gold that is upon a foundation both fine and firm for gold hardly rusteth or cankereth whence it was likely that Tithonus and his Son Memnon when they built the City of Susa in Persia they joyned the stones together with gold as Cassiodorus writeth Christs power is founded upon his divine Nature and this is the Rock upon which the Church is built and whereby it is set in safety from all miseries and molestations satanical or secular The gates of Hell shall not prevail against her Christ and the Father are one Psal 89.19 therefore none shall take her out of his hands God hath laid help upon one that is mighty even upon Emanuel the mighty strong God as hee is called Isa 9.6 declared to bee the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 that your Faith and hope might bee in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prorsus perpotuo perfecte 1 Pet. 1.21 Trust perfectly therefore to or hope to the end for the grace that is to bee brought unto you at the Revelation of Jesus sith hee is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 7.25 His countenance is as Lebanon His aspect his look or general view i. e. Whatsoever of himself Christ is pleased to manifest and lay open unto us is pleasant and delightful goodly and glorious excellent and eximious choice as the Cedars that are chosen before other trees and why see the Note on chap. 1.17 Vers 16. His mouth is most sweet Heb. His palat that is his word and promises which are as it were the breath of Christs mouth is all sweet This shee had celebrated before vers 13. but as not satisfied therewith shee repeats it and rolls it again as sugar under her tongue Shee doubles this commendation to shew that that is the chief lovely thing in Christ his Word this fruit shee had found sweet unto her palat chap. 2.3 and shee spareth not to set it forth as here the second time Mallemus carere c. Wee had rather bee without Fire Water Bread Sun Air c. saith a Dutch Divine than that one sweet sentence of our blessed Saviour Come unto mee all yee that are weary c. Yea hee is altogether lovely Totus totus desiderabilis wholly amiable every whit of him to bee desired Moses thought him so when hee preferred the reproach of Christ the worst part of him the heaviest peece of his cross before all the treasures in Egypt that Magazin of the world Heb. 11.26 Those of this world see no such excellency and desireableness in Christ and his waies Psal 22.7 nor can do till soundly shaken Hag. 2.7 I will shake all Nations and then the desire of all Nations that is Christ shall come with stirring affections saying as Isa 26.9 with my soul have I desired thee in the night yea with my spirit within mee will I seek thee early Loe this is the voice of every true childe of the Church and these desires of the righteous shall bee satisfied Prov. 10.24 This is my Beloved c. q.d. You may see I have cause to seek after him neither can you do better than to do likewise howsoever when you see him do my errand to him as vers 7. And here wee have most excellent Rhetorick which in the beginning of a speech requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milder affections in the end of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stronger passions that may leaved deepest impressions CHAP. VI. Vers 1. Whither is thy Beloved gone c ALL Christs Disciples are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inquisitive after the truth that is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 and are fellow-helpers to it John 3.8 There is also quid divinum in auscultatione as one well noteth that is a strange and strong energy or forcibleness in hearing whether publiquely or in private conference Christ and his excellencies displayed and discoursed of Let but his name as an ointment bee powred out and the Virgins can do no less than love him Cant. 1.3 These daughters of Jerusalem are by hearing the Church describing her Spouse and painting him out in lively colours fired up to an holy contention in godliness and might they but know where to have him they would bee at any pains to partake of the benefit 1 Tim. 6.2 They wondred at first why shee should make such ado about Christ But when they conversed a while with her and had heard her speak with such affection and admiration they are turned and will now go seek him with her God is pleased many times to water the holy meetings and conferences of his people with blessing beyond expectation or belief Wee should frame our selves to an easie discourse of the glory of Christs Kingdome and talk of his power Psal 145.8 9. Our tongues in this argument should bee as the pen of a ready writer Psal 45.1 that wee may bee able to speak oft to one another with profit and power in the best thing Mal. 3.10 Little do wee know what a deal of good may bee done hereby Mr. Fox speaking of Gods little flock in the days of Henry the 8. saith in such rarity of good books and want of teachers Act. Mon. fol. 750. this one thing I cannot but marvell and muse at to note in the registers and consider how the word of God did multiply so exceedingly amongst them For I finde that one neighbour resorting and conferring with another eftsoons with a few words of their first or second talk did win and turn their minds to that wherein they desired to perswade them touching the truth of Gods Word and Sacraments c. In all ages such as were ordained to eternal life believed Acts 13.48 after that they had heard the Word of truth they beleeved and were sealed Irridentis vex non interrogantis Contrariwise reprobates either refuse to hear the Church preaching Christ John 8.47 Of else they hear and jear as Pilat with his What 's truth in meer mockage John 18.38 hear and blaspheme Acts 13.45 or at best hear and admire and that 's all they leave the Word where they found it for any thing they will practice They think they do a great chare to sit out a Sermon and then commend it But Wisdoms children will not onely justifie her Mat. 11.19 but also glorifie her Acts 13.48 they will seek the Lord and his strength seek his face evermore Psal 105.4 Seek him in his holy Temple seek him in and with the Church as here They know that extra Ecclesiam nulla salus The Church is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 in as much as by her ministery the authority dignity knowledge virtue and use of the truth of the Gospel is preserved in the world and held out Philip. 2.16 as the hand holds forth the torch or the watch-tower the light and so the haven to the weather-beaten Mariners
those six Martyrs burnt by Harpsfield Archdeacon of Canterbury when Queen Mary lay a dying One of those six that were then burnt and those were the last John Cornford stirred with a vehement zeal of God when they were excommunicated pronounced sentence of excommunication against all Papists in these words In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by the power of his holy Spirit and authority of his holy Catholick and Apostolick Church wee do give here into the hands of Satan to bee destroyed the bodies of all those blasphemers and hereticks that do maintain any errour against his most holy Word Act. Mon. fol. 1862. or do condemn his most holy truth for heresie to the maintenance of any false Church or feigned religion so that by this thy most just judgement O most mighty God against thine adversaries thy true religion may bee known to thy great glory and our comfort and the edifying of all our Nation Good Lord so bee it Vers 8. I charge you O daughters of Jerusalem Being evill intreated by her enemies shee turns her to her friends those damsels or daughters of Jerusalem See chap. 2.7 3.5 so the Lord Christ being tired out with the untractableness of his untoward hearers turns him to his Father Mat. 11.25 26. Kings as they have their cares and cumbers above other men so they had of old their friends by a specialty as Hushai was Davids friend 2 Sam. 15.37 to whom they might ease themselves and take sweet counsell Psal 55.14 The servants of God are Princes in all lands Psal 45. and as they have their crosses not a few so their comforts in and by the communion of Saints The very opening of their grievances one to another doth many times ease them as the very opening of a vein cools the blood Their mutual prayers one with and for another prevail much if they bee fervent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.26 Prov. 27.17 or thorough-well wrought as in this case they likely will be for as Iron wheâ—s Iron so doth the face of a man his friend And as ferrum potest quod anrum non potest Iron can do that sometimes that Gold cannot An Iron-key may open a chest wherein Gold is laid up so a meaner mans prayer may bee more effectual sometimes than a better mans for himself His own key may be rusty or out of order and another mans do it better Hence the Church is so importunate with the daughters of Jerusalem who were far behinde her in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ as appears by that which follows to commend her and her misery to Christ to tell him where ever they meet with him Behold shee whom thou lovest is sick thy Church in whom thy love is concentrate as it were and gathered to an head doth even languish with love and is in ill case Tell him saith shee What shall yee tell him as the Hebrew hath it An earnest and passionate kinde of speech somewhat like that in Hosea Give them O Lord Hos 9.14 What wilt thou give them as if shee should say would you know what you should tell him even that which followeth that I am sick of love See chap. 2.5 Vers 9. What is thy beloved more than another beloved This capital question is here doubled for the more vehemency as also for the strangeness of the matter wherein they desire much to bee better informed and the rather because shee so straightly chargeth or rather sweareth them Something they must needs think was in it more than ordinary sith good people do not use to bee hot in a cold matter But as in the Revelation whensoever heaven opened some singular thing ensued So when the Saints bee so serious in a business sure it is of very great concernment Great matters are carried with great movings as for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart Judg 5.15 16 great impressions great searchings It is a common saying Admiratio peperit Philosophiam Wonderment at the works of God set men a work to enquire into the natural causes of them Semblably these damsells of Jerusalem friends to the Church little knowing the love of the Spouse to Christ which passed their knowledge and yet willing to comprehend with all Saints the several dimensions thereof Eph. 3.18 19 first they acknowledge her amidst all her miseries to be the fairest among women See chap. 1.8 as gold is gold though found in the dirt or cast into the furnace and stars have their glory though we see them sometimes in a puddle in the bottom of a well nay in a stinking ditch Secondly they propound to her two most profitable questions The one concerning his person Whereof wee have here a very lively and lofty description both generally and in his parts The other concerning the place of his abode and where hee may be had chap. 6.1 to the which she makes answer vers 2. and so her faith begins to revive vers 3. which was the blessed effect of this their gracious communication Conference in all arts and sciences is a course of incredible profiting Est aliquid quod ex magno viro vel tacente proficias the very sight Prov. 31.26 Prov. 20.5 nay thought of a good man oft doth good how much more when hee openeth his mouth with wisdome and in his tongue is the Law of kindness And surely it is a fine art to bee able to pierce a man that is like a vessell full of wine and to set him a running Elihu would speak that hee might bee refresht Job 32. It would bee an ease to him it would bee a great benefit to others as the mother is in pain till the childe hath suckt and the childe not at quiet till hee hath done so Foolish and unlearned questions about those things whereof wee can neither have proof nor profit wee are bound to avoid 2 Tim. 2.23 knowing that they do gender strifes and breed crudities fill men with winde and make them question-sick 1 Tim. 6.4 But profitable questions are frequently to bee propounded with a desire to learn and resolution to practice as the Virgin Mary demanded of the Angel Luk. 1.34 the Disciples of our Saviour John 16.17 19. c. and hee resolved them which hee refused to do for the Jews that asked him the same question John 7.35 36. because not with the same mind and desire So that frollick self-seeker with his fair offer of following Christ was rejected when those that had more honest aims and ends heard Come and see Mat. 8.19 20. John 1.46 These daughters of Jerusalem do not therefore ask because they were utterly ignorant of Christ but 1 That they might hear the Church what shee had to say of him as they that love Christ love to hear talk of him his very name is melâ—in ore melos in aure c. 2 That by her discourse they might better their knowledge for
bee soon cut down like the grass and wither as the green herb Vers 29. Hee that troubleth his own house Either by prodigality or excessive parsimony Prodigi singulis auribus bina aut terna dependent patrimonia saith Seneca wee have known great Rents soon turned into great Ruffes and Lands into Laces For parsimony and cruelty see the Note on Chap. 15.27 Shall inherit the wind That is shall bring all to nothing as hee did that having wasted his estate vainly vaunted that hee had left himself nothing praeter coelum coenum Livius His substance shall flye up like smoak into the air and nothing bee left to maintain him on earth And when all his goods are gone his liberty must go after for this fool shall bee servant to the wise in heart if not his life as that notorious unthrift Apicius who having eaten up his estate and finding by his account that hee had no more than two hundred thousand Crowns remaining Dio. thought himself poor and took down a glass of poyson Vers 30. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life i. e. The commodities and comforts that one may every way receive from a righteous person for est aliquid quod à viro bono etiam tacente discas Seneca saith Seneca somewhat a man may learn from a good man even when hee sayes nothing are more than can bee imagined Plutarch reporteth that the Babylonians make three hundred and threescore several commodities of the Palm-tree and do therefore greatly honour it Should not wee much more honour the multivarious gifts of God in his righteous ones for our good For whether it bee Paul or Apollo or Cephas All is ours 1 Cor. 3. And hee that winneth souls And useth singular art and industry therein as Fowlers do to take birds for so the Hebrew word imports or Fisher-men fishes Hee is wise and wiseth others as Daniel hath it Chap. 12.3 hee is just and justifieth others hee shall save a soul from death Jam. 5.20 Hee shall shine as a star in heaven And this is instanced as one special fruit of that tree of life mentioned in the former Hemistich This is a noble fruit indeed sith one soul is more worth than a world as hee hath told us who only went to the price of it Matth. 