〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as the Hebrews well note in a Proverb they have A mans minde is soonest discovered bekis bekos becognos in loculis in poculis in ira in his purse in his drink in his anger See my Common-place of Anger But a wise man covereth shame By concealing his wrath or rather by suppressing it when it would break forth to his disgrace or the just grief of another Ovid. Ut fragilis glacies occidit ira morâ This was Sauls wisdome 1 Sam. 10.27 And Jonathans when incensed by his Fathers frowardness hee went a shooting 1 Sam. 12.35 And Ahashuerosh when in a rage against Haman hee walked into the Garden The Philosopher wished Augustus when angry to say over the Greek Alphabet Ambrose desired an Angels Authority Gal. 1.8 Theodosius to repeat the Lords Prayer before hee decreed any thing Vers 17. Hee that speaketh truth sheweth forth righteousness will bee ready to help the truth in necessity and will do it boldly as the word signifies even with a courage not budging for Charity rejoyceth not in unrighteousness but rejoyceth in the truth 1 Cor. 13.6 But a false witness uttereth deceit Coloureth his sycophancies with plausible pretences and faceth down an untruth Psal 119.69 The proud have forged a lye against mee The Hebrew hath it Assuunt mendacium mendacio they eek out one lye with another they are loud and lewd liars as Egesippus saith of Pilate that hee was Vir nequam et parvi facieus mendacium What is truth said hee scornfully to our Saviour q. d. Thy life is in question and dost thou talk of truth Vers 18. There is that speaketh lies like the piercing c. False witnesses do so with a witness As Doeg Psal 52.2 And his fellow-hacksters with their murthering weapons in Davids bones Psal 42.10 whereby they killed him alive and buried him in their throats those gaping graves open sepulchres Ahimelech and his fellow-Priests were killed with the tongue as with a Tuck or Rapiet so was Naboth and his sons so was our Saviour Christ himself Reckon thou Shimei and Rabshekeh among the first and chiefest Kil-Christs saith one because ever an honest mind is more afflicted with words than with blows Act. 2.23 and 3.15 You shall finde some saith Erasmus that if death bee threatned can despise it but to bee belied they cannot brook nor from revenge contain themselves How was David enraged by Nabals railings Moses by the Peoples murmurings Jeremy by the derisions of the rude rabble Chap. 20.7 8 But the tongue of the wise is health Or a medicine as the Tench is to the wounded fishes or as that Noble Lady Elianors tongue was to her Husband Prince Edward afterward Edward the first who being traiterously wounded by a poisoned knife in the holy land Speed Camden was perfectly cured by her daily licking his rankling wounds whilest hee slept and yet her self received no harm So soveraign a medicine is a good tongue anointed with the virtue of love and wisdome Wholesome words as certain salves or treacles cure the wounds of afflicted hearts and extract the poison infused by evil tongues Vers 19. The lips of truth shall bee established for ever Veritas odium parit Truth breeds hatred a good Mistress shee is but hee that follows her too close at heels may hap have his teeth struck out Hee that prizeth truth shall never prosper by the possession or profession thereof saith Sir Walter Rawleigh Hist lib. 1. c. 1. This is most true for most part of the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.5 the Doctrine according to godliness 1 Tim. 6.3 sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly Rev. 10.9 very pleasant in it self but the publishing of it whereby the fruit of it might come to the rest of the members is full of trouble and anguish How many faithful witnesses of the truth have lost their lives in the defence of it All which notwithstanding the lips of truth shall bee established saith the Spirit here Great is the truth and shall prevail Hee that loseth his life in Christs cause shall finde it in Heaven his name also shall bee famous upon earth the Generation of the upright shall bee blessed The lying tongue is but for a moment As is to bee seen in Gehezi in Ananias and Sapphira in Doeg and others Psal 52.5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever and root thee out of the land of the living Did hee not deal so by Julian Ecebolius Latomus Bomelius Pendleton Harding and other both antient and modern Renegadoes and Apostates How are they brought into desolation as in a moment they are utterly consumed with terrour Psal 73.19 Vers 20. Deceit is in the heart of them c. Incendiaries and Make-bates Counsellours of contention have twenty devices to make trouble and to put all into a combustion but they shall either bee defeated of