into That Evil one shall not touch him 1 John 5.18 viz. tactu qualitativo as Cajetan expounds it with a deadly touch nibble hee may at their heels but cannot reach their heads shake hee may his chain at them but shall not set his fangs in them or so far thrust his sting into them as to infuse into them the venome of that sin unto death vers 17. Next for evil of pain Though many be the troubles of the righteous Psal 34. and they fall into manifold temptations Jam. 1.2 they go not in step by step into these waters of Marah but fall into them being as it were precipitated plunged over head and ears yet are bidden to bee exceeding glad as a Merchant is to see his ship come laden in Their afflictions are not penal but probational not mortal but medecinal c. By this shall the iniquity of Jacob bee purged and this is all the fruit the taking away of his sin Isa 27.9 Look how the scourging and beating of a garment with a stick drives out the moths and the dust so doth afflictions corruptions from the heart and there is no hurt in that no evil happens thereby to the just But the wicked shall bee filled with mischief To treasure up sin is to treasure up wrath Rom. 2. Every bottle shall bee filled with wine Jer. 13.12 the bottle of wickedness when once filled with those bitter waters will sink to the bottome The Ephah of wickedness when top full shall be born into the land of Shinar and set there upon her own base Zach. 5.8 11. Hee that makes a match with mischief shall have his belly full of it Hos 4.17 Prov. 14.14 hee shall have an evil an evil an onely evil Ezek. 7.5 that is judgement without mercy as St. James expounds it Chap. 2.13 Non surgit hic afflictio as the Prophet Nahum hath it Chap. 1.9 affliction shall not rise up the second time God will have but one blow at him hee shall totally and finally bee cut down at once The righteous are smitten in the branches but the wicked at the root Isa 27.8 those hee corrects with a rod yea with the rods of men hominum debilium of weak or old men as the word signifies 2 Sam. 7.11 but these with a grounded staff Isa 30.32 and yet the worst is behinde too For whatsoever a wicked man suffers in this world is but hell typical it is but as the falling of leaves the whole tree will one day fall upon them It is but as a drop of wrath fore-running the great storm a crack fore-running the ruine of the whole building It is but as a paying the use-mony required for the debt that must bee paid at last Vers 22. Lying lips are abomination to the Lord Who hath therefore threatned to cut them off Psal 12.3 and to broil them on coals of Juniper Psal 120.4 which burn sweetly fiercely lastingly and to make them eat their false words Act. Mon. fol. 1825. as Master Lewes of Manchester made the Summoner that came to cite his wife eate the citation by setting a dagger to his heart But they that deal truly are his delight Hee desireth truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 and all his are children that will not lye Isa 63.8 they will rather dye than lye Nec prodam nec mentiar said Firmus in Augustine Non ideo negare volo ne peream sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peccem said that good woman upon the rack mentioned by Hierome As they love in the truth 2 John 1. so they speak the truth in love Ephes 4.15 and are therefore dear to the Father in truth and love 2 John 3. especially since they do truth as well as speak it 1 John 6. and do not more desire to be truly good than they hate to seem to be so onely Vers 23. A prudent man concealeth knowledge scil Till hee findes a fit time to vent it for then the lips of the wise do spread abroad knowledge Chap. 15.7 hee is no niggard where there is need but loves not to outlash Taciturnity is a virtue with him Tacitus a good historian Curtlus lib. 4 Persae magnam rem sustineri posse non credunt ab eo cui tacere grave sit The Persians hold not him fit for great imployments that cannot keep counsel saith Curtius But the heart of fools proclaimeth foolishness In it is and out it must Pleni rimarum sunt they can keep no counsel hold no secrets must needs tell all whatever come of it ut qui nec tacere nec prudenter loqui noriut they can neither hold their tongue nor use it to purpose The Moralist adviseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to say nothing or that which is better than nothing And Socrates being asked by one how hee might have the reputation of a wise man Frist said hee thou must hold thy tongue oftner than speak Secondly thou must learn how to frame thy speeches Vers 24. The hand of the diligent shall bear rule i. e. It shall make rich and so get preferment for regina pecunia Mony bears the Mastery and is a common medler in most businesses Agathocles by his industry gat to bee King of Sicily Crumwel to bee Earl of Essex Cranmer to bee Arch-bishop of Canterbury c. But the slothful or deceitful shall bee under tribute Cajetan renders it Dolus erit ad liquefactionem Deceitful dealing shall melt to nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tributum fic dictum quia paulatim liquescere facit facultates Buxtorf The same word signifieth both melting and tribute because too much tribute wasteth mens estates as when the spleen swells the rest of the body consumes King Johns exactors received from his subjects no less summes of curses than of coin Hee gathered money the sinewes of warre but lost their affections the joynts of peace He had a troublesome reign ill beloved of his people and farre a lesse King only by striving to be more than he was the just reward of violations what tribute hee paid to the Popes Legat at his absolution eight thousand Marks besides other huge summes Mat. Paris insomuch as that John Florentinus the Legat was nicknamed Ferentinus for bearing away so much mony I need not here relate Speed And yet this King was not slothful for his endless turmoils kept his body still in motion his mind in passions and his prowesse in ure deceitful I cannot deny him in breaking promise with His Subjects about their just liberties But a great part of that blame may well lye upon his Court-parasites who suggested that now hee was a King without a Kingdome a Lord without a Dominion and a Subject to his Subjects c. Wicked Counsellours as if it were not enough to bee above men Daniel but to bee above mankind as those Princes would bee that would not bee under the Law Vers 25. Heaviness in the heart of a man maketh it stoop
have an Eve a Tempter each one within us our own flesh saith Bernard And Nemâ— sibi de suo palpet quisque sibi Satan est saith another Father wee have enough to watch for our halting the Devil also casts his club at us that wee may stumble and fall and bee broken and snared and taken Isa 8.15 Vers 27. Turn not to the right Keep the Kings high-way keep within Gods precincts Cic. in Offic. and yee keep under his protection The Heathen Oratour could say A recta conscientia ne latum quidem nugnem discedendum A man may not depart an hairs-bredth all his life long from the dictates of a good conscience Remove thy foot from evil Bestir thee no otherwise than if thou hadst trod upon a Snake Abhor that which is evil Rom. 12.9 abstain from all appearance all shews and shadows of it 1 Thes 5.22 Run from the occasions of it come not near the doors of her house Prov. 5.8 CHAP. V. Verse 1. My Son attend unto my Wisdome ARistotle could say that young men are but cross and crooked hearers of moral Philosophy and have much need to bee stirred up to diligent attendance Ethic. lib. 7. cap. 3 4. Fornication is by many of them held a peccadillo And Aristotle spareth not to confess the disability of moral wisdome to rectifie the intemperance of nature which also hee made good in his practice for hee used a common strumpet to satisfie his lust Vers 2. That thou mayest regard discretion Or that thou mayest keep in thy thoughts as Job did Chap. 31.1 Why then should I think upon a Maid Out of the hearts of men proceed evil thoughts adulteries fornications c. saith our Saviour Mark 7.21 Many mens hearts are no better than stews and brothel-houses Psal 104. by reason of base and beastly thoughts and lusts that muster and swarm there like the flies of Aegypt There is that Leviathan and there are creeping things innumerable Yea the hypocrite who outwardly abstains from gross sins yet inwardly consenteth with the theef and partaketh with the Adulterer that is in his heart and fancy supposing himself with them and desiring to do what they do Psal 50.18 19. This is mental adultery this is contemplative wickedness So it is also to recall former filthiness with delight Ezek. 23.21 Shee multiplied her whoredomes in calling to remembrance the daies of her youth wherein shee had plaid the harlot Surely as a man may dye of an inward bleeding so may hee bee damned for these inward boilings of lust and concupiscence if not bewailed and mortified Jer. 4 14. The thoughts of the wicked are abominable to the Lord. Prov. 15.26 To look and lust is to commit Adultery Matth. 