added in speculation of that To shadow the time of his coming before which the general Peace and plenty of all things shall seem to usher in the great Peace-maker I may speak to the cattel such as we heard awhile ago crying out for want of food and tell them that our happinesse in the near approach of the Messias shall not begin without some comfort to the very beasts of the field For The Pastures of the wildernesse shall put on the face of joy and the colour which they delight in And the trees if they show not the same colour shall show such plenty and variety of fruit as shall best expresse them to be in a flourishing estate Among them the Fig-tree and the vine that we most enquire after shall show the choicest fruit in their kind that we could expect from them 23. And while the earth and trees and dum Creatures partake of so much refreshment much more shall our hearts be enlarged with spiritual joy and comfort Therefore do you Citizens of Jerusalem and inhabitants of Judaea or you rather that make up the true Israel of God and members of the holy Church whereof Ierusalem is a type Do you studie how to expresse the solace and content that must needs follow upon the coming of the Messiah the true Doctor and Teacher of Righteousnesse which under the same name shall bring you the best rain and showers from Heaven in the preaching of his holy word both the first rain that helps up the first hopes of fruit and the latter rain which shall in due time secure us of a happy harvest in the higher and more spiritual sense of the successe of the Gospel 24. Such a happy harvest under the Messias his Kingdom will fill all places with plenty of spiritual food The richest flower of the best wheat the most and best liquor from the choicest Vine and Olive will be but poor emblemes and figures of it 25. This plenty will obliterate the memory of your former greatest famine or what other misery happened to the body from those mighty armies of hungry locusts the Grassehoppers Cankerworms Caterpillers and Palmerworms that I sent among you This plenty will be abundant recompense for those times of want and distresse 26. For if you will bring souls hungry and thirsty and longing to be refreshed with the best cordials and the true manna the food of life that came down from Heaven It is to be had without money You may freely eat and be fully satisfied and have cause enough to return all possible praise and thanksgiving to the Lord your God for those wonderful unspeakable mercies which may further oblige you to a confident and constant devoting of your selves to his service without any more revolting or forsaking of him as if you were ashamed of your profession 27. To which end you shall see enough to make you know that I am in the midst of Israel and I am the Lord your God and no other beside me whether we understand it of our Saviours corporal presence and dwelling here as God and Man or of his invisible assistance and government of his Church Therefore I might well say that you shall be sufficiently obliged to his service and to such a trust and confidence and joy in Him as shall make you triumph in your holy Calling rather then any way be ashamed of it 28. After these times of your enjoying the happy sight of the Messias I will also send down my holy Spirit in a visible form and bestow his Spiritual Graces in such abundance upon all sorts of men though they are but flesh and blood that some even illeterate persons men and women of your own nation shall show the power of a divine prophetick spirit to the speedy and successeful propagation of the gospel To which in the fuller progresse there shall not a little be added by that which in dreams and visions shall be revealed not onely to some of the elder but to some also of the younger sort 29. And as no sex or nation so neither any rank or order of men bond or free masters or servants shall be excluded from this high priviledge of partaking of the gifts of the Holy Ghost 30. Not long after this prosperous beginning and divulging of the gospel many prodigious signs will appear as presages and forerunners of the fearful destruction of Ierusalem the sad punishment of their rebellion and unbelief wonders in heaven and earth beside the effusion of much blood in the slaughter of many men in several places and the flames of fire and pillars of smoak that will appear in the burning and destroying of many Towns 31. Upon which there will follow such a dark and dismal aspect and alteration of the glorious light above as will plainly fore-speak a sad and bloody confusion and alteration in the Jewish state that under the Romans exceeding and compleating that under the Chaldeans of the great and terrible day of the Lords coming in judgement against this sinful nation 32. Yet in all this misery as the severity of God will be seen in the destruction of obstinate sinners so his mercy and succour will not be excluded from any that call upon Him with an obedient faith Sion and Ierusalem shall not then want such a means of deliverance And that mercy shall be continued for ever to the remnant of the Iews that will obey the voice of their Messias in the Gospel the voice of their Lord God that shall call them to repentance CHAP. III. 1. FOr behold in those dayes and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem 2 I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the vally of Ieboshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land 3 And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for an harlot and sold a girle for wine that they might drink 4 Yea and what have ye to do with me O Tyre and Zidon and all the coasts of Palestine will ye render me a recompense and if ye recompense me swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head 5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your Temples my goodly pleasant things 6 The children also of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them farre from their border 7 Behold I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them and wil return your recompense upon your own head 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Iudah and they shall sell them to the Sabeans to a people far off for the Lord hath spoken it 9 Proclaim ye this among the gentiles prepare war make up the mighty
preach what will please them and to sooth them up in expectation of better times then they are worthy to enjoy or have any reason to hope for 9. And now to put my office accordingly in execution Give ear to me once again you Princes of Iacob and other Governors in the house of Israel that sit in the place of Justice and yet abhor doing of judgement and should be the onely examples of dealing rightly and exactly according to the rule and yet are commonly seen to pervert the rule of equity and make the law serve your own turns 10. That makes them build such houses in Sion and other parts of Jerusalem with what they gain by shedding of the blood of the innocent and by deciding causes that come before them with much injustice and iniquity 11. For the Princes of this City judge for the bribe and the Priests teach for the hire and the Prophets divine for the reward in ready cash And yet they can talk devoutly and confidently of Gods protection for Sion and Jerusalems sake and seem to rely upon the Lord and say Doth not God dwell in the midst of us How then can evil betide us that are lodged so near to his own holy Temple 12. But talk what you will For you and your sins Sion shall be plowed like a field Jerusalem shall become like heaps of rubbish and Mount Moriah the top of your glory as the place where the House of God stands shall be like those Mountains in the forrest that are fitter for the entertainment of beasts then men CHAP. IV. 1 BVt in the last daies it shall come to passe that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it 2 And many nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his waies and we will walk in his pathes for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem 3 And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into prunning hooks nation shall not lift up a sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever 6 In that day saith the Lord will I assemble her that halteth and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted 7 And I will make her that halted a remnant and her that was cast far off a strong nation and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever 8 And thou O tower of the flock the strong hold of the daughter of Zion unto thee shall it come even the first dominion the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Ierusalem 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud is there no king in thee is thy councellour perished for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail 10 Be in pain and labour to bring forth O daughter of Zion like a woman in travail for now shalt thou go forth out of the city and thou shalt dwell in the field and thou shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou be delivered there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies 11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee that say Let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion 12 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord neither understand they his counsel for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor 13 Arise and thresh O daughter of Zion for I will make thine horn iron and I will make thy hoofs brasse and thou shalt beat in pieces many people and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth CHAP. IV. 1. YEt for your comfort after all this desolation there will a time come at their return from the captivity of Babylon when that mountain where the house of the Lord is seated shall overtop all other mountains and no hills or high places which the Pagans have made choice of for the worship of their idol-gods shall any way be compared to the high glory of Mount Moriah or so frequented with multitudes of men as this shall be 2. Hither shall flock the true worshipers from several parts of the World and say Come and let us go up to the holy Mountain the Mountain of the Lord Iehovah and to the house of the God of Iacob and by his holy Priests and Prophets he will teach us what is fittest for us to be instructed in out of his waies that we may walk in them For thence onely must we look for the knowledge of the true God whose divine laws specially in the daies of the Messias shall go forth of Sion and his holy word out of Ierusalem and thence be divulged and imparted unto other nations 3. This great God of Israel that so instructs and directs them that make their humble addresses unto him will for their sakes show his judgements among many people that seek him not and correct many remote nations that are too strong and puissant for us to deal with for no strength no distance can secure them from his power and good pleasure upon them And while we serve him he will make them to be so willingly and so absolutely resolved of peace that they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks And rather then their own quarrels shall be any disturbance to us one nation shall not lift up a weapon against another nor shall they learn how to practise themselves in the feats of war any more 4. And so shall it be after our return from Babylon we shall then enjoy many daies of great peace and tranquillity Every man shall sit quietly under his own vine and under his own fig-tree without any to molest him or make him afraid And to make us secure of all this it is decreed by God himself and the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it who hath all hosts and armies and alterations of peace and war at his disposal 5. And our serving of him will be one motive of this mercy and favour for while other people addict themselves to the worship of their false gods and in their name tender all their respects we shall go on to present our humble service and devotions in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever 6.
they should have done as if they endeavoured your ruine rather than your amendment and so hindered as much as in them lay the good hopes of your recovery and your return to this place and to my service 16. Therefore this now is the mercifull resolution of the lord I will return with a gracious aspect upon Ierusalem and I will prosper the building of my Temple there saith the lord of Hostes. And let them be as sure of it as if they now see their Carpenters drawing out their lines for the whole work that not the Temple onely but the Citie of Jerusalem too shall be re-edified and made like her self again in her walls and gates and other places of ornament and defense that are fit for so great a City 17. And add this moreover when thou preachest to my people and say Thus saith the Lord of Hostes My Cities in Judah shall be so stored and filled once again with all good things as a vessel is that is ready to run over and burst with abundance of liquor And the Lord will again comfort Sion and show his loving kindnesse to Ierusalem as a place that he hath selected and picked out for the object of his love 18. After this lifting up mine eies I presently saw four hornes 19. And I said to the great Angel that discoursed with me what mean those horns that I see And he answered These horns are four severall Nations all enemies to Judaea and ready like wild beasts to tosse and molest her upon every advantage and so to hinder the good work which she intended about the Temple And these were the Cuthaeans the Ammonites the Arabians and the Philistims 20. Then the Lord shewed me four Carpenters well furnished with hatchets and sawes and other instruments of their Art as it were to cut those Hornes shorter that made so great a show or to help forward the building of the Temple 21 Then said I what come these men to do and he answered The hornes that you saw are severall nations that would fain tosse and scatter Iudah from place to place and like horned Beasts have so gored and pushed at that weak people that they dare not turn head against them or make any resistance Now these Carpenters are come as friends that God hath raised up for you to fray away and disperse them and all such like among the Gentiles that shall presume to lift up their hornes against the land of Iudah to make another dispersion of that afflicted people And things being so quieted you may the better attend the work about the house of God CHAP. II. 1 I Lift up mine eyes again and looked and behold a man with a measuring-lâ—ne in his hand 2 Then said I whither goest thou and he said unto me To measure Ierusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof 3 And behold the angel that talked with me went forth and another angel went out to meet him 4 And said unto him Run speak to this young man saying Ierusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattel therein 5 For I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her 6 Ho ho come forth and flee from the land of the north saith the Lord for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven saith the Lord. 7 Deliver thy self O Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon 8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye 9 For behold I will shake mine hand upon them and they shall be a spoil to their servants and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me 10 Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion for lo I come I will dwel in the midst of thee saith the Lord. 11 And many nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee 12 And the Lord shall inherit Iudah his portion in the holy land and shall choose Ierusalem again 13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he ie raised up out of his holy habitation CHAP. II. 1. AFter what was told me of the four Carpenters and as it were in confirmation of that Another vision caused the lifting up of mine eyes where I beheld a man with a measuring line in his hand A resemblance of Nehemiah that was to take care for the employment of the builders of the City 2. To this man I presently applied my self and said unto him whither art thou going And he returned me this answer I am going to measure Ierusalem that I may see what is the breadth and what is the length of it 3. You may take notice that in the mean while the great Angel with whom I had been entertained in discourse before withdrew himself from the place where he then stood and another Angel went out to meet him and receive his commands 4. To whom this was that which the great Angel gave first in charge Make hast saith he and deliver this Prophesie to that young man Zachariah the young Prophet and say Ierusalem shall be once again so populous that many of her Citizens shall be fain to inhabite in the suburbs and in the little villages all about them because neither they nor their cattle and other wealth shall be able to be conteined within the walls In all which Jerusalem shall be but a type of a greater accesse of true converts to the Church of God which is the true Jerusalem the mother of us all 5. And to this Ierusalem and to that which is figured by it will I be like a wall of fire round about her to defend her from all outward assaults And within the Citie I will be a glory to her in the many and miraculous expressions of my power and Majestie 6. You therefore that account your selves in the number of the children of Israel and are yet in the land of your captivity Come O come quickly to us out of those Northern climates saith the Lord. For I will dilate and extend your habitations towards the four winds of Heaven and much inlarge the borders of your possession saith the Lord. 7. Therefore make hast Come away come away you Citizens of Sion Delight not to continue your captivity and prolong the time of your banishment from your Jerusalem but speedily come out of Babylon you that hitherto have continued in that place Come out of your places of idolatrie and seat your selves in the spatious limits of the true Church of God 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the great Deliverer and Defender of his Church Come after
men let all the men of war draw near let them come up 10 Beat your plow shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears let the weak say I am strong 11 Assemble your selves and come all ye heathen and gather your selves together round about thither cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord. 12 Let the heathen be wakened come up to the valley of Iehoshaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about 13 Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the press is full the fats overflow for the wickedness is great 14 Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining 16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Ierusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the Children of Israel 17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain then shall Ierusalem be holy and there shall no strangers passe thorow her any more 18 And it shall come to passe in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine and the bills shall flow with milk and all the rivers of Iudah shall flow with waters and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord shall water the valley of Shittim 19 Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Iudah because they have shed innocent bloud in their land 20 But Iudah shall dwel for ever Ierusalem from generation to generation 21 For I wil cleanse their bloud that I have not cleansed for the Lord dwels in Zion CHAP. III. A Prophesie of what shall happen after a longer and more uncertain time in the vally of Iehoshaphat which what particular place soever is chiefly intended signifies a place or several places wherein God will please to exercise his judgement upon his and the Churches enemies at several times and upon several occasions before the last Day of Iudgement but compleatly then 1. FOr Behold it shall come to passe saith the Lord in those dayes of the Messias the times of the gospel when I shall bring again the captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem â— reduce all the true Israelites Jewes and Gentiles into one fold to be all under one Shepherd 2. Then will I as occasion serves summon the enemies of the Church in all nations and I will make them appear before me in the vally of Iehosphaphat or in the place wherein I will execute my judgement and there will I avenge the injuries done to my own People the true Israel of God mine inheritance whose cruell enemies dispersed them through all the world as if they would have taken possession of my own peculiar portion and divided it as their own haereditary possession 3. In those particular dayes of Judgement which will be as types and forerunners of the Generall Iudgement that will at last overtake all the enemies of the Church it will appear what scornes and injuries have been put upon all the Saints of God Particularly it will be made evident that upon some of my People they have cast lots they have sold the children of Christians an ingenuous young man have they made away for the price of an harlot and a modest Virgin for a sum of money that might furnish them with wine to drink and be merry 4. And what have you to do with me and my Church saith the Lord. You that are as great and close adversaries to the Christians as ever the Tyrians and Sidonians and all the Tract of Palestine were to the Jewes Doth your ill usage come in as a return of some injury that I and my People seem to have offered unto you If you do either provoke me with your ventrous and first attempts or pretend any such requital upon me or mine I shall very speedily take order to return a just recompense upon your own heads 5. And I may then truely say that you have deserved it otherwise For both silver and gold and other precious things which I bestowed upon my People those it will appear that you took away thereby the better to furnish and adorn your own Temples and Palaces 6. Likewise the true Sons of mystical Iudah and Ierusalem the good and constant Professors of my gospel you sold to the Grecians and other Merchants with whom you had the like commerce and so dispersed them thorough severall remote countries that they might be far enough from returning to their own home 7. But I shall as surely recall them and reduce them safe out of those parts to which you thought they had been confined by your selling of them thither And then I will requite you in a like return of your deserts upon your own pates 8. For I will leave your Sons and Daughters upon the same termes in the hands of those good Professours whereof Iudah is the type And they shall have power to dispose of them into far remoter parts even as far off as the Sabeans Because I have so determined to do and have justly passed such a decree upon them 9. Against which decree if you can have any hope to prevaile Bestir your selves to the purpose and use all the meanes you can Publish or proclaim your war among what nations you think fit Provide your self of the ablest auxiliaries Put all your strength upon it And leave not out a man that can assist you in this enterprise When you have done all you can all will be but lost labour against those my Servants that I have resolved to defend 10. Sell your plow-shares and sythes and other necessary instruments and implements of your country-labour to supply your selves the better with weapons and engines of war And let the weakest of all be encouraged to do some proper service to the cause 11. Let your troopes and Regiments out of severall nations multiply into a mighty army and muster up all your forces together There and then the Lord of Hostes hath his greater forces of men and angels and the meanest creatures that will quickly and utterly rout the very flower and strength of your most daring Souldiers at the hearing of this short prayer out of the mouth of his afflicted Servants There let thy mighty ones descend O Lord to the releif of thy people 12. That Prayer will procure a Command that shall rouse all the nations that oppose the Church and summon them personally to appear in the vally of Iehoshaphat in the place which I shall appoint there to sit in judgement against all nations on every side that have been enemies to Me and my Church 13. Upon this summons Hear how God
As the shepherd taketh out of the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear so shall the children of Israel be taken out that dwel in Samaria in the corner of a bed and in Damascus in a couch 13 Hear ye and testifie in the house of Iacob saith the Lord God the God of hosts 14 That in the day that I shall visit the transgressions of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Bethel and the horns of the Altar shall be cut off and fall to the ground 15. And I will smite the winter house with the summer house and the houses of Ivory shall perish and the great houses shall have an end saith the Lord. CHAP. III. 1. HEar now O ye children of Israel what the Lord saith against you against all the twelve tribes the whole nation of the Iews that went as one family into Egypt but were increased into a mighty people when he delivered them out of Egypt To this purpose doth the Lord speak unto you 2. You onely I made choice of and selected above all other nations for a peculiar people to whom I would commit my sacred Oracles and upon whom I would freely confer my greatest favours No nation under heaven had ever such laws and so conveyed unto them by my self or by the Ministery of my Angels or Prophets or such ample promises such miracles and deliveries and such other motives to good life Therefore all your unthankfulnesse and disobedience and wickednesse will call for a visitation in a heavier way of punishment Both because you knew my Will better and had more means and obligations for the performance of it and because you were under a more peculiar way of care and cognisance and government under my self 3. The Prophets by whom I instructed you and forewarned you of the plagues that would follow your rebellions and of the mercies and favours that would crown all your good actions never said any thing to you but what they received from me They all agreed in expressing of the same message as men that walk together in the same way are agreed together Your walking with me and conversing in my waies should have appeared in the like agreement of yours with me and them And if your actions had been so consonant to my will and their admonitions you had now been in as fair a way to the increase of your happinesse as your dissent from me and them hath brought you into the high way of ruine and confusion 4. When my Prophets came to you with threats in their mouths it was no more then I put into them If you will call it the roaring of a Lion it was my voice And will the Lion roar either in the forrest or in his den but when the prey is in his view so near that he may take it when he will Even so make you no other account but that my Justice will follow as sure those Prophetical threats as the prey follows upon the roaring of the Lion Therefore make your peace sodainly unlesse you will expose your selves to a sodain destruction 5. Do birds use to fall into a net spred upon the ground and be taken in it unlesse it be purposely so laid by the Fowler that it may apprehend them So are your punishments prophetically foretold like snares that are laid for you in my Justice and by my direction When the Prophets have forewarned you if you will not take heed but by your own supine carelessenesse fall into the net you may thank your selves praemoniti praemuniti if it be as it should be And your timely repentance and amendment of life would be a likely means for the removal of the snare in which the Assyrians and Chaldaeans are thinking to catch you and hold you fast But if they once come near as the Fowler will not remove the snare till the birds be caught so neither will God recal his sentence against you nor they remove their armies till it be too late for you to escape 6. When by the sound of a trumpet in time of war there is notice given to a City of the forces of the enemie approaching toward them shall not that City be afraid and prepare for the best way of prevention or resistance Why then do not your fears produce the like care when your Prophets that are your Watchmen make their voices like a trumpet to rouse you up and acquaint you with the danger at hand For is there any such evil of punishment denounced or brought upon a City of which God himself is not the Authour Who therefore doth it that you may either timely repent or justly suffer 7. And he keeping it not so secret but that by his Prophets you are made privie to his full intention and they unanimously agreeing in the message you cannot but confesse that you are fairly and sufficiently forewarned and consequently if you use not the right means of prevention that the true cause of all your suffering must be indeed from your selves onely and your own impenitence 8. Which of you now will not be afraid at the roaring of this Lion And which of us that are Prophets dare refuse to prophesie and give you notice of that which God himself in such a fearful manner injoynes us to speak and we cannot but at our own peril as well as yours conceal from you 9. And that it may appear how justly that may fall upon Israel which our Prophesies have foretold let the very Heathen be called together and made acquainted with their actions and out of them speak truely what they think of the justice ever used in pronouncing or asflicting their punishment upon them Let it be divulged in the most publick places in the Palaces of Ashdod in Palestine and in all the Palaces of Egypt that they are invited freely to meet together upon the mountains of Samaria and there though being Idolaters themselves they may say little to their idolatrie yet at least let them take notice of the strange cruelty of the Israelite which may be evidenced by the fearful outcries and lamentable noise and exclamations extorted by the many oppressions and injuries of the insolent Governors that ruled or rather domineered within the City Samaria 18. Nay what speak I of the cruelty of their Governors Take them in a more general view and few or none of them did ever regard or think of doing any thing that was right and equal saith the Lord himself of them All their care was by hook or by crook by any false and unjust waies whatsoever to hoord up more and more wealth and furnish their own stately house by cheating and impoverishing of other men 11. Therefore thus saith the Lord God to the children of Israel An enemie the Assyrian in the ten tribes and the Chaldaean in the other two shall besiege and distresse the Land round about He shall tame thee and bring down thy strength