16.26 Vers 31. The righteous shall bee recompensed i. e. Chastened afflicted judged of the Lord that they may not bee condemned with the world for their sufferings are not penal but medicinal or probational and they have it here in the earth which is their house of Correction not in Hell Much more the wicked Nahum 1.9 Non surget hic afflictio these shall bee totally and finally consumed at once See the Note on 1 Pet. 4.17 18. See also my Love-tokens pag. 69. c. CHAP. XII Vers 1. Whoso loveth instruction loveth knowledge HEre is shewed that Adversity is the best University saith an Interpreter Schola crucis schola lucis Corrections of instruction are the way of life Vexatio dat intellectum Men commonly beat and bruise their links before they light them to make them burn the brighter God first humbles whom hee means to illuminate as Gideon took thorns of the wilderness and briers and with them hee taught the men of Succoth Judg. 8.16 See my Treatise on Rev. 3.19 pag. 152. c. Mr. Ascham was a good school-master to Queen Elizabeth but affliction was a better as one well observeth That verse was much in her mouth Non ignara mali miseris succurrere disco Virgil. But hee that hateth reproof Whether it bee by the rebukes of men or the Rod of God hee is brutish tardus est hee is fallen below the stirrop of reason hee is a beast in mans shape nothing is more irrational than irreligion That sapless fellow Nabal would hear nothing there was no talking to him no dealing with him but as Horse and Mule that have no understanding Psal 32.9 Basil complains of the Western Churches that they were grown so proud Epist ad Evagr ut quid verum sit neque sciant neque sustineant discere that they neither knew what was truth nor would bee taught better Such are near to ruine and that without remedy Prov. 29.1 See the Note there Vers 2. A good man obtaineth favour of the Lord Or Hath what hee will of God id quod vult a domino impetrat quia ejus voluntas est ipsissima Dei voluntas nec aliud vult Thus Mercer out of Rabbi Levi. Thus it is written of Luther that by his prayers hee could prevail with God at his pleasure When great gifts were offered him hee refused them with this brave speech Valde protestatus sum me nolle sic satiari à Deo I solemnly protested to God that I would not bee put off with these low things And on a time praying for the recovery of a godly useful man among other passages hee let fall this transcendent rapture of a daring Faith Fiat mea voluntas Let my will bee done and then falls off sweetly Mea voluntas Domine quia tua My will Lord because thy will Here was a good man here was a blessed man according to that Rule Beatus est qui habet quicquid vult nihil male vult Blessed is hee that hath what hee will and wills nothing but what hee should But a man of wicked devices Such as no good man is hee doth not plot or plow mischief hee doth not cater and make provision for the flesh Rom. 13. there is no way of wickedness found in him the peace is not broken betwixt God and him because his mind never yeelds to sin Rom. 7.25 Psal 139 hee walks not after the flesh but after the spirit therefore no condemnation Rom. 8.1 If an evil thought haunt his heart as eftsoons it befals it is the device of the man hee is not the man of such devices The wicked on the contrary is wholly made up of sinful thoughts and purposes and is in the midst of them therefore God will call him to an heavy reckoning Jer. 6.19 Rev. 2.23 Vers 3. A man shall not bee established by wickedness For hee laies his foundation upon fire-work and brimstone is scattered upon his house top if the fire of God from Heaven but flash upon it it will bee all on a light flame immediately Hee walks all day upon a mine of gun-powder and hath God with his armies ready to run upon the thickest bosses of his buckler and to hurle him to Hell How can this man bee sure of any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cain built Cities but could not rest in them Ahab begat seventy sons but not one successor in the Kingdome Phocas having built a mighty wall heard from Heaven Though thy walls were as high as Heaven sin is under it and will subvert it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sin hath no settledness But the root of the righteous
with incest Cease therefore from anger and forsake wrath fret not thy self in any wise to do evil Psal 37.8 Athenodorus counselled Augustus to determine nothing rashly when hee was angry till hee had repeated the Greek Alphabet Ambrose taught Theodosius in that case to repeat the Lords Prayer What a shame is it to see a Christian act like Hercules furens or like Solomons fool that casts fire-brands or as that Demoniack Mark 2.3 out of measure fierce That Demoniack was among the tombs but these are among the living and molest those most that are nearest to them For anger resteth in the bosome of fools Rush it may into a wise mans bosome but not rest there lodge there dwell there And onely where it dwells it domineers and that is onely where a fool is Master of the family Thunder hail tempest neither trouble nor hurt celestial bodies See that the Sun go not down upon this evil guest see that the soul bee not sowred or impured with it for anger corrupts the heart as leaven doth the lump Aug. Epist 87. or vinegar the vessel wherein it doth continue Vers 10. Say not thou What is the cause Granger c. This saith an Interpreter is the continual complaint of the wicked moody and the wicked needy The moody Papists would murder all the godly for they bee Canaanites and Hagarens The needy prophane would murther all the rich for they are Lions in the grate Thus Hee It is the manner and humour of too many saith another who would bee thought wise Dr. Jermin to condemn the times in an impatient discontentment against them especially if themselves do not thrive or bee not favoured in the times as they desire and as they think they should bee And these malecontents are commonly great Questionists What is the cause say they c. It might bee answered In promptu causa est Themselves are the cause for the times are therefore the worse because they are no better Hard hearts make hard times But the Preacher answers better Thou dost not wisely enquire concerning this q. d. The Objection is idle and once to have recited it is enough to have confuted it Oh if wee had been in the daies of our Fore-Fathers said those hypocrites Matth. 23.30 great business would have been done I no doubt of it saith our Saviour when as you fill up the measure of your Fathers sins and are every whit as good at resisting of the Holy Ghost as they were Act. 7.51 Or if there were any good heretofore more than is now it may bee said of these Wise fools as it was antiently of Demosthenes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch that he was excellent at praising the worthy acts of Ancestours not so at imitating of them In all ages of the world there were complaints of the times and not altogether without cause Henoch the seventh from Adam complained so did Noah Lot Moses and the Prophets Christ the Arch-Prophet and all his Apostles the Primitive Fathers and Professors of the truth The common cry ever was O tempora O mores Num Ecclesias suat dereliquit Dominus said Basil Hath the Lord utterly left his Church Is it now the last hour Father Latimer saw so much wickedness in his days that he thought it could not be but that Christ must come to Judgement immediately like as Elmerius a Monk of Malmesbury from the same ground gathered the certainty of Antichrists present reign What pitiful complaints make Bernard Bradwardine Everard Arch-Bishop of Canterbury who wrote a Volume called Objurgatorium temporis the rebuke of the time Petrarch Mantuan Savanarola c In the time of Pope Clement 5. Frederick King of Sicily was so farre offended at the ill government of the Church that he called into question the truth of the Christian Religion till hee was better resolved and setled in the point by Arnoldus de Villa nova Rev. de vit Pont. who shewed him that it was long since fore-told of these last and loosest times that iniquity should abound that men should bee proud lewd heady high-minded c. 1 Tim. 4.1 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4. Lay aside therefore these frivolous enquiries and discontented cryings out against the times which in some sense reflect upon God the Author of times for can there be evil in an Age and hee hath not done it and blessing God for our Gospel-priviledges which indeed should drown all our discontents let every one mend one and then let the world run its circuits take its course Vadat mundus quo vult nam vult vadere quo vult saith Luther bluntly Let the world goe which way it will for it will goe which way it will The thing that hath been is that which shall be Hieronym c. Eccles 2.9 10. Tu sic debes vivere ut semper praesentes dies meliores tibi sinc quum praeteriti saith a Father Thou shouldest so live that thy last dayes may be thy best dayes and the time present better to thee than the by-past was to those that then lived Vtilior est sapientia cum divitiis So the Septu here In vit Vers 11. Wisdome is good with an inheritance So is it without it but not so good because wealth is both an ornament an instrument and an encouragement to wisdome Aristides saith Plutarch slandered and made justice odious by his poverty as if it were a thing that made men poor and were more profitable to others than to himself that useth it God will not have wealth always entailed to wisdome that wisdome may bee admired for it self and that it may appear that the love and service of the Saints is not mercenary and meretricious But godliness hath the promises of both lives And the righteous shall leave inheritance to his childrens children Or if he doe not so yet he shall leave them a better thing for by wisdome abstracted from wealth there is profit 1 Cor. 12.31 or it is more excellent or better as the Hebrew word signifies as the Apostle in another case And yet shew I you a more excellent way viz. that graces are better than gifts So here that wisdome is better than wealth And if Jacob may see his children the work of Gods hands framed and fitted by the word of Gods grace the wisdome of God in a mystery this would better preserve him from confusion Psal 45. and his face from waxing pale than if hee could make his children Princes in all lands yea this will make him to sanctifie Gods name yea to sanctifie the Holy One and with singular encouragement from the God of Israel Esay 29.22 23. Vers 12. For wisdome is a defence and money c. Heb. a shadow viz. to those that have seen the Sun as in the former verse and are scorched with the heat of it that are under the miseries and molestations of life Wisdome in this case is a wall of defence and a well
mouth If the Canaanites beat us what shall become of thy great name Interpone quaeso tuas preces apud Deum pro me Scultet Annal. or a Christum cujus est causa haec ut mihi adsit quam si obtinuerit mihi obtenta erit sin vero causa exciderit nec ego eam obtinere potero atque ita ipse solus ignominiam reportabit Prethee pray for mee saith Luther to a friend of his that feared how it would fare with him when hee was to appear at Ausborough before the Cardinal pray for mee to Jesus Christ whose the cause is that hee would stand by mee for if hee carry the day I shall do well enough As if I miscarry hee alone will undergo the blame and shame of it By the flock of thy companions Why should I have fellowship with thy pretended fellows 1 Thes 5.23 and so incur the suspition of dishonesty Christians must abstain from all appearance of evil shun and bee shy of the very shews and shadows of sin Quicquid fuerit male coloratum as Bernard hath it whatsoever looks but ill-favouredly 2 Cor 8.20 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 providing for things honest not onely in the sight of the Lord but in the sight of men and avoiding this that no man should blame us avoiding it as ship-men shun a rock or shelf with utmost care and circumspection Joseph would not breathe in the same air with his Mistress nor John the Evangelist with the Heretick Cerinthus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb but sprang out of the bath assoon as hee came into it St. Paul would not give place by subjection to those false brethren no not for an hour lest the truth thereby should suffer detriment Gal. 2.5 Constantine would not read the Arians Papers but tear them before their eyes And Placilla the Empress besought her Husband Theodosius senior Sezom li. 7. c. 7. not once to confer with Eunomius lest being perverted by his speeches hee might fall into heresie Memorable is the story of the children of Samosata that would not touch their ball but burnt it because it had touched the toe of an heretical Bishop as they were tossing it and playing with it Vers 8. If thou know not O thou fairest among women So Christ is pleased to style her who erst held and called her self black and Sun-burnt vers 5. Nothing more commends us to Christ than humility and lowly-mindedness 1 Pet. 3.5 The daughter of Zion for this is likened to a comely and delicate woman her enemies to Shepheards with their flocks Jer. 6.2 3. False Prophets also have their flocks seducers drag Disciples after them Act. 20.30 Faciunt favos vespae faciunt Ecclesias Marcionitae saith Tertullian Wasps also have their hony-combs Apes imitate mens actions These Conventiclers the Church must studiously decline and not viam per avia quaerere seek truth by wandring thorow the Thicket of Errours as Junius saith one in his time did who confest hee had spent two and twenty years in trying Religions pretending that Scripture Prove all things The Spouse is here directed by the Arch-shepheard to repair to the foddering-places to frequent the publick Assemblies to tread in that Sheep-track the foot-steps of the flock the Shepheards tents There Christ hath promised to feed his Lambs that have golden fleeces Exod. 33.12 7. Acts 10.1 2. precious souls to call them by name as hee did Moses Cornelius c. to teach them great and hidden things such as they knew not Jer. 33.3 to give them spiritual senses ability to examine what is doctrinally propounded to them Joh. 10. to try before they trust for all Christs Sheep are rational they know his voice from the voice of a stranger to bee fully perswaded of the truth that they take up and profess Col. 2.2 Luk. 1.1 to feel the sweetness and goodness the life and power of it within themselves Col. 1.9 Job 32.8 to hate false doctrines and those that would perswade them thereunto Psal 119.104 buzzing doubts into their heads Rom. 16.17 John 10.5 So that though man or Angel should object against the truth they have received they would not yeeld to him 1 Cor. 11.15 Gal. 1.8 9. They know that Satan can and doth transform himself into an Angel of light and can act his part by a good man also as hee did by Peter once and again Matth. 16.23 Gal. 2.13 and as hee did in our remembrance by Mr. Archer a holy man who yet held and broached hellish opinions Swenchfeldio non defuit cor bonum sed caput regulatum saith Bucholcerus Swenchfeldius had a good heart but a wilde head and so became a means of much mischief to many silly shallow-headed people whom hee shamefully seduced This to prevent Christ hath given gifts to men Pastours and Teachers after his own heart Guides to speak unto them the word of God Heb. 12.7 to set in order for them acceptable words words of truth that may bee as goads and as nails fastened by those Masters of the Assemblies which are given from one Shepheard Eccles 12.10 11. in fine to take heed to themselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made them Over-seers to feed the Church of God which hee hath purchased with his own blood Act. 20.28 that they might go in and out and finde pastures such as will breed life and life in more abundance John 10 9 10. Go thy way forth by the foot-steps of the flock Add indeavour to thy desire up and bee doing for affection without action is like Rachel that antient Shepheardesse beautiful but barren Get thee forth therefore by the foot-steps of the flock tread in the same track that good old Abraham Isaac Jacob David Paul c. did who followed the Lamb whithersoever hee went Keep to that good old way the way that is called Holy and yee shall finde rest to your souls Walk in the foot-steps of faithful Abraham Jer. 6.16 and yee shall one day rest in the bosome of Abraham Walk in the same spirit in the same foot-steps with Paul and Titus 1 Pet. 1.9 2 Cor. 12.18 so shall you shortly and surely receive the end of your faith the salvation of your souls And feed thy Kids The Church also is a Shepheardesse as were Laban's and Jethro's daughters and hath a little little flock of young Goats that is of green Christians who are to bee fed with the sincere milk of the word that they may grow thereby 1 Pet. 2.2 Beside the Shepheards tents Turn to the Under-shepheards the godly Ministers and so return to the great Shepheard and Bishop of your souls 1 Pet. 2.25 Hold you close to these and hold fast the form of wholesome words 2 Tim. 1.13 and linger not after unsound and unsavoury doctrines so rife abroad those murthering morsels that fat men indeed but it is to the day of slaughter Silly sheep do eat no grass