their purposes or have small joy of their atchievements witness our late English Boutifeaus with the whole Nation of Ignatius whose practice is to machinate mischief and breed hate being herein no less dangerous than once those Jews were who before they were banished hence threw bags of poison into the wells and fountains that the people were to drink of and so endeavoured to poison them all The just judgement of God upon Nicholas Saunders Priest the fire-brand of Ireland Anno 1580. spent with famine and forsaken of all succour is most worthy to bee kept in perpetual remembrance Hee being impatiently grieved at the evil successe of his rebellion with Earl Desmond and seeing that neither the Popes blessing B. Carletons thankf remem pag. 49. nor the consecrated banner nor the plume of Phoenix feathers so said to bee at least sent from Rome could do him any help lost himself and ran stark mad wandring up and down in the Mountains and Woods and finding no comfort died miserably Thus God met with a restlesse and wretched man and that foul mouth was stopped with famine that was ever open to sow sedition and stir up rebellions against the state But to the counsellours of peace there is joy They shall have peace for peace peace of conscience for peace of Country pax pectoris for pa◠temporis they shall be called and counted the children of peace yea the children of God have the comfort and credit of it Matth. 5.9 see the Note there as Augustus Caesar and our Henry the seventh had who as hee went into banishment together with the publick peace so hee brought it back with him at his return and was afterwards wont to say If wee Princes should take every occasion that is offered the world should never bee quiet but wearied with continual wars Vers 21. There shall no evil happen to the just First for evil of sin God wil not lead him into temptation but will cut off occasions remove stumbling-blocks out of his way devoratory evils as Tertullian calls them hee shall be sure not to fall
fresh wits in wrestling with the truth of God and take it for a glory to give it a foil The Athenians encountred with Paul and had argument for argument against him that Christ was not the Saviour of the world that hee was not risen from the dead c. This shewed they were not wise in heart though reckoned chief among the worlds wisards But a prating fool shall fall Or Bee beaten such a fool was Diotrephes 3 Joh. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. Who prated or trifled against Saint John with malicious words and might have been therefore sirnamed Nugax as Rodulphus that succeeded Anselm in the See of Canterbury was Godw. Catal. Vers 9. Hee that walketh uprightly walketh surely Because keeping within Gods Precincts hee keeps under his protection as the King undertakes to secure him that travels the high way and betwixt Sun and Sun Hee is tutus sub umbra lâ—onis safe under the hollow of Gods hand under the shadow of his wing Psal 91.1 Shall bee known All shall out to his utter disgrace See vers 7. Or hee shall bee known by some exemplary judgement of God inflicted upon him for a terrour to others as one that is hanged up in Gibbets Vers 10. Hee that winketh with the eye That is loath to stand to those truths that shall bring him to suffering Or hee that winketh wiles for all winking is not condemned See Joh. 13.34 Causeth sorrow scil To his own heart sinneth against his own soul or causeth sorrow i. e. sin for so sorrow is taken for sin Eccles 11.10 But a prating fool shall fall Hee that runs himself upon needless danger shall come to ruine See Prov. 28.25 and the Note above vers 8. Vers 11. The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life Vena vitae â—s justi A fountain runs after it hath run so doth a good mans mouth uncessantly utter the words of truth and soberness more perennis aquae Act. 25.26 See the reason hereof Psal 37.30 31. The Law of his God is in his heart that Law of his mind Rom. 7.23 that counterpane of the written Law Heb. 8.10 that good treasure Matth. 12.35 that is daily drawn out and yet not diminished Salienti aquarum fonti undas si tollas nec exhauritur nec extennatur sed dulcescit Take water from a well it loses nothing but becomes better and sweeter But violence covereth See the Note on vers 6. Vers 12. Hatred stirreth up strifes Especially when hatred is grown from a passion to an habit which is when the heart is so setled in an alienation and estrangement from the person hated that it grows to wish and desire and seek his hurt I could like that exposition well if it were not Calvins said Maldonat and that reformed Religion if Luther had not had a hand in it said George Duke of Saxony But love covereth all sins See the Note on 1 Pet. 4.8 and on 1 Cor. 13.4 Love hath a large mantle If I should finde a Bishop committing Adultery said Constantine the great I would cover that foul fact with mine Imperial Robe rather than it should come abroad to the scandal of the weak Euseb and the scorn of the wicked Love either dissembleth a trespass if it bee light or by a wise and gentle reproof seeks to reclaim the offender claps a plaister on the sore and then covers it with her hand as wee have seen Chirurgions do See the Note on Levit. 