5.28 Therefore desire not her beauty in thy heart Prov. 6.25 And that thy lips may keep knowledge As Joseph did in answering his wanton Mistress Gen. 39. as hee in St. Austin did that replied to his minions Ego sum It is I At ego non sum but it is not I. Vers 3. For the lips of a strange woman drop Take heed therefore how thou exchange any words at all with her But if thou bee first set upon Jun in vita sua as Joseph was by his Mistress and as Franciscus Junius was by those impudent Queans at Lions in France whither hee was sent by his Father for learning-sake who night and day solicited him then to keep thee from the bitter-sweet lips of these Enchantresses let thy lips keep knowledge answer them as Joseph did with the words of truth and soberness Act. 26.25 with gracious and wholesome words 1 Tim. 6.3 such as have a cooling and healing property in them with Scripture-language which the Devil and his Agents cannot answer or away with When therefore thou art tempted to this of any like sin say No I may not I dare not for it is forbidden in such a place and again in such a place How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God Gen. 39.9 Lo this is the way walk in it Let thy lips keep knowledge and it shall keep thee from the lips of a strange woman though they drop as an hony-comb and seem to have plenty of pleasure and sweetness in them Drop as an hony-comb But is like that hony spoken of by Pliny that had poyson in it as being sucked out of poysonous herbs and flowers In the Cadiz voyage at Alvelana three miles from Lisbon many of our English Souldiers under the Earle of Essex perished by eating of hony purposely left in the houses and spiced with poyson as it was thought Speed 12.10 How much better is it to bee preserved in brine than to rot in hony to mortifie lusts than to enjoy them Rom. 8.13 Voluptatem vicisse voluptas est maxima saith Cyprian nec ulla major est victoria quam ea quae è cupiditatibus refertur De bonâ— pudicit There is no such pleasure as to have overcome an offered pleasure neither is there any greater conquest than that that is gotten over a mans corruptions Vers 4. But her end is bitter as wormwood The pleasure passeth In amore â—â—iltum est amari the sting remaineth for in the froth of this filthy pleasure is bred that hell-worm of guilt that never dyeth Principium dulce est sed finis amoris amarus Laeta venire Venus tristis abire solet Diana of the Ephesians was so artificially pourtrayed that shee seemed to smile most pleasantly upon such as came into her Temple Dulcis acerbitaâ— amarissima voluptas Tertul. but to frown at those that went out So doth sensual pleasure Heus tu scholastice dulce amarum gustulum carpis c. said the Harlot to Apuleius Hark Scholar it is but a bitter sweet that you are so fond of Plus aloes quam mellis habet knowest thou not that there will bee bitterness in the end Speed Walsing The Chroniclers have observed of our Edward the third that hee had alwayes fair weather at his passage into France and foul upon his return Such is the way of the Harlot The sin committed with her is as the poyson of Aspes When an Asp stings a man Plutarch it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh till the poyson by little and little get to the heart and then it pains him more than ever before it delighted him See Luke 6.25 16.25 Heb. 12.15 16. Job 13.26 Eccles 7.27 28. Vers 5. Her feet go down to death The Romans were wont to have their Funerals at the gates of Venus Temple to signifie that lust was the harbinger Plutarch and hastener of death saith Plutarch As for Whores they were of old shut out of the City and forced to seek places among the graves Lib. Advers 13.19 Hence they were called Maechae bustuariae de scortis dictum inter busta prostrantibus saith Turnebus See the Note on Chap. 2.18 Her steps take hold
noon-day Psal 37.6 Vers 12. If thou bee wise thou shalt The benefit shall bee thine own Plutarch reports of the Palm-tree that it yeelds to the Babylonians 360. several commodities And is therefore in great esteem amongst them How should men esteem of found wisdome sith there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in it 1 Tim. 4.8 a thousand commodities to bee reaped by it Thou alone shalt bear it Thy scorning shall not as thou thinkest hurt him that tendereth thy salvation For as the air when beaten is not hurt no nor so much as divided but returns to his place and becomes thicker Ita animus recti conscius ad optima erectus non admittit irridentium flatus nec sentit saith One so an honest heart set for Heaven slights the contempts of graceless persons and pitties them that jeer when they should fear as much as good Lot once did his prophane Sons in Law His words to such are like those of the Prophet Bee not yee mockers lest your bands bee increased Isa 28.22 with 10. See vers 7. of this Chapter Vers 13. A foolish woman is clamorous This woman is Folly as that woman sitting in the Epah is wickedness Zach. 5.7 Lavater is of opinion that as by Wisdome is meant Christ so by this foolish woman here is meant Antichrist to whom therefore hee finely fitteth and applieth all the following words Is clamorous Folly is full of words and of a lavish tongue her factours are extreme talkative and usually lay on more words than the matter will bear A great deal of small talk you shall usually have from them A fool also is full of words Eccles 10.14 saith Solomon and this fond custome of his is there expressed by way of imitation in his vain tautologies A man cannot tell what shall bee and what shall bee after him who can tell Eccles 10.24 The basest things are ever the most plentiful Some kinde of Mice breed a hundred and twenty young ones in one nest whereas the Lion and Elephant bear but one at once so the least wit yeelds the most words Aristophanes and Lucian when they describe fools they call them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gapers or Open-mouthed Guiltiness is ever clamorous and the most lewd are most loud Act. 7.27 28. Vers 14. For shee sitteth at the door In a Harlots habit to see and bee seen the guise and garb of Harlots Tully wittily compareth the Greek tongue to an ambitious strumpet quae multo luxu superfluat which overlasheth in too much bravery But the Latin tongue to an honest and modest Matron cui nihil deest quod ad honestum pertineat mundiciem That wants nothing pertaining to a necessary neatness Such a like comparison between Wisdome and Folly is here made by Solomon Mat. 24. Vers 15. That go right on their way Shee fights at the fairest seeks to seduce the forwardest They shall deceive if it were possible the very elect Flies settle upon the sweetest perfumes when they are cold and corrupt them Mat. 7. Vers 16. Who is simple Wisdomes own words vers 4. Take heed saith our Saviour they come unto you in sheeps cloathing but trust them not for with fair words and flattering speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16. Samuel himself could not have spoken more gravely severely divinely to Saul than the fâ—iend at Endor did when the Devil himself puts on gravity and religion who can marvel at the hypocrisie of men Vers 17. Stollen waters are sweet Forbidden pleasures are most pleasing to Sensualists who count no mirth but madness no pleasure unless they may have the Devil to their play-fellow Venison is nothing so sweet they say as when it is stolen Ovid. Quod licet ingratum est quod non licet acrius urit Sic interdictis imminet ager aquis Men long to bee medling with the murthering morsels of sin which nourish not but rent and consume the belly that receives them Many eat that on earth In terris manducant quod apud inferos digerant Augustin that they digest in Hell Vers 18. That the dead are there See the Notes on Chapter 2.18 and 7.27 CHAP. X. Vers 1. The Proverbs PRoperly so called See Chap. 1.1 For the nine former Chapters are a kind of common places or continued discourses premised as a Preface to these ensuing wise and grave sentences tending much to the information of the mind and reformation of the manners and containing things profitable for all sorts of people They are not unfitly compared by a Divine to a bag full of sweet and fragrant spices which shuffled or shaken together or taken single yeeld a sweet odour