Epicureans that if any were good amongst them it was meerly from the goodness of their nature for they taught and thought otherwise And as Peter Moulin said of many of the Priests of France that they were for their loyalty not beholding to the Maxims of Italy and yet Bellarmine hath the face to say De notis Eccles l. 4. c. 13 Sunt quidem in Ecclesia Catholica plurimi mali sed ex haeriticis nullus est bonus Among Papists there are many bad men but among Protestants not one good man is to bee found Vers 10. Hee made the pillars thereof i. e. The faithful Ministers called Pillars Gal. 2.9 and that Atlas-like bear up the pillars of it Psalm 75.3 Those that offer violence to such Sampson-like they lay hands upon the pillars to pluck the house upon their own heads Yea they attempt to pull Stars out of Christs hand Revelations 1. which they will finde a work not feisable Of silver For the purity of matter and clearness of sound for their beauty stability and incorruption Let Ministers hereby learn how they ought to behave themselves in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 The bottom thereof of gold Understand it either of Gods Word which is compared to the finest gold or of that precious grace of Faith the root of all the rest whence it is laid by St. Peter as the bottom and basis the foundation and fountain of all the following graces 2 Epist 1.5 Add to your Faith virtue and to virtue knowledge c. they are all in Faith radically every grace is but Faith exercised Hence wee read of the joy of Faith the obedience of Faith the righteousness of Faith c. Shee is the Mother-grace the womb wherein all the graces are conceived Hence the bottom of Christs fruitful bed the pavement of his glorious Bride-chamber the Church is here said to bee of gold that is of Faith which is called gold Rev. 3.17 compared with 1 Pet. 1.7 that the tryal of your Faith or your well-tryed Faith for it seems to bee an Hebraism being much more precious than that of gold c. And here Bern. Melius est pallens aurum quam fulgens aurichalcum gold though paler is better than glittering copper Splendida peccata The Faith of Gods Elect is far more precious than the shining sins of the beautiful abominations of meer Moralists Suppose a simple man should get a stone and strike fire with it and thence conclude it a precious stone Why every flint or ordinary stone will do that So to think one hath this golden grace of Faith because hee can bee sober just chast liberal c. Why ordinary Heathens can do this True gold will comfort the fainting heart which Alchymy gold will not Think the same of Faith The covering of it of Purple I am of their mind that expound it of Christs blood wherewith as with a Canopy or a kinde of Heaven over head the Church is covered and cured Rev. 5.16 7.14 Rom. 6.3 4. Purple was a rich and dear commodity amongst them see Prov. 31.22 7.5 Mark 15.17 Luk. 16.19 The precious blood of Christ is worthily preferred before gold and silver 1 Pet. 1.18 19. The midst thereof being paved with love For Christ loved us and washed us with his blood Rev. 1.5 Hee also fills his faithful people with the sense of his love who therefore cannot but finde a great deal of pleasure in the waies of God because therein they let out their souls into God and taste of his unspeakable sweetness they cannot also but reciprocate and love his love So the bottom the top and the middle of this reposing place are answerable to those three Cardinal graces faith hope and love 1 Cor. 13. For the daughters of Jerusalem This Charret or Bridal-bed hee made for himself hee made it also for the daughters of Jerusalem for all his is theirs Union being the ground of Communion As wee must do all for Christ according to that Quicquid agas propter Deum agas and again Propter te Domine propter te choice and excellent Spirits are more taken up with what they shall do for God than what they shall receive from God so Christ doth all for us and seeks how to seal up his dearest love to us in all his actions and atchievements Christs death and bloodshed saith Mr. Bradford is the great Seal of England yea of all the world for the confirmation of all Patents and Perpetuities of the everlasting life whereunto hee hath called us This death of Christ therefore look on as the very pledge of Gods love toward thee c. See Gods hands are nailed they cannot strike thee Serm. of Repent 63 his feet also hee cannot run from thee His arms are wide open to embrace thee his head hangs down to kiss thee his very heart is open so that therein look nay even spy and thou shalt see nothing therein but love love love to thee Hide thee therefore lay thine head there with the Beloved Disciple joyn thee to Christs Charret as Philip did to the noble Eunuchs This is the cleft of the Rock wherein Elias stood This is for all aking heads a pillow of Down c. Vers 11. Go forth O yee Daughters of Zion i.e. All yee faithful souls which follow the Lord Christ the Lamb that stands upon Mount Zion Rev. 14.1 4. Yee shall not need to go far and yet far yee would go I dare say to see such a gallant sight as King Solomon in his Royalty the Queen of Sheba did behold hee is at hand Tell yee the Daughters of Zion behold thy King cometh c. Mat. 21.5 Go forth therefore forth of your selves forth from your friends means all as Abraham did and the holy Apostles Confessours and Martyrs and as the Church is bid to do Psal 45.10 forget also thine own people and thy Fathers house Good Nazianzen was glad that hee had something of value to wit his Athenian learning to part with for Christ Horreo quicquid de meo est ut meus sim saith Bernard Hee that will come to mee must go utterly out of himself saith our Saviour All Saint Pauls care was that hee might bee sound in Christ but lost in himself Epist ad Gabr. Vydym Ambula in timore contemptu tui ora Christum ut ipse tua omnia faciat tu nihil facias sed sis sabbatum Christi saith Luther walk in the fear and contempt of thy self and rest thy spirit in Christ this is to go forth to see King Solomon crowned yea this is to set the Crown upon Christs head Camd. Elisab Anno 1585. When Queen Elizabeth undertook the protection of the Netherlands against the Spaniard all Princes admired her fortitude and the King of Sweden said that shee had now taken the Diadem from her own Head and set
of him delight in him indignation against any that speak or do ought against him The object of zeal is either Man as 2 Cor. 7.7 Coloss 4.17 Basil venturing himself very far for his friend and by some blamed for it answered Ego aliter amare non didici I cannot love a man but I must do mine utmost for him Or Secondly God as John 3.17 2 Cor. 7.11 Rev. 3.19 And here out love will be and must appear to be fervent desire eager delights ravishing hopes longing hatred deadly anger fierce fear terrible grief deep deeper than those black deeps a place so called at the Thames-mouth whereinto Richard the third caused the dead bodies of his two smothered Nephews to be cast Speed 935. being first closed up in lead c. The coals thereof are coals of fire Or fiery darts that set the soul all on a light fire and turn it into a coal or lump of love to Christ The word here used is elsewhere taken for fiery thunderbolts Psal 78.48 and for brass-headed arrows that gather heat by motion Psal 76.4 also for a carbuncle or burning feaver Deut. 32.24 The Church had said before more than once that shee was sick of love here shee feels her self in a feaver as it were or as if her liver were struck through with a love-dart by that spirit of judgement and of burning Isa 4.4 kindling this flame of God as shee calls it here upon the haâ—h of her heart The word signifies the consuming flame of God and zeal may be very fitly so called For as it comes from above even from the father of lights as the fire of the Altar did so it tends to him and ends in him it carries a man up as it were in a fiery Chariot and conformes his corruptions by the way It quencheth also those fiery darts of the devill as the Sun-beams will put out the kitchin fire and sets the tongue a work as the Holy Ghost set on fire the Apostles tongues Act. 2. when as wicked mens tongues full of deadly poyson are yet further set on fire from hell Jam. 3.6 yea the whole man a work for God and his glory as Elias with his Zelando zelavi hee sucked in fire with his mothers breast as some have legended St. Paul is mad for God so some misjudged him 2 Cor. 5.13 as ever hee had once been against him Act. 26.11 Peter was a man made all of fire walking amongst stubble saith Chrysostome And of one that desired to know what manner of man Basil was it is said there was presented in a dream a pillar of fire with this Motto Talis est Basilius such an one is Basil Such also was Savanarola Farel Luther Latimer that bold Tell-troth who when hee was demanded the reason why there was so much preaching and so little practiced answered roundly deest ignis the flame of God is wanting in mens hearts Vers 7. Many waters cannot quench love Water was proved long since to be above fire in that ancient contest between those two Nations about the precedency and precellency of their Gods the one worshipping Fire and the other Water But though there be Gods many and Lords many yet to the Church there is but one Lord and to him shee will go thorow thick and thin thorow fire and water Her love to him is such as no good can match it no evill over-match it it cannot be quenched with any calamity nay it is much kindled by it as fire in the smiths-forge or as lime that is the hotter for the water that is cast upon it Elias would have water poured on the sacrifice covered therewith that the power of God might the more appear in the fire from heaven Semblably Christ suffers the ship of his Church to be covered sometimes with waves of persecutions and afflictions that the strength of their love to him may bee the more manifested and the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed Luk. 2.35 It is easie to swim in a warm bath and every bird can sing in a summers day but to swim to heaven as Queen Elizabeth did to her throne through a sea of sorrows to sing as some birds will do in the spring most sweetly then when it rains most sadly that 's a true trial indeed Many will imbark themselves in the Churches cause in a calm that with the Mariners in the Acts will flee out of the ship in a storm Many will own a prospering truth a blessing Ark but hee is an Obed-Edom indeed that will own a persecuted tossed banished Ark an Ark that brings the plague with it God sets an high price on their love that stick to him in affliction 2 Sam. 15.18 as David did on those men that were with him at Gath those Cherethites and Pelethites that stuck to him when Absalom was up And notwithstanding their late mutiny at Ziklag hee takes them to Hebron with him where hee was to bee crowned that as they had shared with him in his misery so they might partake of his prosperity Lo thus likewise deals our heavenly David with all his fellow-sufferers Hee removes them at length from the ashes of their forlorn Ziklog to the Hebron of heaven And at the general judgement in that great Amphitheater of Men and Angels Christ will stand forth and say Ye are they that continued with me in my temptations and I appoint unto you a Kingdome c. Luke 22.28 29. Neither can the floods drown it surgit hic afflictio Neh. 1.9 This is not a vain repetition but serves to shew that no persecution tribulation anguish though never so grievous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though the devil should cast out of his mouth water enough to carry us down the stream as Rev. 12.15 shall be able to separate the Saints from the love of Christ Rom. 8.35 If a man would give all the substance of his house c. i. e. To buy this love of me or to get it from me I should cry out with Peter Thy money perish with thee or with Luther Contemptus est à me Romanus favor furor I care neither for Romes favour nor fury When they offered to make him a Cardinal if he would be quiet hee replied No not if I might be Pope And when they consulted about stopping of his mouth with money one wiser than the rest cryed out Hem Germana illa bestia non curat aurum Alack that German beast cares not for money Galeacius Caracciolus His Life by Mr. Crashaw that noble Italian Convert left all for the love of Christ and went to live a poor obscure life at Geneva Where when hee was tempted to revolt for money hee cried out Let their mony perish with them who esteem all the gold in the world worth one daies society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit And cursed bee that religion for ever that by such baits of profit pleasure and preferment seeks to draw men aside from the
