And so accordingly do they differently give their Expositions of the whole as some that the Lord will cut off both the man that transgressed in this kind and also his abettors and defendors though he would seek to expiate his fault by gifts and Sacrifices offered to the Lord by himself or others Others that he would cut off from him either himself that looked after such women or from him that defended him those sons begotten of them yea though he offered gifts c. A lâ—te very learned man having considered the different Expositions of others gives thus his own opinion that in this verse is threatned punishment to those that were guilty of that treacherous dealing in the precedent verse mentioned viz. that God would cut off from them 1. Such who should watch for or over them in or with praiers and admonitions 2. Such as should answer them when they should ask concerning the Law 3. Him that should offer to God such Sacrifices as they brought So that together he may be understood to threaten the Priests spoken of in the former verses of the Chapter that they should be removed from their office and likewise all the People spoken of in the verse immediatly foregoing that they should be deprived of their Priests But to me there seems no more facile or perspicuous Exposition then that given by that learned Jew at first mentioned agreeable likewise to what others of the same Nation give viz. that he will destroy to or from them or they shall be destroyed or perish so that there shall be none left among them to whom shall pertain or agree any of those Epithets that import life such as are waking and answering as if this were a proverbial kind of expression to denote as much as any living soul as if he should say I will cut off every living soul so that there shall be none in his house that may call or answer none at all living And this imprecation or menace saith he comprehends the transgressors in this kind of all Israel as he saith first out of the Tabernacles of Jacob and then particularly applieth it to such of the Priests as did so saying and him that offereth an offering to the Lord of hosts or and of him that offereth viz. out of the habitations both of the common People of Israel or the Laïty and also of the Priests which last Exposition comes nigh to what the Greek hath from or out of the Tabernacles of Jacob and from or out of those that bring an offering to the Lord Almighty although in the rendring the words immediatly preceding they be very wide from any yet mentioned rendring untill he be brought down which some ascribe to the reading it differently from what is now read in the Hebrew But whether so or that they did it by way of Interpretation as we before said of others thinking it a proverbial Speech and that to be the importance of it which they set down though noâ— in a litteral rendring it will not concern us to enquire our business chiefly being to see what meaning the Hebrew Text as now read which we doubt not to be the true and incorrupted reading will naturally bear and to adjust with it our English Translation and sometimes as occasion gives others also from it as now read derived Out of the Tabernacles of Jacob. The Chalde Paraphrase rendreth Out of the Cities of Jacob. From the ancient and frequent use of living in Tents or Tabernacles in those Countries and the long custom of their Ancestors of living in such was the word afterwards used for any habitations Cities or Houses in w ch they dwelt and sometimes for the Congregation oâ— Company of the People themselves that dwelt together in them So that by cutting off these sinners out of the Tabernacles of Jacob may be understood the extirpating them out of the Land the dwellings or the Congregation of Israel Some thinking this spoken more particularly of the Priests or Levites think by this expression to be meant the casting them out of the Temple or from the Altar so that they should not be admitted or suffered any more to serve there But this seems to be too narrow a restriction of this menace only to the Priests which as appears out of the foregoing verse is denounced against all Judah and Israel And though it appear out of the forecited books of Ezra and Nehemiah that some of the Priests were guilty in this kind by taking strange wives yet was the sin more general and so the punishment menaced seems extended to all of all sorts that had so done whether Priests or Lay-People By some the word Tabernacles is thought used to put them in mind of their unsetled condition 13 And this have ye done againe covering the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out insomuch that he regardeth not the offering any more or receiveth it with good will at your hand And this have ye done againe Againe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shenith secondly or a second time or in the second place or this second thing so that he seems proceeding in his reproof to tax them of a second crime added to a former The former to which this now to be spoken of is second is by diverse taken to be that in the foregoing Chapter and the beginning of this taxed their offering to God illegal Sacrifices and in illegal manner and shewing contempt of his Altar and want of due regard to his service Others look on this as called second in respect to that spoken of vers 11. viz. their profaning the holiness of the Lord by marrying the daughters of strange Gods idolatrous wives to which though the sins after spoken of have respect and be of the same kind yet it is another additional degree of it an heightning and doubling