Or to stars in the firmament each in it self glorious and independent of another yet all receive their light from the Sun A wise Son maketh a glad Father Children are certain cares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. but uncertain comforts Every Son should bee an Abner that is his Fathers light and every Daughter an Abigail her Fathers joy Eve promised her self much in her Cain and David did the like in his Absolom Sed fallitur augario spes bona saepe suo they were both deceived Samuel succeeds Eli in his cross as well as his place though not in his sin and had cause enough to call his untoward children as Augustus did tres vomicas tria carcinomata so many ulcerous sores mattery impostumes Vertue is not as Lands inheritable All that is traduced with the seed is either evil or not good Let Parents labour to mend by education what they have marred by propagation And when they have done all pray God perswade Japhet lest else they bee put to wish one day as Augustus did Sueton. c. 6. O that I had never married or never had children And let children cheer up their Parents as Joseph Samuel and Solomon did and as Epaminondas who was wont to say Corn. Nepos Se longe maximum suarum laudum fructum capere quod â—arum spectatores haberet parentes that hee joyed in nothing more than that his Parents were yet alive to take comfort in his brave atchievements For otherwise God will take them in hand as hee did Abimelech to whom hee rendred the wickedness done to his Father Judg. 9.5 And as hee did Absolom whom hee trussed up in the height of his rebellious practices with his own immediate hand Or else hee will punish them in and by their posterity which shall either bee none Prov. 20.20 compared with 2 Sam. 14.7 or worse than none as hee Mr. Fullers Holy-state who when his aggrieved Father complained that never man had so undutiful a childe as hee had yes said his son with less grace than truth my Grandfather had The heaviness of his mother The Mother is mentioned though the Father haply as heavy first as most faulted it her children miscarry Prov. 24.15 Next as most slighted by them Prov. 15.20 And lastly as most impatient of
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
and Persians are at deadly feud to the great safeguard of Christendom and the Popish party are as a bulwark betwixt those Mahometans and the Protestants Ver. 4. Since thou hast been precious in my sight Nothing so ennobleth as Gods grace and being in the Covenant Gen. 17.20 21. I have blessed Ismael twelve Princes shall he beget but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac Some read the text thus Because thou wast precious in my sight thou wast honourable and I loved thee therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy life Ver. 5. I will bring thy seed from the East From all coasts and quarters This was a Type of the Church in the New Testament see Mat. 8.11 Joh. 11.52 Joh. 10.16 Gal. 3.28 this was also a type of the last Resurrection See Revel 20.13 Ver. 6. I will say to the North Give up I will do it with a word of my mouth Ipse dixit Oecola p. facta sunt Bring my sons from far and my daughters That is say some my stronger and also weaker children of what size or sex soever Souls have no sexes Ver. 7. Even every one that is called by my Name i. e. My sons and my daughters ver 6. with 2 Cor. 6. ult such as have Christian for their name and Catholick for their Sirname I have created him for my glory See on ver 1. Feci i. e. magnum effeci Pisc Yea I have made him i. e. Advanced him as 1 Sam. 12.6 Ver. 8. Bring forth the blind people Such as were blind and ignorant but now are illightened And the deaf Such as were crosse and rebellious but now are tractable and obsequious chap. 42.7 16. Ver. 9. Let all the Nations See chap. 41.1 And shew us former things Much less can they shew us things future Varro calleth all the time before the flood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obscure because the Heathens had no certain relation of any thing then done And Diod. Siculus acknowledgeth that all that was written amongst them before the Theban and Trojan wars was little better than fabulous The gods of the Gentiles had not so much as any solid knowledge of things past neither could they orderly and perfectly set them forth by their Secretaries It is truth sc That there is but one true God Phocyllides did say so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Socrates suffered for holding this truth at Athens Plato held the same but durst not speak out these are his words It is neither easie to find out the Maker of all things nor safe to communicate to the Vulgar what we have found out of him Here for fear of the people he detained the truth in unrighteousnesse And the like did Seneca De civi Dei lib. b. cap. 10. whom Austin accuseth quod colebat quod reprehendebat agebat quod arguebat quod culpabat adorabat that he worshipped those gods whom he disliked and decryed Ver. 10. Ye are my witnesses He taketh to witness of this great Truth in question not heaven earth sea c. but his people among whom he had given in all ages so many clear arguments and experiments of his Divinity his Oracles and Miracles for instance And my servant whom I have chosen i. e. Christ saith the Chaldee Paraphrast the Prophet Isaiah say others or which is more likely Cyrus who is called Gods Elect servant chap. 42.1 and his Testimony concerning God is to be read Ezra 1.3 The Lord God of Israel he is God Every true beleever doth as much if not more for He that beleeveth hath set to his seal that God is true Joh. 3.33 hath given him a Testimonial such as is that Deut. 32.4 A God of truth and without iniquity just and right is He. Such a sealer was Abraham Rom. 4.20 and such honour have all his Saints That ye may know and beleeve and understand That ye may have a full assurance of knowledge as Luk. 1.4 and a full assurance of Faith Heb. 10.22 Ver. 11. I even I am the Lord This redoubled I is Emphatical and Exclusive And beside me there is no Saviour They are gross idolaters therefore that set up for Saviours the Saints departed Ver. 12. I have shewed when there was no strange God amongst you See Deut. 32.12 See also the Note on Exod. 34.14 Therefore ye are my witnesses See on ver 10. Ver. 13. Yea before the day was I am He The Ancient of dayes yea the Eternal The God of Israel was long before Israel was in being And there is none that can deliver out of my hand So Nebuchadnezzar vainly vaunted but was soon confuted Dan. 3.15 17 29. I will work and who shall let it Angels may be hindered God can come between their Essence and their executive power and so keep them from doing what they would In fire there is the substance and the quality of heat between these God can separate as he did in the Babylonish fire Dan. 2. But who shall hinder the most High Ver. 14. Thus saith the Lord your Redeemer For their greater comfort and confirmation the Prophet purposely premiseth to the promise of deliverance from Babylon these sweet Attributes of God Each of them dropping Myrrh and Mercy For your sakes I have sent to Babylon and have brought down Or I will send and I will bring down All their Nobles Heb. bars Psal 147.13 Bars Noble men should be to keep out evils and to secure Saints Eut these were crosse-bars c. Whose cry is in the ships Or whose out-cry is to the ships whereby they thought to save themselves but could not because Cyrus had drained and dried up their river Euphrates Tremellius rendereth it The Chaldees with their most famous ships Ver. 15. I am their Lord More of Gods holy Attributes are her heaped up for like reason as ver 14. Ver. 16. Which maketh a way in the Sea Or that made a way in the Sea c. sc when your Fathers came out of Egypt Why then should you doubt of deliverance Ver. 17. Which bringeth forth the Chariot and horse Or who brough forth the Chariot and horse the army and the power viz. Pharao's forces Exod. 14.4.9.23 Vt ellychnium extinguentur They are quenched as tow Heb. as a candle-weik made of flax quickly quenched with water poured on it See how easily God can confound his foes Ver. 18. Remember ye not the former things sc in comparison of those things I shall now do for you by Cyrus but especially by Christ who is that way in the Wilderness and that running Rock 1 Cor. 10.4 ver 14. Ver. 19. Shall ye not know it Or Do ye not perceive it He speaketh of it as present and under view And rivers in a desart As once when I set the flint abroach Exod. 17.6 Num. 20.8 11. Psal 105.41 By this way in the Wildernesse and rivers in the desart understand the doctrine of the Gospel and the comforts of the Spirit Joh.