these three unwelcom prophesies likely to be many waies prejudicial to him his fellow Priests if it should be known and believed by the people He sent to Ieroboam the son of Joas then King of Israel saying Amos hath done that which tends to rebellion and hath ventured to do it within thy own kingdom in the middest of thy leige Subjects the house of Israel divulging such strange prophesies and in such plain terms as the land cannot and should not endure being they do apparantly tend to intestine sedition and are sufficient to provoke the people to usurp that authoritie for the punishment of Amos which properlie belongs to the King or such as he shall please to impower Therefore it were not amisse to advise quicklie what shall be done with such a one 11. For thus saith Amos of the King King Ieroboam shall die by the sword and of the people he saith Israel shall be led away captive into a strange land as if God would cast off your Majestie and his people and forget the great cost and diligence which is bestowed in Bethel upon his publick service 12. Thus Amaziah accused the Prophet Amos with much subtiltie and impudence and verie falslie for he said nothing of the person but of the house of the King Yet least this his malicious accusation of the Prophet should not succeed according to his desire he fell to foul words and menacies and said Heark you you Seer You had best be packing hence into Iudah and there get a poor living as you may by your heretical doctrine and false prophesies For here is no place for such as you are 13. Let us hear no more of you at Bethel For here is the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court Therefore it cannot but be verie dangerous for you to hanker hereabouts but in Iudah I believe your prophesies against us may passe with the good liking and applause of all 14. To this virulent and threatning speech Amos made answer with an humble but an undaunted spirit and said to Amaziah I did neither usurpe nor ambitiously affect the place or title of a Prophet nor had I by birth or succession or education in the Schools of the Prophets any claim or pretense unto it For indeed I was brought up among flocks of sheep and herds of cattel not in the Schools not in the Court but as a gatherer of sycomores for bruit beasts rather then an instructer of men 15. Though it pleased God to take me from following the stock and lay this necessitie upon me of prophesying to his people of Israel Therefore I must obey the divine calling rather then your pleasure and advise or the command of the King if he should so injoine me as you would have him For who shall excuse me when he saith Go prophesie unto this people 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou that saiest Drop not thy Prophetical words against Israel We desire not that one drop of them should fall upon our nation For we take them to be no drops from heaven but meerlie from your own lips 16. Therefore as imperious and peremptorie as thou art I will prophesie a little plainer of what will nearlie concern thee Thus saith the Lord. Thy wife in this very City shall have her body abused before thy face by the Assyrian souldiers This will rub the memorie of that spiritual whoredom that hath been practised and maintained by thee as chief Priest in this Citie Thy sons also and thy daughters all nuzled in the same idolatrie shall be cut off by the Assyrian swords And thy idolatrous Country shall be divided by line among those strangers which the King of Assyria will send hither And thou shalt die not in this holy Citie as thou accountest it but in a prophane land among the heathen And all Israel as I foretold shall be carried captive from hence into Assyria for contenming the fair predictions and gracious admonitions that were afforded to them CHAP. VIII 1 THus hath the Lord God shewed unto me and behold a basket of summer fruit 2 And he said Amos what seest thou And I said A basket of summer fruit Then said the Lord unto me The end is come upon my people of Israel I will not again passe by them any more 3 And the songs of the Temples shall be howlings in that day saith the Lord God there shall be many dead bodies in every place they shall cast them forth with silence 4 Hear this O ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the land to fail 5 Saying When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the shekel great and falsifying the balances by deceit 6 That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the wheat 7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Iacob Surely I will never forget any of their works 8 Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt 9 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and I wil darken the earth in the clear day 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring up sackcloath upon all loins and baldnesse upon every head and I will make it as the mourning of an onely son and the end thereof as a bitter day 11 Behold the daies come saith the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread not a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say Thy God O Dan liveth and the manner of Beer-sheba liveth even thy shall fall and never rise up again CHAP. VIII 1. A fourth vision likewise did the Lord God show unto me And behold It was a basket of ripe summer-fruit 2. And that I might the more heedfully observe the meaning of the vision the Lord said What seest thou Amos I answered A basket of ripe summer-fruit Then the Lord said unto me The end is coming upon my people of Israel For as when fruit is fully ripe men use to pluck it from the tree least it should rot and corrupt the sooner so they being ripe for judgement shall be taken from their Countrie I will passe by their sins no more in such patience
Israel are not you in that point the same to me saith the Lord as any other as they for instance that came from the Cushites a base and servile nation in your account To me your Creator and Lord you are the same though you may be more excellent in respect of some other people that have not receaved so much from me as you have There is nothing in your selves but in my favour onely that distinguisheth you from all others Nor have my favours been wanting to others though they have exceeded towards you For as I brought you out of Egypt where your servitude though you have almost forgot it was greater then that of the Cushites so I brought the Philistims also from Caphtor or Cappadocia and the Syrians from Kir or that part of Media that lies by the river Cyrrus 8. My care and providence hath extended to others but much more to you that have been most ingratefull and disobedient Yet have you larger promises of mercie then any other For Behold and you have great reason to take notice of it The eies of the Lord God that created and governs all and sets up or puls down kingdoms at his pleasure are intent upon every sinful kingdom to destroy it from the face of the earth unlesse they repent Yet for my promise sake to your Forefathers I will not utterly destroy the whole nation and people of Israel saith the Lord. 9. I will indeed by my own command so order it that the Israelites for their sins shall be dispersed and tossed about among the nations as corn is shaked and moved about when it is sifted in a sieve or winnowed with the fan but the chaff onely shall flie away the least grane or scruple shall not fall to the earth Afflictions may purge or trie the best amongst them but they shall not consume them 10. The worst and most obstinate of my people I shall cut off by the sword that amend not their lives upon fair admonition and yet presume that God will not let the evil day so hastily overtake and prevent them but that God will deliver them at last as he hath done their forefathers in many feares and dangers which they have fallen into 11. Their securitie may undo them But there is a day coming wherein I will By Zorobabel restore the state of the Church and kingdom of David and whatsoever under his Successors was gone much to decay Which you may look upon as a type of the kingdom of the Messiah and setling of religion by him Which will be the true repairing of all breaches and raising up the ruines made by Scribes and Pharises and other enemies of the Church and building up the Kingdom of the true Israel of God in greater perfection then ever it saw before 12. That my people or they that are called mine i. my Apostles and Servants and their Successors whom I shall use in the restauration of the Church may take a kind of spiritual possession of the Gentiles in my name bringing them within the pale of the Church and fould of the great Shepherd of our souls Even of the greatest enemies of the Church as the Edomites were to the Iews At least of a remnant of them i. so many of them as shall return by true repentance and obedience from their opposing of the truth So saith the Lord Himself that will be the main Agent in this great work and make use of his Messengers as instruments for that purpose to effect what he hath often and most gratiously promised for the restoring and enlarging of his Church by the conversion and accesse not of Gentiles onely but of enemies too to be incorporated into one mystical body whereof the Messias shall be the head 13. Behold that joyful time is at hand wherein the abundance of Gods spirituall graces shall be prefigured in the plenty of all outward blessings The harvest shall be so long that it shall extend till the time of plowing the earth again And from the beginning of vintage to the sowing of new seed there will be employment enough in gathering of grapes and treading the Winepresse and furnishing all the Cellars with wine Of which there shall be such store as if the mountains dropped and distilled sweet wine and the hills that use to be drie and barren were resolved and moistened with the overflowings of milk Which may figure the plenty of spiritual food and heavenly comforts that shall attend the coming of the Messias 14. And I will bring the captives home again i. such as have been detained under the power of sin and Satan and they shall rebuild the waste Cities and re-inhabit them i. restore and settle the true worship of God where it was neglected And they shall plant Vineyards and drink the wine thereof i. found Churches and tast the fruit of their labours bestowed upon the Church and they shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them i. the maledictions of the Law being taken away they shall be blessed in propagating the Gospel and the true service of God for the increase of those spiritual graces that are like fragrant flowers in the garden of the Church 15. And I will plant them upon their land which I will give them out of which they shall be no more plucked up again i. In the Paradise of the Church they shall be like Trees of Righteousnesse so planted that they shall take deep and firm root Nothing shall separate them from the love and service of God Neither shall the gates of hell the extreamest dangers or terrors be able to prevail against them Thus saith the Lord thy God to thee O Amos or to thee whosoever that art in the number of the true Israel of God Thou maist safely believe it and undertake that all these things shall certainly come to passe A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF OBADIAH 1. THe vision of Obadiah Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom We have heard a rumour from the Lord and an Ambassadour is sent among the heathen Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battell 2 Behold I have made thee small among the heathen thou art greatly despised 3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high that saith in his heart Who shall bring me down to the ground 4 Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 5 If theives came to thee if robbers by night how art thou cut off would they not have stolne till they had enough If the grape gatherers came to thee would they not leave some grapes 6 How are the things of Esau searched out how are his hid things sought up 7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the
when thou stoodest like one of another side while strangers carryed away all thy Brother Iacob's forces into captivity and forreigners entred the gates of most of his Cities and cast lots upon Ierusalem which of them should make the first assault against that their mother-City when all this was done thou that shouldst have been one of her best friends didst openly show thy self to be one of her greatest enemies i. one of them that had a hand in all those severall passages of cruelty 12. But thou of all other shouldst not have endured so much as to look upon the strange usage of thy brother in that heavy time much more shouldst thou have absteined from triumphing over the children of Iudah in the day of their destruction and most of all shouldst thou have feared to make thy own mouth a witnesse of thy proud and insolent insulting over their affliction in the very day when it fell upon them 13. Thou shouldst not have been so forward as others to rush into the gates of my Peoples forts and cities in that time of their calamity and then specially have made thy self a spectator of those evils that came so thick upon him like a fearfull storm in a sad and gloomy day and which is yet worse to have appeared as a party which those that laid violent hands upon his substance in that day 14. Nor shouldst thou have stood in the crosse wayes where many paths meet upon that advantage to cut off such of thy Brethren as had escaped the enemy nor shut up such as otherwise had remained free and at liberty in those distressed times 15. For after all these daies of yours the Lord will have his day too a day of vengeance And it is not long before that day will come upon all those nations about Judaea that have been so cruell to them And then as thou hast alone to others it shall be done to thee thy reward shall return upon thy own pate 16. And as you of Edom shall drink of the cup of my anger because of my holy mountain and the holy land of Judaea which you have persecuted So shall all those nations that joyned with you ever taste of the same cup till they have drunk it up and be as if they had never been 17. But in mount Sion there shall be a great deliverance from the scourge that shall then be brought upon others by Sennacherib and it shall continue a place sanctified and set apart for divine service and then shall they of the house of Iacob that secured themselves for that time in Jerusalem return to a quiet possession of their severall tenures in the land of their inheritance 18. Then you that helped to encrease the flames of those wars that set Judaea into a combustion shall find that the house of Iacob will prove a fire and the house of Ioseph a flame and the house of Esau like stubble before them And they shall kindle them and devour them till there be none remaining of the house of Esau that shall be able to do any great harm to the house of Israel For the Lord hath spoken it 19. And they of Israel shall possesse the South of Edom with mount Seir and the plain with the land of the Philistims And with them shall they possess the Countrey of Ephraim and of Samaria and Benjamin shall have Gilead for his possession 20. And those few forces of the children of Israel that return after their captivity shall possesse whatsoever belonged to the Cananites as far as Sareptah of the Sidonians And they of Ierusalem which shall return from their captivity shall possesse the parts about Sepharad or the furthest bounds with the Cities of the South 21. And they that have delivered themselves out of the captivity shall not onely come again to their antient right in mount Sion but in their posterity they shall go as Iudges and Governours into the mountaines of Esau. And then the kingdom of Israel shall be under God alone and under the power of no forreign Kings A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF IONAH CHAP. I. 1. NOw the word of the Lord came unto Ionah the son of Amittai saying 2 Arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickednesse is come up before me 3 But Ionah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Ioppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to goe with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the Sea so that the ship was like to be broken 5 Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them but Ionah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep 6 So the Ship-master came to him and said unto him What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not 7 And they said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this â—evill is upon us So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Ionah 8 Then said they unto him Tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evill is upon us what is thine occupation and whence comest thou what is thy countrey and of what people art thou 9 And he said unto them I am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land 10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him Why hast thou done this for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them 11 Then said they unto him What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us for the sea wrought and was tempestuous 12 And he said unto them Take me up and cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land but they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them 14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said We beseech thee O Lord we beseech thee let us not perish for this mans life and lay not upon us innocent blood for thou O Lord hast done as it pleased thee 15 So they took up Ionah and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her raging 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vowes 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Ionah and Ionah was in
In those daies saith the Lord I will recollect into their own Country and restore to their former happinesse that poor weak and afflicted nation of the Jews that hath been driven out of her own towns and cities into other remote parts and there been ill intreated by my own permission 7. And I will make that weak afflicted nation leave a fair remnant behind her a numerous progenie to succeed her And over that posteritie of hers will I my self raign for ever in Mount Sion and no earthly Prince shall hinder them from living after my laws till themselves forsake me of their own accord 8. And thou Tower of Ader by Bethlehem that standest in such an obscure and neglected place The daughter of Sion the fair City of Jerusalem shall make her accesse unto thee And out of thee shall come the chiefest fountain of dominion and royalty the Messias to be born in Bethlehem To the daughter of Jerusalem shall he come I say not how strangely entertained by her 9. But now why dost thou cry out so pitifully and make such heavy lamentation at the sound of royalty Dost thou find no King over thee while upon these sad Prophesies thou supposest thy self as in thy captivity Are thy Sanhedrin thy great Counsellors perished Is this the cause why thou art so often surprised with as extream pain and anguish as a woman in travel 10. I cannot blame thee thou maist well be in pain and labour to bring forth and to be delivered of that thy trouble And be so For thou shalt very shortly be fain to depart out of thy Cities and be content with what lodging thou canst get abroad in the open fields and so walk on to Babylon But there will I find out a way of deliverance for thee and even there shal the great Jehovah rescue thee from the hands of thine enemies 11 And as shortly after many men of several nations shall uuite their strength and malice against thee which shal not spare to say Let Sion be still represented to the world as one lying in her own pollution and exposed to the contempt of all us that look upon her 12. But they that so talk at random and out of malice little know or consider what God in his secret counsel and providence and mercy doth intend to do with us But how little soever they consider our end they are lesse advised of their own For He shall gather them as sheaves into the floor there to be so thrashed and bangd as they do not dream of 13. For then will I say to Sion Rouse up thy self and lay about thee like a thrasher O daughter Sion Tread and trample them under which is your way of thrashing with oxen that tread out the corn and to help on the businesse I will make thy horns like iron and thy hoofs like brasse that thou maist trample them and beat them all to pieces be they never so many And what they have covetously hoorded I will take to my self saith the Lord. They have but laid it up as a thing anathematized and set apart for my peculiar service as a deodate out of their substance which I will chalenge as I am Lord paramont over all the earth CHAP. V. NOw gather thy self in troups O daughter of troups he hath laid siege against us they shall smite the judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek 2 But thou Bethlehem Ephratah though thou be little among the thousands of Iudah yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel whose goings forth have been from of old from everlasting 3 Therefore will he give them up untill the time that she which travelleth hath brought forth then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel 4 And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God and they shall abide for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth 5 And this man shall be the peace when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our palaces then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principall men 6 And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod in the enterances thereof thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when he treadeth within our borders 7 And the remnant of Iacob shall be in the midst of many people as a dew from the Lord as the showres upon the grasse that tarrieth not for man nor waiteth for the sonnes of men 8 And the remnant of Iacob shall be among the Gentiles in the midst of many people as a lion among the beasts of the forrest as a young lion among the flocks of sheep who if he go through both treadeth down and teareth in pieces and none can deliver 9 Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine adversaries and all thine enemies shall be cut off 10 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord that I will cut off thy horses out of the midst of thee and I will destroy thy chariots 11 And I will cut off the cities of thy land and throw down all thy strong holds 12 And I will cut off witchcrafts out of thine hand and thou shalt have no more sooth-sayers 13 Thy graven images also will I cut off and thy standing images out of the midst of thee and thou shalt no more worship the work of thine hands 14 And I will pluck up thy groves out of the midst of thee so will I destroy thy Cities 15 And I will execute vengeance in anger and fury upon the heathen such as they have not heard CHAP. V. 1. WHat hath hitherto been said to thee O Babylon comes to this upon the matter that thou shalt very shortly be exposed as a prey to thine enemy O thou daughter of an arrand spoiler of Nimrod that first began that sport over men as well as beasts And hear the rest from my people Israel Therefore is the Babylonian spoyled because he was the man that laid siege against us and that succeeding they were all so injurious and insulting over the very Iudges of Israel that they presumed to strike them upon the check which is a blow of the greatest disgrace that can be 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratha lay none of these scornes and abuses to thy heart for great matters are intended unto thee It is but a little honour that thou shouldest be reckoned among the Governours of the thousands of Iudah For out of thee a speciall Prince shall be raised up for my own designes the Messias that shall be King and Ruler over the true Israel of God whole originall may be deduced from the top of royall antiquity from the first Kings of Judah and more than that