of it so that the word againe or secondly may well be referred to it And it will not much matter which of the two opinions be followed But the Greek and such as follow them here as the printed Arabick render the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Shenith much differently from both viz. things which I hated taking it seems this word to be of the same signification with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sane in the 16. verse which signifies hating and is a different Root The fault with which they are taxed is that they covered the Altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and crying out c. which by the generality of the Jewish and most of Christian Expositors is understood of the effect of their treacherous dealing with their lawful Israelitish wives whom by either dismissing them to take others or by taking with them strange women to whom they shewed more respect love and kindness then to them and with them dealt unkindly and otherwise then they ought depriving them of what was due to
hearken they should inevitably pull on themselves destruction 4 ¶ Remember ye the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant c. Aben Ezra's Gloss on these words is not amiss Remember the Law of Moses c. i. e. saith he keep or observe it for it will teach you the way of the fear of the Lord and so when the mentioned day shall come ye shall be delivered But the other Jews go wider as by considering their words we shall perceive Abarbinel thus gives the coherence of these words with the former Forasmuch as the worship or service of God which should bring them to that last true reward at the Resurrection was the worship according to the Law and Commandments and that great rebellion which should bring to that punishment which he mentions is the omission or rejection of the Law therefore he subjoyns to this which he hath said Remember the Law of Moses my servant to declare to them that by means of that they should attain to the reward and true prosperity That in which he errs in this Exposition is in that he refers what is here spoken to the day of the Resurrection which belongs to that day of Jerusalems Visitation the evil of which that they might prevent or in it find deliverance he commends to them the remembrance and observance in the mean while of the Law of Moses as a faithful rule seeing they should after this have no more Prophets to direct them till his sending to them Elias at the approach of that day Much in like kind errs R. Tanchum viz. in mis-timing the things spoken of saying That this was given as a Precept to those of the Captivity he commanding it to Israel by the hand of this Prophet because after him Prophecy should cease from among them by reason of the obscurity of the Captivity and the meaning saith he is that he that would attain to the happiness spoken of and deliverance from punishment ought necessarily to obey the commands of the Law continued or delivered down among them In which Exposition he passeth over the time to which properly belonged what is spoken viz. that between this Prophecy and the coming of the Eliah here meant wherein Prophecy as he observes should and did cease among them and so the coming of that day of Judgement and discrimination to fasten it on times w ch did not begin till after the completion of this Prophecy according to its proper and primary meaning viz. since the destruction of Jerusalem David Kimchi is not content to run on in the like error but strives to justify it by accusing Christians of error in misinterpreting the words his Exposition runs thus He saith untill the day of Judgement come remember ye in every generation the Law of Moses my Servant to do all or according to all that is written in it Which I commanded unto him in Horeb i. e. as I commanded him in Horeb not according to the words of the Christians which say that it was given for a time according to the literal sense but an Interpreter Jesus came and interpreted it spiritually this Text is an answer to them His meaning seems this That here is a command that till the last day of Judgement they should precisely keep the Law of Moses according to all that was written in it and according to the letter of what was written just as it was given to him and from him to them and that therefore the words refute the Christians who say that the Law was to endure but for a time according to the literal meaning of it but that the literall meaning was to yeild to a spiritual meaning according to which Christ interpreted it But we say that this man frames an argument on false grounds and that the text makes not against us as he would have it and hath in it an answer to and refutation of them not of us who embrace them both according to the letter from which he departs and the true meaning of them which he perverts First in that he saith that here is a command that they should remember the Law of Moses in every generation untill the day of the last Judgement If he mean as manifestly he doth the day of the last Judgement it is manifest that what is spoken hath not primarily respect to that but to that day of Gods National Judgement to be executed on the Jews continuing in obstinate rebellion against him that was the day of the Lord in this Chapter of this Prophecy and the foregoing properly spoken of as we have shewed though so described as to represent to us and necessarily to put us in mind of the last general Judgement too Besides the words are indefinitly spoken without referring to any set time if we will enquire till what time they