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
money-Merchants hath mystical Babylon also not a few Rev. 18.11 Non desunt Antichristo sui Augures malefici saith Oecolampadius Antichrist hath those abroad that trade with him and for him these shall be cast alive with him into the burning lake Rev. 19.20 and though they wander yet not so wide as to misse of hell CHAP. XLVIII Ver. 1. HEar ye this O house of Jacob Ye stiffenecked of Israel and uncircumcised in heart and eares who do alwayes resist the Holy Ghost Act. 7.51 to you be it spoken for to the Israelites indeed enough hath been said of this subject already Which are called by the name of Israel Sed nomen inane crimen immane Ye are called Jews and make your boast of God Rom. 2.17 having a form of knowledge Picti estis Israelitae est◠hypocritae Rom. 2.20 and of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5 and that 's all the voyce of Jacob but the hands of Esau Let such fear Jacobs fear My Father perhaps will feel me and I shall seem to him as a deceiver and I shall bring a curse upon me and not a blessing Gen. 27.12 'T is sure enough And are come forth out of the waters of Judah i. e. Out of the bowels Pro 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 videtur hic legendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gen. 15.4 as waters out of a spring Deut. 33.28 Psal 68.26 Judah was the tribe royal hence they so gloried and remained ruling with God and faithful with the Saints when other tribes revolted Which swear by the Name of the Lord And not of Baal And make mention of the God of Israel Who was neer in their mouths but far from their reines Jer. 22.2 Psal 50.16 Religionem simulabant cum in cute essent nequissimi arrant hypocrites But not in truth nor in righteousnesse i. e. Without faith and sound conversion Ver. 2. For they call themselves of the holy City Inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah yea they swore by their City and Temple as appeareth in the Gospel and cryed out ad ravim usque The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord Jer. 7. like as the Romists now do The Church the Church glorying in the false and empty title of Roman Catholicks Sed grande est Christianum esse non dici saith Hierom and it is a great vanity saith the Poet Respicere ad fumos nomina vana Catonum And stay themselves As far as a few good words will go See on Mic. 3.11 The Lord of hosts is his Name So said these hypocrites bearing themselves bold upon so great a God who had all creatures at his command Ver. 3. I have declared the former things This God had said oft before but being now to conclude this comfortable Sermon he repeats here the heads of what had been spoken in the seven foregoing Chapters Ver. 4. Because I knew that thou art obstinate Heb. hard obduraete therefore do I so inculcate these things if by any means I may mollify thee Hypocrites are harder to be wrought upon then other sinners And thy neck is an iron sinew Thou art utterly averse from yea adverse to any good no more bended thereunto than if the body had for every sinew a plate of iron And thy brow brasse Sinews of iron argue a natural impotency and somewhat more but brows of brasse impudency in evil quando pudet non esse impudentes when men are shamelesse in sin setting it upon the cliffe of the Rock Ezek. 24.7 and declaring it as Sodom Isa 3.9 Ver. 5. I have even from the beginning c. See ver 3. It is probable that there were many among the Jews who when they saw themselves to be so punished and the heathen prospered would be ready to think that the God of Israel either could not or would not do for his people as those Devil-gods did for theirs For their help therefore under such a temptation God was pleased to foretell his people what good or evil should betide them and accordingly to accomplish it Ver. 6. Thou hast heard see all this Here God extorteth from them a confession of the aforesaid truth and urgeth them to attest and publish it Ver. 7. They are created now i. e. They are now brought to light by my Revelations and predictions Behold I knew them By my gods or Diviners or by my natural sagacity Ver. 8. Yea thou heardest not yea thou knewest not Yea so oft used here is very emphatical and sheweth how hardly sinners are born down and made to beleeve plain truths where they are prepossessed with conceits to the contrary And wast called a transgressour from the womb Ever since thou madest and worshippedst a golden Calf in the wildernesse See here the Note on Psal 58.3 and art still as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever thy Fathers were Act. 7.51 Ver. 9. For my name sake will I defer mine anger Heb. prolong it Here he setteth forth the cause of his patience toward so perverse a people viz. the sole respect to his own glory whereof he is so tender and so loth to be a loser in Propter me faciam And for my praise The praise of my might and mercy That I cut thee not off Which I would do were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy lest thine adversaries should behave themselves strangely and lest they should say Our hand is high and the Lord hath not done all this Deut. 32.27 Ver. 10. Behold I have refined thee but not with silver Much lesse as gold which is wont to be fined most exactly Non agam summo jure tecum Jun. and to the uttermost because these precious mettles will not perish by fire But thou hast more drosse in thee than good oare therefore I have refined thee with favour Psal 118.18 Ne totus disperires lest I should undoe thee for if thy punishment should be commensurate to thine offence thou must needsly perish I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction i. e. In affliction which is as a furnace or crucible See Ezek. 20.37 Ver. 11. For mine own sake even for mine own sake This is oft repeated that it may once be well observed Bene cavet spiritus sanctus ubique in Scripturis ne nostris operibus salutem tribuamus it is Oecolampadius his Note upon the first verse of this Chapter i. e. The holy Ghost doth everywhere in Scripture take course that we ascribe not our safety to our own works See on chap. 43.13 For how should my Name be polluted As it will be by the blasphemous Heathens who else will say that their gods are fortiores faventiores more powerful and more merciful than the God of the Hebrews Thus the Turkes at this day when they have beaten the Christians cry up their Mahomet as mightier than Christ And I will not give my glory to another Presse this in prayer 't is an excellent argument Exod. 32.12 Josh 7.9 Psal 79.9 10. Psal
my glory i. e. In Christ who is the brightness of his Fathers glory and in sending of whom the glory of his truth wisdom power justice and goodness shone forth as the Sun at noon Ver. 19. And I will set a sign among them This sign may very well be that visible pouring out of the gifts of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost under the symbol of wind and fire Scultet Act. 2. together with the signes and wonders whereby the Apostles doctrine was confirmed Others make this signe to be the Profession of the Christian faith Some also the Doctrine of the Gospel and especially the Sacraments And I will send those that escape of them i. e. The Apostles and their fellow-helpers such as were Barnabas Silas Lucas c. To Tarshish Pul To all parts of the Word East West North and South That draw the bow The Mosches or Moscovites say the Septuagint the Turkes saith one of the Rabbines See the Notes on Rev. 9.15 16 17. Ver. 20. And they shall bring all your brethren Now become all your brethren in Christ Sanctior est copula cordis quam corporis Religion is the strongest eye Vpon horses and in charets and in litters i. e. With much swiftnesse and sweetnesse though sick weakly and unfit for travel yet rather in litters than not at all The Apostles became all things to all men that they might gain them to Christ Ver. 21. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites For Evangelical Pastors and Teachers who have a distinct function and employment in the Church of the New Testament as the Priests and Levites had in that of the Old to teach instruct and edifie Gods people Ver. 22. For as the new heaven So shall there be a true Church and a Ministry for the good of my people to the worlds end It shall not be taken away as is the Jewish Polity and Hierarchy Ver. 23. And it shall come to passe that from one new-Moon to another God shall be served with all diligence and delight In the Kingdom of Christ here but especially in heaven it shall be holy-day all the week as we say a constant solemnity a perpetual Sabbath Act. Mon. King Edgar ordained that the Lords day should be kept here in England from Saturday nine of the clock till Munday morning The Ebionites kept the Saturday with the Jews and the Sunday with the Christians But here it is foretold and we see it fulfilled that all flesh i. e. all the faithful whether Jews or Gentiles shall not only keep every day holy-day 1 Cor. 5.8 by resting from sin and rejoycing in God but shall also both in season and out of season have their Church-meetings for holy services worshipping God from day to day and from month to month as the phrase is Esth 3.7 in spirit and in truth and having the continual feast of a good conscience Ver. 