19.17 Lutherus commodius sentit quam loquitur dum effervescit said Cruciger So Melancthon Sciebam horridius scripturum Lutherum quam sentit The sayings doings of others are reverenter glossanda to have a reverent a fair and favourable gloss put upon them as one said once of the Pontifician Laws This is love Vers 13. In the lips of him c. Grace is poured into his lips as Psal 45.2 and hee poures it out as fast for the good of others who do therefore admire him as they did our Saviour Luk. 4.22 But a Rod is for the back That sith hee will not hear the word hee may hear the Rod and smart for his uncounsellableness Mic. 6.9 Hee that trembleth not in hearing shall bee broken to peeces in feeling saith Bradford Vers 14. Wise men lay up knowledge To know when to speak and when to bee silent It is a great skill to bee able to time a word Isa 50.4 to set it upon the wheels Prov. 25.11 How forcible are right words Job 6.25 But the mouth of the foolish An open mouth is a purgatory to the Master Nemo stultus tacere potest Eccles 10. saith Solon A fool tells all saith Solomon And Vt quisque est dissolutissima vitae ita est solutissimae linguae saith Seneca A fools bolt is soon shot and as soon retorted oft-times upon himself Vers 15. The rich mans wealth c. Wealthy worldlings think themselves simply the better and the safer for their hoards and heaps of riches The best of us are more ready to trust in uncertain riches than in the Living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6.17 Surely this should humble us that riches that should bee our rises to raise us up to God or glasses to see the love of God in our corrupt nature useth them as clouds as clogs c. yea sets them up in Gods place and saith to the fine gold Thou art my confidence Job 31.24 The destruction of the poor is their poverty They are devoured by the richer Cannibals Psal 14.4 as the lesser fish are by the greater Men go over the hedge where it is lowest Poor and afflicted are joyned together Zeph. 3.12 So are to want and to bee abased Phil. 4.12 Vers 16. The labour of the righteous c. If the righteous man may but sweat out a poor living get enough to bear his charges home to Heaven have enough to serve his turn here bee it but food and raiment hee is content Cibus potus sunt divitiae Christianorum The true Christian desires but meat and drink 1 Tim. 6.8 The fruit of the Wicked Or the revenues of the wicked are wasted upon their lusts which to seek to satisfie is an endless labour besides the danger of fathomless perdition 1 Tim. 6.4 Vers 17. Hee is in the way of life Rich fools refuse reproof hold themselves above admonition Tange montes fumigabunt and are therefore by the just judgement of God led through a fools Paradise into a true Prison Divitibus ideo amicus deâ—st quia nihil deest Rich men have few faithful counsellors Vers 18. Hee that hideth hatred c. These are dangerous creatures that thus lye at the catch and wait advantages to do a man mischief as Cain dealt by Abel Absolom by Amnon Joab by Amasa Judas by Jesus Tuta frequensque via est c. And hee that uttereth a slander is a fool Because hee hath no command of his
and cloaths to put on it sufficeth him and this hee dare bee bold to promise himself Beg his bread hee hopes hee shall not but if hee should hee can say with Luther who made many a meal with a broyled herring Mendicato pane hic vivamus Luth. in Psal 132. annon hoc pulchrè sarcitur in eo quod pascimur pane cum angelis vitâ aterna Christo sacramentis Let us bee content to fare hard here Have wee not the bread that came down from heaven But the belly of the wicked shall want Because their belly prepares deceit Job 15.35 not their heads onely Job 20.22 Mic. 6.14 16. they take as much delight in their witty wickedness as the Epicure in his belly-timber therefore in the fulness of their sufficiency they are in straights they are sick of the bulimy or doggish appetite CHAP. XIV Vers 1. Every wise woman buildeth her house QUavis pia perita Every holy and handy woman buildeth her house not onely by bearing and breeding up children as Rachel and Leah builded the house of Israel Ruth 4.11 but by a prudent and provident preventing of losses and dangers as Abigail as also by a careful plotting and putting every thing to the best