may seem to bind that will most conveniently be answered to from the next following words viz. till he send Eliah the Prophet before the coming of the day of the Lord warning that till his coming they should look to the Law of Moses as their Director So that hence is no evident ground from which to conclude the perpetuity of the Law against such as should deny it That it should last in force till that day is as much as can from these words be concluded and that which our Saviour saith The Law and the Prophets were untill John since that time the Kingdome of God is preached Luke XVI 16 Farther in that he saith according to all that is written in it and as I commanded him in Horeb meaning that every thing in the Law was just as it is written in it and every thing punctually in that manner and according to the letter as it was commanded is his gloss whereas in the Text it is only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which I commanded and not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as which though in it self it may seem to make no great difference yet according to his meaning it manifestly doth according to what he adds not according to what the Christians say that it i. e. the Law was given for a time only to be observed according to the letter as it sounds but that Jesus came and interpreted it spiritually and so hereafter it were to be observed or understood according to that spiritual and not its literal meaning For answer to all this we might bid him only to clear himself by answering to what is said Jer. XXXI 31 32. Behold the daies come saith the Lord that I will make a new Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah not according to the Covenant which I made with their Fathers c. whence we may conclude with the Apostle Heb. VIII 8 that in that he saith a new Covenant it is manifest that the first was to be made old that the new might take place
and following his steps deserved peculiarly to be called his Children or Sons according to what we learn in like kind whom properly to call Children of Abraham Galat. III. 7 and Rom. IX 7 and then the coherence will appear thus I will certainly come near to you in judgment against the sinners among you For I am the Lord and change not but am still as ever inexorable to obstinate impenitent sinners one that will in due time take vengeance on them however for a long time I have spared them but ye true Sons of Jacob ye whose heart is right with me and who lay hold on my Promise to him made and by walking in his steps approve your selves his genuine Children heirs of his Faith ye as you are not partakers of their sins so neither shall ye be of the judgements brought upon them I will make a way for your escape that ye perish not with them And that so he effected it is made evident by the history When the judgement here prophesied of had its execution and completion in the destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem and the wicked obstinate sinners of the Jews in it God provided for the escape and deliverance of such as had embraced the doctrine of Christ and yielded obedience to him so that they were not consumed as if God had not taken a special care for them they must necessarily have been And so taking by that day of the Lords coming to be meant the space as we have said on the first and second verses betwixt John Baptist's and Christ's beginning to preach and the destruction of the Temple and by that swift judgement the destruction of the wicked among the Jews together with their City and Temple and by the Sons of Jacob those that believed in Christ whom Jacob so long before waited for and transmitted the expectation of to his posterity and by what is said that they should not be consumed their escape and wonderful preservation from that so universal a destruction by their being from God warned to go out of the City while there was an opportunity offered which accordingly they did to a place called Pella so that there was not one Christian left in the City when it was destroyed but all escaped as Eusebius testifies in the 3 d book of his History Cap. 5. and Epiphanius de Ponderib Cap. 15. we cannot but see all that is here spoken from the beginning of the Chapter to the end of the 6 th verse to have been so fully made good by evidence of fact that there is no ground by vertue of this Prophecy to look for any thing yet to be expected which hath not been made good as the Jews that they may keep up themselves in their willing error of denying Christ yet to be come would have us do and that there is in them a full and satisfactory answer to that blasphemous murmuring and questioning in the last verse of the preceding Chapter God delighteth in them that do evil else why doth he suffer them to prosper or Where is the God of Judgment So that in respect to those who so spake and to whom these things were then spoken viz. the people of the Jews there is no need of looking farther Mean while what happened then to them is to all others for example to teach them that though God for a while in his forbearance and giving time to repent suffer the wicked to prosper yet he will doubtless in due time manifest his Justice in punishing them for their evil doings and if he do not in this life whether by personal judgements on particular persons or national on wicked Nations yet he certainly will after death and at that general terrible Judgement at the last day of which that severe judgement then on the Jewish Nation was so lively a figure and emblem as that it cannot but put all that will consider