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the carkasses Rhetoricians tell us that in the introduction to a discourse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 milder affections suit best to insinuate but in the conclusion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 passionate passages such as may leave a sting behind them and stick by the hearers This Art the Prophet here useth for being now to period his Prophecy he giveth all sorts to know what they shall trust to The godly shall go forth i. e. salvi evadent liberi abibunt they shall have safety here and salvation hereafter They shall also look upon the carkasses c. they shall be eye-witnesses of Gods exemplary judgements executed on the wicked that would not have Christ to reign over them Rev. 19.21 who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord and from the presence of his power 2 Thes 1.9 This the righteous shall see and fear and laugh at them Psal 52.6 giving God the glory of his justice and goodness Some think they shall have at last day a real sight of hell and the damned there Rev. 14.10 and this may very well be Oh that wicked men would in their dayly meditations take a turn or two in hell and so be forewarned to fly from the wrath to come Is it nothing to have the worm of conscience ever grubbing upon their entrails and the fire of Gods vengeance feeding upon their souls and flesh throughout all eternity Oh that eternity of extremity Think of it seasonably and seriously that ye never suffer it The Jewish Masters have in some copies wholly left out this last verse as in other copies they repeat both here and in the end of Ecclesiastes Lamentations and Malachy the last verse save one which is more sweet and fuller of comfort and that for this reason that the Reader may not be sent away sad Amama in Antibarb and so fall into desperation But of that there is no such danger sith most people are over slight in their thoughts of hell-torments regarding them no more than they do a fire painted on the wall or a serpent wrought in Arras And besides Non sinit in Gehennam incidere Gehennae meminisse saith Chysostom to remember hell is a good means to preserve us from it This verse hath sufficient authority from our Saviours citing of it Mar. 9.44 See the Note there Plato also if that be any thing in his description of hell which he calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a fiery lake saith the same as here In Phaed. pag. 400. Inde dictus est Moses Atticus that their worm dyeth not neither is their fire quenched He might possibly have read Isaiah as he had done Moses T is thought Laertius telleth us that he travelled into Egypt where he conversed with some Hebrews and learned much of them And they shall be an abhorring to all flesh i. e. All good men abominate them now as so many living Ghosts walking carkases Eph. 2.2 Prov. 29. ult and shall much more at the last day when they shall arise again to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12. Scribendo haec studui bene de pietate mereri Sed quicquid potui Gratia Christs tua est A Commentary or Exposition upon The BOOK of the Prophet IEREMIAH CHAP. I. Ver. 1. THe words of Jeremiah Piscator rendereth it Acta Jeremiae The Acts of Jeremy Verba sive Res. as we say The Acts of the Apostles which Book also saith One might have been called in some sense The Passions of the Apostles who were for the testimony of Jesus in deaths often And the same we may safely say of Jeremy Serm. 4. contra A â—â—nos who although he were not omnis criminis per totam vitam expers which yet great Athanaesius affirmeth of him that is free from all fault for he had his out-bursts and himself relateth them yet he was Judaeorum integerrimus as of Phocion it is said that he was Atheniensum integerrimus a man of singular sanctimony and
only in the Lord saith Paul The pride of Virginity is as foul a sin as Impurity saith Austin so here Ver. 25. That I will punish all them c Promiscuously and impartially That are circumcised Some read it The circumcised in uncircumcision Unregenerate Israel notwithstanding their circumcision are to God as Ethiopians Am. 9.7 Ver. 26. That are in the utmost corners Heb. Praecisos in lateribus polled by the corner Tempora circumradunt which was the Arabian fashion saith Herodotus See chap. 49.32 For all these Nations are uncircumcised sc In heart though circumcised in the flesh as now also the Turks are CHAP. X. Ver. 1. HEar ye the Word which the Lord speaketh Exordium simplicissimum saith Junius A very plain preface calling for attention 1. From the authority of the Speaker 2. From the duty of the hearers O house of Israel The ten Tribes long since captivated and now directed what to do say some The Jews say others and in this former part of the chapter those of them that had been carried away to Babylon with Jeconiah Vide Selden de diis Syris Ver. 2. Learn not the way of the heathens Their sinful customes and irregular religions meer irreligions And be not dismayed at the signes of heaven Which the blind heathens feared and deified and none did more then the Syrians the Jews next neighbours Of the vanity of judicial Astrology see on Esa 47.13 He who feareth God needs not fear the stars for All things are yours saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 3.21 Muleasses King of Tunis a great star-gazer fore-seeing by them as he said the losse of his Kingdom and life together left Africa that he might shun that mischief but thereby he hastened it Anno 1544. God suffereth sometimes such fond predictions to fall out right upon men for a just punishment of their curiosity For the heathen are dismayed at them Therefore Gods people should not if it were for no other reason but that only See Mat. 6.32 Let Papists observe this Caeremoniae populotum Ver. 3. For the customes of the people are vain Their rites confirmed by custome their imagery for instance a very magnum nihil whether ye look to the Efficient Matter Form or End of those mawmets For one cutteth a tree out of the Forrest See Isa 40.2 and 44.12 17. which last place Jeremy here seemeth to have imitated Ver. 4. They deck it wâ—th silver and with gold Gild it over to make it sightly goodly gods therewhile See Esa 4.4 That it move not Vt non amittat saith Tremellius that it lose not the cost bestowed upon it Ver. 5. They are upright as the Palm-tree Which it straight tall smooth and in summo prosert fructus and beareth fruits at the very top of it Ver. 6. Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee None of all these dii minutuli these dunghil deities are worthy to be named in the same day with thee Thou art great God is great Psal 77.13 Greater Job 33.12 Greatest Psal 95.3 Greatnesse it self Psal 145.3 He is a degree above the superlative Think the same of other his names and attributes many of which we have here mentioned in this and the following verses which are therefore highly to be prized and oft to be perused Leonard Lessius a little before his death finished his book concerning the fifty Names of Almighty God Ex vita Lessii often affirming that in that little book he had found more light and spiritual support under those grievous fits of the stone which he suffered then in all his voluminous Commentaries upon Aquinas his summs which he had well-nigh fitted for the Presse Ver. 7. Who would not fear thee O King of Nations Tremble at thy transcendent greatnesse thy matchlesse Majesty power and prowesse See Mal. 1.14 Rev. 15.4 Psal 103.19 with the Notes Forasmuch as among all the wise men of the Nations Who used to deifie their wise men and their Kings Ver. 8. But they are altogether brutish and foolish The wise men are for that when they knew there was but one only true God as did Pythagoras Socrates Plato Seneca c. they detained the truth in unrighteousnesse and taught the people to worship stocks and stones Rom. 1.21 22 23. The Nations are because they yeeld to be taught devotion by images under what pretext soever Considerentur hic subterfugia Papistarum Pope Gregory first taught that images in Churches were Laey-mens books A doctrine of devils Ver. 9. Silver spread into plates See Isa 40.19 Is brought from Tarshish From Tarsus or Tartessus Ezek. 27.12 from Africa saith the Chaldee Idolaters spare for no cost And gold from Vphaz The same with Phaz Job 28.17 Or with Ophir as some Aurum Obzyrum They are all the work of cunning men Quaerunt suos Phidias Praxiteles but how could those give that deity which themselves had not Ver. 10. But the Lord is the true God Heb. Jehovah is God in truth not in conceit only or counterfeit He is the living God and an everlasting King See on ver 6. At his wrath the earth shall tremble The earth that greatest of all lifeless creatures And the Nations shall not be able Lesse able to stand before him then a glasse-bottle before a Cannon-shot Ver. 11. Thus shall ye say unto them Confession with the mouth is necessary to Salvation This verse written therefore in the Syriack