bring his sacrifice with never so good an intention hee is an abomination but if with an evil minde his dissembled sanctity is double iniquity As if a man think by observing the Sabbath to take out a license to walk licentiously all the week long or by praying in a morning to get a dispensation to do evil all day after Mr. Shepherds Sincere convert p. 232. Breerwood Enquire I have read of one that would haunt the Taverns Theaters and Whore-houses at London all day but hee durst not go forth without private prayer in the morning and then would say at his departure Now Devil do thy worst The Circassians are said to divide their life betwixt rapine and repentance The Papists many of them make account of confessing as Drunkards do of vomiting Sands his relat of West Religion When wee have sinned say they wee must confess and when wee have confessed wee must sin again that wee may also confess again and make work for new indulgences and jubilees Vers 28. A false witness shall perish See the Note on Chap. 19.5 The Scythians had a Law that if any man did duo peccata contorquere binde two sins together a Lye and an Oath hee was to lose his head because this was the way to take away all faith and truth amongst men But the man that heareth speaketh constantly Hee testifieth confidently what hee knoweth assuredly hee is alwayes also in the same tale as Paul was in the plea to the chief Captain to Felix to Festus and to Agrippa Not so Bellarmine How oft doth that loud Lyer forget himself and write contradictions As for instance In one place hee affirmeth that it can by no means bee proved by Scripture that any part of Scripture is the very word of God Par. in Apoc. 22.16 Bel. de verb. Dei l. 1. c 2. Sed mendax redarguit seipsum saith Pareus But the Lyer confutes himself by saying elsewhere Besides other arguments to evince the divinity of the Canonical Scripture it giveth sufficient testimony to it self Vers 29. A wicked man hardeneth his face Procacitèr obfirmat vultum suum so the Vulgar renders it The false witness vers 28. impudently defends or at least extenuates and excuses his falsities Frontem perfricat assuens mendacium mendacio as the Hebrew hath it Psal 119.69 Hee thinks to make good one lye by another to outface the truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 27. to overbear it with a bold countenance It seems to bee a metaphor from a Traveller that sets his face against the wind and weather and holds on his journey though hee bee taking long strides toward destruction But as for the upright hee directeth his way Hee proceeds warily weighs his words before hee utters them and delivers nothing but the naked truth And truth is like our first Parents most beautiful when naked Some Interpreters take this verse as setting forth the difference between the wicked and the godly without any relation to the false and true witness vers 28. And then it is Sententia sapiente digna saith one Tam paucis verbis tam profundum sensum cumulans a sentence worthy of Solomon as having so much in a little Vers 30. There is wisdome against the Lord That is they are all to no purpose If God deny concourse and influence the arm of humane power and policy as Jeroboams shrinks up presently See Psal 2.1 2 3. 33.10 11. 62.3 See the Note on Chap. 19.21 Excellently Gregory Divinum consilium dum
49.5 Vers 13. The poor and the usurer meet together That is the poor and the rich as chap. 22.2 because commonly Usurers are rich men and many rich men usurers The Lord lighteneth both their eyes That is hee gives them the light of life Joh. 1.8 and the comforts of life Matth. 5.45 so that their eyes are lightned as Jonathans were after he had tasted of the wild hony 1 Sam. 14. Others read it thus The poor and the deceived or crushed by the usurer meet together that is condole or comfort one another because they are both in the dark as it were of poverty and misery they can do one another but little help more than by commending their cases to God who thereupon enlightneth them both that is either he supplies their wants and so their eyes are opened as Jonathans were or else gives them patience as he did those beleeving Hebrews chap. 10.32 But call to remembrance the former days in the which after yee were illuminated viz. to see the glory that shall be revealed whereof all the sufferings of this life are not worthy Rom. 8.18 Ye endured a great fight of affliction If we read it The poor and the usurer meet together the Lord enlightneth both their eyes understand it thus The poor man he enlightneth by patience the usurer by repentance and grace to break off his sinnes by righteousness and his iniquity by shewing mercy to the poor as Zacheus Matthew and those usurious Jews did Neh. 5. Vers 14. The King that faithfully judgeth the poor c. An office not unbeseeming the greatest King to sit in person to hear the poor mans cause James the fourth of Scotland was for this cause called the poor mans King I have seen saith a late Traveller the King of Persia many times to alight from his horse onely to do justice to a poor body Help O King said the poor woman to Jehoram And if thou wilt not hear and right me why dost thou take upon thee to be King said another woman to Philip King of Macedony Cic. pro Milone It is a mercy to have Judges modo audeant quae sentiunt as the Oratour hath it so that they have courage to do what they judge fit to be done Inferiour Judges may be weighed and swayed by gifts or greatness of an Adversary to pass an unrighteous sentence Not so a King he neither needs nor fears any man but is if he be right as one saith of a just Law an heart without affection an eye without lust a mind without passion a treasurer which keepeth for every man what he hath and distributeth to every man what hee ought to have Phocyl 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lo such a Prince shall sit firm upon his throne his Kingdome shall be bound to him with chains of Adamant as Dionysius dreampt that his was he shall have the hearts of his Subjects which is the best life-guard and God for his protection for he is professedly the poor mans Patron Psal 9. and makes heavy complaints of those that wrong them Isa 3. and 10. Amos 5. and 8. Zeph. 3. Vers 15. The rod and reproof give wisdome If reproof do the deed the rod may be spared and not else Chrysippus is by some cried out upon as the first that brought the use of a rod into the schools but there is no doing without it for children are foolish apt to imitate others in their vices before they know them to be vices and though better taught yet easily corrupted by evil company as young Lapwings are soon snatcht up by every Buzzard Now therefore as moths are beaten out of Garments with a rod so must vices out of childrens hearts Vexatio dat intellectum Smart makes wit it is put in with the rod of correction See chap. 22.15 But a childe left to himself bringeth his mother c. For her fondness in cockering of him and hiding his faults from his father lest he should correct or casheer him Mothers have a main hand in education of the children and usually Partus sequitur ventrem the birth follows the belly as we see in the Kings of Judah whose mothers are therefore frequently nominated No wonder therefore though the mother deeply share in the shame and grief of her darlings miscarriages See chap. 15.20 Vers 16. When the wicked are multiplied transgression encreaseth As saith the Proverb of the Ancients wickedness proceedeth from the wicked Miserable man hath by his fall from God contracted a necessity of sinning against God And when a rabble of Rebels are gotten together are grown many and mighty they make account to carry all before them and not to suffer a godly man to live as in Spain and where the Inquisition is admitted But the righteous shall see their fall shall see it and rejoyce at it as the Hebrew Doctors expound this text by comparing it with Obad. 12.13 Thou shouldst not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day of his calamity neither shouldst thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah Alterius Perditio tua caâ—tio c. The righteous shall rejoyce when he seeth the vengeance being moved with a zeal of God hee shall rejoyce with trembling he shall wash his feet in the bloud of the wicked beholding their ruine he shall become more cautious so that a man shall say any man but of an ordinary capacity shall make this observation Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth Psal 58.10 11. that will sink to the bottom the bottle of wickedness when once filled with those bitter waters Gen. 15.16 Vers 17. Correct thy Son and he shall give thee rest Hee will grow so towardly that thou shalt with lesse adoe rule him when grown up or at least thou shalt have peace within in that thou hast used Gods means to mend him Yea he shall give delight See chap. 10.1 The often urging this nurturing of Children shews that it is a most necessary but much neglected duty Vers 18. Where there is no vision the people perish Or are barred of all vertue laid naked and open to the dint of Divine displeasure scattered worsted and driven back Great is the misery of those Brasileans of whom it is said that they are sine fide sine rege sine lege without faith King or Law And no less unhappy those Israelites about Asa's time that for a long season had been without the true God and without a teaching Priest and without Law 2 Chron. 15.3 Then it was that Gods people were destroyed for lack of knowledge Hos 4.6 And not long after that they sorrowfully complained that there was no more any Prophet among them nor any that knew how long Psalm 74.9 no Minister ordinary or extraordinary How did it pitty our Saviour to see the people as sheep without a Shepherd This troubled him more than their bodily bondage to the Romans which yet was
meet for the work and therefore not examining his religion entertained him into his service yea placed him over the family of Joseph admitted him into so much familiarity and so let loose the bridle of domestical discipline to him that he took state upon him as a young master in the house and soon after turned traitour and would needs be as his sonne and more The like is to be seen in Abner Ishbosheths servant who grew so haughty and haunty that he might not be spoken to 2 Sam. 3. And in Zimre whom his master Elah so favoured and esteemed that he made him captain over the half-part of his charets But this begger thus set on horse-back rides without reigns to the ruin of his master and his whole house 1 King 16.11 So true is that of the Poet. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asperius nihil est humili dum surgit in altum Tobiah the servant is so insolent ther 's no dealing with him Vers 22. An angry man stirreth up strife See Chapter 15.18 and 16.21 And a furious man Hebr. A master of fury or one that is mastered and overmatched by his fury that hath no command of his passions but is transported by them or as some make the metaphor and the Original will well bear it is wedded to them as a man is to his wife commanded by them Plutarch as the Persian Kings were by their Concubines being captivarum suarum captivi slaves to their slaves Such a man being big with wrath not onely breeds contention but brings forth transgression in great abundance he sets his mouth against heaven and his tongue walketh through the earth c. Psal 73. he lets fly on both hands and lays about him like a mad man Vers 23. A mans pride shall bring him low For it sets God against him and Angels and men not good men onely but bad men too and those that are as proud as themselves For whereas one drunkard loves another and one thief another c. one proud person cannot endure another but seeks to undermine him that he alone may bear the bell carry the commendation the praise and promotion See chap. 11.12 and 15.33 and 18.12 Vers 24. Whoso is partner with a thief hateth his own soul Sith to hold the bag is as bad as to fill it to consent to sin or to conceal it as bad as â—o commit it By the one as well as by the other a man may easily become as Coraeh did a sinner against his own soul and cruelly cut the throat of it Let our publike theevs look to this See Isa 1.23 He heareth cursing and bewrayeth it not See Levit. 