things in mind of it and warn them to expect it though it be not that which is here primarily meant And this seems the most plain and the litteral way of the expounding these words hitherto 7 ¶ Even from the daies of your Fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of hosts But ye said Wherein shall we return Even from the daies of your Fathers ye are gone away from mine Ordinances The connexion of these words with the former is by Expositors differently given according to their different Expositions of those According to those that render the foregoing Verb in the notion of desisting or ceasing from evil these words will be a farther declaration of what was by it said viz. that they continued still to do as all along from the daies of their Fathers they had done and would not be brought to repent of their evil doings and forsake them which now yet they are exhorted to do and in the following words some of those their sins particularly enumerated According to those who render it in the notion of being consumed and take it in the sense of the time past or present they will be an amplification of Gods mercy in that they have not been nor are yet consumed by aggravation of their sins from their long and obstinate continuance in them without repentance of or turning from them which by the same unchangeable mercy they are called on yet to do But according to the latter way which we prefer of rendring it ye shall not be consumed there is not any such connexion to be looked after but the former part of this Chapter containing an answer to what was whether by impatient murmurers or sâ—offers objected against Gods justice and immutability of his methods in proceeding against wicked doers being in the sixth verse concluded he passeth to a new matter a distinct part of the Chapter a new contest against the People of that time for other sins by which they had provoked him to send on them already some previous judgements for removing which and preventing those more terrible ones mentioned in the foregoing verses and which he doth again before the end of this Prophecy put them in mind of he shews them the only way to be to return unto him by repentance and therefore in compassion to them calls on them so to do So R. Tanchum saith that though these words are not distinguished from the former in the writing yet in sense they are being an address to the People of that time alone So Junius and Tremellius look on it as a new contest or expostulation added to those former against contempt and profanation of his worship c. 1. v. 6. and c. 2.10 2 ly Against illegal Marriages Polygamy and Divorce thence to vers 17. 3 ly Against their murmuring repining or scoffing at his Justice and Judgements v. 17. of that second Chap. with an answer hitherto And now 4 ly here against sacrilegious detention of
being pure and zealous of good works by being an holy Nation and so shewing forth the praises of him who hath called them out of darkness into his marvellous light By having these conditions in them must they approve themselves his special treasure Ordinary stones will not pass for Jewels with him nor rubbish and dirt for treasure in the day of tryal though till then they may not be perhaps discovered This distinction between the Jews here spoken to is said should be in the day which he should make or bring on them or the day wherein he should do what he determined to do or said he would do for both these senses are the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asher ani Oseh capable of and so are by some in the one by others in the other way rendred all much to the same purpose In the day which I shall make or bring to pass so R. Tanchum and some in Vatablus and so the Greek In the day of Judgement wherein I shall execute judgement on the wicked saith Kimchi They shall be to me in the day wherein I do or make for a peculiar saith the Vulgar Latin not as the Doway Version renders in the day that I do to my peculiar The same way others take and that so those words should be rendred by themselves indefinitely viz. in the day which I make or shall make or wherein I do i. e. will certainly do And the word peculiar not governed of that just in place before it viz. do or make but be referred to the foregoing viz. they shall be to me may be confirmed by their coming again in the same manner c. IV. 3 in the day that I shall do or make without any thing added after it Yet doth the ancient Syriack Version make the last word to be governed of that immediatly preceding it as ours do though rendring that otherwise then ours viz. a congregation they shall be mine in the day when I shall make a congregation So the Latin Translator points it although possibly by otherwise distinguishing the words it might be rendred they shall be to me in the day which I make a congregation R. Salomo Jarchi seems to give an Exposition different from all these to this purpose In the day which I make a reserved treasure i. e. which I have treasured and laid up with me therein to perform or pay my recompence And if it were so understood the expression would agree with that Act. I. 7 wherein speaking of those times in which they expected that Christ should restore the Kingdom to Israel he calleth them times and seasons which God had put in his own power But whatever differences may be betwixt Expositors as to the rendring the words the day in them spoken of is still the same viz. the day of the Lords coming mentioned before in this Chapter in the second third and fifth verses and again in the following Chapter in the