his secrets and for the daughter to rise up as a witnesse against her mother and the daughter in law against the mother in law And a mans enemies are they of his own house as usually as any other 7. But be the world never so bad I that speak all this against these wretched times will still look up unto God in my hearty prayers for patience and perseverance in doing good and a happy deliverance in due time from the perils of a disordered state I will constantly wait for the God of my salvation And I doubt not but my God will hear me 8. After this Prophetical discourse of my own in the foresight and contemplation of the miseries and disorders that shall happen in the reign of Manasses you shall now hear my own Country the Iewish nation her self bemoaning of her great affliction under Zedekiah and the Babylonish Captivity and somewhat too of their return out of captivity under Nehemiah and Ezra For thus she bespeaks the Country of the Chaldeans first Do not triumph over me O thou mine enemie When I am fallen into a low estate I shall rise again and when I sit in the darknesse of a sad affliction there shall the Lord be as a light and comfort unto me 9. I will patiently bear the heavy punishment laid upon me in the fierce indignation of the Lord because I drew it upon my self by those sins which I committed against him This will I do till he please to take notice of my cause to plead for me and to revenge the injuries which I have received from the Babylonians As in his justice I know he will do in his good time And he will bring me out of this sad and gloomy time of affliction into the chearful lustre and glorie of my former prosperity And in that light I shall once again be able to see the goodnesse of the Lord. 10. And my enemie the whole nation of the Chaldeans shall see it as well as I when she shall be ready to hide her self for shame as impudent as she was in the time of my captivity to say unto me Where is now the Lord thy God what is now become of that help which you expected from him Mine eies shall see her then with comfort when she will be ashamed to look upon me And when I am raised out of my low estate then shall she be cast down and trampled under feet by the victorious Persians and made no more account of then the mire in the streets 11. The time will then come for repairing of thy breaches and rebuilding of thy walls O Jerusalem And at that time the proud commands of the Babylonian shall be out of date instead of sending abroad his high edicts to other nations he shall have one above him the conquering Persians that shall over-master and command him 12. About those daies men shall begin to stock again unto thee O Jerusalem Some from Assyria and the strongest Cities there Shortly after thou maiest discover them from all parts coming towards thee Some from the strongest forts beyond Euphrates towards that river and so towards thee And in like manner from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain shall they come to thee 17. For the countries from whence they shall thus come to thee shall fall to ruine and desolation for the sinful inhabitants thereof which shall have that fruit of their wicked works and so many of them for very need be forced to repair unto thee 14. So be it O Lord for their chastisement and for our return and recovery of our former estate Feed thine own people again as their careful Shepherd go before them with thy Shepherds hook as the peculiar flock of thine heritage They that have lodged long like as in a barren and solitary place in a wood let them now come to feed again in as pleasant places as those of Mount Carmel and in as rich pastures as those of Basan and Gilead as in the daies of old 14. And say to thy people O Lord I will show thee again as wonderful things in mercy as I did heretofore when I brought thee out of the land of Egypt And I will show as great a punishment upon thine enemies as I then did upon the Egyptians 16. So let the nations all about be confounded at all the might and power of the Jews Let them lay their hands on their mouths in silent admiration and their ears be made deaf with the noise and fame of thy wondrous acts 17. Like men amazed at them so let them fall down with fear and astonishment and lick the dust like a serpent Let them be forced to creep out of their secret holes and refuges where they had hid themselves like wormes out of the earth And in the complishment of these things which our prophesies have foretold let them learn to fear the Lord our God and stand in awe of thee O Lord. 18. Who among the gods is like unto thee that pardonest iniquity and removest the punishment thereof upon our repentance and passest by many of the transgressions of the poor remnant of thy people as one that is unwilling to take notice of them if they may be amended For He is not so implacable as to continue in his anger for ever though our sins extort a punishment His delight is rather in mercy and loving kindnesse 19. Therefore will he have mercy upon us again He will trample all our offences under his feet as things he would see no more and cast them into the bottom of the sea as things that he will not care for hereafter nor make any more account of 20 So Lord wilt thou perform the truth of thy promises to Iacob and thy tender mercies to Abraham and what thou hast confirmed by oath to our forefathers from the daies of old A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF NAHUM CHAP. I. 1 THe burden of Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite 2 God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked the Lord hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet 4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it drie and drieth up all the rivers Bashan languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth 5 The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein 6 Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his furie is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him 7 The Lord is good a strong bold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in
plain had the same benefit of a quiet and secure repose and a rich habitation 8. And the word of the Lord came again unto me saying 9. Thus spake the Lord of Hostes by former Prophets saying In your publick places of Judgement proceed according to the rules of true Iustice and Equity without any regard to silthy lucre or to the prejudice of Affection And in your private actions and commerce with one another show that kindnesse and compassion that should be expected among Brethren of the same stock and alliance and of the same Religion and Profession 10. Let there be no injuring or oppressing of the widow the orphan the stranger or any that are poor and afflicted amongst you And do not so much as in your hearts devise or conceive any mischeivous intention against one another All this I commanded your Fathers by the former Prophets 11. But they would not hear of that ear they shrunk up the shoulder and in plain rebellion turned their backs upon their good guides and followed those courses that would make their cares duller for any holy counsaile that called for this obedience 12. And thus by degrees they made their hearts as it were in a set opposition to all exhortations of obedience as hard as flint or any the hardest and most durable stone that there might be no admittance for the voice of the law and the precepts which the Lord of Hostes sent them by those that were to that purpose raised up and enlightened by his holy Spirit for such were all your former Prophets And this wilfull and obstinate rebellion of theirs could not but draw down the heavie and just indignation of the Lord of Hostes. 13. And accordingly you see it came to passe that as they suffered God to call upon them and would return him no answer of obedience so when their own miseries forced them to call for divine assistanee then did I refuse to answer their desires saith the Lord of Hostes. 14. And I dispersed them in mine anger as if it had been with a mighty whirl-wind into severall nations which they never knew before and their own land after their deportation into other parts was left waste and desolate like a wildernesse behind them There was not so much as a passenger to be seen either going thither or returning from that place that had been so much frequented Such and so heavie was the solitude and barrennesse of that land that had been accounted the delight and Paradise of the whole earth CHAP. VIII 1. AGain the word of the Lord of hostes came to me saying 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts I was jealous for Zion with great jealousie and I was jealous for her with great fury 3 Thus saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and Ierusalem shall be called a Citie of truth and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain 4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Ierusalem and every man with his staffe in his hand for very age 5 And the streets of the citie shall be full of boyes and girls playing in the streets thereof 6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts 7 Thus saith the Lord of hostes Behold I will save my people from the east-countrey and from the west-countrey 8 And I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and they shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and in righteousnesse 9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Let your hands be strong ye that hear in these dayes these words by the mouth of the prophets which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid that the temple might be built 10 For before these daies there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction for I set all men every one against his neighbour 11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former daies saith the Lord of hosts 12 For the seed shall be prosperous the vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her encrease and the heavens shall give their dew and I will curse the remnant of this people to possess all these things 13 And it shall come to passe that aâ—â— ye were a curse among the heathen O house of Iudah and house of Israel so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing fear not but let your hands be strong 14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath saith the Lord of hostes and I repented not 15 So again have I thought in these dayes to do well unto Ierusalem and to the house of Iudah fear ye not 16 These are the things that ye shall do Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates 17 And let none of you imagine evill in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. 18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying 19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts The fast of the fourth moneth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Iudah joy and gladness and chearfull feasts therefore love the truth and peace 20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts it shall yet come to passe that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities 21 And the inhabitants of one city shbll go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts I will go also 22 Yea many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hostes in Ierusalem and to pray before the Lord. 23 Thus saith the Lord of hostes In those daies it shall come to passe that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Iew saying We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you CHAP. VIII 1. ANd the commands of the Lord of Hostes were thus expressed further upon the same occasion and to make way for a satisfactory answer to their question 2. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes. As my great wrath and justice upon my own people followed upon the greatnesse of those sins which were mentioned before so now the greatnesse of my jealousie for Sion the seat on my Jewish Church and my great anger no now against her but for her shall be
when their glorious City and Temple suffer so much Shepherds did I call them I should rather have called them Lions then Shepherds devourers rather then feeders and governours of the people But now these Lions shall roar and heavily bemoan themselves They that Lion-like did so Lord it and domineer over their own nation shall indure the injuries and abuses of strangers that will domineer over them While the pride of Iudaea that stretcheth her self as far as Iordan is turned to nothing but miserie and desolation 4. The sins and disorders that call for such desolation will make it high time for the Messias to come the true Shepherd of Israel of whose care and government my exercise of my function among you is but a little shadow And to Him thus will my Lord God say when he sends him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Feed and govern these poor sheep the people of my pasture and the sheep of my hands that by ill guides and pretended Shepherds are so often in danger to become like Sheep ready for the slaughter 5. For their Governors that undertook the care of their wellfare or as they would call themselves the Masters and owners of them are little better then their Butchers that make the best advantage of their sheep though it be by cutting of their throats and selling them to their skin And yet all the while they are never startled at it as at that which makes them guilty of any great offence But when they have so sold them they make a devout face at it and as if they conceived God himself had liberally conferred upon them all that unjust gain and would take no notice of such faults in them they put their applause and hypocrisie into a solemn form of thanksgiving and say Blessed be the Lord that hath given a happy successe to this means by which I am enriched which is no better then to thank God for the successe of their wicked and cruel actions Thus these Rulers and Shepherds in name but Butchers in deed take no pitie and so make no spare of the people when they meet with an occasion that fits their own advantage 6. Neither will I any longer spare them or any in the whole land that countenance or advance their wicked actions saith the Lord But you shall see I will deliver them into one anothers hands to perish by civil dissentions and mutual slaughter And I will give them every man into the hands of a King of his own choice Since they will have no king but Caesar And their ruine shall be such as if they were dashed against the earth and hit that in their fall And I will not deliver them out of the depth of these calamities 7. But now will I instruct this miserablie slaughterd sheep and among them I will speak to you that have the meeknesse and innocence and patience whereof sheep are the best emblemes by representing a visible way of instruction before your eyes For this is that which the Lord saith unto you Long since I took to my self two Shepherds-staves as two waies of happy government of my people the sheep of my fould The one I call Beauty or amiable and pleasant which is the way of protection from all evil and calamities abroad the other I call Bands or Binders which is the way of keeping them at Unity and concord at home Thus I did govern my people at first and it proved happy and successeful to them under their first King of my own choice 8. Then for the ingratitude of the people my simple amd stragling flock within the first moneth of years after that good government of my servant David I began to impair cut off somewhat from the glory of their three chief Shepherds and Governors their Kings their Priests and their Prophets For my love was much taken off from them as theirs was now become somewhat averse and kept not touch with me 9. So that I said within my self I will govern you no more by that gentle way of loving and solicitous care for your wellfare They that are sickly and scabbed sheep let them die of the roâ— and they that are so silly to be snapped up by the wolf let them be snapped up And the rest that neither die of their own inbred maladies nor are cut off by others let them fall into some phrensie and devour one anothers flesh like wolves out of their own sould 10. And accordingly I took my Shepherds staff that I stiled by the name of Beauty or Amiable and cut it in pieces to signifie that since they had broken their obligations of dutie I would also break that part of the Covenant that concerned my self wherein I stood conditionally ingaged to all the flock that should have lived as the people of my pasture and sheep that would follow my voice whithersoever I called them 11. Thus and about that time was the staffe and covenant as good as broken on both sides And in processe of time when the meek and innocent among the sheep observed that it was so such as had observed me too and kept my precepts when they saw that it was my doing and that all these things came to passe by the command of the Lord 12. Then I said unto them as willing to condescend to the giving of a reason of my actions and to make them understand what just cause there was why I should at first begin to do what I did and why I should afterwards more and more go on to desert them If you are indeed well pleased that I should be your Shepherd tell me plainly what wages I shall receive And if you think I deserve nothing cease from that thought trouble your selves no further and say you will give me nothing Now what price do you think they set upon me for so it proved to be rather then a fair sum appointed as a reward of my care and pains That which they weighed out for me was thirty pieces of silver that was the price they set me or rather set upon me This I Zacharie saw in a vision but they will make it good When the Messias is amongst them they will give so much silver to be sure of Him and they will do it really and openly that all the world may know it 13. After this the prophetical vision going on the Lord said unto me Is not this a goodly sum whereat they prise me They might have given it to the potter for one of the worst brickle vessels that you use about the Temple And to the Potter let it go Let it be so cast away as a sum fitter for the reward of some mean employment then as wages for me So I took the thirty pieces of silver as I was commanded in the vision and threw them to the potter that hath his work-house and
which I was wounded in the house of my friends 7. Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones 8. And it shall come to passe that in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried they shall call on my name and I will hear them I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God CHAP. XIII 1. ALl this mourning wherein their eyes become like fountains of teares if it be seasonably undertaken may end in a great blessing For even them shall a fountain be opened to the House of David and the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the mourners that were named before as a particular instance for the rest a fountain that shall wash away the guilt of all their sins though they be such as have made them most foule and polluted Soules 2. And then also will the time come saith the Lord of Hostes wherein I will begin to take away the very name of Idolatry from off the Earth by the conversion of the Gentiles so that in many places there shall be no more mention of Idols And with them will I make the false Prophets and the Divinations by help of unclean Spirits to vanish out of the lands that have been polluted with them 3. And such shall be the common zeal against Idolatry and false Prophets that if a man should yet venture upon that way of pretended Prophesie even his own Parents shall be ready to call for Justice against him and tell him that he is not worthy to live because he broacheth false doctrine under the colour of a message in the name of the Lord. Thus shall his own Father and Mother that were the meanes of his life become the meanes of his death too and in a zeal like that of Phineas presently run him through as one not to be suffered any longer to breath after such a fault against the God of the spirits of all flesh 4. And in these dayes you shall see it often come to passe that the divulgers of false and erroneous doctrine under the pretence of a Vision to usher in what they teach or foretell shall soon be confuted and made ashamed of those waies Neither shall they venture any more to take the outward Habit of a Prophet as a sufficient cloak for their deceiving and misguiding of others 5. Nay when any one of them is examined whether he be a Prophet or no he shall not dare to avouch it but he shall rather confesse and say I lay no claim to the spirit of Prophesie I am but a plain Husband-man fitter for plowing than prophesying and one man or other hath still trained me up that way and had me as a servant under him in that kind of drudgerie from my youth upward till now 6. And if any one say but what is the meaning of these markes that have taken such deep impression in thy hands Are they not such marks and figures as the false-Prophets have that acknowledge themselves devoted to some false Gods Or shall we call them blows or wounds that have been otherwise received Then to purge himself from all suspition of Idolatrie he shall say These were blows indeed that have made some impression in me for the better the signes of such correction as I deserved while I was in the house of my Friend Therefore I shall take them for no other than love-tokens 7. But now I will go on with the Prophesie of the death of the Messias to show what more the Lord is pleased to have foretold concerning those passages of his Passion that will be like a sword to pierce him to the heart Arise O sword against the Shepherd of my flock saâ—th the Lord of Hostes and against my dear Companion that is nearest to my love Smite the Shepherd and let the Sheep be scattered Yet for the same hand that dispersed them with that sword will I return my gentle hand to that little innocent stock that forsook their good Shepherd out of mere infirmity while the storm fell about them 8. And for the greater flock through the whole Earth this shall come to passe saith the great Iehovah that of those that shall professe themselves to be of my fold two parts therein will be cut off and perish for want of perseverance but a third part in it shall continue to the end in obedience unto me 9. And that third part will I lead along under a fiery triall for by many temptations I will prove them of what mettall they are as the Goldsmith makes proof of his silver and gold to see what drosse there is in them till they are refined as he would have it And he that under this tryall will call upon my name and so endeavour to improve himself I will acknowledge he is one of my people and he shall persevere to professe me to be his God CHAP. XIV 1 BEhold the day of the Lord cometh thy spoil shall be devided in the midst of thee 2 For I will gather all nations against Ierusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and residue of the people shall not be cut off from the Citie 3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Ierusalem on the east and the mount of Olives shall â—leave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west and there shall be a very great valley and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountaines for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal yea ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the dayes of Vzziah king of Iudah and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee 6 And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark 7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to passeâ— that at evening time it shall be light 8 And it shall be in that day that living waters shal go out from Ierusalem half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall it be 9 And the
Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one 10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Ierusalem and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner-gate and from the tower of Hananiel unto the kings wine-presses 11 And men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more utter destruction but Ierusalem shall be safely inhabited 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their shesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their holes their tongue shall consume away in their mouth 13 And it shall come to passe in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them they shal layhold every oneon the hand of his neighbour his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour 14 And Iudah also shall fight at Ierusalem and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together gold and silver and apparel in great abundance 15 And so shall be the plague of the horse of the mule of the camel and of the asse and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague 16 And it shall come to passe that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Ierusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts and to keep the feast of Tabernacles 17 And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Ierusalem to worship the King the Lord of hosts even upon them shall be no rain 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 20. In that day shal there be upon the â—els of the horses HOLINESSE VNTO THE LORD and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the altar 21. Yea every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah shall be Holinesse unto the Lord of hosts and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them feeth therein and in that day there shall be nâ— more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts CHAP. XIV 1. BUt before these things come to passe there is a sad day of the Lords wrath coming on that will more particularly touch thee O Jerusalem For they of the Gentiles shall make havock of all the Countries about thee and make division of those spoiles in the middest of thy land 2. And I will muster up all sorts of people to fight against Ierusalem and by their forces the Citie shall be taken upon which advantage the houses shall be plundered and the women ravished And the one half of the City shall go out and deliver themselves up as Captives for very fear and famine but as for the rest they shall show themselves more valorous and religious in defense of their Temple they shall neither be iusticed nor forced out of the Citie 3. After this the Lord Himself that suffered these Nations for a time to come thither and show their spite and furie against Jerusalem shall appear for his People and fight against those barbarous Nations as he hath often heretofore at the red Sea and elsewhere showed himself the Lord of Hostes and in our defense chose himself a day of Battle and Victory 4. In that day shall the feet of him that shall be leader of those Nations against Jerusalem stand upon Mount Olivet which hath the prospect of the East-part of the Citie that he may thence spy out a fit place wherein to pitch his camp And by his command they shall dig so much toward the East and West of that Mountain that it shall seem to have a great cleft and rupture in the middest Which earth being so digged and removed from thence to be used for severall military designes against the North and South part of the City there shall seem to be a very great Valley made out of that which was before a great part of the Mountain 5. Then shall you flee like men affrighted at the valley made as it were in a mountain For that valley so made out of the mountain shall reach as far as Asel the place that hath the name from the vicinity of that Mount Even so shall you flie from the sight of this vast rupture as you fled from the great Earthquake which made such a rupture in the same mountain in the dayes of Vzziah King of Iudah But then shall the Lord my God the Lord of hosts himself come to your defense and all his heavenly Host of holy Angels with Him 6. But in that day of their trouble and affrightment before the Lord shall thus appear there shall be no light of comfort and refreshment but cold and quaking horrour fear and astonishment 7. But this shall be as one day or a time whereof God hath determined in his foreknowledge and speciall providence and which I cannot well tell whether I should call it a Day or a night For the Day is a time of comfort but this shall have none the night is a time of rest and quiet but this shall have none Yet it shall come to passe toward the Eve and expiration of this sad time that when you would think your Sun is setting and the hope and joy of your life quite vanishing away then shall arise a new glimpse of recovering your former happinesse for you shall espie a light of comfort and joy appearing to you in the approach of those Angels of light that God shall bring for your succour 8. Then shall come a time of Peace and works of Peace You shall then have Aquaeducts and usefull passages for running water made from Ierusalem some of them towards the Eastern Sea the lake of Asphaltites and some of them towards the Western or Syrick Sea And they shall be constant supplies of water for your ordinary occasions as well in Summer as in Winter 9. And then shall of Judaea be free from the imperious commands of forrein Nations as when the Lord vouchsafed to stile Himself your King and you his People So shall you then be in all your land under that one gracious Lord whose name and his onely is honoured in Judaea no Usurper having power over you 10. This time of Peace shall make you populous All the places about Iudaea shall be compassed about with inhabitants even in the plaines and more desert places that have not yet been