1 King 1. If hee shew himself a worthy man c. We will build upon her a palace of silver The whole blessed Trinity will have an hand in building the Church of the Gentiles upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner-stone Isa 51.16 John 6.44 Esth 2.20 God plants the heavens and laies the foundation of the earth that hee may say to Zion Thou art my people None can come to Christ except God the Father draw him Christ the second person is both Authour and Finisher of our faith Heb. 12.2 The Holy Ghost is the same Spirit of faith in David and Paul 2 Cor. 4.13 and is received by the hearing of faith Gal. 3.2 Hee is the God of all grace 2 Pet. 1.19 antecedent concomitant subsequent We have nothing of which any of us can say Mihi soli debeo I am not bound to God for it And if shee be a door c. As shee is the house of God and gate of heaven Gen. 28.17 If shee will open the everlasting doors to the King of glory Psal 24.7 and open a great door and effectual to his faithful Ministers 1 Cor. 16.9 who come to build her for an habitation of God through the Spirit Esther 2.22 If shee open the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in Isa 26.2 then will the Lord Christ inclose her board her and beautifie her with fair sweet and strong cedars as with curious and costly weinscot which shall be monimentum munimentum ornamentum c. But all this is promised upon condition that shee bee a wall and a door that is that shee receive and retain Christ with her for otherwise shee can claim nothing Hee may desert her without breach of Covenant as hee did the old Church and many particular Churches of the New Testament now under the Turk for their perfidy and Apostasie The Church of Rome though utterly revolted yet laies strong claim to Christ still and concludes I sit as a Queen and shall see no sorrow Therefore shall her plagues come in one day c. For strong is the Lord God who judgeth her Rev. 18.7 8. See the Note there About the year of grace 1414. Theodoricus Urias an Augustine-Frier in Germany said Jac. Revius de vit Pontif. pag. 229. that the Church of Rome was even so long since become ex aurea argenteam ex argentea ferream ex ferrea terream superesse ut in stercus abiret of gold silver of silver brass of brass iron of iron clay there remains nothing now but that of clay shee become dung to be swept out of doors with the beesome of destruction Vers 10. I am a wall and my breasts like towers If shee be a wall saith Christ I am a wall saith this Church of the Gentiles I will carefully keep the Doctrine of truth committed unto me I will stand firm in the faith being founded upon the rock of ages And whereas lately I was looked upon as breastless vers 8. Now my breasts are fashioned Ezek. 16.7 yea they are grown far greater than those of mine elder sisters so that they look like towers The Church of the Gentiles though little at first and scarce considerable yet after Christs ascension was marvelously increased and multiplied so that shee her self stood amazed to see her children come from far flying to her as a cloud most swiftly and in such flocks as if a whole flight of Doves driven by some hawk or tempest should scour into the columbary and rush into the windows Isa 60.8 Then was I in his eyes as one that found favour Heb. peace even as that Jerusalemy-Shulamite nothing inferiour to the old Church yea before her in this that shee for present is fallen off and through her fall Salvation is come unto the Gentiles for to provoke them to jealousie Rom. 11.11 But when God shall have united these two sticks Ezek. 37.19 and made way for those Kings of the East Rev. 16.12 then it shall be said of Jacob and Israel What hath God wrought Numb 23.23 Vers 11. Solomon had a Vineyard in Baal-hamon So hath Christ in a very fruitful hill Isa 5.1 Solomons Vineyard must needs be of the best for hee abounded both with wealth and wit to make it so Hee let it also to farm for a very great rent which sheweth the fruitfulness of it so many vines set for so many silverlings Isa 7.23 But Solomons Vineyard falls far short of Christs wherewith it is here compared in many respects For as it is nothing so fruitful so hee was fain to let it out to Vine-dressers Hee could not dress and manure it himself keep it in his own hands as his Father David his 1 Chron. 27.27 neither could hee take all the fruit for the tenants also must live and reason good If Solomon have a thousand the poor labourers may well have two hundred But I saith Christ here neither let out the Church my Vineyard but look to it my self though I have a great deal of pains with it nor suffer any part of the profits to go from mee So jealous I am of mine inheritance being ever in the midst of it Vers 12. My Vineyard which is mine c. And therefore most dear unto mee Seneca for ownness makes love Patriam quisque amat non quia pulchram sed quia suam Every man loves his own things best The Church is Christs own by a manifold right by donation conquest purchase not with silver and gold but with the dearest and warmest blood in all his heart 1 Pet. 1.18 No wonder therefore though shee be alwaies before him though hee look carefully to her that cost him so dear that hee trust not others with her as Solomon was forced to do but whomsoever hee employs about her for wee are labourers together with God saith the Apostle Yee are Gods husbandry 1 Cor. 3.9 himself is ever one Ipse adest praeest hee is present and president Feed my sheep said hee to Peter but do it for mee as the Syriack Translatour respecting the sense addes there John 21.15 Take not unto thee the instruments of a foolish shepheard Zech. 11.11 that is forcipes mulctram as an Ancient saith like those that are more intent attonsioni gregis quam attentioni fisco quam Christo Peter must not do any of this much less must hee Lord it over Gods inheritance as his pretended successors do with whose carcasses therefore Christ shall shortly dung his Vineyard and water the roots of his vines with their blood Hee must look to lip-feeding and when himself is converted strengthen his brethren neither must hee intervert or take to himself any part of the fruits as Solomons farmers did Hee may not seek his own things but the things of Jesus Christ Paul may plant and Apollos water but sith it is God that gives the increase let God reap all the glory they shall
also reap in due season if they faint not if they grow not weary of well-doing Gal. 6.9 See the Note on vers 11. Vers 13. Thou that dwellest in the Gardens i. e. O thou Church universal that dwellest in the particular Churches frequently called Gardens in this book The French Protestants at Lions called their meeting-house Paradise The companions hearken to thy voyce The Angels so some interpret it learn of the Church and profit in the knowledge of the manifold wisdome of God in mans redemption Ephes 3.10 1 Cor. 11.10 1 Pet. 1.10 Or rather thy Fellow-Christians thine obedient children that will hearken to their mothers counsell No sooner can shee say Hear and give ear bee not proud for the Lord hath spoken it but they give glory to the Lord their God as Jer. 13.15 16. glorifie his Word Acts 13.48 set to their seals John 3.33 dispute not Christs commands but dispatch them Illi garriant nos credamus said Augustine of hereticks that would not bee satisfied The Philosophers called the Christians Credentes Believers by way of reproach because they believed God upon his bare word Wee believe and know saith Peter John 6.69 And wee believe and speak saith Paul after David 2 Cor. 4.13 And wee believe and practice as Noah and those other Worthies did Heb. 11.7 laying faith for a foundation of all their doings and sufferings in and for the Lord like as Ezra 6.4 the foundation of the Temple was laid with three rows of great stones and a row of new timber This is the guise of the Churches children they are soon perswaded to beleeve and obey their mother whom they look upon as the pillar and ground of truth Cause mee to hear it See the Note on chap. 2.14 Tremellius renders it Fac ut me andiant Cause them to hear mee deliver nothing to them for truth but what is consonant to my Word of truth let all thy doctrines bear my stamp come forth cum privilegeo carry mine authority What said Austin to an adversary it was Faustus the Manichee I trow what matter is it what either thou saiest or I say to this or that point Audiamus ambo quid dicit Dominus Let us both hear what God saith and sit down by it Vers 14. Make haste my beloved Heb. Flee or speed thee away as Amaziah said to Amos Go flee thee away into the land of Judah Amos 7.12 And as a Senatour of Hala in Suevia wrote to Brentius Fuge fuge Brenti cito citius citissime make all possible speed haste haste haste So the Church is at it here with her Come Lord Jesus come quickly O mora Christe veni Thus Augustine as this Book began with a wish so it ends Tota vita boni Christiani sunctum desideriumest The whole life of a good Christian is an holy wish Hee loves and longs and looks for Christs second appearance and even spends and exhales himself in continual salleys and egressions of affection unto him in the mean while Hee hath taken some turns with Christ upon those mountains of spices so heaven is called for its unconceiveable height and sweetness he hath tasted of the grapes of this celestial Canaan hence he is as eager after it Plut. in vita Camilli as once the Gauls were after Italy when they had once tasted of the sweet wine of those grapes that grew there The old character of Gods people was they waited for the consolation of Israel Christs first comming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Isa 16.5 Septu Now they long as much for his second as the espoused maid doth after the marriage as the Apprentice for his freedom the captive for his ransom the traveller for his Inn the mariner for the haven c. looking for and hasting the coming of that day of God 2 Pet. 3.12 Soli Deo gloria in aeternum FINIS A Commentary or Exposition Upon the BOOK Of the Prophet ISAIAH CHAP. I. Verse 1. THE Vision of Isaiah That which was not unfitly affirmed of a Modern Expositor Snepfius that his Commentaries on this Prophesie of Isaiah are mole parvi eruditione magni small in bulk but great in worth may much more fitly be spoken of the Prophesie it self which is aureus quantivis precii libellus worth its weight in gold A great roll or volume it is called chap. 8.6 because it is Magnum in parvo much in a little and is said there to be written with a mans pen that is plainly and perspicuously so little reason was there that John Haselbach Mercat Atlas Professor at Vienna should read twenty and one years to his Auditors upon this first chapter only and yet not finish it I confess there is no Prophesie but hath its obscurity the picture of Prophesie is said to hang in the Popes Library like a Matron with her eyes covered and Jerom saith that this of Isaiah containeth all Rhetorick Ethicks and Theologie But if Brevity and Suavity which Fulgentius maketh to be the greatest graces of a sentence if Eloquence of stile and Evidence of Vision may carry it with the Reader Casaub here they are eminently met in this Seraphical Orator of whom we may far better say then the learned Critick doth of Livy Non ita copiosus ut nimius neque ita suavis ut lascivus nec adeò lenis ut remissus non sic tristis ut horridus neque ita simplex ut nudus aut adeò comptus ut affectatâ compositione calamistris videatur inustus Par verbis materia par sententia ribus c. A Courtier he was and a Master of speech a man of Noble birth and as noble a spirit not the first of the holy Prophets and yet worthily set in the first place as St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans is for like cause set before the rest because in abundance of Visions he exceedeth his fellows and in speaking of the Lord Christ he delivereth himself more like an Evangelist then a Prophet Hieronym Est in fragmentis Demadâ— orationes Demostheniâ— esse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Isaiae vision bus idem pâ— Conciones haâ— poenitentialâ— comminator as Consâ—â—ortas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is therefore called The Evangelical Prophet In the New-Testament he is cited by Christ and his Apostles sixty several times at least and by the devouter Heathens he was not a little respected as appeareth by the history of that Ethiopian Eunuch Acts 8. The vision That is the several Visions or Doctrines so certainly and clearly revealed to him by God as if he had seen them with his bodily eyes see chap. 2.1 Nahum 1.1 for they are not to be hearkened to who hold that these Seers the Prophets understood not their own prophesies 1 Pet. 1.10 11. though it is true that those holy men of God spake as they were moved acted and powerfully carryed on to see and say as they did by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Of Isaiah Which signifieth
Lawes by Ordinances the ceremonial and by everlasting Covenant the Decalogue Others by Lawes the municipal Lawes of the Common-wealth by Ordinances the Lawes of Nations as not to violate an Embassadour c. by everlasting Covenant the Law of Nature which is that Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world John 1.9 Ver. 6. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth The Chaldee and Vatablus render it the perjury viz. in transgressing the Laws c. which they had covenanted and sworn to observe See Psalm 119.106 That dreadful curse of the Jews Matth. 27.25 is come upon them to the utmost devouring their Land and desolating the Inhabitants thereof Though the curse causeless come not yet God sometimes saith Amen to other mens curses as he did to Jothams upon the Shechemites Judg. 9.57 How much more to mens banning themselves Ver. 7. The new wine mourneth As being spilled and spoiled by the enemy All the merry-hearted do sigh Who were wont to sing away care and to call for their cups Ver. 8. The mirth of Tabrets ceaseth Quicquid laetitiarum fuit in luctum vertitur Ver. 9. They shall not drink wine with a song Revel it as they had wont to do non convivabuntur pergroecando We use to call such merry-griggs that is Greeks Ver. 10. The City of confusion Vrbs desolanda destined to desolation whether it be Babylon Tyre Jerusalem or any other Mundum intellige in quo nihil nisi vanum saith Oecolampadius that is by this City of vanity so the Vulgar translateth it understand the world according to that of the Preacher Vanity of vanities all is vanity Austin in the beginning of that excellent work of his De Civitate Dei maketh two opposite Cities the one the City of God the other the City of the Devil the one a City of Verity the other a City of vanity Ver. 11. There is a crying for Wine The Drunkards weep the Ale-stakes yell because the new Wine is cut off from their mouthes Joel 1.5 All joy is darkened Heb. It is eventide with joy As the ayr in the evening waxeth dark so shall their mirth be turned into heaviness The mirth of the land is gone Together with their liquor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wine is by Simonides called the expeller of sadness Ver. 12. In the City is left desolation There is nothing of any worth left but havock made of all it is plundered to the life as now we phrase it since the Swedish Wars Custom is the sole Mint-Master of currant words Ver. 13. When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land Or for so it shall be in the land among the people as in the beating of an Olive-tree c. En misericordiae specimen still there is a remnant reserved for royal use quando omnia passim pessum â—unt God never so punisheth but he leaveth some matter for his mercy to work upon A Church on earth he will ever have Ver. 14. They shall lift up their voyce c. Laudabunt Deum laetabuntur this Elect remnant in all Countries shall be filled with spiritual joy and peace through the belief of the Truth which shall vent it self by singing praises to God And here we have the very mark of the true Church which is to celebrate and profess the great and glorious Name of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ For the Majesty of the Lord Or for the magnificence that great work of his especially of divulging his Gospel all the world over and thereby gathering his Church out of all Nations They shall cry aloud from the sea i. e. From the Islands and transmarine parts as we do now from great Brittain thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift calling to our Neighbour-nations and saying Ver. 15. Glorifie ye God in the fires In ipsis ignibus in the hottest fires of afflictions rejoyce in hope be patient in tribulation praise God for crosses also this is Christianorum propria virtus saith Hierom. Jun. In the Isles of the sea Quicunque quocunque loco inter quoscunq sitis Ver. 16. From the uttermost part of the land have we heard songs Or Psalms aliquid Davidicum The Martyrs sang in