tongue which was spoken at Babylon is a formulary given to Gods people to be made use of by them in detestation of the Idolatries of that City The Gods that made not the heaven and the earth The vanity of Idols and heathenish-gods is set forth 1. By their impotency 2. Frailty Quid ad haec respondebunt Papistae aut qualem contradictoriae reconciliationem afferent Ver. 12. He hath made the earth by his power Here we have the true Philosophy and right original of things Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas Almighty God made the earth the main bulk and body of it Gen. 1.1 He alone is the powerful Creatour the provident disposer the prudent preserver of all things both in heaven and in earth therefore the only true God Ver. 13. When he uttereth his voyce Again when he thundereth Ps 29.3 it raineth a main lighteneth in the midst of the rain which is a great miracle and bloweth for life as we say no man knowing whence or whither Joh. 3.8 All which wondrous works of God may well serve for a Theological Alphabet and cannot be attributed to any god but our God And he causeth the vapours to ascend See Psal 135.7 with the Notes Ver. 14. Every man is brutish in his knowledge Or Every man is become more brutish then to know That was therefore an hyperbolical praise given by Philostratus to Apollonius Non doctus sed natus sapiens that he was not taught but born a wise man See Job 11.12 Rom. 1.22 with the Notes Every man is become
was the way to Tophet and thither Jeremy led them A Lapide said an Expositour that considering their graves in that Valley according to chap. 7.32 and that their bodies those earthen vessels should soon after be broken and carried out as dung into Tophet by the Chaldeans and their souls into Hell by the devils they might repent and so prevent such a mischief And proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee God took his own times to tell his Prophets what they should tell the people The priviledge of infallibility saith a Divine was perpetual to the Apostles Prophetis verò saepius intervallatum fere non extra ipsos prophetandi paroxysmos durans not so to the Prophets but whil'st they were prophecying only for the most part neither knew they many times what they should Prophecy till the very instant Ver. 3. Hear the Word of the Lord ye Kings of Judah i. e. O King and thy counsellours who are so many little Kings as King James was wont to say of the Parliament men Behold I bring evil upon this place This he spake to all and with all authority catholicam miserabilem perniciem proclamans It is credible that he spake it with as good a courage or better as Bishop Ridley Martyr did those comminatory words of his to Queen Mary and her servants when they refused to hear him preach He uttered them with such a vehemency Act. Mon. 1â—70 saith mine Authour that some of the hearers afterwards confessed the haires to stand upright on their heads His cares shall tingle For grief and fear as if he had been stonied with a thunder-clap or were ready to swoon Ver. 4. Because they have forsaken me Chap. 16.11 And estranged this place Or strangely abused it so as I scarce know it or can find in my heart to own it Whom neither they nor their fathers sc Quamdiu probifuerunt pii so long as they had any goodness in them saith Hierom. Those afterwards that worshipped they knew not what as those Samaritans did Joh. 4. are not worthy to be reckoned on much less to be imitated Walk ye not in the statutes of your fathers neither observe their judgements nor defile your selves with their Idols Ezek. 20.18 And have filled this place with the blood of innocents Especially of Infants sacrificed to Moloch in Tophet so filling up the measure of your sins Ver. 5. Which I commanded not Reprobatur voluntarius cultus factitiae religiones See chap. 7.31 and 32.35 2 King 23.10 Ver. 6. This place shall no more See chap. 7.32 Things are repeated that they may be the better observed Ver. 7. And I will make void the counsel of Judah As vain and empty as this earthen bottle now is See on ver 1. and take notice of an elegant Agnomination in the Original And their carcasses will I give See chap. 7.33 and 16.4 Ver. 6. And I will make this City desolate See chap. 18.10 Ver. 9. And I will cause them to eat the flesh This as it was threatned Lev. 26.29 Deut. 28 23. so accordingly accomplished Lam. 2.20 and 4.10 Ptolomaeus Lathurus King of Egypt barbarously slew thirty thousand Jews and forced the rest to feed upon the flesh of those that were slain Ver. 10. Then shalt thou break the bottle That the eyes of the by-standers and beholders may affect their hearts Non alia ratio Sacramentorum est Ver. 11. That cannot be made whole again Heb. cured No more was the Jewish Polity ever restored to its ancient dignity and lustre after the captivity neither was Tophet ever repaired at all but served for a charnel-house a place to lay dead mens bones in Ver. 12. And even make their City as Tophet Every whit as abominable and horrid a very hell above ground Ver. 13. And the houses of Jerusalem Wherein they had their chambers of imagery and their private chappels for Idolatrous uses as Papists also have Ezek. 8.12 Zeph. 1. Because all the houses upon whose roofes See on Zeph. 1.4 Ver. 14. And he stood in the court of the Lords house A place of greatest concourse of people and where he might meet with many hearers Here he spred his net that he might catch some souls dilated his discourse at Tophet whereof we have here but the short notes minding them of their sinne and punishment And surely this Prophet should be so much the more regarded by us for that he so freely and fully delivered the divine messages omitting no part thereof either for fear or favour Ambrose bad Austin read the Prophet Isaiah diligently for the confirmation of his faith We may all very profitably read the Prophet Jeremy who is full of incitation to repentance and new obedience Ver. 15. Because they have hardened their necks Which may seem possessed with an iron sinew so stiffe they are and sturdy having manum in aure aurem in cervice cervicem in corde cor in obstinatione their hand on their eare their eare in their neck their neck in their heart and their heart in obstinacy c. CHAP. XX. Ver. 1. NOw Pashur the son of Immer i. e. One of the posterity of Immer after many generations See 1 Chron. 24.14 Who was also chief Governour Not high Priest as some have said but a principal Priest haply the head of the sixteenth course or as Junius and others think the High Priests Vicar or second such as was Eleazer to Aaron his father Num 4. Heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things Or heard Jeremiah prophesying and having gall in his eares as they say some creatures have he was galled at the hearing of so smart a truth Ver. 2. Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the Prophet Either with his fist as Zedekiah did Micaiah 1 King 22.24 and as Bonner did Hawkes and other Martyrs pulling off part of their beards or else with a staffe as they dealt by our Saviour Mat. 26.67 and as that Popish Bishop degrading a Martyr-Minister struck him so hard with his Crosier staffe as he was kneeling on the stairs at Pauls that he fell down backwards and broke his head Act Mon. Contra Arrian orat 2. Atqui lapidandâ—sunt haeretici sacrarum literarum argumentis saith Athanasius but hereticks are to be stoned with Scripture arguments and men may a great deal sooner be cudgeled into a treaty then into a Tenet And put him in the stockes As they did afterwards Paul and Silas Act. 16. Clerinus the Martyr mentioned in Cyprians Epistles Epist l. 4. Mr. Phâ—lpot in the Bishop of Londons coal-house and that good woman who suffering afterwards for the same cause rejoyced much that her leg was put in the same hole of the stocks where Philpots leg had lain before That were in the high-gate of Benjamin Which might be a Prison like Lollards Tower in London whereunto were sent the Martyrs many of them for their zeal and forwardness Action and passion go together Omne agent agendo repatitur especially