inhabited from Gibeah of Benjamin in the Northern borders even unto Rimmon that lies as far South of Jerusalem And with the addition of her higher Towers and Walls Ierusalem shall seem to lift up her self higher and glory to see her self so fully and richly inhabited in her own place from the gate of Benjamin which leades into the Countrey of Benjamin toward the North and so to the old gate on the West and to the corner-gate that hath so many Towers jetted to the East and thence all along from the Tower of Hananiel which bounds the South of your Citie as far toward Sion as the place where the Kings wine-presses were wont to be And there also shall you have some buildings raised up for your new inhabitants 11. And they which shall then inhabite it in so populous a manner shall find that there will be no more such miserable destructions as have formerly been in that place but Ierusalem shall be inhabited in safety and security for a long time 12. And these shall be the plagues wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have come in hostile manner against Her Such a fearfull famine and sicknesse shall he send amongst them that their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet their eyes shall consume away while they are in those strong holds wherein Nature hath placed them for better use then from thence to watch the mischief of others that were better than themselves and their tongues shall moulder away while they are in their own wicked and blasphemous mouths So that they shall walk about like living carcases and ugly noisome spectacles of misery and memorandums of divine vengeance 13. And somewhat else shall happen in those dayes as an addition to their sorrow For great tumults and combustions will God raise among them in those hurries Every man shall be willing to lay hold of his neighbour and by their joynt-hands engage him to be faithfull and secure unto them but that hand of fidelity as he took it shall deceive his trust and be one of the first hands that shall be lift up against him 14. Anâ— which is the worst of it such deceit and contention shall not be onely amongst them but even Iudah too shall pick quarrels against Ierusalem And a means to tempt them to this will be the wealth of all the Heathen round about them that shall be gathered to this place great abundance of gold and silver and apparel that shall be in the tents of the Enemy 15. While that plague of war and famine that is amongst them will breed as great a mortality among the horses aad mules and asses and all the beasts in their tents which shall be like another plague among them 16. But these afflictions and your miraculous delivery shall prove good instructions to many that shall be left of those Nations that marched against Ierusalem For in acknowledgement of Gods Justice upon themselves and his miraculous protection of that place thither will they resort from year to year being made your Proselytes to tender their worship before the King of Kings and the Lord of hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles at least as you do that falling out in a time more seasonable for the undertaking of long â—urnies to Jerusalem 16. And while they do so much that are but Proselytes they read a Lecture of more readinesse to be required in you Therefore whosoever of the Families of this Land shall not come up to Ierusalem out of those countries into which they are dispersed once a year at least to bear a part in the divine service of the great King of Kings and Lord of Hostes no showre of Divine favour shall be expected to be powred upon them 18. As for instance if those Jewish Families that are in Egypt shall not make that ascent and approach hither neither shall that showre of his favour be upon them but in-instead of that some plague raâ—her with which the Lord will strike all those people that will not come up to keep so much as the Feast of Tabernacles after they have taken upon them the profession of his Name 19. This shall be the punishment of those Professours of the Jewish Religion that live in Egypt or among any other Nations and will not come up to the solemn Feast of Tabernacles and then at least bear a part in the publick service of God in that place which he hath chosen for that purpose 20. In these dayes of the strict observance of the worship of God great additions of prosperity shall be heaped upon this People and specially upon the place of Gods service by rich presents from forrein Nations Then the bridles of the war-horses and the rich ornaments about them shall be offered as a holy thing to the Lord and so come into the Treasurie of the Temple as a Testimonie that they acknowledge the victorie in which those horses were employed is to be ascribed to God onely though they seemed to guide and direct the Horses with the bridle in their own hands And not in this way of acknowledgement onely but many other waies too the offerings shall be so rich and frequent that the pots in the Lords house shall be as numerous as the bowles before the Altar whereof you have greater plenty than of any one vessell about the Temple because of the severall uses to which they are of necessitie required both in the offerings and in receiving the blood of the sacrifices 21. And not those pots onely in the Temple but by reason of the great abundance of sacrifices in those dayes every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah will commonly be hallowed to that use which those in the Sanctuary are employed in for that service of the Lord of Hostes that all they that bring their Sacrifice may take of them and seeth their meat in them with which after the Sacrifice they use to entertain the Levites and their Friends whom they invite to the Feast And in those dayes as you shall have such store of Proselytes about the house of the Lord of hosts to help and encourage you in the service so you shall have no Cananites there to draw you from the service of the true God So shall you be all holy and clean without mixture of prophane and idolatrous people as was prophesied long before And withall you shall therein give a type of that happinesse which the whole Church shall have in the last day A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF MALACHI CHAP. I. 1 THe burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi 21 I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say Wherein hast thou loved us was not Esau Iacobs brother saith the Lord yet I loved Iacob 3 And I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage wast for the dragons of the wildernesse 4 Whereas Edom saith We are impoverished
were p. 298. v. 9. r. the wives p. 346. v. 14. r. of any longer p. 361. v 15. before encrease dele l. p 400 v. 6. r. sore troubled p. 413. l. 2. r. may be p. 463. v. 1. 466 v. 7. r. Darius Notbus as it is truly printed r. 439. where the note in calâ—e paginae gives a reason of it and 442. l. 1. p. 490. v. 9. r. if by his care p. 531. v. 8. r. Angels p. 546. l 2 r. So these Errata in the Notes in calce paginae Pag. 18. l. totum pop Isr. 45. l. in Hâ—ph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incipe incipere 79 for subest l. subesse 345. l. attondebantur 490 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 588 l. omni cibo 598. l. futurum pro Imperativo A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HOSEA CHAP. I. 1 THe word of the Lord that came unto Hosea the son of Beeri in the daies of Uzzia Jotham Ahas and Hezekiah Kings of Judah and â—n the daies of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea and the Lord said to Hosea Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms for the land hath committed great whordom departing from the Lord. 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim which conceived and bare him a son 4. And the Lord said unto him Call his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the Kingdom of the house of Israel 5. And it shall come to passe at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel 6. And she conceived again and bare a daughter and God said unto him Call her name Lo-ruhamah for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel but I will utterly take them away 7. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by horses nor by horsemen 8. Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah she conceived and bare a son 9. Then said God Call his name Lo-ammi for ye are not my people and I will not be your God 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbred and it shall come to passe that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them Ye are the sons of the living God 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head and they shall come up out of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was made known to Hosea the son of Beeri in the daies of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah and in the daies of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel 2. When first it pleased God to deliver his word by Hosea this it was which he said to that Prophet Go and take to thy self a woman that hath lived long in whoredom and take her children too that have been born to her in that time The fittest type of the children of Israel that have lived long in spiritual whoredoms against their Lord Iehovah 3. And accordingly the Prophet went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim which in the very names signifies the deficiencie of that people and that the two Houses of Iudah and Israel were like two baskets of dry figs in which there were but very few worth the keeping This Gomer conceived and bare a son to the Prophet 4. The Prophet also had a command from the Lord to call the name of his son Jezreel which name referred both to Iezreel the prime City in Israel and to their glorious title of the children of God which title God would shake by disseminating and scattering them in forreign Nations where those undeserved titles should serve them in little stead And this intimated in that name was to begin with a fore-running punshiment which the Prophet had command to expresse in these or the like terms That as a revenge of the innocent blood shed by Iehu in Iezreel God would shortlie send his visitations upon the house of Jehu by such a way as should not be much unlike that bloody slaughter that Jehu had made in Jezreel upon the house of Ahab And that one effect of these heavy visitations should be this That the kingdom of the house of Israel should cease to be any longer in the house of Iehu that Kingdom being thence translated to Sallum of another stock from Zacharias whom he succeeded 5. And this was further added concerning that time That God would then break the strength of Israel by those civil wars that should most appear in the valley of Jezreel 6. After this Gomer conceaved again and bare a daughter which by the like divine command had the name of Lo-ruchamah A name that carried in it the sad doom concerning the house of Israel which God would be so far from sheltring any longer under his merciful protection that he would utterly remove them out of that good land 7. While in the mean time he would gratiously defend the house of Judah in such a way as should visibly appear to be the miraculous work of the Lord their God no strength in the arm of man nor any Art or Instruments of war being ever able to atchieve so great and sodain a deliverie as they should have from the mighty Host of Senacherib the King of Assyria 8. Now after Gomer had weaned Lo-ruchamah she conceived a third time and bare a son 9. And God commanded the Prophet to give that son the name of Lo-ammi Which name implied that they should be no longer his people to enjoy any further happinesse under his service they should rather be the unhappy people and slaves of the Assyrian And God would no longer make his provident protection to speak him their God as he had done 10. Yet should it come to passe that when the children of Israel had increased into multitudes like the sand of the sea which is capable of no number then instead of their name Lo-ammi wherein God disclaimed many of them from being so much as his people they should have the high title of the sons of the living God 11. And then should the children of Judah and the children of Israel so much divided before make one Congregation under one head and Governour which was to be accomplished by Zerobabel in the letter and by Christ in the mystery For then should begin the great day of Jezreel that is of the seed of God or the sons of the living God as they were stiled before
of a false sentence or the not executing of a just law when it is in their power to do it 8. It were well if they would amend this fault and resolve to do Justice in awe and reverence of that all-seeing eye and powerfull Majesty that created all the glorious lamps of Heaven Among them He made the Pleiades or Vergiliae a constellation of seven stars that ushers in the delights of the spring and the fittest time for navigation and Orion that appears about November and threatens tempestuous or at least inconstant weather as the name it self imports It is He that can turn the shadow of death the most dismall and palpable darknesse into the clearest morning and on the contrary the brightest day into the blackest night which allegorically expresseth another power of his to turn the saddest calamity into the truest felicity and again the fairest prosperity into the greatest misery It is He that can call the waters out of the Sea drawing them in vapours into the clouds by the heat of the Sun and poure them down again upon the earth in pleasant and comfortable showres where and whensoever he pleaseth It is He whose name is Iehovah which name showes the independance of his own essence that gives being to all other and the constancy of his performance of whatsoever he hath promised 9. It is he that doth often in such measure refresh and inable a weak man which hath been laid wast and desolate that he overcomes the strong It is he that brings it so about that a feeble man laid desolate shall invade and take a strong place of defense All these Instances of his power might well perswade the Israelites that He is able to releive those that are oppressed and wronged in their courts of Justice 10. Yet have not they been well advised of this For they have showed their malice against him that for their injustice hath reproved them openly in the very gates of their Cities that are their usuall places of Judicature There have they made it known how they use to abominate him that speaks sincerely ex animo and to the purpose as if he understood the case in hand 11. Now because you of Israel have thus unjustly oppressed and trampled upon the poor not onely in your Courts of Justice as you call them but in other places at your own price taking from them burdens of wheat which they got as a reward of their day-labour and for the releif of your family Therefore you that by such unjust meanes have built you sumptuous houses of hewen stone shall not come to possesse and enjoy them nor shall ye stay so long in the land as to taste the wine of those fair and lovely vineyards which you have planted upon the like purchase 12. For I observe your manifold transgressions those specially wherein you afflict the just defenders of the poor and by your bribery and other waies keep the needy from their right in that very place wherein they have most reason to expect it 13. Therefore in such evill and corrupt times he that is wise will spare his giving you any more good admonitions at his own perill which he sees will do no good upon men wholly wedded and devoted to their own waies of unlawfull gain and injurious to them that rebuke them for it 14. The thought of this may perswade you while the punishment is yet deferred to bethink your selves of doing that which becomes the people of God and by all meanes avoiding such foule faults that you may live and escape the dangers that hang over your heads Do this in time and the Lord God of Hostes will be with you as you use to boast that he is in the midst of you and will preserve you from any great danger 15. Avoid sinne with a perfect hatred of it and do that which is good in pure love of vertue and goodnesse Above all take care for the free course of Iustice in the publick places of judgement Then happily the Lord of Hostes will be mercifull to the poor remnant of the children of Israel now under the power of the tribe of Ephraim the son of Ioseph 16. For to no other end doth the Lord God of Hostes threaten so much but that your Repentance might timely prevent his judgements and lay hold of his mercy This is the intent of that which the Lord hath said that there shall be mourning not in your houses onely but in all your streets and lamentation in all your high-waies and publick places Where the generall calamity shall joyn whole troupes of them together in the sad tone of Alas Alas what will become of us Then shall they that dwell in Cities invite the Husbandmen to bear a part in their Lamentation and they that for their skill in those sad waies of Mourning were wont to be hired to do it in the Funerals of the richer sort of men shall be called in not to personate a mourner or act a part for money but more really and seriously to expresse that sorrow which equally concerned them all 17. And in all the Vineyards where you were wont to have such merry shoutes and chearfull acclamations at the close of a happy Vintage there also shall you eccho your dolefull sighes and outcries to one another While I passe thorough thy land to take vengeance of all thy wickednesse saith the Lord. That they who would not honour me for my favours and blessings may acknowledge me at least in my righteous Judgements 18. Then woe to them they will be of all other the most unhappy and miserable that to their Idolatry Injustice and other clamorous sins venture also to adde the sinnes of Unbeleif Impatience and open contempt of those many Prophetical admonitions that have been used to reclaim them and in that wicked disposition are not ashamed to say Oh when will the day of the Lord come which the Prophets have so often sounded in our eares Is it the day of our death or of the doom that the whole nation must expect to be executed upon them And will it be so terrible as they seem to conceive We would fain see in earnest what that day will prove and whether the Prophets were not much mistaken in their Predictions For will God ever in such manner forsake his holy land and the children of Abraham Isaac and Iacob his dearest Saints Oh that the time were come when we might try the love of God and see the day of the Lord which is so talked of Alas poor soules why are you so willing to see it If you knew what it will be to you you would not be so earnest to hasten it forward For it will be a black and dismall day a time of extream misery and calamity without the mixture of any light somnesse and comfort And do you long for such a sad cloudy stormy day 19. In that day terrours and troubles will come so thick upon
you that while you think to escape from one you shall be overtaken by another As if a man should run from a roaring Lion that hath him in pursuit and in the way meet with an angry Bear with open mouth ready to devour him and tear him in pieces or if he should make shift to fly from the Bear too and get safely to his own house as his Castle of defense against all such wild beasts and there resting his weary body or leaning his hand on the wall instantly a serpent should come out thence and bite him and take him quite away by a present death 20. Will not that be a fearfull horrid dismall day and without any hope of light and solace for that time which will have such varieties of danger that can be no way prevented and must end at the last in the ruine of a flourishing kingdom and the slaughter or captivity of many thousands of men women and children 21. To prevent this sad day of the Lord the time of his vengeance upon impenitent and obstinate sinners make your peace with him In your own day while you may call it your day by amending your lives and ordering your conversation aright And do not think without that to please Him with your Sacrifices or Ceremonies or any outward Act of seeming Obedience that proceeds not from a faithfull and pure Heart For will you hear what the Lord himself saith of them I was so far from taking pleasure in them that I ever hated and abhorred your Festivall Dayes And your sweet incense or what else you offered in my house at the time of your solemn assemblies was not accepted by me as any sweet savour unlesse with all Piety and sincerity and integrity of life did commend you unto me 22 You thought that you did me great service in your Holocausts and other oblations but they never moved me so much as to look favourably upon them because you did not with them offer your selves your soules and bodies as a reasonable and lively sacrifice unto me That 's the oblation and holocaust which the other were but to figure and put you in mind of And for your fat peace-offerings which should have been the Interpreters of your thankfull hearts they never gained any good liking from me because the heart and life of them was wholy wanting 23. Away with the bawling noise and tedious iteration of your Songs and Hymnes that you do not sing with the spirit and with understanding as if you were truely affected with what you sing And such have yours commonly been The like I may say of your Psalteries and Harps and other Instruments which being accompanied with sweet voices you presented before me as rare melodious Musick But it was contradicted with such a discord in your lives and actions that it came into my eares like a harsh sound not to be indured For it is the harmony of good hearts and the constant exercise of holy Vertues that I account the sweetest Musick 24. Especially the constant execution of Iustice and Iudgement To see them passe smoothly and faeirly on in your publick Courts not like water onely but like a mighty torrent with such plenty and facility that every cause might have a just sentence freely and heartily delivered without bribes without delaies and unnecessary demurrs This would please me above all Musick above all Sacrifice 25. But how often did you offer me any such sacrifice and oblation in the time of your fourty yeares safe conduct about the wildernesse O house of Israel when I fed you and protected you from all evill though you many a time rebelled against me The wildernesse indeed could not often supply you with outward and legal sacrifices but who hindered you from offering the inward and spirituall sacrifice of Piety Obedience and Thankfulness which is the service that I chiefly desired For the main intention of your other sacrifices was onely to keep you from Idolatry and to exercise your obedience and thankful acknowledgements unto me 26. Though on the contrary many of your nation at that time in the wildernesse were exercised in flat disobedience and Idolatrie For you carried about with you the shrine of Moloch a King and Idol of the Moabites and Chiun or Remphan one of those Images which you represented in a star peculiar to them These were the types these the Deities which you made to your selves after your own idle fancies forgetting the true God that made you and those Creatures to which you exhibited divine honour 27. For those impieties I will cause you to be carried away captive not to Damascus or any place so near your own Countrey whence you have the more hope to return but far beyond Damascus saith the Lord whose name is the God of Hostes whose will and pleasure cannot be resisted CHAP. VI. 1. WOe to them that are at ease in Zion and trust in the mountain of Samaria which are named chiefe of the nations to whom the house of Israel came 2 Passe ye unto Calneh and see and from thence goe ye to Hemath the great then go down to Gath of the Philistins be they better then these kingdomes or their border greater then your border 3 Ye that put farre away the evill day and cause the seat of violence to come neer 4 That lie upon beds of Ivorie and stretch themselves upon their couches and eat the lambs out of the flock and the calves out of the midst of the stall 5 That chaunt to the sound of the violl and invent to themselves instrument of musick like David 6 That drinke wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chief ointments but they are not grieved for the affliction of Ioseph 7 Therefore now shall they goe captive with the first that goe captive and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed 8 The LORD GOD hath sworne by himselfe saith the LORD the GOD of hosts I abhorre the excellencie of Iacob and hate his palaces therefore will I deliver up the citie with all that is therein 9 And it shall come to passe if there remain ten men in one house that they shall die 10 And a mans Vncle shall take him up and he that burneth him to bring out the bones out of the house and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house Is there yet any with thee and he shall say No. Then shall he say Hold thy tongue for we may not make mention of the name of the Lord. 11 For behold the Lord commandeth and he will smite the great house with breaches and the little house with clefts 12 Shall horses run upon the rock will one plow there with oxen for ye have turned judgement into gall and the fruit of righteousnesse into hemlock 13 Ye which rejoyce in a thing of nought which say Have we not taken to us horns by our own strength 14 But behold I will raise up against you