the fire Luther in deep distress called for the 46. Psalm to be sung in contemptum Diaboli in despight of the Devil Maerore ac macie conficior Even glory to the Righteous To Jesus the just One 1 John 2.2 But I said my leanness my leanness The Prophets flesh was wasted and consumed with care and grief for his graceless Country-men See the like in David Psalm 119.158 and Paul Rom. 9.1 2. Wo unto me Or Alass for me The treacherous dealers have dealt treacherously They have crucified the Lord of Glory upon a desperate and deep malice out of most notorious contumacy and ingratitude This was with most treacherous treachery to deal treacherously this was to do evil as they could Ver. 17. Fear and the pit and the snare are upon thee Metaphora à venatoribus a Metaphor from Hunters elegantly expressed in the original by words of a like sound God hath variety of plagues at command his quiver is full of shafts neither can he possibly want a Weapon to beat his Rebels with If the Amorites escape the Sword yet they are brain'd with Hail-stones Josh 10. If the Syrians get into a walled Town yet there they are baned by the fall of a Wall upon them 1 King 20. Ver. 18. He who fleeth from the noise of the fear See Am. 5 19. with the Note and learn to fear God the stroke of whose arm none may think to escape For the windows from on high are opened The cataracts or sluces of the clouds as once in the general Deluge The foundations of the earth do shake Heaven and earth shall fight against them and conspire to mischieve them Ver. 19. The earth is utterly broken down This he had said before Oyl if not well rub'd in pierceth not the skin Menaces must be inculcated or else they will be but little regarded Let Preachers press matters to the utmost drive the nayl home to the head not forbearing through faint-heartedness nor languishing through luke-warmness Ver. 20. The earth shall reel too and fro like a drunkard As the Inhabitants thereof had drunk in iniquity like water Job 15.17 so they should now drink and be drunk with the Cup of Gods wrath And shall be removed like a cottage Or lodge but or tent so shall they be tossed and tumbled from one place to another And the transgression i. e. The punishment of your transgression Observe here the wages and the weight of sin Ver. 21. The Lord shall punish the host of the high-ones that are on high Altitudinis in excelso Hereby he may mean the Jews Gods first-born and therefore higher then the Kings of the earth Psalm 89.27 though now for most part degenerated and therefore in the next words also heavily
7.38 39. Vet. 20. The beasts of the feild shall honour me i. e. In their kind they shall so shall brutish and savage persons Lib. 3. de Rep. Lib. 31. Mor. c. 5. when tamed and turned by the word of Gods Grace The malignities of all creatures are in man as Plato also observed in doloso enim est vulâ—es in crudeli leo in libidinoso amica luto sus c. Gregory by Dragons here understands profane and carnal people by Owls or Ostriches hypocrites These being converted shall sing Halleluja's to God but let them take heed that they turn not with the dog to their own vomit again c. 2 Pet. 2.22 For Ver. 21. This people I have formed for my self Even the Gentiles now as well as the Jews They shall shew forth my praise They shall preach forth the virtues or praises of him who hath called them out of darknesse into his marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 Ver. 22. But thou hast not called upon me O Jacob During the captivity they prayed not to any purpose as Daniel also acknowledgeth chap. 9.13 All this evil is come upon us yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand thy truth Nevertheless of his free Grace God brought them back again But thou hast been weary of me O Israel Accounting my service a burthen Non Mihi sed Deo fictitio and not a benefit See on Mal. 1.13 Ver. 23. Thou hast not brough me c Not Me but a God of thine own framing such a one as would take up with external heartless services formal courtings and complements Ver. 24. Thou hast bought me no sweet cane or calamus whereof see Plin. lib. 12. cap. 22. Neither hast thou filled me with the fat The Heathens had a gross conceit that their Gods fed on the steam that ascended from their fat sacrifices And some Jews might haply hold the same thing See Deut. 32.38 Psal 50.13 But thou hast made me to serve with thy sins With thine hypocrisy and oppressions especially Isai 1. The Seventy render it Thou hast stood before me in thy sins as outbraving me Thou hast tried my long patience in seeing and suffering thy sins to my great annoyance so Diodate paraphraseth And hast wearied me Exprimit rei-indignitatem cum iniquitate conjunctam God had not wearied them but they had wearied him sufficiently Some make these to to be the words of Christ to his ungratefull Country-men Ver. 25. I even I am he Gratuitam misericordiam diligentissime exprimit God diligently setteth forth his own free grace and greatly glorieth in it shewing how it is that He freeth himself from trouble and them from destruction viz. for his own sake alone That blotteth out thy transgressions Heb. am blotting out constantly and continually I am doing it As thou multiplyest sins so do I multiply pardons chap. 55.7 So Joh. 1.27 he taketh away the sins of the world Dulcis Metaph. One may with a pen cross a great summe as well as a little it s a perpetual act like as the Sun shineth the Spring runneth Zech. 13.1 Men gladly blot out that which they cannot look upon without grief Malunt enim semel delere quam perpetuo dolere so here we are run deep in Gods debt book but his discharge is free and full For mine own sake Gratis propter me Let us thankfully reciprocate and say as he once did Propter te Domine Propter te For thy sake Lord do I all Peccata non redeunt And will not remember thy sins Discharges in Justification are not repealed or called in again Pardon proceedeth from special love and mercy which alter not their consigned acts Ver. 26. Put me in remembrance sc of thy merits if thou hast any to plead Justitiaries are here called into Judgement because they slighted the Throne of Grace Ver. 27. Thy first Father Adam or Abraham say some And thy Teachers Heb. thine Interpreters Oratours Embassadours that is thy Priests and Prophets Ver. 28. Therefore I have profaned the Princes of the Sanctuary Or of holinesse that is those that under a pretence of Religion affected a kind of Hierarchy as did the Scribes and Pharisees who with the whole Jewish Politie were taken away by the Romans both their place and their Nation as they had feared Joh. 11.48 CHAP. XLIV Ver. 1. YEt now hear Hear a word of comfort after so terrible a Thunder-crack chap. 43.28 But there it is bare Jacob and Israel who are threatned here it is Jacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen it is Jeshurun or the righteous Nation who are comforted And because we forget nothing so soon as the consolations of God as is to be seen in Christs Disciples and those believing Hebrews chap. 12.5 therefore doth the Prophet so oft repeat and inculcate them like as men use to rub and chafe in Ointments into the flesh that they may enter and give ease Ver. 2. Thus saith the Lord that made thee See on chap. 43.1 7 21. and observe how this Chapter runneth parallel with the former yea how the Prophet from chap. 41. to chap. 47. doth one and the same thing almost labouring to comfort his people against the Babylonian captivity and to arm them against the sin of Idolatry whereunto as of themselves they were over-prone so they should be sure to be strongly tempted amongst those Idolaters And thou Jeshurun Thou who art upright or righteous whith a twofold righteousness viz. Imputed and Imparted The Septuagint render it Dilecte or Dilictule my dearly beloved Ver. 3. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty Or upon the thirsty place hearts that hunger and thirst after righteousness Matth. 5.6 See the Notes there I will pour my Spirit and my blessing When God giveth a man his holy Spirit he giveth him blessing in abundance even all good things at once as appeareth by Matth. 7.11 with Luke 11.13 Here are three special operations of the Spirit instanced 1. Comfort 2. Fruitfulness 3. Courage for Christ ver 5. Ver. 4. As willows by the water-courses Not only as the grass but by a further growth as the willows which are often lopped sed ad ipso vulnere vires sumunt Vberius resurgunt altiusque excrescunt but soon thrust forth new branches and though cut down to the bottom yet will grow up again so will the Church and her Children Ver. 5. One shall say I am the Lords When God seemeth to cry out Who is on my side who then the true Christian by a bold and wise profession of the truth answereth as here After the way that they call heresy so worship I the God of my Fathers said that great Apostle We are Christians said those Primitive Professours and some of them wrot Apologies for their Religion to the persecuting Emperours as did Justin Martyr Athenagoras Arnobius Tertullian Minutius Felix and others The late famous
Recantation yet when Luther was dead he not only licked up his former vomit but fell to worse as aforesaid Ver. 25. Since the day The Church hath never wanted Preachers of the Truth See my True Treasure pag. 7 8. Wo to the world because of this Dayly rising up early See on ver 13. Ver. 26. Yet they harkened not unto me This God speaketh to the Prophet as weary of talking to them any longer sith it was to no better purpose Ver. 27. But they will not hearken unto thee Howbeit speak whether they will hear or whether they will forbear for a testimony against them Ver. 28. This is a Nation A heathenish Nation such as they use to reproach with this Name Goi and Mamzer Gojim that is bastardly Heathens Nor receiveth correction Or instruction Ver. 29. Cut off thine haire O Jerusalem In token of greatest sorrow and servitude Job 1.20 Esa 15.2 Ezek. 27.31 Tu dum servus es comam nutris said he in Aristophanes The world here rendred hair is Nezir which signifieth a crown and there hence the Nazarites had their name Num. 6. intimating hereby haply that their Votaries should be as little accepted as were their sacrifices ver 21. And forsaken the generation of his wrath Who are elsewhere called the people of his curse and vessels of wrath fitted for destruction Ver. 30. They have set their abominations in the house So do those now that broach heresies in â—ste Church Ver. 31. To burn their sons and their daughters Haply in a sinful imitation of Abraham or Jephta Or else after the example of the Canaanites Deut. 12.31 and other heathens who thus sacrificed to the Devil commanding them so to do by his Oracles Macrob. Saturn lib. 7. though Hercules taught the Italians to offer unto him rather men made of wax Ver. 32. It shall no more be called Tophet Unless it be quasi Mophet i. e. Portentum Nor the vally of the son of Hinnom As it had been called from Joshua's dayes chap. 15.8 But the valley of slaughter Or Ge-haharegah for the great slaughter that the Chaldees shall make there Ecce congrua poena peccato saith Oecolampadius For they shall bury in Tophet It shall become a Polyandrion or common burial-place till there be no place or room left Et erit morticinum populi Ver. 33. And the carcasses of this people Their murrain-carcasses as the Vulgar rendreth it Shall be meat for the foules of the heaven Whereby we may also understand the devils of hell saith Oecolampadius Ver. 34. Then will I cause to cease Laetitia in luctum convertetur plausus in planctum c. Their singing shall be turned into sighing their hollowing into howling c. The voyce of the bridegroom No catches or canzonets shall be sung at weddings no Epithalamia CHAP. VIII Ver. 1. AT that time they shall bring out the bones They shall not suffer the dead to rest in their graves Maximè propter ornamenta in sepulchris condita chiefly for the treasure the Chaldees shall there look for See 2 Chron. 36.19 Neh. 2.3 Joseph Antiq. lib. 13. chap. 15. Baruch 2.24 For extremity of despite also A. D. 897. dead mens bones have been digged up Pope Formosus was so dealt with by his successour Stephanus the sixth and many of the holy Martyrs by their barbarous persecutors Act. Mon. 1905. Ibid. 1784. Cardinal Paol had a purpose to have taken up King Henry the eighths body at Windsor and to have burned it but was prevented by death Charles 5. would not violate Luthers grave though he were solicited so to do when he had conquered Saxony But if he had it had been never the worse with Luther who being asked where he would rest answered sub caelo Caelo tegitur qui caret urnâ Of all foule we most hate and detest the crows and of all beasts the Jackalls a kind of foxes in Barbary because the one digs up the graves and devours the flesh the other picketh out the eyes of the dead Ver. 2. And they shall spread them before the Sun Whom these Idolaters had worshipped whiles they were alive and thought they could never do enough for as is hinted by those many expressions in the text Whom they have loved and whom they have served c. Innuitur poena talionis saith Piscator their dead bodies shall lye unburied in the sight of these their deities who could do them no good either alive or dead Ver. 3. And death shall be chosen rather then life They being captives and sorely oppressed shall sing that doleful ditty O terque quaterque bâ—ati Queis ante ora patrum Solymae sub moenibus altis Contigit oppetere Oh how happy were they that perished Vae victis during the siege or in the surprisal of the City Life indeed is sweet as we say and man is a life-loving creature said that heathen but it may fall out that life shall be a burden and a bitternesse how oft doth Job unwish it and how fain would Eliah have been rid of it so little cause is there that any good man should be either fond of life or afraid of death Ver. 4. Shall they fall and not arise Or when men fall will they not arise Or will not one that hath turned aside return To fall may befall any man but shall he lye there and not assay to get up again to lose his way may be incident to the wisest but who but a fool would not make haste to get into the right way again Errare humanum est perseverare diabolicum And yet these stubborn Jews refuse to rise or return Ver. 5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem c. Why else but because they are voyd of all true reason and quite beside themselves in point of salvation their pertinacy or rather pervicacy in sinning is altogether insuperable Monoceres interimi potest capi non potest They hold fast deceit They hold close to their false Prophets or rather a false heart of their own hath deceived them as ver 11. a deceived heart hath turned them aside as Esa 44.20 See there Ver. 6. I hearkened and heard Or I have listened to hear but could not yet hear them lisp out one syllable of savoury language No man repented of his wickednesse No nor so much as reflected or turned short again upon himself to take a reveiw of his former evil practices which yet is the very first thing in repentance 2 Chron. 6.37 Luk. 15.17 Saying What have I done The Pythagoreans once a day put this question to themselves And the Oratour thus bespoke his adversary Nevius Si haec duo tecum verba reputasses Quid ago respirasset cupiditas avaritia paululum Cicero orat pro Quintio that is hadst thou but said those two words to thy self What do I thy lust and covetousness would thereby have been cooled and qualified Every one turned to his course as a horse rusheth Heb.