5.1 with the Note To conceal treason is treason so here Have no fellowship therefore with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them Let me be counted proud or pragmatical saith Luther rather than found guilty of sinful silence Luth. Epist ad Staupiâ— whiles my Lord suffereth Vers 25. The fear of man bringeth a snare This cowardly passion expectorates and exposes a man to many both sinnes and sufferings And albeit faith when it is in the heart quelleth and killeth distrustful fear and is therefore fitly opposed to it in this sacred sentence yet in the very best Sense fights sore against Faith when it is upon its own dunghil I mean in a sensible danger Natures retraction of it self from a visible fear may cause the pulse of a Christian that beats truly and strongly in the main point the state of the soul to intermit and faulter at such a time as we see in the exampleâ— of Abraham Isaac David Peter others who shewed some trepiâ—ation and timidity and like fearful birds and beasts fell into the pits and toyls of the Hunter and hazzarded themselves to Gods displeasure The Chameleon is said to bee the most fearful of all Creatures and doth therefore turn himself into so many colours to avoyd danger which yet will not bee God equally hateth the timorous and the treacherous Fearful men are the first in that black bedrole Rev. 21.8 Tectus â—â—tus But he that trusteth in the Lord shall be safe Or set on high as on a rock his place of defence shall be munitions of rocks Isa 33.15 farre out of harms-way he shall be kept safe as in a tower of brass or town of war Even the youth shall faint and be weary and the youngmen shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings as Eagles c. Isa 40.30 31. Like as the Cony that flyes to the holes in the rocks doth easily avoyd the dogs that pursue her when the Hare that trusts to the swiftnesse of her leggs is at length overtaken and tore in peeces So here Vers 26. Many seek the Rulers favour More than the love of God and so cast themselves into a second snare besides that vers 25. But as he that truly trusts in God will easily expel the fear of man so he that looks upon God as Judge of all from whose sentence there is no appeal will rather seek his face than the favour of any earthly Judge whatsoever Especially since whether the Judge clear him or cast him the judgement he passeth is from the Lord. Vers 27. An unjust man is an abomination to the just Who yet hates non virum sed vitium not the person of a wicked man but his sin as the Physician hates the Disease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but loves the Patient and strives to recover him hee abhorres that which is evil perfectly hates it Psal 139.22 hates it as hell so the Greek word signifies Rom. 12.9 hates it in his dearest friends as Asa did in his mother Maacha hates it most of all in himself as having the Divine Nature transfused into him whereby hee resembles God and that life of God whereunto sin he knows is a destructive poyson a sicknesse unto death Arist Rhetor. 1 Joh. 5. Hence his implacable and no lesse impartial hatred of all as well as any sin for all hatred is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle hath it to the whole kind It was said of Antony that he hated a Tyrant not Tyranny it cannot be said of a Saint he hates sinners not sin but the contrary And he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked So there is no love lost betwixt them The Devil hath set his limbes in all wicked people they are a Serpentine seed a viperous brood and the old enmity continues Gen. 3.15 see the Note there Antipathies there are in Nature as between the Elephant and Boar the Lion and Cock the Horse and the Stone called Taraxippe c. But this is nothing to that betwixt the godly and the wicked and why but because the ones works are good and the others evil and because the just man condemnes the unjust by his contrary courses yea hee affrights his heart and terrifies him with his presence and
but fell into a great perplexity of conscience acknowledged his fault to the Owner and promised restitution if ever able to make it And take the name of my God in vain Hee saith not lest I being poor steal and be fined burnt in the hand whipped c. No but lest I take thy name in vain that is cause thy name to stink among the ungodly open their mouths break down the banks of blasphemy by such a base sin committed by such a forward Professor Good men take Gods Name in vain no way so much as by confuting and shaming their Profession by a scandalous conversation such as becometh not the Gospel of Christ Moreover they count sin to bee the greatest smart in sin as being more sensible of the wound they therein give the glory of God than of any personal punishment Vers 10. Accuâ—e not a servant unto his Master Unless it be in an Ordinance for the benefit of both Much lesse may we falsly accuse Wives to their Husbands as Stephen Gardiner and other Court-parasites did King Henry the eighth his Wives to him of Adultery Heresie Conspiracy c. Children to their Parents as the Jesuits the Popes Bloud-hounds did Charls eldest Son of Philip King of Spain for suspicion of Heresie whereupon he was murdered by the cruel Inquisition one friend to another a sin that David could not endure Psal 101. and Christ the Son of David as deeply disliked it in the Pharisees those make-bates that by accusing his Disciples to him one while and him to his Disciples another while sought to make a breach in his Family by setting off the one from the other Lest he curse thee and thou be found guilty Lest to cry quittance with thee he rip up thy faults such as it will be for thy shame Et dici potuisse non potuisse râ—fâ—lli He that speaketh what he should not shall hear of what he would not Put them in mind to speak evil of no man falsly and rashly without cause and necessity And why For we our selves also even I Paul and thou Titus were sometimes foolish disobedient c. Tit. 3.1 2 3. and may haply hear of it to our shame and sorrow if wee irritate others thereunto by way of recrimination Vers 11. There is a generation that curseth their father An evil and an adulterous generation doubtless a bastardly brood as were those in the Gospel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 3. a generation of Vipers that make their way into the world by their Dammes death These monsters of men are doomed to destruction Levit. 20. Hell gapes for them as also it doth for such as revile or denigrate their Masters Magistrates Ministers Benefactours Ancients There is a certain Plant which our Herbalists call Herbam impiam or wicked endweed whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to over-top the elder Such weeds grow too rife abroad It is an ill soyl that produceth them But of this before Vers 12. There are a generation that are pure c. As the ancient Puritans the Novatians Donatists Catharists Illuminates Non habeo Domine cui ignoscas said one Justitiary I have done nothing Lord that needs thy pardon Yee are those that justifie your selves saith Christ to the Pharisees All these things have I done from my youth what want I yet said one of them that farre over-weened his own worth and raâ—ed himself above the market In all my labours they shall finde none iniquity in me saith guilty Ephraim that were sin Hos 12.8 that were a foul businesse to find iniquity in Ephraim whose iniquities were yet grown over his head as appears throughout that whole Prophecy That Man of Sin the Pope will needs be held sinless and sundry of his Votaries say they can supererrogate And are there not amongst us even amongst us such Sinners before the Lord that stand upon their Pantofles and proudly ask who can say black is their eye There is a generation of these that is a continual succession of them Such dust-heaps you may finde in every corner And yet is not washed from their filthinesse Either of flesh or spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 they wallow in sin like Swine and welter in wickednesse which is filth and bloud Isa 4.4 the vomit of a Dog 2 Pet. 2.22 the excrement of the Devil the superfluity or garbage of naughtinesse and the stinking filth of a pestilent Ulcer as the Greek words used by St. James chap. 1.21 doe signifie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole world lyeth in wickednesse 1 Joh. 5.19 as a Lubber in a Lake as a Carcase in its slime Nil mundum in mundo and yet who so forward to boast or their good hearts to God-ward Vers 13. Oh how lofty are their eyes The eyes are the seat of pride and disdain which peep out at these windows The Hebrews have a saying that a mans minde is soonest seen in oculis in loculis in piculis in his eyes expences cups See chap. 6.17 Vers 14. There is a generation whose teeth c. These are sycophants and greedy gripers Speed of whom before often in this book In the year 1235. there were spread through England certain Roman usurers called Caursinâ— quasi capientes ursi devouring bears quoth Paris who had intangled the King Nobles and all that had to do with them These were called the Popes Merchants Sanguisuga Hirudo ab haerendo Non missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vers 15. The Horse-leech hath two daughters That is two forks in her tongue whereby she first pricketh the flesh and then sucketh the blood Hereunto Salomon seemeth to resemble those cruel cormorants spoken of in the former verse By the horse-leech some understand the devil that great red Dragon red with the blood of souls which he hath sucked and swallowed 1 Pet. 5.8 seeking whom he may let down his wide gullet whiles he glut-gluts their blood as the young Eaglets are said to do Joh. 39.30 by a word made from the sound By the horse-leeches two daughters they understand Covetousness and Luxury whom the devil hath long since espoused to the Romish Clergy Jegna legundum Cujus avaritiae totus non sufficit orbis Cujus luxuriae meretrix non sufficit omnis Vers 16. The grave Which in Hebrew hath its name of craving It is a Sarcophagus feeds on flesh and it as little appears as once in Pharaohs lean kine or as in those that having a flux take in much but are neither fuller nor fatter The word here used may be rendered Hell called by the Latins Infernus ab Inferendo from the devils continual carrying in souls to that place of torment And the barren womb Barren women are most desirous of children which yet are certain cares but uncertain comforts How impatient was Rachel how importunate was Hannah One hath well observed that the barren women in Scripture had the