first second and third verses namely the day wherein God should execute his Judgements on the Nation of the Jews for working revenge upon his enemies and redemption to those that fear him and revere his Name Though such discrimination shall be fully made between all the godly and the wicked at Christs second coming the general day of Judgement to which therefore what is here spoken is by divers referred yet certainly here what is said respects more particularly the Nation of the Jews and the time of that nationall judgement denounced against them What hath been before said and what is here said and what shall be after said in this Prophecy will not be so properly applied and clearly understood by applying it to any other mean while may the words well be accommodated to any other People with whom it shall be so at any time as it was then with the Jews and whom God shall in like kind visit with a national judgement or excision what to them happened being to others for example and likewise to that great day of discrimination the day of the general judgement yea likewise to the day of death as for what concerns particular men but still those whom the words seem properly to concern as here spoken to and of are the Nation of the Jews then in being in their own Country a Nation separate from others and bearing then the name of the Lords People In that day when the Lord shall do such things he will shew by making a manifest difference who are his and who are not his his shall be separated from the rest as his own peculiar from such as he will not own nor regard and when he executeth judgement in fury on others he will spare them and keep them that those evils which destroy the wicked shall not touch them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him These words are a farther declaration of Gods exceeding great favor and compassion to those whom he would own and look on as his peculiar in terms of greatest elegance and height of expression The compassionate affection of a Father is great to any child though he be unprofitable to him yea hurtful to him how much more when he is profitable to him and honoreth him so notes R. Tanchum and to the same purpose Kimchi and other Expositors also There is another thing also here by some taken notice of in the expression which may well be added as making for the amplification of Gods goodness and the consolation of those that fear and honor him viz. that he saith he will spare them which imports that though there be found in them defects and they have done and spoken things that they ought not and which in rigor of Justice might deserve punishment yet as long as their hearts are right with him and they sincerely honour and obey him and have reverent thoughts of him he will forgive their transgressions and in great mercy save them when he will shew no mercy to the wicked but according to their deserts in severity deal with them 18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Then shall ye return and discern between c. Then when that day shall come such an alteration of things shall there be that though you now think all things go alike to all or rather for the worse to those that most serve God yet then you shall change your minds and discern that God did alwaies observe the actions of men and put a difference between the righteous and the wicked those that served him and those that served him not though till now he did not make it so apparent to men of corrupt judgements Some difference here is betwixt Interpreters in rendring and expounding these words some following a reading that is in some Copies of the Vulgar Latin viz. convertimini and be converted or return give us to take it as an exhortation to
these wicked ones who spake blasphemously of Gods Justice to return and repent and then they should discern that distinction between the righteous and the wicked which they would not now perceive And with this reading the Tigurin Version also agrees so it will sound now therefore return c. to which will be reduced also that Exposition of Pelican If ye shall repent ye shall discern Others following another reading which some observe to be more correct and indeed comes closer to the Letter in the Original though that admit of both viz. convertemini and ye shall return or be converted understand it of the late and bootless repentance of those blasphemers or a conversion which they shall be forced to by what they shall then nill they will they necessarily discern and acknowledge of the different condition of those that serve God and those that serve him not With this rendring agree ours and they also who render then being converted or returning you shall discern A late very learned man would have it rendred and ye shall again see that the meaning may be Heretofore when I blessed my Church with prosperity then did appear a manifest difference betwixt the righteous and the unrighteous now because my whole Church is under affliction you deny that difference but I will make or bring againe a day wherein ye shall again perceive that difference Now all these look on the words as directed to the wicked who thought it vain to serve God as if he took no notice of what was done by men spoken to vers 13 14 15. There are who think they may be taken as directed to those that feared the Lord next before spoken of as if the meaning were that such a change of things should be that though now they could not perceive any difference betwixt themselves and the wicked yet then looking on what was come to pass they should evidently discern it and perceive