too late ye shall subscribe to the truth of these threats which now you take as uttered in terrorem only and will not believe till you feel Sere saviunt Phryges Sero inquit Nero. Epimetheus that after-wit had too many fellows Ver. 21. I have not sent these Prophets Who have cozened you into the mouth of destruction as that old Bethelite did the young Prophet into the mouth of the Lion Yet they ran They have from me neither mission nor commission but do all on their own heads Observabilis est hic locus contra multos qui bodie plebem docendi â—â—unus sibi arrogant cum tamen non sint missi saith Oecolampadius This is a notable place against Laypreachers And as if he had lived in these loose times of ours he thus goeth on In the fourteenth and sixteenth of 1 Cor. order is commanded to be kept But there are now such as abide not in their own Churches but run into others where they teach without a calling These promte not but hinder the cause of Christ He is the God of peace but they go forth and say Mentiris Deus amat talem constantiam fortem confessionem sic enim vocant suam praefractam pertinaciam Thou lyest God loveth such constancy and bold confession of the truth as we hold forth for so they call saith he their stifnesse and obstinacy Besides that they come not into the Congregations of unbelievers to convert them to the faith sed nostras perplexas reddunt so that good man proceedeth in his complaint on this text but they trouble our Churches like as of old they came to Antioch and made disturbance there Acts 15 c. Luther also who lived in the same time with Oecolampadius cries out to like purpose Decem annis laboratur antequam Ecclesiolarectè piè instituta paretur c. We are ten or more years Tom. oper 4. fol. 18. A. saith he ere we can settle a small Church as it should be And yet when that 's done there creepeth in some silly Sectary whose only skil is to rail against godly Ministers Is uno momento evertit omnia And he presently marreth all See chap. 14 14. Ver. 22. But if they had stood in my counsel c. As they vainly vaunt they do ver 18. and that they know more of my mind then any others And had caused my people to hear my words And not their own fancies or cunning devised fables 2 Pet. 1.16 Then they should have turned them from the evil of their way Not but that a godly Preacher may want successe Isa 49.4 See the Notes there and on the contrary a bad Minister may be a means of good to others as the dull whetstone edgeth iron and the lifelesse heaven enliveneth other creatures The head of a Toad may yield the precious stone Bufonites and wholesome Sugar be found in a poysoned cane Noah's builders were a means to save him and his family Virgil. Aeneid 3. yet themselves were drowned so was Palinurus Aeneas his Pilot in the Poet c. But God usually honoureth his faithful laborers with some successe and they can say as Chrysostom doth Si decimus quisque si unus persuasus fuerit ad consolationem abunde sufficit If but one in ten be converted by our Ministry yea if but one in all t is comfort enough See James 5. ult Ver. 23. Am I a God at hand and not a far of See I not what is done on earth which seemeth further from me or think ye that you live out of the reach of my rod because remote from heaven the habitation of my holinesse and of my glory Lucan Jupiter est quodcunque vides quocunque moveâ—is Ver. 24. Can any man hide himself in secret places Hide he may God from him self but not himself from God though Atheists are apt to think as they say the Struthiocamelus doth when he hath thrust his head in an hole that because they see none therefore none seeth them Plin. Do I not fill heaven and earth See Psal 139.3 5 7 11. Isa 66.1 with the Notes Ver. 25. I have dreamed I have dreamed i. e. I have a prophetick revelation in a dream Such lying Prophets were the ancient and modern Enthusiasts and High attainers Messalanian heretikes they were called of old Anno 371. Ver. 26. How long shall this be in the hearts c. q. d. Will they never give over lying to the Holy Ghost Acts 5 3. and flying against the light of their own consciences as Bâ—â—s do Nam quod argutè commenti sunt Oecolamp haec aiunt ex spiritu se dicere studio enim suis mendaciis plebi imponunt falsumque datâ operâ docent for they father their falsities upon the spirit of truth cozening the credulous multitude And this they do wittingly and uncessantly Ver. 27. Which think to cause my people to forget my Name To drive them to Atheism which sometimes creepeth in at the back doore of a Reformation by the slight of Seducers and their cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive Our Church is at this day pestered with Atheists who first have bin Seekers Ranters Antinomians Antiscripturists c. and is even dark with them as Egypt once was with the Grashoppers They seemed to speak with judgement that said formerly As Antichristianism decreaseth so Atheism prevaileth And they seem still not to judge amisse that say that the Jesuites are acting vigorously by our Sectaries to bring in Popery again quasi postilimino upon us It hath been long the opinion and fear of some grave Divines that Antichrist before his abolition shall once again overflow the whole face of the West and suppresse the whole Protestant Churches quod Deus avertat Take we heed that these Sect-makers make us not forget Gods Name by their fopperies as our fathers forgot his Name for Baal Ver. 28. The Prophet that hath a dream let him tell a dream Or let him tell it as a dream and not as a divine revelation making more of it then the matter comes to and Laudans vaenales quas vul obtrudere merces What are dreams ordinarily but very vanities Eccles 5.7 with Zech. 10.2 pleasant follies and delusions the empty bubbles of the mind children and tales of fancy idle and fruitlesse notions mere bables why then should men make so much of them why should they tell their Midianitish dreams to others with so much confidence as if they were Oracles And he that hath my Word So he be sure he hath it and can on good ground say I believed therefore have I spoken What is the chaff to the wheat saith the Lord i. e. What is false doctrine to true surely nothing in comparison you may better set Palea that is Chaff upon it then the Pope doth upon any thing in the Decrees of his predecessours that pleaseth him not Sall not the whole body of Popery founded most part of it
to children that obey their Parents Where ye be strangers The Rechabites were originally Midianites but Jethro of whom they came was a famour proselite to the Church his son Hobab a guide to Gods people in the wildernesse and his posterity imped and incorporated into the body of Gods people Judg. 1.16 Neverthelesse they counted and called themselves strangers alienigenae as those that looked for a better country above See Heb. 11.9 Ver. 8. Thus have we obeyed the voyce of Jonadab Obedience to Parents in things not unlawful is very commendable Aristotle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ar. Rhet. it is not good for a man to dissent from the Gods from his Father and from his Teacher We read of a King of Poland who carried the picture of his Father in a plate of gold about his neck and when he was going about any great businesse he would kisse that picture and say God grant I may observe my Fathers charge and do nothing unworthy of him c. We our wives our sons and our daughters As themselves were obedient to their Father so had they their children obedient to them whereas ill children are punished in their posterity Fullers holy State One complained that never Father had so undutiful a child as he had yes said his son with lesse grace then truth my Grand-father had Ver. 9. Nor to build houses c. Jonadab being a prudent and withal a mortified man might foresee that the Israelites being so wicked a people could not long continue He knew also that wine was oft an occasion of drunkenness trading in the world of earthlimindedness fair houses of lothness to leave the world Haec sunt quae nos invitos faciunt mori as that Emperour once said of stately buildings He therefore for a quiet life and for their souls health forbad them the use of these lawful things and they accordingly forbare them Ver. 10. But we have dwelt in tents And fed much upon whitemeats as did Heber the Kenite who was one of them Judg. 4. living in abstinence and bodily labour that we might be free to divine contemplations Ver. 11. Come and let us go to Jerusalem So then it was lawful for them to dispense with those their observances in that inevitable necessity like as also they might have drunk wine rather then have perished But what can be reasonably pleaded for that man of sin who taketh upon him to dispense with Gods holy law Bellarm. lib. 4. de Pontif. Rom. and de injustitia facere justitiam ex nihilo aliquid ex virtute vitium to make righteousnesse of unrighteousnesse vice of vertue something of nothing So we dwell at Jerusalem But better they had kept out and held to their old course for so they might have escaped some way Ver. 12. Then came the Word of the Lord Then after this famous example of obedience thus proposed an excellent way of teaching surely Reason should rule and therefore lodgeth in the braine but when reason cannot perswade example will Ver. 13. Will ye not receive instruction to hearken to my Words Quae est illa portentosa pertinacia what a strange stiffeness and obstinacy in you is this am not I to be better esteemed and obeyed by you then Jonadab is by the Rechabites Ver. 14. The words of Jonadab not to drink wine are performed So are the words of Mahomet to like purpose to this day by the Turks so are the commands of the Popish Padres to their young Novices though it be to make a voyage to China or Peru Per varios casm per tot discriminarerum For unto this day they drink none Neither dwell in houses as you do and may do eating of the fat and drinking of the sweet without restraint so that you keep within the bounds of sobriety I command you nothing but what in reason should be done for a worldly good as well as for a spiritual Rising early and speaking I began betimes with you my Law I gave you in Horeb eight or nine hundred years since and from that time to this I have constantly