Church and take away you so worthy a workman and labourer in the Lords Vineyard Acts and Mon. 1744. c And who knoweth the interpretation of a thing Wise a man may bee and yet not so apt and able to wise others Those wise ones that can wise others so as to turn them to righteousness shall shine as the brightness of the firmament yea as the Stars Dan. 12.3 they do so whilst upon earth Wisdome makes their very faces to shine Acts 6 15. as St. Stephens did and as Holy Jobs whiles hee was in a prosperous condition Chap. 29.8 9 10. Jobab hee was then the same some think that is mentioned Gen. 36.33 as when in distress his name was contracted into Job And then though himself were otherwise wise hee might want an Interpreter One of a thousand for such are rare every man cannot sell us this precious oyl Matth. 25.9 to shew unto him his uprightness that is the righteousness of his own experience how himself hath been helped and comforted in like case or to clear up to an afflicted Job his spiritual estate and to shew him his Evangelical Righteousness Oh how beautiful are the feet of such an Interpreter I have seen thy face saith the poor soul to such as though I had seen the face of God Gen. 33.10 A mans wisdome maketh his face to shine Godliness is venerable and reverend Holy and Reverend is his name Psal 112. Gods Image is amiable and admirable Natural conscience cannot but stoop and do obeysance to it What a deal of respect did Nebuchadnezzar and Darius put upon Daniel Alexander the Great upon Jaddus the High-Priest Theodosius upon Ambrose Constantine upon Paphnutius kissing that eye of his that was bored out for the cause of Christ c Godly men have a daunting presence as Athanasius had and Basil to whom when Valens the Arrian Emperour came whiles hee was in holy exercises it struck such a terrour into him Greg. Orat. de lande Basilii that hee reeled and had fallen had hee not been upheld by those that were with him Henry the second of France being present at the Martyrdome of a certain Taylor burnt by him for Religion was so terrified by the boldness of his countenance Epit. hist Gall. 82. and the constancy of his sufferings that hee swore at his going away that hee would never any more bee present at such a sight And the boldness of his face shall bee changed Or doubled his conscience bearing him out and making him undaunted as it did David Psal 3. and the Dutch Martyr Colonus who calling to the Judge that had sentenced him to death desired him to lay his hand upon his heart and then asked him whose heart did most beat his or the Judges By this boldness Jonathan and his Armour-bearer set upon the Garrison of the Philistims David upon Goliah their Champion The Black-Prince was so called not of his colour Speed 688. but of his valour and dreaded acts in battel Vers 2. To keep the Kings commandement Heb. Mouth i. e. The express word of command go not here by guess or good intention lest you speed as that Scotch Captain did who not expecting Orders from his Superiours took an advantage offered him of taking a Fort of the Enemies Speed for which good service hee was knighted in the morning but hanged in the after-noon of the same day for acting without order And that in regard of the Oath of God Thine Oath of Allegiance to thy Prince This Papists make nothing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pascenius scoffs King James for the invention of it They can swear with their mouths and keep their hearts unsworn as shee in the Comedy Mercatorum est stare juramentis say they at Rome They can assoil men of their allegiance at pleasure and slip their solemn Oaths as easily as Monkies do their Collars And I would this were the sin of Papists onely and that there were not those found even amongst us that keep no oaths further than makes for their own turn like as the Jews keep none unless they swear upon their own Torah Weems brought out of their Synagogues Vers 3. Bee not hasty to go out of his sight Turn not thy back discontentedly fling not away in a chase for this will be construed for a contempt As it was in the Earl of Essex Anno 1598. Dissention falling out between the Queen and him about a fit man for Governour of Ireland hee forgetting himself and neglecting his duty uncivilly turned his back with a scornful countenance Shee waxing impatient gave him a cuff on the ear bidding him bee gone with a vengeance Hee laid his hand upon his sword the Lord Admiral interposing himself hee swore a great oath Camd. Elisch fol. 494. that hee neither could nor would swallow so great an indignity nor would have born it at King Henry the Eighths hands and in great discontentment hasted from the Court But within a while after hee became submiss and was received again into favour by the Queen who alwaies thought it more just to offend a man than to hate him Blunts voyage pag. 97. The very Turks are said to receive humiliation with all sweetness but to bee remorseless to those that bear up Vers 4. Where the word of a King is there is power Ibi dominatio Hee hath long hands and can reach thee at a great distance as Mithridates did when with one letter he slew fourscore thousand Citizens of Rome Val. Max. lib. 9 that were scattered up and down his Kingdome for Trading-sake So Selimus the Great Turk Turk hist. fol. 885 in revenge of the loss received at the battel of Lepanto was once in a minde to have put to death all the Christians in his Dominions in number infinite Charls the Ninth of France is reported to have been the death of thirty thousand of his Protestant Subjects in one years space Anno 1572. See Dan. 5.19 And who may say unto him What dost thou viz. Without danger What safety can there bee in taking a Bear by the tooth or a Lion by the beard I dare not dispute said the Philosopher to the Emperour Adrian with him that hath thirty Legions at his command Neque in cum scribere qui potest proscribere Praescus praesentem Pontisicem redarguit Polycraticon conscripsit Jac. Rev. 145. nor write against him that can as easily undo mee as bid it to be done How be it Elias Micaiah John Baptist and other holy Prophets and Ministers have dealt plainly with great Princes and God hath secured them John Bishop of Salisbury reproved the Pope to his face and yet the Canonists say that although the Pope should draw millions of souls to Hell with him none may dare to say unto him What dost thou But Philip the Fair made bold with his Holiness when hee began his letter to him with Sciat Fatuitas Tua c. So did
Sermon preached by Mr. Paul Bains Mr. Whateley by Mr. Dod. In Righteousness or by Gods faithfulness in fulfilling his promises whereby they are made partakers of the Divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Ver. 28. And the destruction Heb. the shivering or shattering Tremelius rendereth it the fragments or scraps sc of the dross above mentioned these shall be broken and burnt together Shall be together As well the sinners in Zion or Hypocrites as the Transgressors or notorious offendors shall be destroyed without distinction Such as turn aside unto their crooked wayes stealing their passage to Hell as it were the Lord shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity with openly prophane persons Psalm 125.5 The Angels also shall bundle them up together to be burnt Mat. 13.30 Ver. 29. For they shall be ashamed of the Okes Pudefient peribunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall be ashamed of their false wayes of worship but not with a godly shame such as was Ephraims Ier. 31.19 that made him say What have I do any more with Idols Hos 14.8 See Ezek. 16.61 36.31 Dan. 9.5 2 Thess 3.14 Of this holy shame Chrysostom saith that it is the beginning of Salvation as that which drives a man into himself makes him fall low in his own eyes shame and shent himself in the presence of God seek for covering by Christ that the shame of his nakedness may not appear Rev. 3.18 c. But the shame here mentioned is of another nature unseasonable unprofitable not conducing at all to true Repentance such as was that of Cain and of those Jews in Jeremy Chap. 2.26 and of Reprobates at the Resurrection Dan. 12.2 Which ye have desired Or have delighted in as Adulterers do sin their sweet sin Alludit verecunde ad scortationem qua est in idolorum cultu Oecolamp as they call it And the Gardens where you have wickedly worshipped Priapus or Baal-peor That ye have chosen Where ye have had your sacra electitia which now ye see cannot help you Ver. 30. For ye shall be as an oak Peccato poenam accommodat By oaks they sinned and by a withering oak is their punishment set forth Infelicissime marcesceth exarescetis Jun. as also by a garden that wanteth water wherein every thing fadeth and hangeth the head as suffering a Marasus Well might God say Hos 12.10 I have multiplied Visions and used similitudes by the Ministery of the Prophets such as are very natural plain and proper Ver. 31. And the strong shall be as tow The Idol is here called the strong one either by an Irony sicut siquis scelestum bonum virum dicat as if one should say to a knave You are a right honest man or else according to the Idolaters false opinion of it and vain expectation of it like as 2 Chron. 28.23 the gods of Damascus are said to have smitten or plagued Ahaz not that they did so indeed for an Idol is nothing in the world and this strong in the Text is weak as water Ier. 10.5 2 Cor. 8.4 but he thought they did so like as the silly Papists also think of their He-saints and She-saints whereof they have not a few but are shamefully foyled and frustrated besides that they are here and elswhere threatned with unquenchable fire Hierom following Symmachus for tow hath the refuse of tow which is quickly kindled And the maker of it Or and his work that is all your pains taken to no purpose in worshipping your mawmets and bringing your Memories as they are called and presents to them And they shall both burn together As one saith of Aretines obscene book that it is opus dignum quod cremetur cum Authore Boissard Biblioth Rev. 19.20 fit for nothing but to make a bone-fire to burn the Author of it in The Beast and his Complices shall be cast alive into the burning lake And none shall quench them Hell-fire is unquenchable chap. 30. ult Mat. 3.12 This Origen denied and is therefore justly condemned by all sound Divines CHAP. II. Ver. 1. THe word that Isaiah the son of Amos saw An august Title or inscription such as is not to be found in the whole book again unless it be in the former Chapter There alass he had laboured in vain and spent his strength for nought and in vain as chap. 49.4 Howbeit he will try again as considering that he had lost many a worse labour and although his Report were not believed chap. 53.1 yet he would bestow one more Sermon upon them the short Notes and general Heads whereof we have in this and the two following Chapters I say the general Heads For Calvin in his Preface to this Book telleth us that it was the manner of the holy Prophets to gather a compendious summ of what they had preached to the people and the same to affix to the gates of the Temple that the Prophesie might be the better viewed and learned of all after which it was taken down by the Priest and put into the Treasury of the Temple for the benefit of after-Ages Ver. 2 3 4. And it shall come to pass c. See for these three Verses what I have noted on Micah 4.1 2 3. where we shall find that that Prophet hath the self-same words with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So hath Obadiah the same with Jeremy St. Mark with St. Matthew St. Iude with St. Peter the blessed Virgin in her Magnificat with holy Hannah in her Canticle c. Ver. 5. O house of Jacob So Mic. 2.7 O thou that art called the house of Jacob and the house of Israel Isa 5.7 Thou that art called a Jew and makest thy boast of God Per aemulaticnem provocat Oecolamp Rom. 2.17 This Rupertus maketh to be the voyce and advice of the converted and Christian Gentiles to the Iews others of our Prophet to his perverse Country-men to joyn with the Gentiles or rather to go before them as worthy Guides in Heaven-wayes and not to lie behind those whom they have so much slighted Let us walk in the light of the Lord that is in the Law of the Lord for Lex est Lux Prov. 6.23 and not by the sparks of our own Tinder-boxes Isa 50.11 not by the Rush-candle of Philosophical prescriptions Let us walk in the fear of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est in Apostrophe and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost as Acts 9.31 Ver. 6. Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people Or But thou hast c. By a sad Apostrophe to God he sets forth the Iews dereliction and destruction irrecoverable together with the causes of it their impiety cruelty c. but especially their contempt of Christ and his Kingdom Let us beware and be warned by their example Rom. 11. To be forsaken of God is the greatest mischief Lay hold upon him therefore with Mary Magdalen and say nobiscum