Gods especial care over them and that so here is a change of the person which is not unfrequent in the Scriptures for whereas before they were spoken of in the third person they are here spoken to in the second But without nicer enquiry into the persons spoken to and the nature of the conversion or returning here mentioned of whom or whether true or false it may suffice as to the meaning to take the scope of the words to be as at first we intimated That such a conversion turning or change shall then in that day be in the face of things that all both the godly and the ungodly looking thereon shall necessarily see that there is no place for doubting of Gods Justice in his ordering of things for the punishment of the wicked and preservation of the righteous and that he alwaies doth put a distinction between them though to men judging by the present outward appearance of things it is not alwaies so apparent It shall be made beyond all doubt apparent in that day By this saith Vatablus he points out the future Resurrection and so think others as well Christians as Jews as expresly Abarbinel who therefore interprets this returning of the souls of men returning to their bodies at that day which the thing in it self is true as to a general distinction between all the righteous and all the wicked that ever were or shall be in this World At the resurrection of the dead and the general Judgement there shall be an apparent difference made between them and the one separated from the other though before in this World mingled one with another as when a Shepheard divideth his Sheep from the Goats Mat. XXV 32 and we willingly grant that the words point at that day so as to put us in mind of it and warn us to think thereon But we do not look on that as the primary and proper scope of this Prophecy but that it describes to us in the first place and as its main intent that national judgement which God threatned to the Jews and accordingly executed on them in this World shortly after the first coming of Christ or at his coming that word including all that time from his first preaching to the destruction of Jerusalem That was the day in which the distinction here spoken of was to be made and accordingly was signally made as hath been already said and will be in looking into the next Chapter wherein is both the certainty of the coming of that day and the nature or manner of it more fully declared and described in Prophetical expressions in finding the true meaning of which as well as of the present words as to the words and signification of them we may still make use of the Jewish Expositors but not as to the sense and intent For that day to be meant which we say agreeably to the words and history of the times also is meant they must by no means grant That those things belong to the time yet to come and are to be fulfilled either at a restauration of Israel and subduing their enemies at the coming of their fancied Messias which with much earnestness they long for or at the day of Judgement or to particulars at the day of death they will tell us but that they were fulfilled as manifestly they were at that long since past destruction of their Nation and holy City and Temple they must obstinatly deny or else they must grant and acknowledge as we do that Christ is already come in opposing and denying which the whole of their Religion now consists This therefore in their expounding this Prophecy are they silent of as if no such thing had been This here spoken saith Aben Ezra was spoken to the men of that generation because this is the end of all the Prophecies So say we too for after Malachi was no other Prophet sent to the Jews till John Baptist Christs forerunner and what is said therefore concerned them the People of the Jews then being and all their posterity till that time that this Prophecy was fulfilled as by succession still one People to warn them by repentance to prevent the judgement threatned and declared for that end to them by the great mercy and long suffering of God not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance But seeing the generality of them would not be brought to repentance nor know the things belonging to their peace in that their day as Christ complains of them Luc. XIX 42 44. the judgment was so as here described then in Gods appointed time executed and such a distinction and discrimination as is here spoken of visibly to all the World made in the preservation of such among that People who feared God and beleived in Christ and the destruction of his enemies CHAP. IV. VERS 1. For behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble
main matter of timing things yet what he saith applied to the right time will illustrate and confirm what we look on as the truest way of expounding them viz. that literally and primarily they describe to us a day wherein God would proceed in judgement against the Nation of the Jews for making a discrimination betwixt the righteous and the wicked which because it was at that present when this Prophet lived and spake to them not so discernible they took thence occasion to question his Justice and spake stout words against him saying It is vain to serve God c. and where is the God of Judgement That day it appears c. III. 1 2. should be at or by the coming of Christ and by his coming is meant as we have shewed his coming in Judgement to them at the destruction of Jerusalem In that our forecited Author is out that he thinks Christ not yet come and so that day not yet come whereas we as the truth is look on both as already come and that