and connivence as I have formerlie used toward them 3. And their merrie songs in their stately Palaces shall be turned into fearful howling in that day saith the Lord God And many bodies of dead men shall want the honour of the wonted funeral rites being privily cast aside by them that will endeavour to conceal their miserie least their own men should be too much disheartned or the enemie encouraged by seeing what a number perish by famine pestilence or discontent before the sword come near them 4. It will highly concern you to take notice of this prophesie and vision that are are come to so high a degree of covetousnesse and oppression that you are ripe enough to be taken off from any further benefit of life You that could find in your hearts to devour the poor and meek and humble men and quite obliterate the name and memory of them from the earth that you alone might injoy the good things of this life 5. You that say When will the New Moon and the Sabbath be gone we like not these Festival daies they are prejudicial to us that might every day make our markets It were not amisse if they were quite put out of the Kalender that we might be wholly employed in selling our corn and opening our granaries of wheat and practising the art we have in making our measures lesse and raising the value of our coin and falsifying our weights by sleight and deceit 6. That when we have by these tricks cheated and beggered the poor we may have an easie purchase of them and their goods and all that they have for a little sum of money or for as poor a thing as the present supply of a pair of shooes when they are cold and needy or by putting off to them at our own price the very refuse of our wheat that we know not otherwise how to dispose of 7. Therefore the Lord in his justice hath fully resolved and sworn by Himself whom all will acknowledge to be the glorie of his people Israel that since they so often forget the interest that they have in this high title or abuse it by making themselves guilty of such wicked deeds I will not forget to punish any of their evill courses I will surelie do it saith the Lord. 8. For Why should I not make the land tremble and all her inhabitants mourn for these things Why shall not this deluge of sin in this nation make her punishment overflow and overwhelm her in every part as the River Nilus in Egypt ascends by degrees and at last ovorflows her banks and covers all the face of Egypt with her inundations 9. When that day of revenge riseth upon them saith the Lord God I will make all their joy and comfort to vanish on a sodain as if the Sun of a clear day should set upon them in a dark and dismal cloud before he had run half his course 10. And I will turn your merry festivals and gaudy daies into daies of mourning and your pleasant songs into doleful lamentations your rich and loose apparel into course sackcloth girded about your loines and your neat heads of hair into bald pates that your outward garb may speak your inward sorrow for your heavy calamitie Nay I will bring the land of Israel to that passe and that high degree of mourning that in all the chiefest places men shall be found in as sad postures and bitter exclamations as a tender Mother useth to expresse in the funerals of her onely son And how jolly and chearful soever they have been they shall close up their last times in great bitternesse of woe and miserie 11. There is yet worse news behind if it were rightly apprehended Behold the time is coming saith the Lord God wherein I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread onely or a thirst of water but a want of spiritual food too and of the water of life a scarcity of the word of God specially of the word of prophesie which you neglect when it is offered and therefore it will not be heard when you long for it 12. For they that are now so coy and dainty that no Prophets can please them shall then compasse about from Sea to Sea They shall run to and fro from one corner of the Country to another to seek the word of the Lord purely and sincerely taught and shall not find it 13. Then shall even the succulent bodies of fair damsels and proper young men in the flower of their age be ready to faint and wither away for thirst 14. This shall happen to them that swear by the idols of Samaria near Bethel as if they had no true Deitie to swear by To them that have this form of oath as thy Diety lives O Dan in imitation of their former oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they Lord lives To them that swear thus as the living God is rightly worshipped in that kind of service which is used in Beersheba or as I wish that the course and religious way of Beersheba may thrive These men shall fall from their former prosperous estate and shall never be restored to that or so much as to their Country again CHAP. IX 1 I Saw the Lord standing upon the Altar and he said Smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake and cut them in the head all of them and I will slay the last of them with the sword he that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered 2 Though they dig into hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climbe up to heaven thence will I bring them down 3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them 4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good 5 And the Lord God of Hosts is he that toucheth the land and it shall melt and all that dwell therein shall mourn and it shall rise up wholly like a floud and shall be drowned as by the floud of Egypt 6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven and hath founded his troup in the earth he that calleth for the waters of the sea and powreth them out upon the face of the earth the Lord is his Name 7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me O ye children of Israel saith the Lord have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the Philistins from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir 8 Behold the eies of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom and I will destroy it from
off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord. 9 For lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth 10 All the sinners of my people shal die by the sword which say The evill shall not overtake nor prevent us 11 In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his cumes and I will build it as in the daies of old 12 That they may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this 13 Behold the daies come saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the tâ—eader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them 15 And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God CHAP. IX 1. I Come now to a vision that chiefly concerns Ierusalem and the two Tribes I saw in the spirit a glorie representing the Majesty of God not appearing between the Cherubims as formerly he used to do but nearer the end of the Temple as if he were departing from that sacred place and leaving his Sanctuary by degrees For I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar of the Holocausts as ready to slay those wicked men of Judah that had highly provoked his Justice and Anger to be showed amongst them and to make such a sacrifice of them as he never calls for but when he comes to be revenged of great sinners And he said to some Angel attending at that time or as exciting the army of the Chaldaeans Smite the lintel of the door in such a manner that the posts may shake which signified a great blow by his own command to be given to them that were thought to be most eminent and most able to support and give aid to the Temple and the whole nation to whom it belonged He said moreover Cut them all or strike all through in thâ— head piece q. d.. Let them that are in the highest place the guides and governours of the people have the first and greatest blow that in them others may see their doom And after that I will slay the last of them also the lowest of the people with the sword of a cruel enemie and with such a slaughter that He who thinks to secure himself by flight or any other way of evading the stroke of the enemie shall no way escape that unlesse he fall into their power for a worse punishment of long captivity Which doth not yet exempt him from their striking hand when they shall have a mind to command his life 2. And if there were any way to escape the enemie yet none of them should escape me For who can run so far or so fast that divine vengeance shall not overtake him Where is such a secret corner to be found wherein that will not find him out If any of them could dig as deep as hell to fit themselves with a dark and obscure lurking place thence should my powerful hand pluck them out If they could climb as high as heaven far enough out of their enemies reach thence also would I tumble them down 3. If they could lie scouting and sculking in the unfrequented caves and holes upon the top of high Carmel where no enemy would search for them yet there would I hunt them out and cast them down from thence If it were possible that they could conceal themselves from my sight in the bottom of the sea I have Whales and Serpents of the deep that should pursue them and bite them and fright them out of that refuge 4. Could they be so subtle as to prevent the captivity of their enemies and be gone into theirs or some other land before they come near them yet thither will I bring the sword of those verie enemies to cut them off and spoil all their plots For the eye of my favour and providence shall not watch over them for good I will rather be intent upon what may help on the just and severe punishment of all their sins 4. Where then shall they think to be safe in the time of his anger that offend such a powerful God whom nothing will be able to resist He is the Lord God of Hosts whom all things obey as an Army ever ready for the execution of his mercie or justice of such power that if He do but touch a land with that touch he can make it melt like wax before Him and all the inhabitants of the land miserablie and lamentably to fade away and consume by some calamity that shall overwhelm them and drown them in sorrow and destruction with a sodain inundation like that of the River Nilus in Egypt when it breaks over ' all the banks 6. He fills Heaven and earth with the Majesty of his Glorie In Heaven he hath built his several Ascents by which we may climb to the speculation of it The nearest to us are the heavenly Orbes that are created and moved by Him and their peculiar degrees of elevation one above another Over those Orbes is his spacious Court and glorious Palace in a higher Heaven and in that his Royal Throne where he sits as in the highest Ascent of Majestie Vpon the earth if we consider not the whole globe together as one bundle and a little one too or a little handful in the eye of God we may observe the several bundles of united creatures that he hath placed over the earth which is as it were the foundation of all the rest As first that of the Elements that have their proper bounds then out of them that of the Vegetables and sensible and rational creatures that have their several waies of combination yet altogether make but a little handful before him that can measure the heavens and the earth with a span He calls for the waters of the sea in his anger by a deluge or in his love to ascend up in vapours that he may poure them down again into the lap of the earth to make her fruitful in all manner of store He that doth all this well may he have the name of the Lord and Commander of all 7. Therefore account not your selves onely to be the servants For in that respect what priviledge have you above all his creatures or above all other nations You that descend from
mother-City shall be led away captive and in that capacity shall the inferiour townes like so many of her handmaids attend upon her driven along like so many herds of cattle lowing as they go or like so many mournfull doves all the way lamenting and striking upon their hearts and breasts to a heavier sound within than their enemies could beat upon their drums 8. Thus do they lament the emptying of Nineveh which anciently indeed was very populous and in that like a Fish-pond richly stored with water if that Citie may be compared to a pool so inclosed as the people are often compared to water And to follow the metaphore when it is let open this people will be as mute as fishes They will run all out of their Citie as fast as water out of a pond A man may cry to them stay stay run not so fast from your richest Citie but not a man will look back to give a word of retreat 9. Will you now hear the commission and power that God himself will give to the Babylonians for the compleating of this work upon the Ninevites It is as much as if he should say to them Take all their silver and gold as a spoil that I allot to you for this service with all the infinite store which the Ninivites have hoorded up and the pompous and stately furniture which they abounded withall above all that a man might desire 10. With no other commission is Niniveh so emptied and laid open and exposed to all injury and miserie In the sense of it their hearts shall melt within them and their knees smite together and extream pain seize upon their loines as upon a woman in travaile which shall turn their very faces into a black and mournfull hew 11. When this Prophesie comes to be fulfilled you may well ask the question What is now become of the high and mighty Assyrians that domineered over other nations as the Lion doth over other creatures and made their Court like the Lions den where their young ones were crammed and enriched with all variety of spoiles There the Lion was wont to strut himself the old crafty Lion and the youngsters the Lions whelps which none could make afraid 12. This Lion hunted and preyed sufficiently where he list for his young ones He strangled other creatures at his pleasure to be made food for his Lionesses and so filled his dens and every corner in them with rapine 13. This I winked at for a while saith the Lord of hostes but now have at thee For Nineve's chariots that were wont to fetch home her prey shall now at my command be consumed and vanish in their smoak and her young gallants which were as her fierce young Lions shall perish by the sword in which weapon they gloried and presumed so much and by which I will cut off all her ability of ranging about the earth to prey upon whom she list so that Nineveh's proud messages and commands hereafter shall find none that will give them the hearing CHAP. III. 1 WO to the bloody city it is all full of lies and robberies the prey departeth not 2 The noise of a whip and the noise of the ratling of the wheels and of the praunsing horses and of the jumping chariots 3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcas's and there is none end of their corpses they stumble upon their corpses 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wel-favoured harlot the mistress of witch-crafts that selleth nations through her whoredomes and families through her witchcrafts 5 Behold I am against thee saith the Lord of hosts and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face and I will shew the nations thy nakednesse and the kingdoms thy shame 6 And I will east abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing-stock 7 And it shall come to passe that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say Nineveh is laid waste who will bemoan her whence shall I seek comforters for thee 8 Art thou better than populous No that was situate among theâ— rivers that had the waters round about it whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea 9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite Put and Lubim were thy helpers 10 Yet was she carried away she went into captivity her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for her honourable men and all her great men were bound in chains 11 Thou also shalt be drunken thou also shalt be hid thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy 12 All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater 13 Behold thy people in the midst of thee are women the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies the fire shall devour thy bars 14 Draw thee waters for the siege fortifie thy strong holds go into clay and tread the morter make strong the brickkil 15 There shall the fire devour thee the sword shall cut thee off it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm make thy self many as the canker-worm make thy self many as the locusts 16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven the canker-worm spoileth and fleeth away 17 Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains as the great grashoppers which camp in the hedges in the cold day but when the sun ariseth they flee away and their place is not known where they are 18 Thy shepherds slumber O king of Assyria thy nobles shall dwel in the dust thy people is scattered upon the mountains and no man gathereth them 19 There is no healing of thy bruise thy wound is grievous all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee for upon whom hath not thy wickednesse passed continually CHAP. III. 1. WO to the bloody City that hath filled up her measure in the heaviest sins of lying and extortion and when she had got a trick of spoil and rapine could never be brought to leave it 2. For this must they hear the sound of the lash held over them and the noise of the ratling wheels in the Chariots of war and of the fierce galopping steeds in those swift chariots that seem to skip and dance as they passe along in their speedy pace 3. Among these the horseman shall advance his glittering spear with his sparkling sword After which so great multitudes of the slain and so many heaps of dead carkasses shall be thrown np together that by the continual accesse of the dead corpses a man shall not stir but he shall be ready to stumble upon them 4. And all this is but the just recompense of the
spiritual whoredoms of the well-favoured harlot that could charm and bewitched her Lovers and was grown to be such a Mistresse in that Art that she was able to enslave whole nations and families with her artificially-insinuating and inchanting waies of love 5. Therefore now have at thee thou shamelesse strumpet saith the Lord of hosts and I will punish thee according to thy own shame suffering the skirts of thy garment to be thrown over thy face that other nations may see thy nakednesse and other kingdoms thy shame 6. And as thou hast made thy self vile so this punishment shall be added of casting dirt and silth upon thee as upon a notorious harlot to make thee appear vile to others and expose thee as an example and publick spectacle for all to gaze at 7. So that every one that sees thee shall remove further off as from an odious and abominable sight and shall say but this at the best Ninive is spoiled of all her wonted beauty and glory and who will pitie or bemoan her where shall I find any that would comfort her in this distresse 8. They will rather say thou art as justly punished as No in Egypt or any other For why should thou scape better then No that was like a graver Matron and nursed up as much people A City as strong and rich and pleasantly seated as Ninive every way for No was scituate like a little Island among the rivers that circled her about on every side The Sea furnished her with continual supply of wealth and the water with her wooden walls was as strong a defense to No as Ninives proud walls were to her 9. Cush i Arabia was another supply to her rich trading and Egypt And where should I make an end of numbring the several people that were advantageous to her and and helped on her traffick among whom were they of Africa and specially of Lybia the nearest part to Egypt 10. Yet was this famous and rich No carried away in captivity her children were dashed in pieces in all the eminentest parts of her own streets The conquerors cast lots upon the noblest personages they had to divide them like bondslaves among themselves and bound all her greater and more honorable Citizens in chains 11. Thou also O Ninive shalt tast as deep of that bitter cup of affliction till thou art drunk with it and hast no more power or understanding to contribute any thing to thy own relief then a drunken man Thou shalt be fain to hide thy self for shame and when thou comest abroad for pure need be content to beg life and livelihood of thy very enemie that hath subdued thee and reduced thee to so low a state 12. All thy castles and strong holds in the mean time shall as easily fall into the power of the enemy as ripe figs and other fruit that are come to their maturitie and with the least shake of the tree will even drop into the mouth of him that hath a mind to eat them 13. And if you wonder at the sodain fall of such strong holds you may quickly see the reason of it in the failing of your strong men that are among you who shall degenerate into the cowardize of women Their fears shall open the gates of their land unto their enemies who will be wise enough to set them all on fire and so leave the passages free at their pleasure without being further beholden to your fears 14. Let them go on then to their other labour-in-vain after all is already betrayed by their own cowardize and thus bespeak their wretched Ninive Prepare good store of water before hand that may serve in the time of thy siege Raise up some new forts of thy own in several places of the City Enter upon a sodain devise of clay and brick to be trampled and moulded together and of them some rampier to be raised that from thence thou maiest defend the City which hath been so kind to leave open her gates in that base manner for the entertainment of her enemies 15. How long will this rare stratagem do thee any service O Ninive How soon rather in the very same place shall the enemies fire-works consume thee and their swords and and other weapons cut thee off and their hungry souldiers devour thee as they would the canker-worm which is often a welcom food to them Go then and fit thy self for their tooth and before they eat thee up for a caterpiller or cankerworm I encrease the troops of thy Souldiers that they may be for number and mischief as most souldiers are like to the many swarms of caterpillers and locusts that threaten the ruine of the place of their resort 16. To this number of rude Souldiers if thou couldst add so great a multitude of wealthy Merchants as might equal the stars of heaven in number and be all ready with a rich supply of their aid in this thy extremity yet would your enemies prove to be the conquering locusts and caterpillers that will sodainly rush in upon you spread over all your City in great swarms and do their work and sodainly vanish 17. Thy strangers that come in for thy auxiliaries flock to thee in such great troops like the locusts And among them the commanders of thy army are like the greater and greedier grashoppers that in the cold part of the day line their hedges with multitudes but as soon as they feel the heat of the Sun away they fly So will your mercenarie Commanders and other pretended friends make a fair flourish about you for a while but in the heat of the battle they will leave you all in the lurch and the place they undertook to make good in your defence â—hall not be able to show so much as the footsteps of those great undertakers 18. Great was that cowardize and negligence of thy Commanders abroad and as great was the drowsinesse and lazinesse and oversight of those thy Magistrates and Nobles at home O King of Assyria They took their ease when they should have been like vigilant and careful Shepherds watching over the safety of the poor innocent people that must go like sheep to the slaughter for their foolish oversight Thy Nobles lay snorting in the bed of security while the silly people like so many tame cattle must be pursued and dispersed in the mountainous and desert places and have none to recal and reunite them and keep them together for their own defense 19. And now Ninive what cure can there be for such a deadly brush as hath been given thee by the best parts of thy own self And yet be thy wound never so dangerous and incurable the worst is they that hear the sad storie of thy miseries will be so far from pitying thy heavy case that they will applaud and congratulate themselves in the report of thy ruine as in the fall of one that hath ever been injurious and domineering
no scruple either at a set Form of Prayer or of putting that Prayer into a Song and having that set to a Musicall Instrument which containes in it not a Prayer onely but a Prophesie of much sadnesse and calamity to his whole Nation I beleive it cannot be said that any were more truely and compassionately affected with it than himself was and I think he was never the lesse affected with it when he made it a part of his solemn Musick Shall I adde this too that though his Prayer could not move God any thing the more by the advantage of the rarest skill in Musick wherein it might be delivered yet if the Prophet or others that used it after him by the help of those solemn and harmonious Tones had their own Devotion any thing the more affected in the delivery then was there Motive enough why he should for theirs or his own sake commend it to some Artist that could fit it to a Musicall Instrument Of the Title of the third Chapter and of the Musicall termes there mentioned 1. A Prayer of the Prophet Habakkuk upon Shigionoth wherein he expresseth his content and acquiescence in the solution of his former doubts from the Divine Oracle comforts himself in the examples of Gods love and Providence over his Church puts his own pious thoughts and Resolutions into a Divine Meditation and refers all to be set to a Musicall Tune As appears by the Shigionoth in the front and the Musicall Selaâ— in the body and again by his Neginoth in the foot of this excellent Song and divine Ditty For Shigionoth first it seems to be some Musicall Tune or Instrument I agree with those that take it to be some erraticall various delightfull Modulation and I think it to be the same Tune or Instrument that the sweet singer of Israel made choice of under the name of Shiggaion in the Title of the seventh Psalm Which is also a Prayer of Davids made upon occasion of some words or actions of Cush the Benjamite i. of Saul that was like a Cush or AEthiopian in this that he would no more change his malice to David than the AEthiopian his skin As for Selah in the third and thirteenth verse of this Chapter that is a Musicall note which serves as a direction for the raising up of the voice in that place wherein it is fixed And I like that which Kimehi joynes with it the elevation of the heart too We never meet with it but in the Psalmes of David in whose time it seems to have been taken up as a word of Art and after him in this Prayer of Habakkuk Then for the word Neginoth It is properly referred to Instruments of Musick especially those that were played upon with the fingers and had the Voice joyned with them as in the solemn Hymnes and other Musicall Service of the Jewish Church And he that had a more extraordinary skill in that way and was the chief in composing or overseeing that kind of Melody is called here by the Prophet Habakkuk in the conclusion of this Prayer and by the Royall Prophet in the Title of the fourth Psalm Menatseach Binginoth One thing more I have to say before I come to the Prayer it-self that in this Chapter as it may well be expected where such Musick is the holy Prophet in expressing his Meditations seems to use a kind of Divine Poetry And he must follow that kind of Poeticall expression that will follow the Prophet in this Musicall Chapter The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the Prayer it self beginning at the second verse 2. WIth fear and reverence have I heard that answer O Lord wherein thou art pleased to reveale the execution of thy Iustice. First upon the Jewes by Chaldeans and then more heavily upon the Chaldeans themselves by other Nations when thy own People after the expiration of seventy years shall be graciously delivered from Captivity In the interim of those years of their captivity be thou the life and comfort of thy Church the speciall work of thy own hands and let thy People feel the benefit of thy presence In that sad compasse of time O make thy self known to them that need thee most and in the midst of thy Anger and Justice remember Mercy 3. Remember thy tender mercies showed unto us of old in our miraculous delivery from the Egyptian bondage when after our safe conduct into the wildernesse out of the reach of our enemies Thou camest in such Majesty from Teman and madest thy holinesse shine forth in such beauty from mount Paran The first appearance of thy glory diffused in self over the air above filling it after an extraordinary manner with Thunder and Lightning the forerunners of thy divine approach and the Earth below was abundantly made happy with the just occasions of Praise and thankfull acclamations 4. For in great Light and Splendour and Glory were all the waies of God's most gracious appearance a Figure of that greater Light and Glory which is altogether invisible and inaccessible to poor Mortals But for our weaknesse they were so shadowed and qualified as might best fit the eyes of them that were then entertained with those wonders 5. And as such Lustres were a pledge and testimony of comfort to his own people so as a terrour to their Enemies fearfull Death and Destruction went before Him and He left behind Him the foot-steps of Horrour and speedy consumption 6. At last when he rested in his holy Ark in the land of Promise he divided that Land by lot for their inheritance At his appearance the Nations were so troubled They that had dwelt so long in those Mountainous Countries were much distracted with the sad apprehension of their likelihood to be now roused and expelled out of those ancient Seates and forced to submit to new Lords and Masters brought thither by Him in whose Power are all the Actions and alterations of the world 7. It was not for any good deserts of ours but for the wickednesse of those Nations that they were so rooted out by the hand of Justice That apparently removed not the Cananites onely out of their dwelling but the Midianites for their sinne When it troubled the tents of Cushan afflicted their whole land and made them content to pack away with their portable Houses to other places of mansion where they might be found 8. But still as the way of thy Justice was observable over other Nations so was thy Mercy O Lord over us to the very alteration of the ordinary course of Nature We found that in our passage thorough the Red Sea and thorough the River Jordan The waters seemed to start aside at our coming towards them and for very fear to give way to us Was it thy anger O Lord against the proud waves that forced them thus to shrink back Was the Sea afraid of thy triumphant approach Was it the noise of thy Chariots and the prancing of