were prayed to take the office and to help to govern the State but here were none left for such a purpose Ver. 13. A Court for Owles Or Ostritches see on ver 11. Ver. 14. The wild beasts of the desart Heb. Ziim Jiim See Chap. 12.21 22. where these monstrous creatures are said to dance whence Basil noteth that men learned of devils to dance Conr. Clingius And another saith that a dance is a circle the centre whereof is the devil the circumference all his Angels And the Satyr shall cry to his fellow Heb. the rough or hairy one Chald. Daemones inter se colludent the devils shall play among themselves Satan is a rough harsh spirit so are his See Levit. 17.7 Ver. 15. There shall the great Owle make her nest Heb. Kippoz The Hebrews themselves agree not what creatures these are here mentioned so far are they faln from the knowledge of the Scripture Their tale about Lilits once Adams first wife but now a scriech-Owle or an evil spirit is not worthy the mentioning Ver. 16. Seek ye out of the book of the Lord Sciscitamini ex libro Domini the Holy Bible which Bishop Bonneri Chaplain called in scorn of the Martyrs Your little pretty Gods-book Another Bohemian blasphemer for Biblia called it Vitlia which in the Bohemian language signifieth Vomit But let us search the Scriptures and particularly this Prophecy commanded to be written in a book chap. 30.8 and compare the truth of these predictions with the events None shall want her mate Some write of the Asp he never wandreth alone without his companion and none of these birds of desolation want their mate so craft and cruelty do ever go together in the Churches enemies Ver. 17. And he hath cast the lot for them i. e. For those creatures of prey aforementioned From generation i. e. For many generations CHAP. XXXV Ver. 1. THe wildernesse and the solitary place shall be glad for them The Edomites and other enemyes have had their part It hath been sufficiently said Woe unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him And now the Prophet is bidden to say to the Righteous to tell him so from the Lord that it shall be well with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him Isa 3.10 11. The wildernesse and the desart that is the poor people of God that have been oppressed and slighted in this world shall be restored into a happy and flourishing estate the Church shall have her Halcyons under Hezekiah but especially under Christ She shall have it both in temporals and spirituals ver 2. Ver. 2. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it the excellency of Carmel c. Outward blessings shall be heaped upon Gods people even all that heart can wish or need require They shall see the glory of the Lord Spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Jesus shall be conferred upon them also even every good gift and perfect giving from the Father of lights Qui icturatos intexit floribus hortos Quique jubet rutilis albescere lilia campis Ver. 3. Strengthen ye the weak hands q. d. Chear up my hearts be of good courage and God shall strengthen your hearts all ye that hope in the Lord. Comfort ye also one another with these words and build up each other on your most holy Faith and I will shew you how and in what termes you shall do it Ver. 4. Say to them that are of a fearful heart Inconsideratis to them that consider not the Promises but forget the consolations Heb. 12.5 so poring upon their sins that they see not their Saviour Behold your God will come with vengeance He will tread Satan under your feet shortly Rom. 16.20 Even your God with a recompence Diabolo par pari retribuet Christus saith Hierom Christ will be even with the devil He had got one of Christs Disciples Judas and to cry quittance Christ gat one of his Paul Cyprian was wont thus to comfort his hearers Veniet Antichristus sed superveniet Christus Antichrist will come but Christ will not be long behind him Ver. 5. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened This was fulfilled corporally in cures wrought by Christ Mat. 4.27 and 11.5 c. and spiritually in the preaching of the Gospel by the efficacy of his spirit Act. 26.18 and 16.14 Apollonius Tyanaeus could never do such miracles nor any other This sheweth that Jesus of Nazareth was the true Messiah Ver. 6. Then shall the lame man leap as an hart As that impotent man did Act. 3.8 and those Loripedes Heb. 12.13 And the tongue of the dumb sing As good old Zacharies did Luk. 1. Not so much for his speech restored or his son received as for his Saviour now at hand and as did those that sang He hath done all things well he maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak Mac. 7.37 yea to utter the great things of God and to speak good of his name Lo here saith Luther miracles to confirm the Gospel to be of God against those that deride his Ministers saying They cannot make so much as a lame horse sound For all they in whose hearts it taketh effect of blind are made to see of deaf to hear of lame to go and of dumb to speak For in the wildernesse shall waters break out This and that which followeth in the next verse Junius maketh to be the matter of their song viz. the grace of God abundantly communicated to his Church See Joh. 7.38 39. The Jews dream that when their Messiah cometh the red sea shall again be divided and the rock cloven much water gushing out c. Thus they work themselves into the fooles Paradise of a sublime dotage by misunderstanding this text Ver. 7. And the parched ground c. See on ver 6. Ver. 8. And an high-way shall be there i. e. In the Church of Christ and a way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kings high-way to Heaven arcta ampla latet lucet The way of holinesse Or the way of the Sanctuary But it shall be for those Those Beneficiaries of Christ mentioned ver 5 6. the ransomed of the Lord ver 10. The wayfaring men though fooles Simple Christians Shall not erre Misse their way or miscarry in it Ver. 9. No Lyon shall be there The Devil that roaring Lyon nor his actuaries tyrants and hereticks shall haunt these holy high-wayes God will preserve his people from all deveratory evils as Tertullian calleth them 2 Thes 3.3 that wicked one the devil shall not once touch them 1 John 5.18 so as to thrust his deadly sting into them Ver. 10. And the ransomed of the Lord Those happy ones Deut. 33.29 Shall return To the Lord from whom they had deeply revolted Tantum gaudebimus quantum amabimus Tantum amabimus quantum cognoscemus Aug. With songs As they were wont to do in their
without a mystery fith we are all strangers in this world Epist ad Diog. neither have we here any continuing City Justin Martyr saith of the Christians of his time that every strange Land was to them a Country and every Country a strange Land they looked upon themselves as Citizens of the new Jerusalem M. Fuller hist of Cambridge p. 28. Ver. 3. For thou shalt break forth i. e. Bring forth abundantly and beyond belief Margaret Countesse of Henneberg brough forth at a birth in Holland 365 children one skul whereof I have seen saith mine Author no bigger then a bead or bean The Church brought forth three thousand at one birth Acts 2.41 and some whole Nations at another Isa 66.8 Rom. 10.18 And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles Shall spiritually become Lords of the world peopling it with a new and holy generation of such as seek Gods Face this is Jacob Psal 24.6 This text the Jews and Millenaries carnally construe Ver. 4. Fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed As widdows and barren women wont to be Thou hast been without God and without Christ in the world but henceforth thou shalt be married to him who is raised from the dead that thou maist bring forth fruit unto God Rom. 7.4 Ipse enim quod vult jubet Act. Mâ—n 1490. dat quod jubet When you would and should be certain and quiet in Conscience saith Mr. Bradford Martyr in a sweet letter of his to a woman troubled in mind then should your faith burst through all things until it come to Christ crucified and the eternal sweet mercies and goodnesse of God in Christ Here here is the bridal-bed here is you Spouses resting-place creep into it and in your armes of faith embrace him Bewail your weaknesse your unworthinesse your diffidence c. and you shall see he will turn to you what said I you shall see nay I should have said you shall feel he will turn to you Ver. 5. For thy Maker is thine husband Heb. thy Makers as Job 35.10 See the Note there De sancta Trinitate dictum saith Junius Mariti tui factores tui Isaac hath the name of the most loving husband we read of in holy Writ but his love to Rebecca was not comparable to this of Christ to his Church Ephes 5.25 26. where I doubt not but the Apostle Paul had respect to this passage in Isaiah The Lord of Hosts is his name Therefore thou his wife art sure of Protection and provision of all things necessary to life and godlinesse for he hateth putting away Mal. 2.16 and will bear with more then any husband else would Jer. 3.1 Joh. 13.1 Surely as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him Psal 103.11 The God of the whole earth Of the Church universal Ver. 6. For the Lord hath called thee Or recalled thee As a woman fosaken grieved in spirit Because forsaken This the Lord out of his conjugal affection cannot endure And a wife of youth Which can least of all bear such a rejection as being in her prime and likely to be longtime desolate and disconsolate If the Church in this condition can but say as that Dutchesse Douager of Millain once did Sola facta solum Deum sequor he will say as Jer. 2.2 I remember thee the kindnesse of thy youth the love of thine espousals Ver. 7. For a small moment have I forsaken thee I have made thee believe so at least by suffering thee to fall into manifold temptations Jam. 1.2 but for thy greatest good Heb. 12.11 as 1. For Probation 2. For Prevention 3. For Purgation 4. For Preparation to mercy And although it should last as long as life yet that were but for a moment for what is life but a spot of time betwixt two eternities And God therefore taketh liberty to do it because he hath such an eternity of time to reveale his kindnesse in time enough for kisses and embraces But usually God taketh off the smarting plaister as soon as it hath eaten away the proud flesh But with great mercies Heb. with great tender mercies such as the mother beareth towards the babe of her own body 1 King 3.16 Gods Mercies are more then maternal Will I gather thee Or take thee up as Psal 27.10 See the Note there Ver. 8. In a little wrath God can let forth his wrath in minnums in little bubbles as the word here rendered wrath properly signifieth This wrath to the Saints is but love displeased and soon pacified again I hid my face from thee God sometimes concealeth his love out of increasement of love he departeth from us but then turneth again and looketh through the chinkers as that Martyr phrased it to see how we take it Fathers leave their children saith One the other side the stile and help them over when they cry they seem to leave them sometimes in a throng and then reach them the hand again upon their complaint So is it here To say God hath cast me off because he hath hid his Face is a fallacy fetcht out of the devils Topicks When the Sun is eclipsed foolish people may think it will never recover light but wise men know it will As during the Eclipse Dr. Goodwin though the earth wanteth the light of the Sun for a time yet not the influence thereof for the mettals that are ingendred in the bowels of the earth are concocted by the Sun at the same time so doth Gods favour visit mens hearts in the power heat and vigorous influence of his grace when the light and comfort of it is intercluded But with everlasting kindnesse See a like elegant Antithesis with a double Hyperbole to boot 2 Cor. 4.17 Ver. 9. For this is as the waters of Noah Gen. 9.9 11 For as I have sworn i. e. I have said it Gods Word is as good as his oath See the like Exod. 32.13 with Gen. 12.7 So have I sworn And given thee the Sacraments for thy confirmation like as I gave him the Rainbow Ver. 10. For the mountains shall depart See Mat. 24.35 Psal 46.2 with the Notes But my kindnesse shall not depart from thee This sweet Promise comforted Olevian at the point of death Although sight hearing speech depart from me said he yet Gods loving-kindnesse shall never depart This was somewhat like that of David Psal 73.26 my flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Neither shall the Covenant of my peace God is in a league with his people offensive and defensive such as was that of Jehosophat with Ahab and this Covenant is an hive of heavenly honey Ver. 11. O thou afflicted tossed with tempest and not comforted This is the Churches stile and state in this present life Ecclesia est haeres crucis Luth. None out of hell have suffered more than Saints Behold I will lay thy stones with fair