Greeks of the Persians the Romans of the Greeks the Gothes and Vandals and now the Turks of the Romans such an aestuaria vicissitudo there is in earthly Kingdoms such a strange uncertainty in all things here below Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly feare Heb. 12.28 Let us serve Him and not serve our selves upon him as self-seekers do Ver. 8. And it shall come to passe that the Nation c. It is better then to serve a forrein Prince then to perish by the sword famine or pestilence It should not be grievous to any man to sacrifice all his outward comforts to the service of his life And that will not put their neck under the yoke The Lord disposeth of the Kingdoms of the Heathens also though in such a way as may seem to us to be meer hap-hazard That Nation will I punish By seeking to shun a lesse mischief they shall fall into a greater if they escape frost the shall meet with snow Ver. 9. Therefore hearken not ye to your Prophets Whom the devil setteth a work to perswade you otherwise to your ruine as he is an old man-slayer and hath his breathing devils abroad as his agents such as are here mentioned Ver. 10. To remove you far from your Land So it would prove and such would be the event of their false prophecies Ver. 11. But the Nations that bring their neck When God bids us Yoke it is best to submit In all his commands there is so much reason for them that if God did not enjoyn them yet it were best in self-respects for us to practise them sith in serving him we shall have the creatures to serve us c. Ver. 12. I spake also to Zedekiah See on ver 1. Bring your necks under the yoke Better do so then worse if ye will not be active in it ye shall be passive and that because ye would not take upon you the lighter yoke of mine obedience Deus crudelius urit Quos videt invitos succubuisse sibi Tibul. Eleg. 1. Ver. 13. Why will ye dye thou and thy people Ecquae haec pertinacia If thou hast no mercy on thy self yet pitty the State which is like to perish by thy pertinacy Josephus highly commendeth Jeconiah for his yeelding to go into captivity for the safety of the City Tertullian giveth this counsel to Scapula the Persecutor If thou wilt not spare us yet spare thy self or if not thy self yet thy Country Carthage which is like to smoke for thy cruelty for God is the avenger of all such Ver. 14. Therefore hearken not unto the words of the Prophets Quantâ opus operâ saith Oecolampadius what a businesse it is to beat men off from fale Prophets and Seducers but let the end and the evils they lead to be remembred Cavete à Melampygo Ver. 15. For they prophesy a lye When they speak a lye they speak of their own as it is said of their father the devil Joh 8.44 See chap. 23.21 22. Ver. 16. Behold the vessels of the Lords house c. Notorious impudency but it hath ever been the lot of the Church to be pestered with such frontlesse rake-shames who dare affirm things flat opposite to the truth and flatter men in their sin to their utter ruine Those who are of God can do nothing against the truth but for the truth 2 Cor. 13.8 Ver. 17. Harken not unto them Life and death is let in by the eare Isa 55.3 Take heed therefore what ye hear Serve the King of Babylon And so long as ye may have liberty of Conscience upon any reasonable terms be content and not as the bird in the cage which because pent up beateth her self Ver. 18. Let them make intercession to the Lord of hosts Let them pray in the Holy Ghost by whom they pretend to be inspired Let us see what answer So Elias called upon the Baalites to call aloud unto their god and forasmuch as he heard them not the people were satisfied that they were false Prophets God will fulfil what he hath foretold but then he looketh that his servants should make intercession Elias had foretold Ahab that there should be store of rain after a long drought but then he went up into Mount Carmel to pray for that rain I came for thy prayer said the Angel to Daniel Gods Prophets are his favourites and may have any thing of him Ver. 19. Concerning the sea and concerning the pillars c. Of these see 1 King 7.15 23 27. And concerning the residue of the vessels All the goodly plate whether sacred or prophane that the moderation of the Conquerour had lest in the City Ver. 20. Which Nebuchadnezzar took not See on ver 19. Diod. Ver. 21. Vntil the day that I visite them Till by my providence I appoint a great part of them to be brought back again and to be new consecrated to my service Ezr. 1.7 7.19 CHAP. XXVIII Ver. 1. ANd it came to passe the same year sc Wherein Jermiah spake to Zedekiah and the Priests cap. 27 12. In the beginning In his first year dividing his reign into three parts That Hananiah the son of Azur the Prophet i. e. The pretended Prophet Dictum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Priest he seemeth to have been by his Country Gibeon Josh 21.13 17. and a Prophet he taketh upon him to be preacheth pleasing things through flattery and for filthy lucre likely He saw how ill Vriah and Jeremy had sped by telling the truth He resolveth therefore upon another course These false Prophets would ever with the Squiril build and have their holes open to the Sunny-side ever keep in with the Princes and please the people Ver. 2. Thus speaketh the Lord of Hâ—sts the God of Israel Thus this wretch makes over-bold with that Nomen Majestaâ—ivum holy and reverend Name of God whom he entileth also to his falsities with singular impudence that he may passe for a Prophet of the Lord when as the root of the matter was not in him Ver. 3. Within two full years Jeremy had said seventy Hananiah a man of prime authority some say High-priest within two years This was some trial to good Jeremy to be thus confronted Jeremy's discourse was so much the more distasted because he not only contradicted Hananiah and his complices but also perswaded Zedekiah to submit to the King of Babylon and afterwards to yield up the City when as the Prophet Isay not long before had disswaded Hezekiah from so doing Ver. 5. Then the Prophet Jeremiah said Without gall or guilt Like the waters of Siloah at the foot of Sion Isa 8 6. which run softly he made but small noise though he heard great words and full of falsehood In the presence of the Priests and in the presence of the people Publikely he took him up though mildly because he had publickly offended See Gal. 2.14
prepared for them that love him and sith this City is a type of heavens happiness which is fitter to be believed then possible to be expressed therefore I am the less troubled saith good Oecolampadius here that I understand no more of this surmounting matter Ver. 34. At the West-side c. See on ver 32 33. Ver. 35. It was round about eighteen thousand measures See on ver 32. and on Rev. 21.16 The Lord is there Jehovah-shammah this is the true Churches name and the true Christians happiness such as no good can match no evil overmatch viz. that wheresoever he is there God is and therefore there heaven is like as where the King is there his Court is this very name implyes Gods everlasting being with his Church according to those precious texts of Scripture every syllable whereof dropeth myrrh and mercy Lev. 26.11 12. Mat. 18.20 28.20 Joh. 14.23 1 Cor. 15.28 Rev. 7.14 c 21.3 4 5. 22.3 4 5 6. This is the truth of that which the Temple whil'st it stood as a type or figure did represent This is my rest for ever here will I dwell Psal 132.14 God will not forsake his Church as he did the Synagogue but have it up to heaven to him Rev. 21. where are crowns scepters Kingdoms beatifical visions unutterable exstasies sweetest varieties felicities eternities and all because Jehovah shammah the Lord is there to him be glory and praise everlasting Amen So be it Soli Deo Gloria The Jews having finished a book adde Benedictus qui dat fatigato robur FINIS A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK of the Prophet DANIEL Ver. 1. THE book of Daniel Written by himself not by another of his name Lib 12. contra Christian in the days of Antiochus Epiphanes as wicked Porphyry that professed enemy of Christianity Mr Ascham blaterateth like as Xenophon and Julius Caesar wrot their own acts so wisely and impartially as none have been so upright in writing the histories of others This divine Book is for the matter of it partly Historical and partly Prophetical The historical part we have in the six first Chapters sc a continuation of the history of the Books of Kings Hieron Ep. 103. ad Paulin during the whole time of the Captivity and after it Hence Hierom calleth Daniel Multiscum totius Mundi Polyhistorem a general Historian The Prophetical part beginning at the seventh Chapter foretelleth future things in the several Monarchies but very obscurely according to that of the Angel chap. 12.9 10. Go thy way Daniel for the words ore closed up and sealed till the end of the time c. and according to that Hieroglyphick of Prophecy which hangs they say among other pictures in the Vatican Library at Rome like a Matrone with the eyes covered for the difficulty Whence it was that Paulinus Bishop of Nola though able would never be drawn to write Commentaries Cajetan and Calvin would set no Notes upon the Revelation and Piscator after that he had commented upon the other Prophets when he came to Daniel he met with so many dark and difficult passages ut parum obfuerit saith he quin in medio commentandi cursu subsisterem calamum è manu deponerem that he was even ready to lay down his pen Piscat Epist dedicat ante Com. in Dan. and to lay aside the businesse But this he did not as considering that the best whiles here know but in part Prophecy but in part c. and that the promise is though none of the wicked understand this Prophecy yet the wise shall chap. 12.10 Hierom well saith Quod alio tempore canitur alio cernitur De vir perfect that a Prophecy is therefore obscure because it is said at one time and seen at another And one thing that causeth a cloud in Daniel is the transposing of the history here often used as the Prophesies contained in the seventh and eighth Chapters which were shewed unto Daniel under the reign of Belshazzar in order should be set before the sixth Chapter c. He seemeth indeed to have been laid aside in the dayes of Belshazzar that drunken Sot till the hand-writing on the wall brought him more in request again chap. 5. That cock on the dunghil knew not the worth of this peerlesse pearl highly prized both by his Predecessor and Successors to whom he was a secretis of their privy Coucil Famous he was grown and worthily for his extraordinary wisdom Ezek. 28.3 and holinesse Ezek. 14.14 so that the Angel Gabriel stileth him a man of Desires or a Desirable man Dan. 9.23 Seneca calleth Cato Virtutum vivam imaginem a lively picture of Virtues Pliny saith that the same Cato Censorius was an excellent Orator an excellent Senator an excellent Commander Lib. 2. and a Master of all good Arts. Paterculus saith that he was a man as like Virtue Dec. 4. lib. 9. as ever he could look per omnia virtutâ— diis quam hominibus propior Livy saith he was a man of rigid innocency and invincible integrity In vita Catonis Cornelius Nepos that being assayed and assaulted by many he not only never lost any part of his reputation but as long as he lived grew still in the praise of his virtues as being in all things of singular prudence and industry Lastly Cicero saith of Cato Cato Major that whereas he underwent the enmities of many potent persons Splendida peccata and suffered no little hardship all his time yet was he one of those few who lived and dyed with glory How much more truely might all this be affirmed of Daniel the Prophet then of Cato the Censor all whose virtues were but glistring sins and all whose praise-worthy parts and practises were but tinckling cymbals in comparison Daniel's whole life was a kind of Heaven adorned with most radiant stars of divine virtues Sixt. Senens Bib. Sanct. lib. 4. And although we cannot say of him as Aleander of Hales did of his scholar Bonavanture in an Hyperbolical strain that Adam seemed to him not to have sinned in Bonavanture such was his sanctity and knowledge yet with more colour of truth might the like he said of Daniel the Jews Jewel and the Worlds darlâ—ng Torshel He wrot this Book part of it in Hebrew and part in Chaldee all in a short but grave stile evident and elegant being a divine Polychronicon to the worlds end or as One calleth it the Apocalypse of the Old Testament CHAP. I. Ver. 1. IN the third year of the reign of Jehojakim That wicked King who killed the Prophet Vriah Jer. 26. cut Jeremia's Prophecy with a knife and cast it into the fire Jer. 36. was a grosse Idolater 2 Chron. 36.8 and therefore justly suffered Came Nebucahdnezzar Surnamed Magnus son to Nebuchadnezzar surnanamed Priscus See 2 King 24.1 2. 2 Chron. 36.8 with the Notes Ver. 2. And the Lord gave Jehojakim Because the affliction by