chemarims with the priests 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham 6 And them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him 7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice he hath bid his guests 8 And it shall come tò passe in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the kings children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel 9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold which â—ill their masters houses with violence and deceit 10 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish-gate and an howling from the second and a great crashing from the hills 11 Howl ye inhabitants of Maktesh for all the merchant-people are cut down all they that bear silver are cut off 12 And it shall come to passe at that time that I will search Ierusalem with candles and punish the men that are setled on their lees that say in their heart The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil 13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a disolation they shall also build houses but not inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards but not drink the wine thereof 14 The great day of the Lord is near it is near and hasteth greatly even the voice of the day of the Lord the mighty man shall cry there bitterly 15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distresse a day of waftnesse and desolation a day of darknesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and thick darknesse 16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers 17 And I will bring distresse upon them that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was revealed to Zephaniah whose very name tells us that God would more clearly reveal by him some of his secret counsail concerning those heavy judgements that were now ready to fall upon the Iews and so needed this nearer and clear Interpreter of his will and pleasure as an other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ioseph was called by Pharaoh This Zephaniah was the son of Cushi the son of Gedaliah the son of Amariah the son of Hizkiah And he prophesied in the daies of Iosiah son of Amon King of Iudah for even in the raign of that good King so pious and so eminent an example produced little amendment in a wicked and perverse generation Therefore 2. I will even sweep away all together out of this land saith the Lord and so make a quick and fair riddance of so rebellious a nation 3. I will make an end of man and beast I will consume the fouls of the air and the fishes of the sea I will quite take away both the wicked offenders and all their scandalous sins and offences And all by one sin or other being gone out of the good way wherein they promised to walk I will also by one means or other root out every man out of that land of promise which I had bestowed upon them saith the Lord. 4. And even against Iudah as I have done against Israel will I stretch out my powerful and revenging hand and therein against the proudest and worst of them the Citizens of Ierusalem And I will do what good Iosiah in all his care and industrie could not do in that stubborn and rebellious City which should have been a pattern and example to all the rest from that place will I cut off by the sword of my Justice all the reliques of Baal and the name of the Chemarims their downright idolatrous priests and their Cohanims too those priests of their own that will now and then be tampering with the accursed mysteries of Baal 5. Such as can find a time to worship the host of heaven upon the tops of their houses which were made flat for prevention of danger from thence and not to introduce so dangerous and flat idolatrie as that those halters between two religions that think they can do their homage to the true God and to the false and swear by Iehovah and by their Moloch the imaginarie Deitie of the Ammonites which they have now made to be theirs 6. And those also that otherwise and by other vanities and diversions fall away from following the Lord Iehovah and from seeking and inquiring after him alone in such holy places and waies of divine worship as himself hath prescribed 7. Wherein as being in the presence of him and before his all-seeing eye use all the reverence and holy fear and devotion that may best whosoever thou art that would live secure and without all fear and danger of a day of justice and vengeance For such 1 day is coming and it is near at hand when they that offer not such pious and chearful sacrifices to him shall find that he will make a merry and festival day of sacrificing them and bidding such guests to be entertained with that sacrifice as they would be loath to be dressed up for and to be devoured by such hungry companions 8. And in that day of the Lords sacrifice and that feast he will spare none that have not spared to serve and sacrifice to others besides him They must all to the pot the highest as well as the lowest the Princes and their royal race and all the gandy gallants that look so strangely upon it in their rich and costly apparel 9. Amongst all this fine irreligious rout I will not forget to punish them that follow the superstition of the Philistims in not presuming to tread upon the threshould for sooth but rather using the nimblenesse of their feet for a speedy conveyance which is no fit way of entring into the house of their God And with these contemners of their Gods house I will visit those that take too much care for the furnishing and enriching of their Masters house by hook or by crook and by all the violent and deceitful courses that they can imagine 10. And I will give you a more particular discoverie and prediction of what shall happen in three of the chiefest parts of the City in that day A great noise and crie shall then be
heard from the Fish-gate which is in that part which you call the City of David Then a sad and doleful howling from the second part of the City And as woful and crashing a noise from the highest and most eminent part wherein is the Temple and the Palace places that have been often acquainted with sweeter sounds 11. When the three chief places in Ierusalem have thus begun to expresse their sad condition then you that dwell in the hollower part of the City may second them with as doleful an eccho to bewail the ruine of the multitudes of Merchants thereabouts and the many fair heaps of silver that they must leave behind them 12. Then will I suffer every rich corner in Ierusalem to be as narrowly searched and ransacked by the Chaldaean souldiers as a man would peep and prie into the closest places with the help of candles that he might be sure to let nothing escape him that he hath a mind to bear away And so shall my justice meet with those that have lived in ease and plenty and without any disturbance like wine that hath been long setled on the lees without any removal out of one vessel into another These are they that soothed up themselves in their own foolish perswasion that God took no great care of humane affairs either to reward or to punish us here below according to our good or bad life and conversation 13. But this is the day wherein I will confute them by exposing their ill-gotten goods as a prey to the enemie and bringing their houses wherein they nestled themselves so securely to utter ruine and fearful desolation or at least by changing the owners so that other men shall dwell in those goodly buildings which they have erected and drink up the fruit of those costly vineyards which they had planted for themselves 14. This great day of the Lord is near very near and withal it flies swiftly towards us as a time that hath quicker wings then ordinarie to convey it self It will be such a bustling day that you may hear it as well as see it and the stoutest man that hears the approach of that day will not passe it over so quickly but that he will be heard to expresse the bitteruesse of the day in most bitter lamentations 15. This day will be a day of wrath and a day of trouble and yet a day wherein we shall be so streightned and penned in that there will be no way of evasion It will be a day of desolation of utter desolation without hope of recoverie to most of them A dark and gloomy day without the least appearance of comfort and a cloudie and thick-cloudie day wherein the heavens whither we use to cast up our eyes for relief will seem continually to frown upon us 16. A day that will fright us with the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war against the strongest Cities and highest Towers that we have 17. In this day saith the Lord I will cause men to be in such pressure and such streights that they shall see no more then blind men which way to turn themselves or what course to take that may rid them out of this distresse And in the midst of those streights because they have sinned against the Lord their enemies shall make no more scruple of shedding their blood then of treading upon the dust that is under their feet and their bodies shall have no better esteem then the dung of the earth 18. In this day of Gods wrath their silver and gold shall not be able to purchase their ransome but the whole land shall be sodainly consumed by the fierce and jealous wrath of the Lord wherein he will make a full and speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land CHAP. II. 1 GAther your selves together yea gather together O nation not desired 2 Before the decree bring forth before the day passe as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords anger come upon you 3 Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgement seek righteousnesse seek meeknesse it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger 4 For Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon a desolation they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day and Ekron shall be rooted up 5 Wo unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast the nation of the Cherethites the word of the Lord is against you O Canaan the land of the Philistines I will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant 6 And the sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks 7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Iudah they shall feed thereupon in the houses of Ashkelon shall they ly down in the evening for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity 8 I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders 9 Therefore as I live saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall he as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah even the breeding of nettles and salt-pits and a perpetual desolation the residue of my people shall spoil them and the remnant of my people shall possesse them 10 This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts 11 The Lord will be terrible unto them for he will famish all the gods of the earth and men shall worship him every one from his place even all the isles of the heathen 12 Ye Ethiopians also ye shall be slain by my sword 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wildernesse 14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her all the beasts of the nations both the cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the cedar-works 15. This is the rejoycing city that dwelt carelesly that said in their heart I am and there is none beside me how is she become a desolation a place for beasts to lie down in every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand CHAP. II. 1. THe day so foretold being so terrible and so near at hand Make an exact scrutinie and examination of your selves first and then of what else may conduce to your safety O nation little worthy the love and good liking of those that know your waies 2. Do this before Gods peremptorie and irrevocable decree produce the certain and final resolution for this day which shall be like one of his fanning and winnoing daies wherein he will separate
the chaff from the good corn Do this before the fierce anger of the Lord and this terrible day of the execution of that fierce anger of the Lord come upon you 3. And for you that are of the good corn and not of the chaff you that are of a meeker and gentler disposition then others of the land are and obey his commands in your best devotions and endeavours seek after God and implore his merciful protection over you And still seek after the exercise of goodnesse and meeknesse if so perhaps you may prevail so far as to be hid under the shadow of his defense in this day wherein the fierce anger of the Lord shall be poured out upon several parts of this wicked nation and few or none shall escape 4. For Gaza shall be forsaken by her fearful inhabitants Ashkelon shall be laid desolate and forced to the like And as for Ashdod the enemie shall be so secure of the conquest of that that in the very noon day they shall attempt to drive them out of their own holds and habitations with happy successe And Ekron according to the bad omen in the name it self shall be rooted out 5. Then wo to you of the nation of the Cherethites that dwel all along upon the sea-coast for I can cite the word of the Lord against you And no lesse against you the Cananites and Philistims that are left in the land The word of the Lord from his own mouth concerning you is no other then this that he will utterly destroy your land and all that dwel within it 6. And the Sea coast that is made choice of as the fittest place of habitation for the richest Merchants shall be taken up with no better then cottages for poor Shepherds and folds for their flocks 7. For I have allotted that coast to those of the house of Iudah that shall be left behind in the land when their brethren are carried into captivity that it may serve for the feeding of their cattle They that constantly attend upon their innocent charge all the day shall there have a place to retire to when they are weary In those mansions that belonged to Ashkelon shall those Shepherds of the house of Iudah repose themselves in the evenings when the Lord their God in that conquest of Iudaea by the King of Babylon shall lay his visitation upon the Ashkalonites and reiterating their captivity cause them to be carried again and again into the land of Chaldaea 8. After I have showed this justice upon the land of Iudaea and the remnant of the Cananites in those parts I will then go on to do the like justice upon the enemies of Iudaea of whose wickednesse I have not been ignorant nor have I forgotten it though hitherto I have deferred the execution of my wrath in expectation of their amendment For I heard â—nd took notice of the proud opprobrious speeches of the Moabites and the reviling and blasphemous taunts of the children of Ammon wherein they have reproached my people and with which foul language they presumed to make a most bold and violent invasion upon those territories of the children of Israel which I my self had measured out for them as the lot of their inheritance 9. Therefore as I live saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel I will not fail to make as absolute a ruine of Moab and Ammon as I did of Sodom and Gomorrha Their populous Cities shall lie wast overgrown with netles and over-spread with salt-pits as a place destined to perpetual barrennesse and desolation And the reâ—idue of my people that shall survive and return after their great captivity shall in due time invade and make spoil of the territories of that people and take possession of theirs as they did first so proudly attempt to make themselves Masters of a part of Iudaea 10. This shall be the issue and the reward of their proud reproachful speeches and of their as haughty and insolent attempts against the peculiar people of the Lord of hosts who will therefore show his power and vengeance upon their gods as well as upon them 11. For in so fearful and terrible a manner shall God come in judgement against them that not they onely but their very gods too shall be brought to as poor and miserable condition as men that are ready to be starved for hunger And the like doom shall fall upon many idolaters and their titular gods in other parts of the earth So that multitudes of people shall come out of their Countries to Ierusalem to worship before the true God and such converts and proselytes shall there be from divers places beyond the seas and from the Isles of the heathen 12. You of Cush shall be of this number of which Countrie many shall die by my sword in the hand of Nebuchadnezer 13. And he that I make my Deputy for the execution of my judgement i. the same Nebuchadnezer shall stretch out his hand also as far Northward and make use of my sword in those parts till he hath destroyed the Assyrians and made their royal Ninive a place of utter desolation like a drie and barren wildernesse 14. Flocks of sheep shall have their folds where the Ninivites had their fair houses And all kind of other living creatures too shall find admittance and entertainment about the ruines of that City Both the Pelican and the Owle shall pick oâ—t their nights-lodging about the knops and carved prominent works upon the tops of their houses while other birds securely sing over their several tunes in their windows And yet other signs of desolation shall appear in their doors and thresholds and in their curious seiled rooms where the rich Cedar-work shall be laid open to the injurie of the weather and the use of ravenous fouls of the air 15. This is the end of that jovial citie that dwelt in wealth and confidence of a lasting prosperity and said within her self I am the onely she and none will presume to come in comparison or competition with me How is she now become a verie picture of desolation and a place for beasts to lie down in All that passe by her will hisse and wag their hands at her in wonder and astonishment CHAP. III. 1 WO to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city 2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not near to her God 3 Her princes within her are roaring lions her judges are evening wolves they gnaw not the bones till the morrow 4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons her priests have polluted the sanctuary they have done violence to the law 5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof he will not do iniquity every morning doth he bring his judgement to light he faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame 6 I have cut off the nations their towers are
desolate I made their streets wast that none passeth by their cities are destroyed so that there is no man that there is none inhabitant 7 I said Surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not be cut off howsoever I punished them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings 8 Therefore wait ye upon me saith the Lord until the day that I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie 9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering 11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of mine holy mountain 12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. 13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speaks lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid 14 Sing O daughter of Zion shout O Israel be glad and rejoyce with all the heart O daughter of Ierusalem 15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgements he hath cast out thine enemy the king of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evil any more 16 In that day it shall be said to Ierusalem Fear thou not and to Zion Let not thineâ— hands be sâ—ack 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who are of thee to whom the reproach of it was a burden 19 Behold at that time I will undo all that afflict thee and I will save her that halteth and gather her that was driven out and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame 20 At that time will I bring you again even in the time that I gather youâ— for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes saith the Lord. CHAP. III. 1. BUt that Israel applaud not themselves too much in the ruine of their enemies royal City let them now hear the woes pronounced against their own Jerusalem Wo to the City that grew fat with her gluttony and polluted with all those sins that accompanie a full table and with all kind of rapine and oppression that were made the means to maintain it 2. She would not hear the voice of those that foretold her ruine if she did not amend She would not entertain any such good instruction before the blow came Nor would she trust in the Lord Iehovah and make her devout approaches and addresses unto her God in the time of her extremities but to the Egyptians and Assyrians and who not rather then to him that was ever her surest friend in the time of trouble 3. And to say somewhat again of that oppression that we named before The threats and menaces of her Princes and Governors within the City were grown to be as high and terrible as the roaring of a lion and her Iudges that instead of doing justice put these unjust threats in execution became like those ravenous wolves that seek out for their prey in the evening when their hunger makes them to be more greedily and fiercely set upon it so that what they lay hold on is presently devoured they leave not so much as a bone to be gnawed and examined again in the morning 4. Their pretended Prophets for their lives and for their opinions too are as various and inconsistent as water that will not stay long in his own bounds but must be kept in by some other bodie that is not so fluid as that And which is yet more they are persidiously wicked persons in betraying that trust which is reposed in them that should be the patternâ— and maintainers of true religion and not the bare outward professors of it for their own private interests And the Priests come not much short of the Prophets for instead of hallowing they pollute the Sanctuary and all holy things and instead of keeping and expounding they do most violently both in their actions and expositions wrest and abuse the sense of the law to what it was never intended by the Law-maker 5. But the righteous Lord whose Laws and Sanctuaries are thus abused observes all that is done in this wicked City and He will not deflect from doing right as they do that should be the Patrons of right and justice in his stead Every morning will he show some examples of his justice upon them that should every day be the executioners of it upon others Thus will God never fail to show his justice And yet the unjust and wicked men that know this are so past shame and fear that they will not repent when they see my judgements upon their own and their neighbour Countries saith the Lord. 6. But when I destroyed those Gentiles for so I may call your ten tribes that had nothing in them of Israel I made their strong towers desolate and their populous streets I laid wast and left none to walk about them Even upon their greatest Cities did I bring that solitude and desolation so that there was not left a man nor any of mankind to dwell within them 7. You should have learned to take heed by their punishment And so I said within my self Surely thou my land of Iudah wilt thence at least learn to fear me by what thou seest inflicted upon Israel Their correction will be thy instruction that the Cities of Judah and other places of her habitation may not be cut off in the same manner but that all the good that in my best and kind visitations I have made profer of may come upon her But they deceived my expectation and instead of rising early to seek me they rose early to currupt their own waies more and more as if they were so eagerly set upon mischief that they would break their sleep to be at it 8. Therefore after my expectation deceived I will give you an item before hand to expect that which you shall not be deceived of i. my rising to answer yours and my rising out of the place
the building and adorning of your own private houses So your neglect of me and my service produced my neglect of you and your profit 10. That is the reason why the Heavens that are above you were prohibited to supply you with that dew which should help on the growth of those things that spring out of the earth And the earth that is under you had the like prohibition from affording her usual increase of fruit 11. And I commanded a drought and barrennesse to come upon all the land specially upon the mountainous and most eminent parts A barrennesse both of the corn and the new wine and the oyl And this barrennesse extended to all that which is brought forth of the ground or of men or of cattel and so to every thing that mny be esteemed as a fruit of the labour of your hands So that nothing that you went about did any way seem to prosper 12. These words of the Prophet wrought so with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Iosuah the son of Iosedech the High-Priest and the remnant of the Iews that returned out of the captivity that they readily obeyed what God had injoyned them to do and to what his Prophet Haggai had delivered to them they gave great attention and respect because the Lord their God had set him upon that message And so the people humbled themselves in the fear of the Lord and submitted to what had been said against them and to what was not required of them 13. Whereupon Haggai that had delivered the former message from the Lord spake again to them by vertue of a further commission and deputation from God himself and said I will be with you saith the Lord not onely to pardon all that is past but to prosper also what you readily undertake for the reedifying of my Temple 13. In prosecution of which promise the Lord stirred up the spirit i. the will and courage of Zorobabel the son of Shealtiel Governour of Iudah and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedec the High-Priest and the spirit of all the Jews that remained after the captivity of Babylon And they began to compose and prepare themselves for that work in the house of the Lord of Hosts their God 15. And what was thus resolved on was accordingly begun upon the 24. day of the sixth moneth which hath part of our August and part of September in the second year of Darius the King CHAP. II. IN the seventh moneth in the one and twentieth day of the moneth came the word of the Lord by the Prophet Haggai saying 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and to Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high-Priest and to the residue of the people saying 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory and how do ye see it now is it not in your eies in comparison of it as nothing 4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Ioshua son of Iosedech the high-Priest and be strong all ye people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts 5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt so my spirit remaineth among you fear ye not 6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land 7 And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts 8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts 9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts 10 In the four and twentieth day of the nineth moneth in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying 11 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Ask now the Priests concerning the law saying 12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or pot age or wine or oyl or any meat shal it be holy and the Priests answered said No. 13 Then said Haggai If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these shall it be unclean and the Priests answered and said It shall be unclean 14 Then answered Haggai and said So is this people and so is this nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they offer there is unclean 15 And now I pray you consider from this day and upward from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. 16 Since those daies were when one came to an heap of 20 measures there were but ten when one came to the presse-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press there were but twenty 17 I smote you with blasting with mildew with hail in all the labour of your hands yet ye turned not to me saith the Lord. 18 Consider now from this day and upward from the four and twentieth day of the ninth moneth even from the day that the foundation of the Lords temple was laid consider it 19 Is the seed yet in the barnâ— yea as yet the vine and the fig-tree and the pomegranate and the olive-tree hath not brought forth from this day will I blesse you 20 And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four twentieth day of the moneth saying 21 Speak to Zerubbabel governour of Iudah saying I will shake the heavens and the earth 22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them and the horses and their riders shall come down every one by the sword of his brother 23 In that day saith the Lord of hosts will I take thee O Zerubbabel my servant the son of Shealtiel saith the Lord and will make thee as a signet for I have chosen thee saith the Lord of hosts CHAP. II. 1. IN the seventh moneth which consisted of part of our September and part of October and in the twenty first day of the moneth the Lord spake again to the Prophet Haggai and by him to the people of the Jewes to this effect 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Governour of Iudah and to Ioshua the Son of Iosedech the High-Priest and to the People that are returned from the captivity of Babylon and say unto them 3. If there be any of you left of the captivity that hath seen the Temple which was formerly built in this place in the rich and glorious state and beauty which then it had being a work of much time and cost