integrity good of a little child a young Saint and an old Angel an admirable Preacher as Keckerman rightly calleth him Keck de Rhet. Eccl. cap. ult and propoundeth him for a pattern to all Preachers of the Gospel Nevertheless this incomparable Prophet proved to be a man of many sorrows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lib. 1. Epist 198. as Isidor Pelusiot a most calamitous person as appeareth by this Book and one that had his share in sufferings from and fellow-sufferings with his ungrateful Country-men as much as might be Nazianzen saith most truly of him Prophetarum omnium ad commiserationem propensissimus Orat. 17. ad cives Nazi n. that he was the most compassionate of all the Prophets witness that Pathetical wish of his chap. 9.1 2 3. Oh that my head were waters c. and that holy Resolve chap. 13.17 But if ye will not hear it my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lords flock is carried away captive It was this good mans unhappiness to be a Physician to a dying State Tunc etenim doctâ plus valet arte malum Long time he had laboured amongst this perverse people but to very small purpose Vide Oecol as himself complaineth chap. 27.13 14. after Isaiah chap. 49. whom he succeeded in his office of a Prophet some scores of years between but with little good successe For as in a dying man his eyes wax dim and all his senses decay till at length they are utterly lost so fareth it with Common-wealths quando suis fatis urgentur when once they are ripe for ruine the nearer they draw to destruction the more they are overgrown with blindness madness security obstinacy such as despiseth all remedies and leaveth no place at all for wholesome advice and admonition Loe this was the case of those improbi reprobi reprobate silver shall men call them chap. 6.30 with whom our Prophet had to do Moses had not more to do with the Israelites in the wilderness then Jeremy had with these stifnecked and uncircumcised in in heart and ears Acts 7.51 as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their Fathers were The times were not unlike those described by Tacitus concerning which Casaeubon saith quibus nulla unquam aut virtutum steriliora aut virtutbus inimiciora that no times were ever more barren of virtues or greater enemies to virtues And to say sooth how could they be much better when the Book of the Law was wanting for above sixty years and the whole land overspred with the deeds of darknesse Josiah indeed that good young King by the advice of this Prophet Jermy Josias à zelo ignis divini nomen babet Significat autem Jeremias Altitudinem Dei vel Exaltatum à Deo who was younger then himself but both full of zeal did what he could to reform both Church and State but he alass could not do withall the Reformation in his dayes was forced by him and there was foul work in secret as appeareth by Zephany who was our Prophets Contemporary it met with much opposition both from Princes Priest and People who all had been wofully habituated and hardned in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon c. Unto which also and other abominations not a few they soon relapsed when once Josiah was taken away and his successours proved to be such as countenanced and complied with the people in all their impieties and excesses This Prophet therefore was stirred up by God to oppose the current of the times and the torrent of vices to call them to repentance and to threaten the Seventy years captivity which because they believed not neither returned unto the Lord came upon them accordingly as is set forth in the end of this Prophecy Whence Procopius Isidor and others have gathered that besides this Prophecy and the Lamentations Jeremiah wrot the first and second Book of Kings But that is as uncertain as that he was stoned to death by the Jews in Egypt Isidor Doroth. Epiphan or that the Egyptians afterwards built him an honourable Sepulcher and resorted much unto it for devotion sake when as R. Solomon thinketh from chap. 44.28 that Jeremy together with Baruc returned out of Egypt into Judaea and there dyed The son of Hilkiah The High-priest who found the Book of the Law say the Chaldee Paraphrast and others but many think otherwise and the Prophet himself addeth Isal 10. Of the Priests that were at Anathoth Poor Anathoth renowned as much by Jeremy Ex praepositis Templi Iunuitur in ipsum rectius potuisse competere Propheticum munus quam in multos alios vel ex aula vel ex caula vocatos as little Hippo was afterwards by great Austin Bishop there The Targum tels us that Jeremy was one of the twenty four Cheiftains of the Temple A Priest he was and so an ordinary Teacher before he acted as a Prophet but his Country-men of Anathoth evil-intreated him In the land of Benjamin Some three miles from Jerusalem Ver. 2. Vnto whom the Word of the Lord came in the dayes of Josiah Woe be to the world because of the Word The Lord keepeth count what Preachers he sendeth what pains they take and how long to how little purpose they preach unto a people He saith that it was the Word of the Lord for authority sake and that none might despise his youth sith he was sent by the Ancient of dayes In the thirteenth year of his reigne Eighteen years then he prophecyed under good Josiah who was too blame doubtlesse in not sending to advise with this or some other Prophet before he went forth against Pharaoh-Necho sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts Ver. 3. It came also in the dayes of Jehoiachim Called at first Eliachim by his good Father Josiah from whom he degenerated cutting Jeremies roul with a pen-knife and burning it chap. 36. at which his Fathers heart would have melted as 2 Chron. 34.27 Vnto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah Jehoahaz and Jehoiachim are not mentioned because their raign was so short hardly half a year By this computation it appeareth that Jeremy prophecyed forty years at least And the Holy Ghost setteth a special mark as a Reverend Writer hath well observed upon those forty years of his prophecying Lightfoots Harmony Chron. of old Test Ezek. 4.6 where when the Lord summeth up the years that were betwixt the falling away of the ten Tribes and the burning of the Temple three hundred and ninety in all and counteth them by the Prophets lying so many dayes upon his left-side he bids him to lye forty dayes upon his right-side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty dayes a day for a year Not to signify that it was forty years above three hundred and ninety betwixt the revolt of the ten Tribes and
friends in Judah 1 Sam. 30.26 Great Alexander when he had prevailed at the river Granicum and was now ascended into the upper parts of Asia sent back many gifts to assure them of his love in Macedonia The like doth God to his Church by sending them Pastours with such two adjuncts as are here 1. Adherent his own approbation 2. Inherent skill to teach the people See Eph. 4.8 with the Notes Ver. 16. They shall say no more the Ark c. When the Gospel shall be preached Paulus ea vocat stercora rudera the ancient ceremonies shall be abolished This was not so easily beleeved and is therefore here again and again assured Ver. 17. They shall call Jerusalem i. e. The Church Christian The throne of the Lord The throne of glory chap. 4.21 So Exod. 17.16 because the hand upon the throne of the Lord that is say some Amalecks hand upon the Church which is elsewhere also called the Temple of God Neither shall they walk any more c. i. e. Not at random but by rule Eph. 5.15 Heb. not any more after the sight of their heart i. e. as themselves thought good but as God directeth them Ver. 18. In that day shall the house of Judah walk with the house of Israel All the Elect shall be reunited in Christ unless we shall understand it of the last reduction of the Nation into one Isa 11.13 Ezek. 37.16 22. Hos 1.11 And they shall come together out of the land of the North i. e. Out of the place of their captivity whereby was figured our spiritual captivity c. Ver. 19. But I said How shall I put thee among the children How but by my free grace alone sith thou hast so little deserved it the causes of our Adoption see Eph. 1.5 6. And give thee a pleasant land The heavenly Canaan which is here fitly called a land of desire or delight an heritage or possession of goodliness a land of the Hâ—sts or desires of the Nations And I said thou shalt call me My Father And My Father affectionately uttered is an effectual prayer As Pater I brevissima quidem vex est sed omnia complectitur saith Luther i. e. Ah Father is but a little word but very comprehensive it is such a piece of eloquence as far exceedeth the rowlings of Demosthenes Cicero or whatsoever most excellent Orator Ver. 20. Surely as a treacherous wife c. This ye have done but that 's your present grief and now you look upon your former disloyalties with a lively hatred of them holding that the time past of your life may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles c. 1 Pet. 4.3 Ver. 21. A voyce was heard upon the high places Where they were wont to worship Idols now they weep for their sins and pray for pardon For they have perverted their wayes This is it that now draweth from them prayers and teares See Chap. 31.18 Lam 5.14 Oi nalanu chi chattanu Wo worth us that ever we thus sinned Some understand those words A voyce is heard as shewing Gods readiness to hear penitent sinners so soon as they begin to turn to him even before they speak as the Father of the Prodigal met him c. Ver. 22. Return ye backsliding children Give the whole turn and not the half-turn only So Act. 2.38 Peter said to them that were already prickt at heart Repent ye even to a transmentation and chap. 3.19 Repent ye and be converted that your sins may be blotted out Repent not only for sin but from sin too be through in your repentance set it be such as shall never be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 It is not a slight sorrow that will serve Apostates turn it must be deep and down-right And I will heal your back