i. e. Against the Jews Gods Covenanters and against the true religion The Church is haeres crucis saith Luther the truth goes seldom without a scratcht face Ver. 29. At the time appointed After two years And come toward the South Toward Egypt 1 Mac. 1.30 But it shall not be as the former Expedition ver 25. Or as the latter Mentioned ver 40. God oft crosseth the wicked in the height of their hopes Job 20 6. Ver. 30. For the ships of Chittim shall come against him i. e. Publius Popilius the Roman Legat shall come in Italian or Grecian ships and shall Joseph l. 12. c. 6. Liv. dec 5. l. 5. â—pplan in Syr. â—ustin in the name of the Senat and people of Rome command Antiochus to depart with his army out of Egypt and that forthwith So true found Antiochus that of the Poet Omne sub regni graviore regnum est Therefore he shall be grieved and return And reck his teen upon the poor Church of God turning his rage against the Jews And have intelligence with them that forsake the Covenant None are so dangerous and desperate enemies to the truth as Apostates and Renegado's such as were here Jason Menelaus c. 2 Mac. 4. who privily pack'd with Antiochus against the City and people Ver. 31. And arms shall stand on his part i. e. Antiochus his Princes and Commanders whom he sent to spoil Jerusalem such as were Philip the Phrygian Andronicus Apollonius Bacchides c. who made havock of Gods people and revelled in their ruines And they shall place the abomination of desolation The abominable idol of Jupiter Olympius The like whereunto was done here in England in those Marian times of abhorâ—ed memory which yet lasted no longer then those of Antiochus sc five or six years Ver. 32. And such as do wickedly against the Covenant Apostates sin not common sins as Karab and his complices dyed not common deaths Forsakers of the Covenant ver â—0 will soon become wicked doers against the Covenant as here till they become altogether filthy Psal 53.3 See 1 Pet. 2.20 22. Matth. 12.43 45. Luke 9.62 non debet aeratro Sedulius Dignum opus ixercens vulium in sua terga referre But the people that do know their God The faithful Hassideans and zealots Irritamenta Terriculamenta who know and worship their Gâ—d aright these shall persevere and overcome all Allurements and Affrightments of the World Ver. 33. And they that understand c. God shall provide in the worst of times that his people shall have Teachers and faithful Monitors I find in the registers and wonder at it saith Mr. Fox that in Queen Maryes dayes one neighbour resorting to and conferring with another Act. Mon. eftsoones with a few words of their first or second talk did win and turn their minds to that wherein they desired to perswade them touching the truth of Gods Word and Sacraments Yet they shall fall by the sword and by flame The Instructers especially shall Of this persecution the Apostle seemeth to speak Heb. 11.35 37. Ver. 34. They shall be holpen with a little help With the valiant Asmonians or Maccabees who were but a handful and yet did great exploits against the Antiochians so did the Hussites in Bohemia against the Pontificians But why were they holpen with a little help that through weaker means they might see Gods greater strength But many shall cleave to them with flatteries So did the false Samaritans See on ver 21. And so the Donatists went to the Gothes when the Arians prevailed Hypocrites will not sail in a storm Something they will do for God but little or nothing t is they will suffer Ver. 35. And some of them of understanding shall fall Depth of divine knowledge and height of holinesse is no target against persecution the best fall under it soonest None out of hell have ever suffered more then Saints To try them As hard weather tryes what health hang heavy weights on rotten boughs and they suddenly break Withered leaves fall off in a strong wind not so the green that have sap Act. Mon. And to purge and to make them white As foul and stained cloathes are whitened by laying abroad in cold frosty nights Black sope maketh white cloathes so said that Martyr doth the black crosse help us to more whitenesse if God strike with his batteldors You know the vessel before it be made bright said John Careles the Martyr in a letter to Mr. Philpot another Martyr is soyled with oyle and other things that it may scour the better Oh happy be you that you be now in this scouring house Ib. 1743. for shortly you shall be set upon the celestial shelf as bright as Angels c. Refiners of sugar saith Another Author taking sugar out of the same chest D. Goodwin some thereof they melt but once other again and again not that it hath more drosse in it but because they would have it more refined so dealeth the Lord with his best children c. Ver. 36. And the King shall do according to his will In Judaea he shall though in Egypt he could not because the Romans trumped in his way ver 30. put a stop to his rage there But the Jews were looked upon by the proud Romans as a despicable people and of the God of the Jews Cicero speaketh basely not holding him worthy to be compared with Bacchus or Venus Orat. pro. Flacco c. And he shall exalt himself c. A type and picture of the Pope of Rome 2 Thes 2.4 Till the indignation be accomplished Till God have avenged the quarrel of his Covenant and the set time of deliverance be come Ver. 37. Neither shall he regard the God of his Fathers He shall disannul his own ancient religion caring neither for the old Mumpsimus nor the new Sumpsimus as they say but shewing himself to be a rank Atheist See 1 Maccab. 1.43 Nor the desire of women sc in an honest lawful way of matrimony But be addicted to vagrant lust yea and to the sin against nature with women as some sense it à Deo prohibito perdito in which case the Turkish women when so abused by their husbands those filthy beasts may sue a divorce St. Henry Blounts voy into the Levant which they do by taking off their shooes before the Judge and holding them the soles upward but speaking nothing for the unnameablenesse of the fact Nor regard any God See my Common place of Atheism Ver. 38. But in his estate shall be honour the God of forces Or As for the Almighty God in his seat he shall honour yea he shall honour a god whom his fathers knew not c. that is in Gods holy Temple at Jerusalem Antiochus shall set up Jupiter Olympius who was none of the dii Syri for the Syrians worshipped Apollo Diana Atargatis Geog. l. 16. as Strabo testifieth See 2 Maccab.
but look upon them as so many mice for what are they more in comparison of me and of thee who hast from me thy mission and commission zeal in well-doing sheweth a man to be right like as such are living fish as swim against the stream To root out and to pull down i. e. To denounce destruction to evil-doers and then I will effect it Elisha hath his sword as well as Hazael or Jehu 1 King 19.17 and vengeance for the disobedient is every whit as ready in Gods hand as in his Ministers mouth 2 Cor. 10.6 See Hos 6.5 with the Note Joh. 20.23 But what a mercy of God to the Church was it that the same day that Pelagius that Arch-heretick was born in Britain Austin the great confuter of that heretick should be born in Afrike Providence so disposing that the poison and the Antidote should come into the world together Dempster Hist Scot. To build and to plant As a co-worker with God for the good of souls by preaching Christ unto them as this Prophet doth notably in a most divine and stately strain setting him forth in his coming Covenant Offices Benefits c. as the only foundation and lively root of hope Ver. 11. Jeremiah what seest thou It was great kindness and familiarity thus to parle with him and to call him by his name And I said I see a rod of an Almond tree Which hath its name in Hebrew from watching because it watcheth as it were to bud and bear before other trees even in the deep of winter and when it is at coldest Hereby the Prophet is animated though but young and assured that he shall have the fruit of his so early labours God careth not for those arbores autumnales Jude 13. trees which bud not till the latter end of harvest The truth of all his predictions is designed though little beleeved by the most the speediness also of their performance as ver 12. and Ezek. 7.10 11. a good Comment upon this text The sins of Gods people saith one are sooner ripe then of the heathens because they have the constant light and heat of his Word to hasten their maturity This was typified by the basket of Summer fruits and by the Almond-tree in this text As the Almond-tree Hieron Theod. Just Mart. saith another hath a bitter rind but a sweet kernel so hath affliction sanctified and again as the Almond-tree is made more fruitful by driving nailes into it letting out a noxious gum that hindereth the fruitfulness thereof so is a good man made better by afflictions Ver. 12. Thou hast well seen Heb. Thou hast done well to see i. e. so to see For I will hasten my Word Heb. amigdalaturus sum I am watching upon the evil to bring in the Chaldeans as I have threatened See the like elegant allusion Ans. 8.1 2. Nemesis à tergo punishment is at the heels of sin Ver. 13. What seest thou By these questions his attention is stirred up that he may the better observe the matter of his preaching which is here represented by a second vision I see a seething pot Heb. a pot blown up Ollam Ebullitam This boyling pot is Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans and we are the flesh say those deriders of this Prophecy of Jeremy Ezek. 11.3 but they found it to be just so shortly after and then their profane hearts might well have bespoke them as the heart of Apollodorus the tyrant seemed to say to him who dreamed one night that he was flead by the Scythians and boyled in a Chaldron and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is I that have drawn thee to all this And the face thereof i. e. That part of the pot that is next the fire and heated therewith Ver. 14. Out of the North an evil shall break forth i. e. From Chaldea which is North from Judaea Gregory moralizeth the text thus mans mind is this pot Aquilo est sedes diaboli Aug. that which from the North sets it on fire is the devil by inflaming it with evil lusts and then he sets up his throne therein As Ver. 15. And set every one his throne Judging such as in those very gates had unjustly judged others See this performed 2 King 24.4 and 25.4 Chap. 52. Ver. 16. And I will utter my judgement against them sc By those Northern Princes bu first by thee and Zephany and Huldah c. if haply they will repent that I may repent of the evil God therefore threateneth that he may not punish Who have forsaken me and burnt incense These sins differ in degrees and are all found among the Papists Ver. 17. Thou therefore gird up thy loynes q. d. Thou hast I must needs say Perquam difficile est sed ita lex jubet a hard task of it But hard or not hard it must be done or thou art undone About it therefore and play the man plucking up thy best heart as we say and acting vigorously Stir up the gifts of God that are in thee and exercise thy talents committed unto thee Verbs minister es hoc age Be not dismaid at their faces least Ne conteritor nete conteram Be not afraid of them least I fright thee worse to thy ruth and utter ruine Excellently Bernard Anranaclasis If I deal not faithfully with you you will be damnified but I shall be damned Let me suffer any thing rather than be guilty of a sinful silence said that heroical Luther But Melancthon his Colleague was so timorous that Luther was fain to chide him many times And Calvin in an Epistle of his to John Sleidan prayeth God to furnish him with a more noble spirit ne gravem ex ejus timiditate jacturam sentiat posteritas lest posterity should rue for his timidity Calvin himself in his last speech to his fellow-Ministers on his death-bed speaketh thus When I first came to this City Geneva the Gospel indeed was here preached but things were very far out of order as if Christianity consisted wholly in the casting down of images c. There were also not a few wicked fellows who put me hard to 't Melch. Ad. in vic Calvin p. 106. setting themselves against me to their utmost But the Lord our good God did so steel me and strengthen me who am naturally fearful and dastardly that I stoutly withstood them and went on with the work of Reformation to his glory alone be it spoken Melacthon also admired that courage in Luther that he could not find in himself for besides many passages of his in his Epistles that way tending one time when he saw Luthers picture he uttered this verse immediately Fulmnia erant linguae singula verba tuae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ver. 18. For behold I have made thee this day a defenced City i. e. Inpregnable inexpugnable the bulwark of truth as one said of Basil such as could not be battered