being granted then we say that in that he is right that here is described a day of discrimination to be made in this World as there was then made by the terrible destruction of the wicked among the unbelieving Jews and gracious rescue and deliverance of those that believed in Christ but withal that by the wonderfull wisdom of God that coming of Christ to judge them then is so described as to set before our eies another coming of his to judge all the World at the last day wherein shall be made a perfect separation between the righteous and the unrighteous those being received into joy and glory and perfect happiness in the presence of God and the Sun of righteousness the Lamb that shall be their light the other adjuged to perpetual burnings worse then of an oven or furnace to everlasting shame and contempt and misery however in this World they thought themselves happy set up and delivered The first of these daies is here properly described in such figurative expressions as necessarily suggest to us the condition of the second and cannot but put us in mind of it To either of them is appliable what is said in the next words In the day that I shall do this or according to the letter and as the Interlineary Latin here renders as likewise some others in the day that I make or shall make The same expression which we had before c. III. 17 and is an expression also elsewhere used This is the day which the Lord hath made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that title may well be applied to such a peculiar signal day wherein God hath done some extraordinary thing either for good or bad for punishment to his enemies or Salvation and deliverance to his Though he made all daies yet such a day might seem of a new make or singular creation and be singularly attributed to him as its Maker And such may well be called the daies of Christs Incarnation his preaching the Gospell his Resurrection his coming to Judgement against the Jews of that generation which all may be according to what we have before said looked as on one day the day here spoken of especially the last act mentioned and here peculiarly pointed out wherein was brought a terrible destruction on his enemies and wonderfull deliverance to his friends and for the same reason may the day of the last Judgement be so likewise called which as we said may well be looked on as here pointed out though not primarily meant as some seem to take it with omission of the other In this day that they might know what he had said should certainly come to pass he adds his solemn confirmation Saith the Lord of Hosts He who hath all power in his hand at whose beck are all Creatures in Heaven and Earth as ready Ministers to execute his pleasure and therefore can make good whatsoever he saith and who is true in his sayings and will not alter the thing that is gone out of his mouth he hath said it the mighty the faithfull God hath spoken and who shall disannul it he hath said it and it is therefore as certain as if it were already done According therefore to what he said did that day come on the Jews the People here spoken to in the time appointed and all those things here foretold come to pass And as certainly shall that other day here as we said typified or intimated come on all the World in the time appointed for it because the Lord of Hosts hath though not expresly here said it yet not obscurely intimated and elsewhere more plainly said it so that all must expect that as certainly to come on them all as they have seen the former already to have come on the Jews They deny it indeed to have been yet come on them and would have it to signify some thing to come not on themselves but on their enemies but it is because they wilfully shut their eies against that which all the World besides hath seen and with amazement acknowledge it A strange thing that that terrible destruction of their Country and Nation such as was never yet parallel'd by any thing that happened to any Nation besides nor can be out-done by any thing imaginable but the day of general Judgement and conflagration of all the World which it not obscurely represented should work no more on them Our prayer for them therefore must not be in their own words that God would hasten the coming of that first day that so they might with better preparations expect the second but that he would open their eies to see and incline their wills to acknowledge that to have come upon them which God here threatned and so be turned and brought near to Christ for rejecting whom was all that came on their Ancestors and themselves ever since that so what shall come to pass of that last coming of his may not be so terrible to them but he then may appear to them as the Sun of righteousness with healing in his wings to their Salvation who before came in flaming fire as a burning oven to destroy them who would not receive and obey his Gospel So shall they prevent by their repentance the evil of that day though their Ancestors would not though by God warned seek to prevent the evil of the other would not I say for though God here shews the certainty of the coming of that day by saying saith the Lord of Hosts and he knew what they would do yet that it implied a condition of their persisting to do as they did and that by their repentance and change of their waies it might have been prevented appears by what he adds not certainly to no purpose to move them to it by bidding them to remember the Law of Moses c. and promising to send Eliah to seek to convert them lest he should come c. to whom if they would not