slidings Pardon your sins and heal your natures I will love you freely and cause your broken bones to rejoyce Hos 14.4 Isa 19.22 Oh sweetest promise I what wonder then that their hard hearts were forthwith melted by it into such a gracious compliance as followeth Behold we come to thee See Zach. 13.9 with the Note Ver. 23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills Heb. Truly in vain from the hills the multitude the mountaines it is like to that Hos 14.3 Ashur shall not save us neither will we say any more to the works of our hands Ye are our gods See the Notes there Truely in the Lord our God They trust not God at all that not alone Ver. 24. For shame hath devoured the labour of our Fathers That shameful thing Baal hath done it Chap. 11.13 Hos 9.10 he hath even eaten up our cattle and our Children of whom if any be left yet there is nothing left for them And this we now see long and last poenitentia ducti nostro malo edocti having bought our wit and paid dear for our learning And may not many ill husbands amongst us say as much of their drunkenness and wantonness See Prov. 5.9 10 11 12. with the Notes Ver. 25 We lye down in our shame We that once had a whores forehead ver 3. and seemed past grace are now sore ashamed of former miscarriages yea our confusion covereth us as Psal 44.15 because we have sinned against the Lord our God we and our Fathers from our youth unto this day and have not obeyed the voyce of our God Lo here a dainty form and pattern of penitent confession such as is sure to find mercy Haec sanè omni tempore Christiana est satisfactio non meritoria aliqua Papistica atque nugivendula Only we must not acknowledge sin with dry eyes Zegedia but point every sin with a teare c. CHAP. IIII. Ver. 1. IF thou wilt return O Israel As thou seemest willing to do and for very good reason Chap. 2.22 23 24. Thou art but a beaten rebel and to stand it out with me is to no purpose thou must either turn or burn Neither will it help thee to return fainedly for I love truth in the inward parts and hate hypocrisie halting and tepidity If therefore thou wilt return Return unto me Return as far as to me not from one evil course to another chap. 2.36 for that is but to be tossed as a ball from one of the devils hands to the other but to me with thy whole heart seriously sincerely and zealously for Non amat qui non zelat To a tyrant thou shalt not turn but to one that will both assist thee Prov. 1.23 and accept thee Zach. 1.2 And if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight i. e. Thine Idols out of thine house and out of thine heart Ezek. 14.3 4. Then shalt thou not remove But still dwell in the land and do good feeding on faith as Tremellius rendreth that Psal 37.3 Ver. 2. And thou shalt swear The Lord liveth Not by Baal shalt thou swear or other Idols but by the living God or by the
to enter into Egypt This was to go out of Gods blessing as we use to say into the worlds warm sun-shine this was to put themselves into the punishing hands of the living God Ver. 18. Because of the Chaldaeans for they were afraid of them But they should rather have sanctified the Lord God in their hearts and made him their dread as Esay 8.13 The fear of man bringeth a snare but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe Prov. 29.25 See the Notes there Ob incustodiaÌ„ Because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah And together with him many Chaldaeans whom Johanan and his captaines should have cautioned and better guarded as the King of Babylon would better tell them they thought and withall punish them for their neglect CHAP. XLII Ver. 1. THen all the Captains of the forces and Johanan Or even Johanan he among the rest and above the rest Ille huic negotio non interfuit modo sed etiam praefuit And Jezaniah the son of Hoshajah Brother belike to that Azariah chap. 43.2 a noble pair of brethren in evil And all the people Who follow their Rulers as in a beast the whole body followeth the head Drew near They came as clients use to do for learned counsel Ver. 2. Let we beseech thee our supplication be accepted before thee Here they seem to humble themselves before Jeremiah the Prophet which because King Zedekiah did not he came to ruine 2 Chron. 26.12 And pray for us unto the Lord thy God Good words may be found even in hell-mouth sometimes Who would think but these men had spoken what they did unfainedly and from their very hearts when as it soon after appeared that all was no better then deep dissimulation They had made their conclusion aforehand to go down to Egypt only in a preâ—ence of piety and for greater credit they would have had Gods approbation which sith they cannot they will on with their design howsoever fall back fall edge O most hateful hypocrisy O contumacy worthy of all mens execration Ver. 3. That the Lord thy God may shew us the way But they had set themselves in the way to Egypt before they came with this request to the Prophet why went they else to Geruth Chimham the rode toward Egypt chap. 41.17 why were they also so peremptory when they knew Gods mind to the contrary chap. 43. And the thing that we may do Good words all along but those we say are light cheap Quid vero verba quaero facta cum videam they were as forward to speak fair as their ancestours were in the wildernesse but oh that there were a heart in this people saith God to do as they have said Ver. 4. I have heard you behold I will pray The wisdom from above is perswasible easie to be intreated Jam. 3. ult and good men are ready to every good work Tit. 3.1 Jeremy hoped they might speak their whole hearts and promiseth to do his best for them both by praying and prophecying Whatsoever thing the Lord shall answer you I will declare Sic veteres nihil ex se vel potuerunt vel protulerunt The Prophets spake as they were inspired by the Spirit of truth Christ spake nothing but what was consonant to the holy Scriptures The Apostles delivered to the Churches what they had received of the Lord Irenaeus lib. 3. Eccles hist lib. 4. cap. 14. 1 Cor. 11.23 Polycarp told the Churches that he delivered nothing to them but what he had received of the Apostles c. Ver. 5. The Lord be a true and faithful witnesse between us Did these men know what it was so solemnly to swear a thing Or were they stark Atheists thus to promise that with an oath which they never meant to perform At sperate Deum memorem fandi atque nefandi Their King Zedekiah paid dear for his perjury to God and men Ver. 6. Whether it be good or whether it be evil i. e. Whether it please us or crosse us Veniat veniat verbum Domini submittemus ei sexcenta si nobis essent colla said a good man once that is Let Gods Word come to us once and he shall be obeyed whatever come of it These in the text seem to say as much but they say it only neither was it much to be liked that they were so free of their promises and all in their own strength without any condition of help from heaven as if the matter had been wholly in their own hands and they had had free-will to whatsoever good purpose or practice O coecas mentes hominum We will obey the voyce of the Lord Yes as far as a few good words will go Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest Ovid. Ver. 7. And it came to passe that after ten dayes So long God held his holy Prophet in request and so he doth still his best servants many times thereby tying as it were the sacrifice to the hornes of the Altar How impatient those wretched Roysters were of such a delay we may well imagine the Chinois use to whip their gods when they will not hear and help them forthwith but God held them off as unworthy of any answer and seemed by his silence to say unto them as Ezek. 20.3 Are ye come to enquire of me As I live saith the Lord God I will not be enquired of by you Ver. 8. And all the people from the least unto the greatest For the Word of God belongeth to all of all sorts and as the lesser fishes bite soonest so the poor are Gospellized Mat. 11.5 when the richer stand out Ver. 9. Vnto whom ye sent me to present your supplication Heb. to make your supplication fall in his presence This I have not ceased to do ever since but had no answer till now and it may be that now you may the better regard it Cito data cito vilescunt Ver. 10. Then will I build you Promittitur felicitatio parabola ab architectura agricultura desumpta God promiseth to blesse and settle them by a two fold similitude used also by the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.9 ye are Gods husbandry ye are Gods building See chap. 24.6 For I repent me of the evil A term taken from men Gen. 6.6 though repentance in men is a change of the will but repentance in God is only the willing of a change mutatio rei non Dei See chap. 18.8 Ver. 11. Fear not the King of Babylon See on chap. 41.18 For I am with you to save you Not only to protect you from the Babylonian but also to encline his heart to clemency toward you ver 12. Ver. 12. And I will shew mercyes unto you Tender mercyes such as proceed from the bowels and of a parent nay a mother This was more then all the rest Ver. 13. But if ye say We will not dwell in this land Because more barren then Egypt and besides beset with many and mighty enemies Neither
gracelesnesse She remembreth not her last end i. e. What a black tail of plagues sin draweth after it Plura de extremis loqui pars ignaviae est Tacit. lib. 2. Hist and that for all these things she must come to Judgment Memorare novissima is a good preservative from sin but most men are of Otho the Emperours mind who thought it a piece of dastardy to speak or think much of death whereas Moses assureth us that by keeping out the thoughts of death we keep our spirits void of true magnanimity and that one of those that will consider their latter end would chase a thousand Deut 32.30 Therefore she came down wonderfully Heb. with wondermentâ— Her incogitancy and inconsideratnesse together with the licentious wickednesse following thereupon being more heavy then a talent of lead Zach. 5.7 brought her down with a powder as we say ita ut ad miraculum corruerit O Lord behold mine affliction If not me as utterly unworthy yet mine affliction as thou once didst Hagar's Gen. 16.13 and if I may obtain no favour yet why should the enemy insult to thy dishonour Deut. 32.27 Psal 35.26 38.16 Jer. 48.26 42. Zeph. 2.20 Ver. 10. The adversary The common enemy both of God and us out of hatred of the truth and the professors thereof Hath spread out his hand His plundring and sacrilegious hand Vpon her pleasant things But especially those that were consecrated to the service of God in the Temple The Rabbines here by pleasant or desirable things understand principally the book of the Law which say they the Moabites and the Ammonites sought for in the Temple that they might burn it because therein was forbidden their admission into the Church for ever Ver. 11. All her people sigh And so think to ease their grief They shall seek bread The staff of life which without repaire by nutrition would be soon extinct so in the spiritual life which made Job prefer the word before his necessary food There is a famine of the Word which is much worse Amos 8. Isa 5. Pray against it and prevent it They have given their pleasant things for meat Which must be had at any rate much more must the food of the soul Act. Mon. 750. Keckerm praefat Geograph Our forefathers gave five Markes or more for a good book a load of hay for a few Chapters of St. James or of St. Paul in English saith Mr. Fox The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus for his discovering voyage to the West Indies when he had shewed his Maps though our Henry the seventh loth to part with mony slâ—ghted his proffers and thereby the golden mines were found