he drew all men unto him John 12.32 He rode upon his white-horse the Apostles conquering the world and to conquer Rev. 6.2 And hence that sincere Joy in the hearts of his servants far exceeding that of Harvest which is not without great toil or that of Souldiers dividing the spoil which is not atchieved without confused noise and garments rolled in blood ver 2.3 5. By the way of the sea The sea of Tiberias John 21.1 or lake of Genesareth Luke 5.1 Beyond Jordan Or beside Jordan In Galilee of the Gentiles See the Note on Matth. 4.15 Ver. 2. The people that walked in darkness Liberationis lucem promittit See the Note on Matth. 4.16 Ver. 3. Thou hast multiplyed the Nation Or Never since thou multiplyedst this people didst thou give them such joy i e. such matter of joy as now Thou intendest to do Or thus Thou wilt multiply this Nation thou wilt encrease their joy especially by sending thy Son who is called the Gift John 4.10 the Benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 such as wherein all discontents are soon swallowed up Everlasting Joy shall be upon the Heads of the Lords Ransomed ones they shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flye away Isa 35.10 They joy before thee Pleasure there must be in the wayes of God because therein men let out their souls into God the Fountain of all good Christs Chariot is paved with Love Cant. 3.9 10. According to the joy in Harvest and a great deal more Psalm 4.7 They do over-abound exceedingly with joy 2 Cor. 7.4 Joyes they have unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 And as men rejoyce when they divide the spoil Wherein the pleasure is usually more then the profit Psal 119.162 and yet the profit oft very great too as 2 Chron. 20.25 and as at the sack of Constantinople at the wealth whereof the Turks themselves wondered and derided their folly that possessing so much they would bestow so little in the defence of themselves and their Countrey Turk Hist fol. 345. Ver. 4. For thou hast broken the yoke of his burthen i. e. Thou hast disenthralled and delivered thy people from the burthenous yokes of their enemies both corporal and spiritual that taking thine easie yoke thy light burthen upon them they might serve thee without fear in holiness and righteousness before thee all the days of their lives Luke 1.74 The Jew-Doctors expound all this of Senacheribs Tyranny and their deliverance therefrom But the Prophet intendeth a further matter ver 6.7 And the staffe of his shoulder Wherewith he was beaten and bastinado'd See chap. 14.5 The Rod of his oppressour Metaphora ab agasonibus a Metaphor from Horse-drivers who lay on without mercy Whipping among the Turks hath been usually inflicted even upon the greatest Bashaws of the Court upon the least displeasure of the Tyrant Ib. 361. especially if they be not natural Turks born The poor Captives met with hard measure this way at Babylon but Satans slaves with much harder Christ fitly noteth here that the Rod wherewith the Devil whippeth sinners is their own lusts and passions yea herewith they punish themselves by his instigation as the Lion beateth himself with his own tail As in the day of Midian beaten by Gideon Judg. 7.22 So the day of Gibea Hos 9.9 The day of Jerusalem Psalm 137.7 The battel of Agin court The Sicilian vespers c. Gideon by the sound of Trumpet and shining of Lamps out of earthen broken vessels overcame those Midianites so by the Trumpet of his Word and light of the Gospel carried through the world by weak Instruments hath Christ confounded his Adversaries 1 John 2.14 as One fitly maketh the comparison See it largely prosecuted in sixteen particulars in Cornelius à Lapide upon the Text. Ver. 5. For every battle of the Warriour c. Great is the wo of war when Death heweth its way through a wood of men in a minute of time from the mouth of a murdering piece when fire and sword waste at pleasure The birth of Christ comforteth against all the miseries of War whereunto therefore it is opposed both here and Mic. 5.1 2. See the Note there Now then as the Israelites frighted and flighted the Midianites with saying Hic Gideon Here 's Gideon so may we our spiritual enemies by crying Hic Jesus Hoc in signo vincemus Here 's Jesus we are more then Conquerers through him that loved us But this shall be with burning i. e. with the fire of the holy Ghost saith Oecolampadius burning up our corruptions as chap. 4.4 and moulding us into a new man Diodate senseth it thus The world shall be filled with blood and wars and at last shall be consumed with fire at the day of Judgement Ver. 6. For unto us a child is born That Child foretold of chap. 7.14 Christ shall be born in the fulness of time as sure as if he were born already This was good tidings of great joy to all people Luke 2.10 The Hebrew Besher for good tidings cometh of Bashar for Flesh because say some Criticks there shauld