and instantly called upon you by my messengers for obedience whereas it is not yet full three hundred years since Jonadab left this charge with his Rechabites and dying left none to see it fulfilled or to reprove them for their neglects Ver. 15. I have sent unto you all my servants the Prophets But all to no purpose See on ver 14. Saying Return ye now every man from his evil way And was this so great a matter to part with that which profiteth you nothing yea which undoubtedly will undo you And go not after other gods For wherein can they bestead you And ye shall dwell in the land This was more then ever Jonadab could promise or promising perform to his Nephews But ye have not enclined your ear See chap. 7.24 26. and 11.8 and 17.23 and 34.14 Ver. 16. Because the sons of Jonadab This was a lively way of confuting their contumacy far more convincing then that of the heathens not changing their gods or the beasts knowing their owners the birds their seasons But this people have not hearkened unto me Whereas if I be a Father where is mine honour and if a Master where is mine obedience Mal. 1.6 See the Notes there Ver. 17. Behold I will bring upon Judah Aut poenitendum aut pereundum Men must either repent or perish obey Gods Law or bear the penalty no remedy Heb. 2.2 2 Thes 1.8 Ver. 18. Because ye have obeyed the Commandement Obedience to Parents hath an ample recompence of reward as that which is good and acceptable before God and men 1 Tim. 5.4 Ver. 19. Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever i. e. To be beloved by me and to be in special favour with me lifting up pure hands in all places of their abode Captive they were carried among the Jews but they returned also again with them as appeareth 1 Chron. 2. sub finem erantque Deo cordi curae and they were dear to God CHAP. XXXVI Ver. 1. ANd it came to passe in the fourth year This whole Chapter is historical and narrative as also are some others besides this Historias lege ne fias historia Oâ—im liber erat instar mappae Geographicae Ver. 2. Take thee a role of a book i. e. A volume as Isa 8.1 See the Note there And write therein Jeremy had a command to write so have not our empty Scripturients whose rapes on the innocency of paper as one phraseth it make the Presse almost execrable Pineda Ista prurientis calami scabies potius est quam scriptio All the words that I have spoken unto thee The sum and substance of all thy Sermons for these three and twenty years past See chap. 1.2 and 25.3 Ver. 3. It may be that the house of Judah will hear c. See here the utility of the holy
being so advanced in that Court And gave him many great gifts This Porphyry that Atheist snarleth at viz that Daniel received these rewards and honours But why might he not sith the gifts he could bestow upon the poor Captives his fellow-brethren and the honours he could also improve to their benefit himself did neither ambitiously seek them nor was vainly puffed up by them A noble pair of like English spirits we have lately had amongst us D. Vssier and D. Preston Contemporaries and intimate friends to one another The former when he was consecrated Bishop of Meath in Ireland D. Bern. in his life had this Anagram of his name given him James Meath I am the same The latter when he might have chosen his own mitre but denied all preferment that courted his acceptance had this Anagram made of him Johannes Prestonius En stas pius in honore Mr. Fuller Church-hist fol. 119. Ver. 49. Then Daniel requested of the King Acquainting him likely that by their prayes also in part the secret had been brought to knowledge ver 18 19. But Daniel sat in the gate of the King As chief Admissional so the Civilians call it without whose leave and license none might come into the Kings presence Himself mean-while had an excellent opportunity of treating with the King upon all occasions of such things as concerned the Churches good and this priviledge no question but he improved to the utmost CHAP. III. Ver. 1. NEbuchadnezzar the King made animage of gold Having taken Tyre which was that great service spoken of Ezek. 29.18 subdued Egypt which was his pay for his pains at Tyre and overthrown Niniveh as Nabum had foretold he was so puffed up with his great successe that he set up this monstrous statue of himself to be adored by all on pain of death That it was his own image which he here erected for such a purpose as did also afterwards C. Caligula the Roman Emperour it is gathered 1. Because he did not worship it himself 2. Because ver 12. it is distinguished from his Gods 3. Because this was long since foretold of him Isa 14.14 that Lucifer-like he should take upon him as a god which because he did he was worthily turned a grazing amongst beasts chap. 4. Mean-while take notice here of the inconstant and mutable disposition of thâ—s proud Prince as to matter of Religion Velâ—x oblivio est veritatis saith Hierom the truth is soon forgotten Nebuchadnezzr who so lately had worshipped a servant of God as a god and not being suffered to do so declared for the one only true God and advanced his servants to places of greatest preferment is now setting up idolatry in despite of God and cruelly casting into the fire those whom he had so exalted because they dissented Daniel its likely withstood this ungodly enterprize so far as he might and left the rest to God Whose height was threscore cubits The ordinary cubit is a foot and half but the Babylonian cubit saith Herodotus was three fingers greater then the common cubit Plin. l. 34 c. 7. so that this image might be Sixty seven ordinary cubits high The Rhodian Colosse was yet bigger then this for it was Fourscore cubits high made of brasse in the form of a man standing with his two legs striding over an haven under which Ships with their sails and masts might passe The little finger of it was as big as an ordinary man being the work of twelve years made by Chares of Lindum Theop. Pâ—zel Mell. hist and worthily reckoned for one of the worlds seven wonders It was afterwards sold to a Jew who loaded 900 Camels with the brasse of it for it had been thrown down by an earthquake This image of Nebuchadnezzar was thus great to affect the people with wonderment so they wondered after the beast Rev. 13.3 and thus glorious guilded at least if not of solid gold to perstringe their senses and with exquisite Musick to draw their affections The Papacy is in like sort an alluring tempting bewitching religion Hierom compareth heresy to this golden image Irenaeus worldly felicity which the devil enticeth men to admire and adore He set it up in the plain of Dura In a pleasant plain mentioned also by Ptolomy the Geographer quò statua commendatior habeatur Lib. 6. Geog. that it might be the more regarded Ver. 2. Then Nebuchadnezzar the King sent to gather together the Princes Satrapas not so called quia sat rapiant as Lyra doateth for it is a Persian word signifying such as were near the Kings person Superstition first looks to wind in great Ones Ezr. 8.11 the vulgar are carried away to dumb idols like as they are led 1 Cor. 12.2 They are sheepish and will follow a leader as well into a penfold as a pasture they also feed most greedily on the grasse that will rot them Ver. 3. Then the Princes the Governours These envying the new favourites and fearing that the King by his late confession chap. 2.47 had too good an opinion of the Jewes Religion came readily to this dedication and probably had contrived it for a mischief to those three Worthies as those chap. 6. did to Daniel Ver. 4. To you it is commanded Chald. they command i. e. The King and his Council as Esth 1.13 15. But what said the Heathen Eurlp in Phoeniss Obediemus Atridis honesta mandantibus we will obey Rulers if they command things honest but not else The Bishop of Norwich asked Roger Coo Martyr in Queen Maries days whether he would not obey the Queens laws He answered as far as they agree with the Word of God I will obey them The Bishop replyed whether they agree with the Word of God or not we are bound to obey them if the Queen were an Infidel Act. Mon. fol. 1550. Coo answered If Shadrach Meshac and Abednego had done so Nebuchadnezzar had not confessed the living God Ver. 5. That at what time ye hear See on ver 1. The allurements of pleasure are shrewd enticements to idolatry 2 Pet. 2.18 Sr. Walter Rawleigh said Were I to chuse a religion to gratify the flesh I would chose Popery The Catholikes in their Supplication to King James for a Toleration plead that their religion is inter caetera so confortable to natural sense and reason that it ought to be imbraced A proper argument I have read of a Lady in Paris that when she saw the bravery of a Procession to a Saint she cryed out Oh how fine is our religion beyond that of the Hugenots That at what time ye heare the sound So in the Papacy when the Ave-Mary-bell rings which is at Sun-rising at noon and at Sun-setting all men in what place soever house field street or market Spec. Europ do presently kneel down and send up their united devotions by an Ave-Maria Ye fall down and worship This is all is required de certa confessionis forma imperata ne gry Ver. 6. And