and gained to the Spanish Crown Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life which next to his soul should be most dear unto him Our ancestours in Queen Maries dayes were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives To relieve the soul Heb. to make the soul come again For Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est Life must be fetcht again by food when it is fainting away See O Lord and consider Quam delicata epulatrix facta sim to what hard meat I am held to how strait an allowance See it and be sensible of my prisoners pittance and how I have made many a meals meat upon the promises when I have wanted bread as that good woman once said Ver. 12. Is it nothing to you all ye that passe by the way Siste viator Stay passenger hast not a tear to shed c. Sanchez thinks that this is Jerusalem's Epitaph made by her self as to be engraven on her tomb to move compassion The Septuagint have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hei ad vos subaudi clamo Woe and Alasse cry I to you Make ye nothing of my misery I wish the like may never befal you Ne sit super vos for so some render the words Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow What we see in the water seemeth greater then it is so in the waters of Marah See chap. 3.1 T is sure that no temptation taketh us but what is humane or common to man 1 Cor. 10.13 But what did the man Christ Jesus suffer All our sufferings are but chips of his cross saith Luther not worthy to be named in the same day c. Wherein the Lord hath afflicted me This was yet no smal allay to her grief that God had done it The Stoicks who held that all came by destiny were noted for their patience or rather tolerance and aequanimity in all conditions Ver. 13. Form above hath he sent fire into my bones Like as when the marrow and natural moisture is dryed up by a violent fever or rather as when the solid parts of bodies below are lightening-struk from above and scorcht by these sulphureous flames that pierce unto them And it prevailed against them Or. And he ruled it viz. the fire i. e. he directed and disposed it He hath spred a net for my feet And so hamperd me an unruly creature ut constricta fuerim in ruinam that there is no escaping from him yea the more I strive to get out the faster I stick He hath turned me back Laid me on my back He hath made me desolate and faint My calamities come thick one in the neck of another words are too weak to utter them and yet here is very great copy and variety of words so that Paschasius saith this book may well be called the Lamentations of Lamentations like as Solomon's Song is called for its excellenty The Song of Songs Ver. 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand Compactum est Or is bound upon his hand that is the Lord carrieth them in his continual remembrance They are wreathed Wrapped and wreathed together as a strong cord My sins are twisted together saith One and sadly accented so are the punishments of my sins saith the Church here neither can I get free but as the heifer by wriggling against the yoke galleth her neck so do I. And come up upon my neck Praeclarum scilicet monile torques mearum virtutum index insigne He hath made my strength to fall Heb. he hath caused my power to stumble i. e. so to stumble as to fall for he who stumbleth and yet falleth not getteth ground From whom I am not able to arise Only God can raise me and it is a work worthy of God who Dejicit ut relevet premit ut solatia praestet Ver. 15. The Lord hath trodden under foot As unsavory salt that is he hath covered with the greatest contempt All my mighty men Vulg. My Magnifico's or Gallants in whom I too much trusted In the midst of me In the very bosom of their mother as Caracalla killed his brother Geta consecrating the sword wherewith he
and sith they think us not worthy to breath in the common aire whom thou hast made heires of the world together with faithful Abraham our Progenitour destroy them from under these heavens of thine in the compass and cope whereof thou raignest and rulest all From under the heavens of the Lord Do thou O Christ to whom the Father hath committed all judgment root them out from under the heavens of thy heavenly Father Thus some Paraphrase the words and observe therehence the mystery of the Trinity like as they do from Gen. 19.24 CHAP. IV. Pet. à Figueir Ver. 1. HOw is the gold become dim How by way of wonderment again as chap. 1.2 q. d. Quo tanto scelere hominum qua tanta indignatione Dei What have men done and how hath God been provoked that there are such strange alterations here all on the sudden By gold and fine gold here understand the Temple overlaid by Solomon with choice gold or Gods people his spiritual Temple who had now lost their lustre and dignity The stones of the Sanctuary are poured out Come tumbling down from the demolished Temple Ver. 2. The precious sons of Zion Those Porphyrogeniti as the Greek Emperours children were called Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because born and bred up in a room made up of precious stones Understand it of the Jews in general Gods peculiar people precious in his sight and therefore honourable Isa 43.4 of Zedekiahs sons in particular who as did also the rest of the Jewish Nobility if Josephus may be beleeved poudered their hair with gold dust Antiq. l. 8. c. 7. to the end that they might glister and sparkle against the beams of the Sun The precious children of the Church are all glorious within by means of the graces of the Spirit that golden oyle Zach. 4.12 and the blessings of God out of Zion Psal 134.3 which are far beyond all other the blessings of heaven and of earth As earthen pitchers Weak and worthlesse Ver. 3. Even the sea-monsters Heb. Whales or Seales which being Amphibii have both a willingnesse Vulg. Lamiae and a place convenient to suckle their whelps The daughter of my people is become cruel She is so perforce being destitute of milk for want of food but much more by feeding upon them ver 10. and chap. 2.20 Oh what a mercy is it to have meat and how inexcusable are those unnatural mothers that neglect to nurse their children not out of want but wantonnesse Surely as there is a blessing of the womb to bring forth so of the brests to give suck Gen. 49.25 and the dry breasts and barren womb have been taken for a curse Hos 9.14 as some interpret that text Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth For want of suck That was a miracle which is recorded of the old woman of Bolton in Lancashire who took up a poor child that lay crying at the breasts of her dead mother slain among many others by Prince Ruperts party and laying it to her own dry breasts that had not yeelded suck for above twenty years before on purpose to still it had milk came to nourish it to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders This and another like example of Gods good providence for the releif of little ones whom their mothers could not relieve may be read of in Mr. Clarks Mirror for Saints and Sinners Edit 3. fol. 495 507. And no man breaketh it unto them The parents either not having it for them or not having an heart to part with it to them Ver. 5. They that did feed delicately Such uncertainty there is of outward affluence Our Richad the second was famished to death Speed Lib. 3. c. 4. Henry Holland Duke of Excester grand-child to John of Gaunt was seen to run on foot bare-legged after the Duke of Burgundy's train begging his bread for Gods sake This I saw saith Philip de Comines This Henry was brother in law to King Edward the fourth from whom he fled They that were brought up in scarlet Qui nutriebantur in croceis sen cocceis In fimetis victum quaeritant prae inopia Jun. that were gorgeously arrayed or that rolling on their rich beds wrapped themselves in costly coverlets Embrace dunghils There take up their lodgings and there also are glad to find any thing to feed on though never so course and homely The Lapwing is made an Hieroglyphick of infelicity because he hath as a coronet upon the head and yet feedeth upon the worst of excrements It is pitty that any child of God washt in Christ's blood should bedabble his scarlet robe in the stinking guzzle of the worlds dunghill that any one who hath heretofore soared as an Eagle should now creep on the ground as a bettle or wallow as a swine in the mire of sensuality Ver. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of Zion is greater For Sodom was destroyed by Angels Zion by malicious men The enemies were not enriched by Sodom as they were by Zion Sodom was destroyed in an instant not so Zion for she had her punishment piecemeal first a long seige and then the loss of all after a world of miseries sustained in the seige Julius Caesar was wont to say It is better once to fall then alwaies to hang in suspence Augustus wished that he might dye suddenly His life he called a Comedy and said that he thought he had acted his part therein pretty handsomly Now if he might soon passe through death he would hold it an happinesse Souldiers wish is thus set forth by the Poet quid enim concurritur horae Momento aut cita mors venit aut victoria laeta It is the ancient and manful fashion of the English who are naturally most impatient of lingering mischiefs to put their quarrels to the trial of the sword Speed 963. as the Chronicler observeth Ver. 7. Her Nazarites Who served God in a singular way of abstinence above other men These had their rules given them Num. 6. which whiles they observed They were purer then snow whiter then milk Temperance is the mother of beauty as luxury is of deformity This is nothing to the Popish Votaryes those Epicures and Abby-lubbers Quorum luxuriae totus non sufficit orbis Some by Nazarites here understand their Nobles and such as wore coronets on their heads Nezar is a crown 2 Sam. 1.10 2 Kings 11.12 thus Joseph was a Nazarite Gen. 49.26 So Daniel and his three Associates in whom that was verified Gratior est pulchro veniens in corpore virtus Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker then a coal Heb. their visage is more darkned then blacknesse sc With famine fear grief and car those vultures have so fed upon them that all sightlinesse and lovelinesse is lost Think the same of Apostates God may complain of such as Mic. 2.8 Ver. 9. They that be slain with the sword are better They suffer lesse pain in dying