be a taking of Flesh God manifested in the flesh which should be the best tidings Angels first brought it and were glad of such an Errand Still they pry into this Mysterie prono capite propenso collo 1 Pet. 1.12 and can never sufficiently wonder to see that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great God a little child regens sidera sugens ubera that He who Ruleth the stars should be sucking at the breast that the Eternal Word should not be able to speak a word that He that should come in the Clouds should appear in clouts Luke 2.12 in vilibus veteribus indumentis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Induit sordes nostras He condescended to our rags saith Ladolphus in old tattered rags in such clouts as we cover wounds and beggars sores with all say others Well might Synesius call Christ viscerum ingentium partum the birth of huge Bowels For the time of his birth Christ living just thirty two years and an half saith One and dying at Easter it must needs follow that he was born about the middle of the moneth Tisri which answereth to part of our September at the Feast of Tabernacles c. to which Feast the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 1.14 probably alludeth Vnto us a son is given That only begotten Son of God John 3.16 begotten of the substance of his Father before all beginnings after an unspeakable manner The Scripture speaketh of it usually by way of circumlocution Col. 1.15 Rev. 19.12 or giveth us only some glimpse by way of similitude as Heb. 1.3 This Eternal Son of God the second Person in Trinity assumed our Nature Heb. 2.17 He overtook it as the Greek word signifieth as the Shepherd doth his sheep that 's run astray A Shepherd with a sheep upon his shoulder engraved upon the Communion-Cup in the Primitive
company CHAP. XXX Vers 1. The words of Agur the son of Jakeh THe Vulgar renders it Verba Congregantis filii Vomentis taking these proper Names for appellatives as if the Pen-man of this Chapter meant to tell us Aelian Hist var. that he would here give us his sacred Collectanies or Miscellanies such as he had taken up from the mouthes of wisest men who had vomited or cast them up in a like sense as that Painter in Aelian drew Homer vomiting and all the other Poets licking it up This Agur whether he lived in Salomon's days or Hezekiah's was an excellent man as the word Gheber here used imports Vir bonus prudens minus tamen clarus as one saith of Jesse Davids father a godly wise man though nothing be elsewhere spoken of him in Scripture Some think that being requested by Ithiel and Ucal two of his Disciples to give them a lesson Socrates-like he answered Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio This one thing I know that I know nothing Surely I am more brutish than any man sc of my self further than taught of God for every man is a brute by his own understanding as Jeremy hath it Jer. 10. But I rather incline to those that take Ithiel and Ucal for Christ whose goodness and power those two pillars of a Christians faith as Jachin and Boaz were of Salomons Temple is by these two names deciphered and whom hee propounds as the matter of his Prophecy Now because sense of misery must precede sense of mercy neither can any be welcome to Christ but the weary and heavie laden therefore he first bewails his own brutishness fetching it up as low as Adam fallen vers 2. and aggravating it in that he had not yet acquired better abilities vers 3. Next hee flyes to Ithiel and Ucal by the force of a particular faith Ithiel God with me and Ucal God Almighty through whom I can do all things This this was the right ready way of coming to Christ and him that thus cometh hee will in no wise cast out Joh. 6.37 There is a good Interpreter that paralelling this text with Jer. 9.23 24 reads it thus Muffet A gathering together of the words of Agur the Son of Jakeh Let the excellent man say Let God be with me let God bee with me and I shall prevail Vers 2. Surely I am more brutish than any man Or Surely I have been brutish since I was a man See how this good man vilifies yea nullifies himself to the utmost This was true humility that like true Balm ever sinks to the bottom when Hypocritical as Oyl swims on the top Humilit as ab humo because it layes a man flat on the ground Agur had seen Ithiel and Vcal hence hee seeth so little by himself Job 42.5 Now mine eyes have seen thee wherefore I abhorre my self c. Woe is me for I am undone saith Esay for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hosts chap. 6.5 Hee that looks intently upon the Sun hath his eyes dazeled so he that beholds the infinite excellencies of God considers the distance cannot but be sensible of his own naughtiness nothingness It is fit the foundation should be laid deep where the building is so high Agurs humility was not more low than his aymes lofty Who hath ascended up into heaven