And of Ambrose Stilico the Earle said that he was the walls of Italy Peter and John are called Pillars Gal. 2.9 Athanasius the Churches Champion Virg. Ille velut pelagi rupes immota resistit Against the Kings of Judah against the Princes c. There was a general defection of all sorts and Jeremy was to declaim against them all and proclaim their utter destruction in case they repented not Well might Luther say for he had the sad experience of it Praedicare nihil aliud est quà m totius mundi furorem in se derivare To preach is nothing else but to derive upon a mans self the rage of all the world Vt jam quatuor clementa ferre nequeant He met with some even at Wittenberg where he lived who were so wicked and uncounselable that the four Elements could not endure them So did good Jeremy c. Ver. 19. They shall not prevail against me They shall not take thy Crown from thee no nor thy precious life for thou shalt survive them So Luther dyed in his bed maugre the malice of Rome and of hell For I am with thee And what can all the wicked do against one Minister armed with Gods presence and power CHAP. II. Ver. 1. MOreover the word of the Lord came to me saying The Prophet being thus called and confirmed as chap. 1. sets forthwith upon the work Est autem hoc caput plenum querelae quasi continuum pathos In this chapter the Lord heavily complaineth of Jerusalems unworthy usage of him convincing them thereof by sixteen several arguments as Alapide hath observed and all little enough for they put him to his proofs as is to be seen ver 35. Ver. 2. Go thou and cry For if I my self should do it immediately from heaven my stillest Rhetorike would be too loud for them Deut. 5.27 28. I remember thee Who hast forgot thy first love and loyalty to me Or I remember that is I put thee in mind of the kindness that hath been betwixt us Augustus might have some such meaning in those last words of his to his wife when he lay a dying O Livia remember our marriage and adeiu 'T is thought she had a finger in setting him going and that she was over-familiar with Eudemus the Physician qui specie artis frequent secretis saith Tacitus Peccatum est Deicidium The kindnesse of thy youth When thou camest out of Egypt after me and wast espoused unto me at the giving of the Law We use highly to prize nettle-buds when they first put forth so doth God our young services Others render it thus I record the mercy shewed to thee in thy youth and the love of thine espousals sc when as I loved thee because I loved thee and for no other reason Deut. 7.7 8. When thou wentest after me in the wildernesse God takes it kindly when men will chuse him and his wayes in affliction as did Moses Heb. 11.25 Cant. 8.5 Who is this that cometh from the wilderness from troubles and afflictions leaning on her beloved Ver. 3. Israel was holinesse unto the Lord A people consecrated and set apart for his peculiar Exod. 19.5 Psal 114.2 holy with a federal holiness at least And the first-fruits of his increase Yea his first-born and therefore higher than the Kings of the earth Psalm 89.27 All Gods people are so Heb. 12.23 James 1.18 All that devour them shall offend Rather thus all that devoured them trespassed evil befell them witness the four latter books of Moses Ver. 4. Hear ye the word of the Lord This is often inculcated in both Testaments to procure attention 1 Cor. 11.23 I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you 1 Thes 4.15 This we say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Thus to preach is to preach cum privilegio Ver. 5. What iniquity have your Fathers found in me How unreasonable was their Apostacy and how senseless is your pleading of their example nothing is more irrational then irreligion That they are gone far from me Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man said Themistocles to his ungrateful Country-men And have walked after vanity An Idol is nothing at all but only in the vain opinion of the Idolater And are become vain sc In their imaginations Rom. 1.21 as vain as their very Idols Psal 115.8 Ver. 6. Neither said they In their minds or with their mouths Cicero That signal deliverance was obliterated and even lost upon them Plerique omnes sumus ingrati Through a land of deserts and of pits Per terram campestrem sepulchralem where we talked of making our graves neither was it any otherwise likely but that God gave us pluviam escatilem petram aquatilem all manner of necessaries Tertul. Ver. 7. And I brought you into a plentiful Countrey You lived in my good land but not by my good Laws you had aequissimajura sed iniquâ—ssima ingenia as was said of the Athenians as if I had hired you to be wicked so have you abused my mercies to my greatest dishonour Ver. 8. The Priests said not Where is the Lord Ignorant they were and idle Dixerunt Vbi victimae ubi nummi triobotarium Deum faciunt subque hastam mittunt Oecol they would not be at the paines of a serious inquisition after God and his will though he be a rewarder of all that diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And they that handled the Law That expounded and applyed it A Metaphor from such as are trained in the war who are said tractare bellum to handle their armes The Pastours also transgressed against me What marvel therefore that the people did so too For as in a fish the corruption of it beginneth at the head so here And the Prophets prophesied by Baal And taught others to worship Idols We see then 't is nothing new that stars fall from heaven that Church-chieftaines should fall from God and draw others after them It went for a Proverb a little afore Luther stirred Qui Theologum scholasticum videt videt septem peccata mortalia he that seeth a Divine seeth the seven deadly sins Ver. 9. I will yet plead with you i. e. Debate the case with you and set you down by sound reason So he did to our first Parents when they had sinned but doomed the serpent without any more ado Ver. 10. For passe over the isles of Chittim The Western parts of the World Greece Italy Cyprus c. And send unto Kedar The Eastern parts where dwell Kedarens Arabians Saracens c. Ver. 11. Hath a Nation changed their Gods No they are too pertinacious in their superstitions Xenophon saith it was an oracle of Apollo that those Gods are rightly worshipped which were delivered them by their ancestours and this he greatly applaudeth Cicero also saith that no reason shall ever prevaile with him to relinquish the religion of his fore-fathers Heyl. Cosm That Monarch of Morocco
of his Queen Cleopatra Antiochus as an inraged Lyon falleth upon forrain countries as Hellespont Chersonesus Eubaea Rhodes Cyprus Samos Colophon c. He marched also with his army into Greece being stirred up thereunto by Hannibal who being vanquished in Africa by Scipio had fled to Antiochus into Asia and there hatched what mischief he could against the Romans But a Prince for his own behalf i. e. Scipio the Roman Consul or as some will M. Acilius their General Shall cause the reproach offered by him to cease i. e. Shall recover the countries that he had taken from the Roman State and shall also drive back again down his throat those contumelies and opprobrious speeches that he had thrown out against the Romans who afterwards overcame him thrice by sea and land forced him to accept of very hard conditions shred him of a great part of his Kingdom Liv. Dec. 4. l. 8 Appian in Syriac and called him in contempt Antiochus sometime the Great Ver. 19. Then he shall turn his face Not accepting the aforesaid hard conditions till beaten again by the Romans he was forced so to do he fled into the utmost parts of his Kingdom of Syria and there kept him in forts not daring to wage war any more But he shall stumble and fall and not be found He and his Army shall be hewn in pieces by the rude rabble in the Elymeans Country Strabo lib. 16. whilst he went about to rob the Temple of their Jupiter Belus Ver. 20. Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes Heb. one that causeth an exactour to passe over who shall gather no less sums of curses then of coyn This was Seleucus Philopator son to Antiochus the great and his fathers darling whence also he had his sirname but not the peoples darling as Scipio was at Rome whom they called Corculum or sweet heart For this Seleucus King of Syria being the Romans tribute-gatherer to whom he was to pay according to his fathers agreement a thousand talents by the year he was hated of the people and poysoned by Heliodorus a great man about him in favour of Antiochus Epiphanes his brother and successour in the Kingdom Ver. 21. And in his estate shall stand up a vile person This was his true title as Wicked was Hamans Illustrious Esth 7.6 though he affected to be called Epiphanes or Famous and Josephus reporteth that the Samaritans to curry favour with him when he tormented the Jews stiled him Antiochus the mighty god O detestable surely that which is highly esteemed amongst men is abomination in the sight of God Luk. 16.15 But the bramble thinketh it a goodly thing to raign so doth not the Vine and Figtree Judg. 9. A good man honoureth them that fear the Lord but contemneth a vile person Psal 15 4. Mr. Fox when one asked him saying Do ye not remember such an honest poor man for whom you did something yes said he I forget Lords and Ladyes to remember such And again when a great Lord and wicked met him in the streets and asked him How do you Mr. Fox he said little do you not know me said the great Lord No not I said Mr. Fox I am such a one said he Sir I desire said Mr. Fox to know none but Christ and him crucified To whom they shall not give the honour of the Kingdom But he shall take it whether the Nobles will or not and so might well have been called as his father sometimes was Antiochus Hierax the Hawk or Puttock for his swooping and ravaging But he shall come in peaceably Under pretence of a Protector to his nephew Demetrius as did our Richard the third And shall obtain the Kingdom by flatteries Winning mens hearts by presents curtesies and secret practises Ver. 22. And with the armes of a flood shall they be over flown The Egyptians shall by the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes who in the minority of his sister Cleopatra's son Ptolomy Philometor invaded Egypt and overthrew his two Captains Euleus and Leneus as with a storm or flood Yea also the Prince of the Covenant Tryphon the chief contriver of a Covenant betwixt the two Kings after the former overthrow He was made away by Antiochus that himself might do what he lifted in Egypt during the non-age of his nephew Philometor Ver. 23. He shall work deceitfully Outwitting the wisest among the Egyptians who yet were held great Politicians See Esa 19.11 13. And shall become strong with a small people He shall come in as Protector and coadâ—utor to his nephew Philometor with a small number left the Egyptians should be affrighted but being thus gotten in he shall play his pranks to some purpose Ver. 24. He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the Province i. e. Upon Memphis in the very heart of the Country And he shall do that which his fathers have not done i. e. Rob and spoile as never any of his Ancestors did before in Egypt Ptolo. hypom lib. 1. 5. And he shall scatter among them the prey Throwing handfuls of mony among the vulgar as he went along the streets and all to ingratiate and to steal away their hearts Absolom did the like at Jerusalem 2 Sam. 20. And he shall forecast his devices against the strong-holds By sowing dissension betwixt Philometor and Physcon his younger brother The devil was as great a Master then as since with his Dâ—vide impera make division and get dominion Ver. 25. And he shall stir up his power and his courage Antiochus shall himself being stirred up by the devil that restless spirit who continually maketh adoe in the world Fuit etiam Antiochus ingenio inquieto versatili turbido vago vario unde multa machinatus est pauca ad felicem exitum perduxit Howbeit in this second expedition against Egypt he prospered Ver. 26. Yea they that feed of the portion of his meat His own Courtiers Captains and Pensioners corrupted by Antiochus betrayed Philometor see 1 Mac. 1. In trust I have oft found treason said Queen Elizabeth Ver. 27. And both these Kings hearts shall be to do mischef Philometor being beaten shall seek agreement give great gifts to Antiochus and feast him sed reconciliatione vultirâ but with a fox-like and fained amity each of them still reâ—â—ining their ancient hatreds Burning lips and a wicked heart are like a potsheard covered with silver-dresse Prov. 26.23 And they shall speak lyes This is ordinary with the wicked Psal 62.9 but it is the property of the godly man to speak the truth from his heart Psal 15. For yet the end shall be at the time appointed i. e. The end of those wars shall be when God seeth good and hath predetermined it Ver. 28. Then shall he return into his land with great riches But little content Gain when it is either the Mammon of unrighteousnesse or wages of wickednesse is true losse And his heart shall be against the holy Covenant