alive and in his prime Ezekiel his contemporary and fellow-Prophet envyeth him not but celebrateth him as also Peter doth Paul 2 Epist 3. They should deliver but their own souls Because the decree was past an end was come chap. 7.2 4 5 6 10. Ver. 15. If I cause noisom beasts As Lyons Wolves Bears Serpents c. Great hurt hath been done not only by such as Num. 21.6 2 Kings 2.24 17.25 26. Josh 24.12 but also by tamer creatures Aug. whem set on by God Rebellis facta est quia homo numini creatura homini Rats Coneys Frogs Wasps Moths have done much mischief Ver. 16. Though these three men were in it All alive and lustily tugging yet it would not do In common calamities Heathens had their supplications and sacrifices Papists have their Letanies and Processions though to smal purpose Let us in the like ease up and be doing that the Lord may be with us Formula jurandi eâ—siptica They shall deliver neither sons Heb. if they deliver sons c. q. d. then never trust me more Ver. 17. Or if I bring a sword The sword whensoever it comes is bathed in heaven Esa 34.5 Omnis pestilentiae coeca delitescens est causa Fernel Sword go through the land When the sword rideth circuit as a Judge it is in commission See Jer. 47.67 Ver. 18. Neither sons nor daughters Though never so dear to them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Greeks call them Ver. 19 Or if I send a pestilence Which Hippocartes calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because God hath a special hand in it Physicians can give no good reason of it In blood i. e. In great slaughter laying heaps upon heaps Ver. 20. Neither son nor daughter Though it were an only one and so more dear to them They shall but deliver Howbeit a good man also may dye of the Plague as did Oecolampadius Greenham c. Ver. 21. My four sore Judgements Every of the four Cardan reckons three more of like nature viz. earthquakes inundations and great winds are sore judgements indeed each of them is pessimum i. e. perniciosum Cavete Ver. 22. Yet behold See a thing suddain and serious They shall come Be Captives here as you are And ye shall see their way How wicked it was and worthy of punishment Ver. 23. And they shall comfort i. e. Quiet and qualify your spirits CHAP. XV. Ver. 1. ANd the Word of the Lord came unto me This shortest Chapter is added to all the foregoing as a Corollary In consisteth of a Type or Simile and the Application thereof It is Gods usual way and should be ours to teach by Similitudes See Hos 12.10 with the Note Ver. 2. What is the vine-tree more then any tree The Jews took upon them because a vine brought out of Egypt and such as Gods own righ-hand had planted But insomuch as they were now become fruitlesse and also uselesse trees twice dead plucked up by the roots Jude 12. what had they to glory in above other Nations surely they were therefore worse then others because they ought to have been better True it is that a Vine in it self considered with the fruit it beareth is no contemptible tree But if it be withered or pull'd out of the earth Lignum tenus gibbosum tortuosum it is no way comparable to other trees or shrubs which when felled are put to sundry good uses that the Vine a crooked low writhen thing will never serve to as to make spears doors tables ships houses c. Ver. 3. Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work No hardly t is good for nothing no not so much as to make a pin or a peg of to hang a hat or bridle on because it is a sappy and brittle wood Think the same of that empty vine the profligate Professour being abominable disobedient and unto every good work reprobate Tit. 1. ult Ver. 4. Behold it is cast into the fire for fuel But then it must be taken afore it be over-dry and so Corn. à Lapide testifieth that they burn little else in Italy but faggots made of vine-branches See Joh. 15.6 with the Note The midst of it is burnt Vstulatum scorcht and seared so that it is altogether unuseful and is therefore cast again into the fire out of which for some other purpose it had been pulled Woe to Apostates the hottest fire in Hell abideth them Ver. 5. Behold when it was whole The Jews when at best were too too bad a foolish people and unwise disobedient and gainsaying all the day long how much more then now that they are hardened and seared with so many Judgements Ver. 6. As the Vine-tree Adaptat parabolam Here beginneth the Apodosis or Application of the parable That which is not for fruit is for the fiâ—e Salt which hath lost the savour is thrown out So will I give the Inhabitants of Jerusalem Those sinners in Sion Isa 33.14 those sacrificing Sodomites Isa 1.10 I will make them as a fiery oven in the time of mine anger I will swallow them up in my wrath Psal 21.9 besides that hell gapeth for them Ver. 7. And I will set my face against them See chap. 14.8 Levit. 17.10 They shall go out from one fire And then think themselves safe and happy but this is but gaudium lachrymosum their preservation is but only a reservation for Another fire shall devour them A man pulleth a brand out of the fire sometimes and then presently casteth it in again he gathereth up the sticks-ends but it is to cast them into the middle of the fire So dealeth God oft-times with the wicked to whom also whatsoever they suffer here is but a typical Tophet See Amos 5.19 Jer. 48.43 And ye shall know that I am the Lord i. e. True of my word and terrible in mine executions The Prophets could not get you to believe that your sins were so hainous that my wrath was so hot that your judgements were so heavy c. but now ye shall surely feel what you would not then believe and cry out Nos insensati c O we fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets had spoken unto us When I set my face against them As being fully resolved to have my full blow at them and to pay them home Ver. 8. And I will make the land desolate The land it self oft suffereth propter incolarum inemendabilem malitiam Psal 107.4 for the wickednesse of them that dwell therein Idolatry especially is a land-desolating sin Because they have committed a trespasse A grand trespasse a wickednesse with a witnesse they have deeply revolted and backsliden with a perpetual back-sliding Apostates as they sin not common sins so with Core and his complices they dye not common deaths many times CHAP. XVI Ver. 1. AGain the Word of the Lord came unto me For the better setting on of what had been said in the foregoing Chapter
through thick and thin etiam in cloacalem faetulentiam to have worshipped it Ver. 35. Wherefore O harlot A name good enough for such an odious huswife the shame of her sex He is not worthy of an honest name whose deeds are not honest Hear the Word of the Lord Hear thy doom thy sentence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stoned thou shalt be as an adulteresse slain with the sword as a murtheresse burnt with fire as an incendiary because thou hast burnt thy children in honour of Moloch Ver. 36. Because thy filthinesse Heb. thy poâ—son Aerugo tua thy filthinesse issuing from thee by reason of thine over-frequent and excessive adulteries He meaneth the infamous fluxes of whores saith Diodat And by the blood Heb. bloods because scattered about in several drops Ver. 37. With whom thou hast taken pleasure Or Jocundata es with whom thou hast been commingled And will discover thy nakednesse unto them This is by modest women taken for a very great punishment Polyxena when she was sacrificed took great care to fall handsomely The Milesian maides would not be kept from killing themselves till there was a law made that such as so did should be drawn naked through the Market Till the dayes of Theodosius Senior if a woman were taken in adultery they shut her up in a stewes and compelled her beastly and without all shame to play the harlot ringing a bell whil'st the deed was doing that all the neighbours might be made privy to it This evil custom that good Emperour took away making other laws for the punishment of Adultery Ver. 38. And I will judge thee as women that break wedlock See Lev. 20.10 Deut. 22.22 The Egyptians cut off the harlots nose and the adulterers privy members The Romans beheaded them the old Germans whipt them through the streets Canutus the Danish King in this land banished them Tenedius a King in another land did cut them in sunder with an axe By our laws they are to be hanged as by the Jews laws to be stoned ver 40. And shed blood See ver 35. I will give thee blood God loveth to retaliate Ver. 39. They shall throw down thine eminent place So did the Turks throw down many both images and Churches in Christendom when people would not be perswaded to cast images out of their Churches They shall strip thee also of thy clothes So the Spaniards did the Dutch when once they grew fond of the Spanish fashions as Lavater here noteth Ver. 40. They shall also bring up a company against thee The Chaldeans that hasty and bitter Nation Hab. 1.6 And they shall stone thee See on ver 35. Ver. 41. In the sight of many women Those matrons whom thou hast misused and many others who may well be warned by thy just punishment to keep their faith to God and man Ver. 42. So I will make my fury toward thee to rest Sept. I will dismisse mine anger upon thee Like as when Hâ—mâ—n was hanged Ahashuâ—rosh his wrath was pacified Esth 7.10 and as when Jonah was cast over-board the sea was calmed Ver. 43. Because thou hast not remembred c. Thou hast not cared to converse with thy self nor to recogitate my goodness and thine own badness But hast fretted me Or hast kept a stir with me or rather stirred up thy self against me and all through want of reflection and self-examination See Jer. 8.6 Herodot I also will recompense thy way upon thy head As the darts of those Thracians thrown up against Jupiter for raining upon them unseasonably came down again upon their own heads so here Ver. 44. Behold every one that useth Proverbs That is skilful at and exercised in gibing and jearing Omnis paraemiator paraemiabit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as was Socrates called therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scoffer Democritus Lucian Sir Thomas Moor Erasmus c. Shall use this proverb This taunting Proverb As is the mother so is her daughter The birth followeth the belly Ill birds lay ill eggs Qualis hera talis ancilla c. Ver. 45. Thou art thy mothers daughter As like her as if spet out of her mouth so like her that thou art the worse again Your mother was an Hittite And doth therefore seek her daughter in the oven because she had first been there her self See ver 3. Ver. 46. She and her daughters i. e. Her Cities and villages That dwell at thy left hand Thou art well set up therewhile well neighboured That dwelleth at thy right hand That did do so but now dwelleth with devils being thrown out for an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Jude 7. Ver. 47. Yet hast thou not walked after their wayes But hast outsinned them Nolunt solita peccare saith Seneca of some they will not sin in an ordinary way Et pudet non esse impudentes saith Austin of others i. e. they are ashamed not to be past shame But as if that were a very little thing Paululum pauxillumque A peccadillo Ver. 48. As I live saith the Lord God Sodom thy sister hath not done Heb. If Sodom thy sister hath done c. q. d. then let me never be trusted more Here then is a double oath taken by God to assure this people that they had outsinned Sodom a truth that they would not easily assent to To this day we cannot get men to believe that their natures are so naught their lives so leud their state so dangerous as the Preachers make them Their hearts are good their penny good silver c. The Prophet Esay lost his life say the Rabbines for calling the Rulers of Jerusalem Rulers of Sodom and the people of Judah people of Gomorrah Esa 1.10 Ver. 49. Behold this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom Pride i. e. Haughty-mindednesse and high conceitedness of their own surpassing excellency and stable felicity This was the first firebrand that set Sodom on fire Fulnesse of bread Gourmandise and surquedry This fulnesse bred forgetfulnesse and this saturity security Luxuriant animi rebus plerunque secundis Nec facile est aequâ commoda mente pati And abundance of idlenesse Tranquillitas tranquillitatis rest of rest and this abused to idleness deep idleness which is the devils pillow and the mother of many mischiefs for he shall not but do naughtily that does nothing Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor Inhospital they were and unmerciful The two Angels might have lain in the streets for them neither would they let them rest when Lot had lodged them Ver. 50. And they were haughty This sin of theirs is once more instanced as the root of the rest the hate of heaven and gate to hell And committed abomination before me That unnatural filthiness which taketh its name from them This in the Levant is not held a vice and in Mexico it is one of the Spanish vertues Therefore I took them away as I saw good sc By raining down hell from
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