c. It is an high pitch that he flyes for he knew well that godliness as it begins in the right knowledge of our selves so it ends in the right knowledge of God And have not the understanding of a man Or Neither is there in me the understanding that was in Adam Man when hee came first out of Gods Mint Tanta fuit Adami recens conditi stupiditas ut major in infantes cadere non possit Socin shone most glorious in knowledge righteousness and holiness Socinians feign him silly and therein betray their own silliness He had a large measure of objective knowledge both in Natural things and Supernatural which we have lost in him 1 Cor. 2.14 This we should with Agur here sit down and bewayl as those in Ezra did the burnt Temple chap. 3.12 Vers 3. I neither learned wisdome As he had it nor by nature Nemo nascitur artifex so neither had he attained unto it by any pains or skill of his own There is a spirit indeed in man a reasonable soul and a faculty of reasoning But the inspiration of the Almighty giveth understanding Job 32.8 Not that Agur neglected the means of knowledge or put off the study of it as Salomons fool Prov. 24.7 from a conceit of the impossibility of reaching to it Neither yet was hee of their mind of whom Austine makes mention that they cast off the care of knowledge because knowledge puffeth up and so would bee ignorant that they might be humble and want knowledge that they might want pride This was to doe as the Philosopher that pluckt out his eyes to avoyd the danger of uncleanness In Apolog. Sed nihil aliud egit quà m quod fatuitatem suam urbi manifestam fecit saith Tertullian wherein he proclaimed his own folly to all the country But holy Agur here assures us that flesh and bloud never revealed these high things that follow unto him but as Paul was an Apostle so was he a Prophet not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father Gal. 1.1 even the Father of light Jam. 1.17 In Natures School nothing is to be learned concerning Ithiel and Vcal Confess lib. 3. Saint Augustine though much taken with Cicero's Hortensius yet because hee found not the name of Christ in it hee could not so heartily affect it The Philosophers much magnifie the mind of man as full of Divine light and perspicacy when the truth tells us that it is Meus oblita Dei vitiorumque oblita caeno There is nothing great in the earth but man nothing in man but his mind Si consque scandis caelum transcendis said Favâ—rinus the Philosopher if you get up thither you ascend beyond heaven But Agur had not so learned Christ He talks of natural blindness and other evils born with him Erras si tecum vitia nasci putes supervenere ingesta sunt You are out Agur saith Seneca if you talk on that manner blindness is not natural to you but adventitious Quia sibi quisque virtutem acquirit â—â—â—inem è sapientibus unquam de ea gratias Deo egisse Lib. 3. de nat Deor. Deorum quidem munus est quod vivimus c. Sen. Agur bewails his loss in Adam This Natures eye never saw and therefore heart never rued Those that were born in hell knew none other heaven as the Proverb is Agur tells us here that he never learned true wisdom from any man but must thank God for that measure thereof that hee had attained to On the contrary Tully tells us that inasmuch as every man acquires to himself that vertue
to leave their old Mumpsimus for the new Sumpsimus so powerful is usage and so sweet our present though perverse opinions and perswasions For then had we plenty of victuals Just so doth the Church of Rome borrow her Mark from the Markets plenty or cheapnesse of all things But one chief reason of that is the scarcity of mony that was in our fathers dayes and the plenty thereof that is in ours by means of the rich mines in the West-Indies not discovered till the dayes of Henry the seventh Hollinshead saith that some old men he knew who told of times in England when it was accounted a great matter that a Farmer could shew five shillings or a Noble together in silver And were well and saw no evil Vbi utilitas ibi pietas saith Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Si ventri bene si lateri Horat. and deos quisque sibi utiles cudis saith Another for profit men will be of any religion If the belly may be filled the back fitted c. modo serveat olla so the pot may boil much will be yielded to It is well observed that the Papists are most corrupt in those things where their profit ease or honour is engaged In the doctrine of the Trinity and other points that touch not upon these they are sound Ver. 18. But since we have left off to burn Incense to the Queen of heaven we have wanted all things This was non-causa pro causa Not unlike hereunto was that grosse mistake of certain Lutheran Ministers Burroughs on Hos tom 1. pag. 465. who not long since consulting at Hamborough about the causes and cure of Germanies calamities concluded it was because their