Zachary the son of Barachias the son of Iddo and thus said unto him Thus shalt thou say unto the Jewes The Lord was very much though very justly displeased with your Fathers whom he therefore delivered up as captives into the hands of the King of Babylon 3. And thou shalt further say unto them Thus saith the Lord of Hostes whom all things serve and obey Return unto me by a true repentance and amendment of life saith the Lord of Hostes and I will return unto you in that favour and mercy and tender care of your welfare which the great sins of your Fathers made me for a time withdraw from your nation saith the Lord of Hostes. 4. Be not you disobedient as your Fathers were whom the former Prophets have earnestly and zealously called upon saying Thus saith the Lord of hostes Repent ye now forsake all your evill waies and your wicked actions wherein you go on to get unto your selves a dangerous habit of sin Yet they would not diligently attend and accordingly obey me saith the great Iehovah 5. But where be your Fathers now that were so refractory and disobedient unto me and what is bâ—come of their false Prophets that soothed them up in their sins Did they live for ever Did I not send one calamity after another to hunt after them and bring them to their graves 6. Notwithstanding all their security and vain hopes of peace and an imaginary protection from me for my Temples sake have not my words and decrees which my Servantt the good Prophets delivered to them by my command proved now to be true Have not those judgements which I so decreed and foretold at the last justly overtaken them so that many of them in a true sense and apprehension of the greatnesse of their sins and the truth of those predictions returned in the end to a sober mind and ingâ—niously acknowledging their errour could not but say Just as the Lord of hostes resolved to do unto us by inflicting a heavie punishment answerable to our grievous sins in all the severall waies and wicked actions wherein we had offended even so hath he made it good upon us This confession my punishments extorted from your Fathers let it be one Motive of your true repentance that so you may escape those miseries which they pulled upon their own heads by not applying themselves unto me by a timely repentance 7. Now within two or three moneths after Zachary had preached this Sermon namely upon the twenty fourth day of the eleventh moneth which is the moneth Shebat and containes part of our January and part of February in the second year of Darius the son of Hystaspes the word of the Lord was revealed unto Zachary the Prophet the son of Barachiah the son of Iddo in this manner as I shall tell it 8. In the quiet silence of the night I saw a vision that promised though in a dark and mysticall way a quiet and peaceable time for the advancement of the work about the Temple and partly discovered how many Angels were ready with the Messias to assist and defend the Church in that time and much more under that figure how many helps would be afforded from heaven for that more spirituall Church whose foundation should be laid in that Citie by the preaching of the Messias and of his Apostles and Disciples In this vision to show the speed and forwardnesse of them that were sent I observed a man riding upon a red horse the very colour of the horse speaking the revenge that he meant to take of the enemies of the Church And he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in a bottom by a river side wherein again as the bottom and the shadow of the trees bid us take notice how obscurely these things are revealed and how little hope appeared from men for the delivery and tranquillity of the Church so the trees being the sweet and humble myrtle were a figure of meek and humble men that were for their holy life accounted as a sweet odour unto God But after the view of this Horse-man came more holy Emblems of our help For behind him as the Captain there appeared other as attendants on red horses and speckled and white as if the red were to signifie those that should attend their great Captain in prosecution of the revenge of the bloody enemies of the Church whereof we spake before and the other two those that came for the punishment of such as were other waies spotted with sin and for the protection of the pure and innocent 9. Then said I to the Captain of this troop of Horse the great Commander of this various armie under the Lord of Hostes Who are these my Lord And that great Angel or Messenger sent from God himself vouchsafeing to answer and discourse with me said I will let thee know what these be 10. Then presenting himself in the form of a man and staying still under the shade of the myrtle-trees he said These are the Armie and Messengers that the great Iehovah sends abroad to compasse the Earth to punish the worser and defend the better sort of men 11. Whereupon the rest in reference to what that great Messenger of the great Iehovah had said while he stood under the myrtle-trees gave this further answer to what I had presumed to ask of Him We have passed thorough the whole circuit of this land and we have taken such order that this all the Countries hereabouts are in peace and quiet and therefore they may safely and securely proceed in the fabrick of the Temple without any fear of disturbance at home or abroad 12. Vpon this occasion that great Messenger from the Lord was pleased to say as the great Mediator for his despised Church O Lord of Hostes how long was it ere thou wouldst have this pitie upon Ierusalem and other the Cities of Iudah which still appear but in their ruines and rubbish and which in thine anger thou didst keep under the Babylonian captivity no lesse than threescore and ten years the very age of a man 13. And the Lord Iehovah himself gave answer to that great Angel that had spoke so to me in most loving and comfortable words 14. Hereupon that great Angel and Embassador that had vouchsafed so far to commmune with me added this further and said Go and preach again unto thy people the Jewes and say Thus saith the Lord of Hostes I have indeed been jealous over Ierusalem and Sion and very jealous over them because of their spiritual adulteries which they have committed against me and I have punished them in some proportion to that jealousie 16. But now my anger shall fall in as great a measure upon those nations that have enjoyed their ease and plenty while you have been under the rod. And I will punish them the rather because whereas I used them like Schoolmasters for your correction onely they added more to your punishment than
that glory wherein I shall go before you as your glorious guide and Champion to conduct you safe to your Jerusalem that here and that above For he that sends me as his great Angel of the covenant and commander of his Hosts hath sent me upon this errand amongst the rest to visit the nations that spoiled you to be avenged and to deliver you out of their Tyrannie Nor could you expect any lesse since he that toucheth you toucheth the very apple of his eye He is as sensible of your injuries and sufferings as if they were his own and offered to him in a part of the tenderest touch 9. Therefore you may observe me already shaking my hand over them by way of menace And accordingly them that have heretofore used you as Servants I shall not fail ere long to make servants unto you and some of them more then so as in the time of the Maccabees to be no better then captives taken in warlike manner which shall serve also as a type and figure of those that shall be taken into my service when I send the rod of my power out of Sion and when my spiritual souldiers shall bring them of all nations into the number of the true Israel of God And when they that I send shall compasse so great atchievements you will know assuredly that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me the great Commander not of those troops onely that appeared in the first vision but of all things that are in heaven and earth 10. Rejoyce then and be exceeding glad O daughter of Sion for which thou shalt see and wonder at I will not onely vouchsafe to dwell in this Temple that you are building but I will further be pleased to come dwell with you visibly personally conversing among you in the sacred Temple of my flesh saith the Lord Iehovah 11. And many nations shall apply themselves to the Lord in those daies and like true Proselytes and converts indeed be joyned unto Him as souldiers to sight under his banner and no longer as enemies to him and his Church So shall they become my people as you are and true members of the true Jerusalem And I will abide and dwell in the midst of thee and within thee as my holy Temple and my Heaven upon earth And so thou shalt be more and more assured that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me unto thee O thou daughter of Sion the Church and Congregation of the true servants of God 12. With this happy successe shall the Lord inherit Iudah again as his peculiar possession in the holy land and again make choice of Ierusalem wherein to show his power and glory 13. Therefore let all men be still and show fear and reverence before the Lord. For he will rise up from the throne of his glory and show himself from his holy habitation to subdue his enemies under his feet and be glorified in his servants CHAP. III. 1 ANd he shewed me Ioshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him 2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire 3 Now Ioshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel 4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying Take away the filthy garments from him And unto him he said Behold I have caused thine iniquity to passe from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment 5 And I said Let them set a fair mitre upon his head so they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord stood by 6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Ioshua saying 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if thou wilt walk in my waies and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my house and shalt also keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by 8 Hear now O Ioshua the high priest thou and thy fellows that sit before thees for they are men wondred at for behold I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH 9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Ioshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold I will engrave the graving thereof saith the Lord of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day 10 In that day saith the Lord of hosts shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree CHAP. III. 1. NOw the Lord in another vision let me see Iosuah the High-Priest standing before that great Angel or Messenger of the Lord and Satan standing at Joshuah his right hand that he might there show himself to be a Satan i. an adversarie and malitious accusar of him and so like his name 2. And the Lord Iehovah or some Archangel representing his person said unto Satan The Lord rebuke or restrain thee O Satan from prevailing in thy malitious accusation to any prejudice of the High-Priest Even that gratious Lord so restrain thee in the behalf of Jerusalems High Priest that hath in so great love made choice of Ierusalem as a place to be made a special object of his favour and mercy For is not this Joshua whom thou opposest one that hath more need of divine compassion and indulgence as being like a brand plucked out of many sad dangers and fierie trials that befel him in the time of his long captivity And by him plucked out and rescued thence that gave that token of his care and protection over him for the time to come 3. Now Joshuah appeared to me in this vision as one clad in filthy apparrel while he thus stood before the great Angel of the Lord which might be an embleme not so much of his poor estate as of some sin that he had contracted in the time of his captivity For sin represents us no otherwise in the sight of Gods pure eyes then as men covered with rags and pollution 4. Then said that great Angel to the other that stood ready to obey his commands Take away Joshuahs filthy garments from him as a sign of the removal of his sins that had made him appear so unpleasing in the sight of God And then turning himself to the High-Priest See saith he and forget not this mercy wherein I have caused the removal of thy sin which might now have been laid to thy charge and I will cause thee to be arrayed in such new and decent garments the robes of righteousnesse as wherein thou shalt be accepted 5. I have also taken order with my attendants said he that they set a fair mytre upon the head of Iosuah as the High-Priest of the Lord. And this they did
that of His Kingdom and that of His Priest-hood 14. There shall be crowns also as for the High-Priest so for the honorable memorie of others that have found favour with God for their good endeavours about the outward Temple now in hand by name for Helem for Tobijah for Iedajah and for Hen the Son of Zephaniah And these crowns shall be hung up in the Temple of the Lord as a memorial of them with their names to that purpose expressed upon the crowns 15. And to help on the work and the ornaments and honour of the Temple many foreiners and people of remote countries shall come and contribute towards this building as the praeludium to the whole crowds of Gentiles that shall help to build up the spiritual Temple And by this you shall know that I Zacharie that relate the prophesie of these things am a true Prophet of the Lord and have my Commission from the Lord of Hosts for what I promise to you judge of me by the event Provided alwaies that you be diligent in obeying the commands of the Lord your God For this promise runs under that condition CHAP. VII ANd it came to passe in the fourth year of king Darius that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the nineth moneth even in Chisleu 2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech and their men to pray before the Lord. 3 And to speak unto the Priests which were in the house of the Lord of hostes and to the prophets saying Should I weep in the fifth moneth separating my self as I have done these so many years 4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me saying 5 Speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh moneth even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me 6 And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did not ye eat for your selves and drink for your selves 7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Ierusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her when men inhabited the South of the plain 8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah saying 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Execute true judgement and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother 10 And oppresse not the widow nor the fatherlesse the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine evill against his brother in your heart 11 But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear 12 Yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone least they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts 13 Therefore it is come to passe that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of hosts 14 But I scattered them with a whirl-wind among all the nations whom they knew not thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned for they laid the pleasant land desolate CHAP. VII 1. NOw in the fourth year of King Darius the second year after they had begun the structure of the Temple the word of the Lord was again revealed unto Zacharie in the fourth day of the ninth moneth which is called the Moneth Chisleu and containes part of November and of December And it did so upon this occasion 2. There was sent to the Temple and to the Priests there about that time Serezer and Regem-melech and some Attendants upon them to tender their humble devotions before the Lord in the behalf of those that lived out of the City and had sent them thither upon that service 3. And withall a message they had to the Priests that ministred in the Temple of the Lord of Hostes and to the Prophets who were to advise and direct them in matters of scruple or controversie This Message came in the name of the People who being desirous to be satisfied in some doubts about fasting in which it seems all had been well if their care to make it a true and acceptable fast unto God had been as much as their desire and power to enact it and enjoyn it as a holy Fast and being all considered as one body they ordered their message to be delivered in these or the like termes Shall I continue the times of fasting and mourning which I imposed upon my self under the captivity and have since most strictly observed whereof that is one in the fifth Moneth upon the tenth of July in the sad remembrance of the destroying and firing of the Temple by Nebuzaradan Captain of the guard to Nebuchadnezar Shall I still afflict my self and observe my wonted abstinence from pleasant meats and other matters of delight like a Nazarite for that day as I have now kept it upon the return of that day for many yeares 4. Then as I was saying came the word of the Lord of Hostes unto me furnishing me with an answer to that question of the People after some things to be premised upon occasion of their Fast and saying unto me 5. Speak to all the people of the land and among them to the Priests too to those of Jerusalem as well as to those out of the Citie that have sent these men hither and say When you fasted and mourned in the fifth Moneth in remembrance of the destruction of the Temple and in the seventh Moneth in memoriall of the death of Godoliah and so in the other Moneths in like pretended humble service for these seventy years of your captivity Did I require those Fasts or when they were voluntarily undertaken did they tend as they should do to my honour and glory by your true humbling and bettering of your selves upon those dayes For your Fasts without that are in themselves nothing so pleasing and acceptable to me as you may vainly conceive 6. For as at other times when you eat and drink at your liberty no advantage accrews to my honour out of that feasting of yours barely in it self considered without any other consequence of your due returnes of thankfulnesse and obedience for the blessing of that plenty so at these times when you fast that fasting in its self adds nothing to me nor is it any way considerable in my esteem 7. Should you not rather have observed the divine commands so plainly and openly delivered unto you by the Prophets that have gone before us when Ierusalem was at ease and abounded in peace and plenty And when the Cities and Townes all about her when the more mountainous and Southern parts that were then entirely possessed and when with them the lowest and fruitfullest countries in the
felt by he◠enemies 3. For Thus saith the great Iehovah I return now to Sion and to my former love and compassion that I showed to her of old And I will dwell again in the middest of Ierusalem my gracious presence and daily favours shall make them appear like my own domestick Servants which shull gain Ierusalem the title of the City where the true Religion is professed and the Mount of the lord of Hosts where you build your Temple unto me shall be called by the name of the holy Mountain because of the peculiar presence of my Holinesse and the daily observance of your sacred Duties and Devotions in that place 4. And concerning your temporall blessings thus also saith the Lord of Hostes there shall be seen again in the streets of Ierusalem Men venerable for their age and grave Matrons sitting there to refresh themselves and every one of them with a staffe in their hands to support their feeble bodies because of their extream old age and the extraordinary number of year to which they shall attain 5. And with this grave sight of your Ancients sitting before your doors you shall have another that will please you well great store of young children that shall fill up your spacious streets with severall companies of young boyes and girles here and there recreating themselves with their merry and innocent sports 6. And do not startle at it saith the Lord of Hostes for though this may seem a strange and wonderfull thing in the apprehension of this poor remnant of the People that are now returned out of the land of their captivity yet nothing should seem impossible for me saith the Lord of Hostes. 7. And look not upon your selves alone that are first returned and can yet make up but a little company for thus saith the Lord of Hostes I will wonderfully provide for the welfare of my people in the Eastern and Western parts 8. I 'le conduct them safely hither again from all parts of the world whither they are dispersed and they shall dwell in the middest of my holy City Ierusalem And they shall be my peculiar people and I will be their powerfull God Truely and justly shall I make this good to them by my blessing upon them and they to me by the true worship of my name and their just dealing and conversing with one another 9. And therefore Go on chearfully in the building of my Temple which you have now begun saith the Lord of Hostes you that live to see these daies and hear the comfortable words of these late Prophesies from the mouth of us the Prophets that were in the times that the foundation of the house of the Lord of Hostes was laid and that God hath raised up to incite and encourage you in the building and perfecting of his holy Temple 10. And to adde the more life and speed to your undertakings I am enjoyned to tell you that whereas before you setled your selves in earnest to this good work your men and your cattle at home had little reward of their labour in matter of Husbandry ye toyled and took paines with little or no successe and they that ventured further abroad could find no peace and quiet by reason of some affliction or other that was ready to overtake them beside the many quarrels and distractions which by my permission and connivence rose up amongst you 11. Now since I perceive your readinesse and alacrity to proceed in the building of my House I will not show my self so averse as formerly I have been from this remnant of the captivity saith the Lord of Hostes. 12. For you shall be a generation that shall live in peace and prosperity Your Vines shall be fruitfull and your land shall bring plenty of corn For the Heavens shall drop that dew which shall make them so And the remnant that return from Babylon will I make to be eye-witnesses and owners of all this felicity 13. So shall it come to passe that as you of the house of Iudah and Israel were held accursed of all nations by reason of the great misery that your great sins had brought upon you so upon this safety and prosperity which I shall give unto you you shall be accounted a Nation that God hath now blessed with extraordinary favours Therefore do not faint and give back from your good intentions but proceed on chearfully and couragiously in the building of the Temple 14. For thus saith the Lord of Hostes As there was a time when my thoughts and intentions were chiefly set upon afflicting of this nation for those sins by which your forefathers provoked me to anger and I had no mind to repent of it I would not 〈◊〉 diverted 15. So now in these times of amendment and of a more readiness to go on in my service I am willing to repent and to put on other resolutions of doing good and bestowing favours upon Iudah and Ierusalem And therefore be not discouraged nor taken off from your good beginnings 16. And let these be the actions wherein you shall practise and entertain your selves Let every man use candour and integritie in those things which refer to others and himself And you that as more publick persons are intrusted in your gates which are your courts of Justice pass your sentences according to that truth and equity which will be the best means to procure and prolong your peace and prosperity 17. And much more must you be careful that there be no studying of mischief against one another or delighting to deceive others or dishonour my name by false oaths For howsoever wicked men may love and take pleasure in such things yet are they all of them the object of my hatred saith the Lord of Hosts 18 After this for a full and clear solution of the queries and demands that were the errand of Sarezer end Regem-melech the word of the Lord was made known unto me to this sense 19. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts Your fast of the fourth moneth which you observed in the sad remembrance of Jerusalem at that time taken by the King of Babylon and your fast of the fifth moneth wherein the Temple was consumed by fire and the City laid ruinous and desolate and your fast in the seventh moneth which put you in mind how your noble Patron and Commander Godoliah was treacherously and unhappily brought to an untimely death and your fast of the tenth moneth in which the Babylonians began their siege against Jerusalem All these daies of fasting shall be now to your whole nation upon your return from Babylon festivall dayes set times of merry and joyfull Solemnities In all which let not your joy obliterate the memorie of your dutie forget not to deal candidly and truly with your neighbours and to entertain one another with the mutual offices of true love and courtesie as well as of jollity and feasting 20. And to encourage you yet more