images in Churches were not adorned enough which therefore they would procure done Ver. 19. And when we burnt incense to the Queen of heaven So the Papists also call the Virgin Mary and idolize her as the word here rendered to worship her doth properly signify idoli rejectitii appellationem in eam transferentes Did we make her cakes without our men i. e. Without our husbands privity and approbation But is that a sufficient excuse should not God be obeyed rather then men Plutarch Moral 318. A wife is not to perform such blind obedience to her husband as Plutarch prescribeth when he layeth it as a law of wedlock on the wife to acknowledge and worship the same gods and none else but those whom her husband honoureth and reputeth for gods Ver. 20. Then Jeremiah said unto all the people The Prophet without any speciall command from God moved with a spirit of zeal confuteth that blasphemy of theirs and sheweth plainly that idolatry maketh no people happy but the contrary though this be an old plea or rather cavil answered fully long since by Cyprian against Demetrian Augustine de civt Dei and Orosius Ver. 21. Ye and your fathers your Kings and you Princes This was another thing they stood much upon that their fathers had done it so had their Grandees If men can say We have sinned with our fathers they think t is enough The heretike Dioscurus cried out I hold with the Fathers I am cast out with the Fathers c. yea Hierom once desired leave of Augustine to err with seven Fathers whom he found of his opinion But what saith the Scripture Be not ye the servants of men 1 Cor. 7.23 And what said a great Politician I will not live by example but by rule neither will I pin my faith on anothers sleeve because I know not whither he may carry it Did not the Lord remember them When you thought he had forgot them Sin may sleep a long time like a sleeping debt not called for of many years c. Ver. 22. So that the Lord could no longer bear His abused mercy turned into fury See chap. 15.6 Ver. 23. Because ye have burnt incense c. See chap. 42.21 43.7 Ver. 24. Hear the Word of the Lord Not my word only See on ver 20. Ver. 25. Ye and your wives Who ought to be the better but are much worse the one for the other the devil having broken your head with your own rib We will surely perform our vowes A little better then many Popish votaries and others also not a few do now-a days Erasm Col. in Naufr not unlike him in Erasmus who in a storm promised the Virgin a picture of wax as big as St. Christopher but when he came to shore would not give a tallow-candle Ver. 26. Behold I have sworn by my great name Jehovah my incommunicable name my proper name or by myself and that 's no small oath Ver. 27. Behold I will watch over them for evil I will watch them a shrewd turn as we say I will take my time to hit them when I may most hurt them Ver. 28. Yet a small number Methe mispar men of number a poor few still God reserveth a remnant for royal use Shall know whose word shall stand Because they are so peremtory and resolute I shall try it out with them I shall be as crosse as they yet still in a way of Justice Ver. 29. That I will punish you in this place Which you looked upon as a place of surest security and safeguard and would not harken to me opening my bounties-bosom to you at home Ver. 30. Behold I will give Pharaoh Hophra Called also Vaphres and by Herodotus Apries Antiq. l. 10. c. 11. Hieron in Thren cap. 4. being nephew to Necho who slew Josiah A very proud Prince he saith Apries was slain by Amasis who succeeded him but others gather from this text and from Ezek. 29.19 31.11 15 18. that he was slain by Nebuchadnezzar Josephus also and Jerom say as much CHAP. XLV Ver. 1. THe word that Jeremiah the Prophet spake unto Baruch It is thought that Jeremiah preached his last when he prophecyed in the foregoing Chapter the destruction of Pharaoh Hophra and together with him of the Jewes that were found in Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar He seemed to them to speak stones as the proverb hath it and therefore they stoned him to death as Epiphanius and others report Lapides loquitur This word that he spake to Baruch belongeth to chap. 36. and should have been annexed unto it in a natural order as appeareth both by the date and by the matter Baruch had with much pains and patience first written out Jeremiah's Prophecies and then read them to the people and afterwards to the Princes For this piece of work he expected belike some good piece of preferment as the Apostles also did for their forsaking all and following Christ Mat. 18.19.20 c. Thus flesh will shew it self in the best and in many things we offend all But instead of any such thing Baruch together with his Master Jeremy was sought for to be slaughtered and besides he meets with here a contrary Prophecy wherby before he is comforted he is sharply reproved 1. For a