in this acceptable duty of mutual love thus saith the Lord of Hostes of that love and affection wherein your own people yet abroad and others with them shall be drawn to you and to your Countrey You are yet but a few but the time is coming on when many shall come hither form remoter parts and that are now inhabitants of many feveral Cities 21. For they that dwell in one City shall impart their desires to the inhabitants of another City for a journey towards the holy land and they shall say Come let us go thither to tender our humble supplications before the Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts in his holy worship and service and the precepts of his law Then the several parties thus invited shall say every man undertaking it in his own person I shall willingly make one for so good a voyage 22. Thus shall many and mighty nations come to Ierusalem to seek the Lord of Hosts in this Temple which you are building and to be informed by your Priests and Levites which is the true way of his service according to his divine laws and as a good means to that to offer up their hearty prayers for a blessing from the Almighty 23. For thus again saith the Lord of Hosts Ten men of several languages and nations shall then take hold of the skirts of you that are Iews and in that action deliver their desire to you and your Countrie saying Let us attend you to your happy home in the holy land for we have heard how wonderfully God hath been with you restoring you to your former happinesse in your own possessions repressing your enemies and setling the antient forms of his holy worship as he had foretold by his holy Prophets And He that foretells and fullfills such things shall be the God that we would fain serve and obey as you doe CHAP. II. 1. THe burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof when the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel shall be toward the Lord. 2 And Hamath also shall border thereby Tyrus and Zidon though it be very wise 3 And Tyrus did build hâ—r self a strong hold and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets 4 Behold the Lord will cast her out and he will smite her power in the sea and she shall be devoured with fire 5 Ashkelon shall see it and fear Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed and the king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited 6 And a bastard shll dwell in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the Philistins 7 And I will take away his bloud out of his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth but he that remaines even he shall be for our God and he shall be as a governour in Iudah and Ekron as a Iebusite 8 And I will enc amp about mine house because of the army because of him that passeth by and because of him that returneth and no oppressour shall passe through them any more for now have I seen with mine eyes 9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy king cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an asse and upon a colt the foal of an asse 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse frrm Ierusalem and the battle-bow shall be cut off and he shall speak unto the heathen and his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river even unto the ends of the earth 11 As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water 12 Turn ye to the strong hold ye prisoners of hope even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee 13 When I have bend Iudah for me filled the bow with Ephraim and raised up thy sons O Zion against thy sons O Greece and made thee as the sword of a mighty man 14 And the Lord shall be seen over them and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the South 15 The Lord of Hosts shall defend them and they shall devour subdue with sling-stones and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine and they shal be filled like bowls and as the corners of the altar 16 And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people for they shall be as the stone of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his land 17 For how great is his goodnesse and how great is his beauty corn shall make the young men cheerfull and new wine the maids CHAP. IX 1. A Burdensome Prophesie to the enemies of Israel I shall now acquaint thee O Iudaea with a sad and heavy Prophesie nothing like that prophesie of peace and prosperity which I delivered to thy self And it is the word of the Lord for Hadrach that is it concerns Syria one of thy places of retirement whither thou hast often fled to secure thy self against the assaults of a sodain enemie And it concerns Damascus too the Metropolis of Syria and her best refuge and repose for security whereon she relies when a storm is coming upon her self For The eies of the Lord are upon all men and all should fix their eyes upon him His power and providence and justice watching over others as well as over you the Tribes of Israel that are his peculiar people 2. Hamath also or Antiochia must be brought within the limits and compasse of this prophesie as it borders upon Syria and the maritine parts Tyre and Sidon too though they seem so wondrous wife that they chalenge a greater interest in wisdom then other countries must do 3. Howsoever Tyrus to be like her name hath built her self a strong defence and knowing what are the sinews of war hath heaped up silver like dust and the finest gold in such plenty as if it were with them as ordinary as the mire of the streets like the store that your nation enjoyed in the dayes of Salomon 4. Yet you will wonder in the end how God will bring her to poverty and cast her out of those possessions and give her wooden walls wherein she trusts so much and with them her strong fort another piece of her confidence such a blow as shall cast them altogether into the sea while Tyrus her self with all her rich buildings shall be consumed with fire 5. Ashkelon will trembie to see her neighbours houses thus set on fire and Gaza will be in as much or more perplexity So will Ekron for shame that she hath failed of her expectation presuming
his field near the Temple of the Lord. 14. Then it pleased God to proceed to the breaking of the second staff and to say I will even break asunder my other Shepherds staff too to which I gave the name of Bands and so dissolve the unity and brotherly concord that formerly had been between Iudah and Israel the two tribes and the ten tribes as the Sons of one father coming all out of the loins of Iacob 15. Then said the Lord unto me yet we will have somewhat more of the Shepherd Go and get thy self the poor habit and furniture of some silly Shepherd such as he useth to carry abroad with him 16. For this is my meaning by that silly Shepherds provision that for the sins of the people I will often send amongst them silly Shepherds and Governors in the land that shal neither have skill nor will to attend any thing but the advancement of their own advantages They shall not do their office to take care for the reducing of that which is lost and stragled from the company nor seek after the weak lamb that is left behind because it cannot hold out the pace of the rest nor heal that which is hurt and wounded by some evil accident nor feed that which continues healthful and free from hurts But providing rather for themselves then their flock they shall feed upon the fattest and so hurry many of their sheep up and down at their pleasure as if they longed to wear out their very clams that they might not be able to stir about for that which their Shepherds will not provide for them 17. Wo to such Shepherds no Shepherds that will have the name and place of Shepherds and Governors but nothing else that is requirable in good Shepherds Such carelesse Shepherds as these leave their flock to look to themselves but my curse shall attend them Such a Shepherd will I strike with a bright and sharp sword that shall break his arm and dazle his right eye so that his arm shall wither and be unfit for action because he would be lazy where he should not and his right eye shall not be able to see any thing that tends to his own good because he he would not look after that which was for the good of his flock CHAP. XII 1 THe burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him 2 Behold I will make Ierusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Iudah and against Jerusalem 3 And in that day will I make Ierusalem a burdensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in piece though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it 4 In that day saith the Lord I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Iudah and will smite every horse of the people with blindnesse 5 And the governours of Iudah shall say in their heart The inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God 6 In that day will I make the governours of Iudah like an hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of a fire in a sheaf and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left and Ierusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place even in Ierusalem 7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Iudah first that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Ierusalem do not magnifie themselve against Iudah 8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the angel of the Lord before them 9 And it shall come to passe in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Ierusalem 10 And I will pour upon the house David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Ierusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon 12 And the land shall mourn every family apart the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart 13 The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart the family of Shimei apart and their wives apart 14 All the families that remain every family apart and their wives apart CHAP. XII 1. ANother Prophesie that carries a burden in it to be laid upon Israel by the command of the great Iehovah Thus saith the great Iehovah that stretched out the heavens like a curtain and fixed the vast globe of the earth upon nothing and created the breath of life which he breathed first into Adam and placed within him i. who made all and therefore governed all from the beginning 2. You will wonder at the time when you see all things so brought about by my providence that Ierusalem shall become like a drunken cup of giddinesse and astonishment to all the nations about her not so much that others which would greedily swallow her up shall tast of that cup which will work their own shame and confusion but in reference to her self that she shall do the actions of a giddie-headed people Therefore upon all Iudah there shall fall great tribulation by occasion of that punishment which shall light first upon Ierusalem 3. But about the close of that time when I have so punished my own people I will make Ierusalem prove like a huge weighty stone to all people that shall go about to disturb her All that lift hard at her shall sooner show their strength in breaking of their own veins in pieces then in removing her from that loyalty towards me and that state of tranquillity wherein I shall place her And this difficulty of so moving Jerusalem shall be thus though all the people of the earth should be mustered up against her And this may be a figure of what shall afterward happen to the fierce and ventrous opposers of the mystical Jerusalem and such as are Jews within They that will be lifting at them and heaving at the true Messias their corner stone will have but ill successe in their vain attempts but on whomâ—soever that stone falls it shall bruise him to powder 4. For at that time saith the Lord if
came to make peace by presents and offerings unto me as to the Lord of Hostes. 13. But there 's another fault too that you have committed upon occasion of this marrying of strange women i. You show so much love to them and so little to your own wives that you make them cover the altar of the Lord with teares and disturb the sacred Temple with bitter lamentations so that I can have no more delight in your offerings nor can I take any thing well from your hands though it be purposely brought thither to appease my wrath and make you acceptable in my sight saith the Lord. 14. And why so will you say Because the Lord Iehovah is a witnesse between thee and the wife of thy youth thy lawfull and first love whom thou abusest after such a harsh and inhumane manner But she should be used as thy Dear Consort and Fellow-servant to the same God and the wife of the same Covenant not onely made thy wife by a solemn Covenant and stipulation mutually tendred before me for the securing of your mutuall love and affection but the wife that is interested in the Covenant made with God himself to serve and obey him Whereas neither of these so strong obligations to ingage thee to those wives that are superinduced and of meer strangers are made the proud Usurpers and Commanders of thy House 15. Now Echad i. Abraham whose example you pretend to follow did not so But he was of a more excellent Spirit And when he took a maid for his Concubine why did Abraham do it He did it not for lust nor with injury to Sarah for it was at her intreaty but onely desirous of a pious seed and a seed promised by God Himself Therefore take heed of being led by that violent and erring spirit of your own Think of Abraham's meek and obedient Spirit and commit not such a cruell fault as to suffer a stranger to domineer over the wife of thy youth 16. For thus saith the great Iehovah the God of Israel He that doth so hates to put her away He cannot do that for shame but he cloakes the injury that he doth to her by keeping her still in his own house saith the Lord of Hostes. But once again I warn you take heed of being led by your own unruly spirits and let me hear no more of this great fault 17. There is yet another thing in your ordinary talk wherein you have offended and wearied out the patience of Almighty God And wherein have we so tired and displeased Him will you say It is in using those wicked Proverbs of yours Every one that is evill is acceptable enough in the sight of the Lord and sure he takes delight in them for so you guesse by the preferment of wicked men And in your other said saw Where is the God of Iudgement that doth not rather presently punish those wicked men if he knew them to be such As if we were to limit and confine him for his times and his waies how and when He shall make proof of his Justice CHAP. III. 1 BEhold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts 2 But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousnesse 4 Then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former years 5 And I will come neer to you to judgement and I will be a swift witnesse against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppresse the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherlesse and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not me saith the Lord of hosts 6 For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed 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 8 Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings 9 Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed one even this whole nation 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and powre you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts 12 And all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord of hosts 13 Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee 14 Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts 15 And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered 16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name 17 And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him 18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not CHAP. III. 1. NOw because you inquire after the Lord of Judgement and after his coming will you hear what himself saith of his first coming Behold I will shortly send my Angel or Embassadour John the Baptist my fore-runner who shall prepare the way before me by his Baptism and Sermons of Repentance and his Testimonie of Me and my coming and then the Lord the Messias that you so earnestly expect and inquire after shall sodainly come into his Temple before he is looked for the time being concealed from men to honour his Temple at Jerusalem with his bodily presence and there to teach and instruct his people of
the house of Israel Even he shall come that is the great Angel of the New Testament whom you long for as your promised Messias Behold He shall surely come saith the Lord of Hosts 2. But who will abide the time of his coming and when he appears in person who shall be able to stand without great fear and terrour before Him to hear the discoverie and reproof of their sinnes and the Prophesie of that heavy punishment that will fall upon you for them and the many afflictions that must be expected and suffered by all those that will follow him For He shall be like a Refiners fire to make trial of us in the fire of affliction as well as like the Fullers purging herbs to cleanse and purge us in the Laver of Regeneration by vertue of his precious bloud 3 And when he settles himself to 〈◊〉 great work of trying and purging as the Refiner doth when he removes the drosse from the pure silver then shall He cleanse and purifie the sonnes of Levi reducing manie of them from the drosse of their false doctrines and traditions and other mistakes to the knowledge and profession of the truth And so being purged from what was amisse in them like silver and gold that comes out of the Refiners furnace they shall offer unto the Lord a righteous and pious sacrifice of humble prayers and divine praises and the constant exercise of all holy virtue 4. All these offerings and sacrifices of Iudah and Ierusalem shall be as acceptable and well pleasing unto God as ever were any of their most costly presents and oblations in former times and in the daies of old the daies of your good Patriarchs and Judges and Prophets 5. But if you will not forsake your drosse As you called for the God of Judgement so I will come near to you in the Acts of Iudgement and Iustice. saith the Lord And I that have been privie to all your secret sinnes which cannot be concealed from my all-seeing eye I will not be wanting to be a readie witnesse my self against such as have been tampering with Magick Arts and against adulterous and perjured persons and against all such as defraud the poor hirelings of their wages and the widows and orphans of that which is their due and against those that oppresse the stranger all which have the least means to relieve themselves and withall my Justice shall be showed upon all those that do any thing against the fear and reverence of my name saith the Lord of Hosts 6. For I am a God immutable in all my waies in my waies of Justice and in my wayes of Mercy the same God in the performance of all threats and promises upon all persons And yet you sonnes of Iacob doe not make an end of your wicked courses and either for fear or love of my immutable waies follow those good steps that your Father Iacob hath traced out before you 7. And so from the daies of all your fore-fathers you have gone astray from the way of my statutes and have not kept them as you should have done And yet return unto me by a true Repentance and I will return unto you in great mercy saith the Lord of Hosts But I know you will be ready to excuse your selves and ask wherein you should return For you would be accounted the onely Observers of my laws and cannot bethink your selves what it should be wherein you have offended 8. Therefore I will tell you wherein Will any man think it fit to rob and defraude God of his due Yet are you that justifie your selves guiltie of that fraude and injurie towards me If you ask wherein thse your fraudulent actions against me may consist I answer In your tithes and offerings which you have paid in a sordid covetous and deceitful way 9. And for that fraudulent detaining of my antient right from me there is a heavy curse hangs over your heads And the whole nation are in danger of it as the reward of a national fault if it be not averted by your speedie repentance 10. But let me see you faithfully and truely bring in all my tithes into my barnes that there may be a plentiful provision for those that attend the dayly service of my house And make triall of me now in this one point of your obedience saith the Lord of Hosts whether I will not open the windows of Heaven for your sakes and powre a blessed increase upon you in such a superabundant way of plenty that your barnes and vessels wherein you intend to lay it up shall not be able to contein it 11. And for your sakes will I hinder the devouring locusts that are destructive to your fruit and they shall not corrupt anie more fruit of your grounds And it shall be my care and providence that your vines in the field the remotest from your eyes may not cast their fruit before their due time to deceive your expectation of a good vintage saith the Lord of Hosts 12. And whereas by my curse upon you and my punishment of your great sinnes you lived a long time poor and despicable among the heathen now all nations shall call you blessed For you shall be a delightsome land worthy the love and admiration of all for your peace and plenty and specially for the exercise of the true Religion amongst you saith the Lord of Hosts 13. Yet are you no way worthy of these loving promises from me or these kind words from other people For you have used very bitter and wicked words against me saith the Lord of Hosts Yet you will be ready to deny it now and to say What is that which we have spoken so often and so ill against thee 14. This it is In saying that it is a vain and unprofitable thing to serve God and in asking what you have gained by observing those things that God would have you to observe and that in times of fasting and humiliation you have walked like pensive and sad mourners before the Lord of Hosts 15. And this also you have said Now when all is done we account them the happiest men not that have so humbled themselves but that have stoutly and proudly without any scruple showed themselves the contemners of all Religion And this too They thrive best in raising of their houses and families that dare do the worst things And yet more You say They that have tempted and provoked God most have been soonest delivered out of affliction or escaped the best 16. Such have been the impious and prophane words of the wicked But then they that fear the Lord have often had better discourses among one another And to their discourse God himself gave serious attention observing well what they said and causing it to be written down in his book of Remembrances for them that fear the Lord and think reverently of his name 17. And he dismissed them with this encomium and gracious
promise These are they saith the Lord of Hosts that shall have my special protection at that time when I shall fully execute what I intend against the wickked I will be as chary of them as one would be of his choicest Iewels And whatsoever I lay upon others I will spare and favour them as one would spare his own most dutifull and obedient Sonne 18. Then you that have spoken so carelesly of my providence will change your opinions when you see what difference I put betwixt a righteous and a wicked man between one that serves God and one that serves Him not And a special time when that difference will appear is the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans That is a day when I shall come in judgement against the nation of the Iews and it shall be an image and resemblance of the last day when I shall come in judgement against all the World And that particular day or time is not far off CHAP. IV. 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 and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousnesse arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of hosts 4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements 5 Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers least I come and sâ—ite the earth with a curse CHAP. IV. 1. FOr behold that day of the fearful destruction of Ierusalem is coming on that shall be as burning hot as an oven kindled by the wrath of God And then all the proud contemners of my service and blasphemers of my Providence and all others the workers of iniquity shall be like stubble that is easily inflamed And this hot time that comes on so fast shall put them into such an all-devouring heat saith the Lord of Hosts that neither root nor branch shall be left to any of that wicked crew that shall dare to sin against me with such a high hand 2 But the rising Sun shall be the blessing of you that fear my name ever more and more encreasing your joy and comfort The true Son of Righteousnesse shall warm and refresh your hearts while the wicked perish in the fire of my wrathful displeasure And as they like stubble shall quickly be enflamed and consumed so your heat of solace shall be as quick from your Messias For he shall flie to gou with salvation under his wings to heal your broken hearts and set you into a sure way of eternal life He shall do it with such an effectual and apparent recoverie of your spiritual health that you shall show it in the vigour of the body and be of as good liking and in as thriving a way as the fatted calves and oxen that are purposely fed and kept up in their stall to make them plump and tender 3 And you shall have full power over the wicked that now trample and domineer over you and they that shall be left of them like ashes out of the furnace of Gods wrath and the flames of that sad punishment that was named before them shall you tread down like ashes under the soles of your feet This shall ye do in the day wherein I shall put these things in execution saith the Lord of Hosts which are told them before-hand that they may prevent them or be without excuse 4. In the mean time while you are in expectation of this Son of Righteousnesse and so ordering your lives that you may escape the fire of his anger when he comes in judgement against your City and Nation Forget not to observe the law which I delivered in Mount Horeb to my servant Moses as a Rule and Direction for all the children of Israel Square your selves according to those Statues and Iudgements which you had from him 5. And that you may know when the time of your glorious Sun-rising is come upon you ye shall discover it by the morning-star that appears just before Him For observe and you shall see that I will send you his Fore-runner in the power and virtue of Elijah the Prophet that in a zeal and austeritie of life like his shall labour to restore the true worship of God amongst you before that great and terrible day of the Lord come upon your Nation that shall give you the greatest blow that ever yet was given 6. And coming in a time wherein there will be many Sects and much diversitie of Opinions He shall labour to convert and reconcile the hearts of Parents to their children and children to their Parents directing all to their great Master and Teacher their promised Messias and in Him to the Truth it self And therefore will I send him upon this employment that so he may make way to the appeasing of my wrath least I come and utterly destroy the whole land For onely that romnant which shall prevent my judgement by true repentance shall be plucked like Lot out of Sodom and delivered from that common calamity that shall then attend the destruction of Ierusalem A Catalogue of Books printed for and to be sold by Thomas Davies at the Bible over agninst the little North Door of St. Pauls Church THe Historie of this Iron Age wherein is set down the true state of Europe as it was in the year 1500. also the original and causes of all the Wars and Commotions that have happened together with a description of the most memorable Battels Sieges Actions and Transactions both in Court and Camp from that time until this present year 1659. illustrated with the lively Effigies of the most renowned persons of this present time folio Bp. Andrews his Sermons which he preached at St. Giles Cripplegate and elsewhere with a Preface written by Mr. Th. Pierce Minister of Brington in Northamtonshire folio A Commentary upon the whole Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians wherein the Text is learnedly and fruitfully opened with a Logical Analysis Spiritual and Holy Observations Confutation of Arminianism and Popery and sound edification of the diligent Reader by Mr. Paul Bain sometimes preacher of Gods Word at St. Andrews in Cambridge The fifth Edition To which is added the life of the Author and a Table of all the Doctrines folio A Commentary on the most