like as a Carpenter that is to build an house laies the plot and platform of it first in his brain forecasts in his mind how every thing shall be and then so orders his stuff that nothing bee cut to waste Lo such is the guise of the good housewife As the husband is as the head from whom all the sinews do flow so shee is as the hands into which they flow and enable them to do their office But the foolish plucketh it down with her hands With both hands earnestly shee undoes the family Sicut ut liguo vermis ita perdit virum suum mulier malefica Hier. whereof shee is the calamity bee shee never so witty if withall shee bee not religious and thrifty heedy and handy Bee the husband never so frugal if the wife bee idle or lavish or proud or given to gadding and gossipping c. hee doth but draw water with a sieve or seek to pull a loaded cart through a sandy way without the help of a horse it little boots him to bestir himself for hee puts his gets into a bag with holes Hag. 1.6 Hee labours in the very fire Hab. 2.15 as Cowper Bishop of Lincolne did whose wife burnt all his Notes that hee had been eight years in gathering lest hee should kill himself with over much study for shee had much ado to get him to his meals so that hee was forced to fall to work again Young his benefit of Afflict 153. and was eight years in gathering the same Notes wherewith hee composed his Dictionary that useful book How much happier in a wife was that learned Gul. Budaeus Conjux mea saith hee sic mihi morem gerit ut non tractet negligentius libros meos quam liberos c. My wife seeing mee bookish is no less diligent about my Books than about my Barus whom shee breeds up with singular care and tenderness How well might hee have done having such a learned helper as a Country man of his did of whom Thuanus reporteth quod singulis annis singulos libros liberos Reip. dederit that hee set forth every year a book and a childe Andreas Tiraquellius a book and a childe But this by the way onely Vers 2. Hee that walketh in his uprightness feareth the Lord Hee is in the fear of the Lord all day long Prov. 23.17 hee walketh in the fear of the Lord and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost Act. 11.31 The fear of the Lord is upon him so that hee takes heed and does it 2 Chron. 19.7 for hee knows it shall bee well with them that fear God that fear before him Eccles 8.12 Gods Covenant was with Levi of life and peace for the fear wherewith hee feared God and was afraid before his Name Hence the Law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips hee walked with God in peace and equity and did turn many from iniquity Mal. 2.5 6. Hee that truly fears God is like into Cato of whom it is said that hee was Homo virtuti simillimus and that hee never did well that hee might appear to do so sed quia aliter facere non potuit but because hee could not do otherwise But hee that is perverse in his waies despiseth him Sets him aside departs from his fear dares to do that before him that hee would bee loth to do before a grave person Thus David despised God when hee defiled his neighbours wife 2 Sam. 12.9 Not but that even then hee had God for his chief end but hee erred in the way thinking hee might fulfil his lust and keep his God too hee would not forgo God upon any terms as Solomon thought to retain his wisdome and yet to pursue his pleasures Hence his partial and temporary Apostacy as the word here rendred perverse importeth his warping and writhing from the way of righteousness as the Septnagint here interpret it which was interpretative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—ortuose incedens a despising of God a saying Hee seeth it not Vers 3. In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride wherewith hee beats others and layes about him like a Mad-man or rather like a mad Dog hee bites all he meets and barks against God himself till he procure the hate of God and men and smart for his petulancy being beaten at length with his own rod as the Lion beats himself with his own tayl But the lips of the wise shall preserve them From the aspersion of false and foolish tongues Their good names are oyled so that evil reports will not stick to them Dirt will stick upon a mud wall not so upon marble Or if they lye under some undeserved reproach for a season either by a real or verbal Apologie they wade out of it as the eclipsed Moon by keeping her motion wades out of the shadow and recovers her splendor Isa 54.17 Vers 4. Where no Oxen are the Crib is clean The Barn and Garners are empty Neque mola neque farina no good to bee got without hard labour of men and Cattel Let the idle mans Motto be that of the Lilly Neque laborant neque neut They neither toyl nor spin Matth. 6.28 Man is born to toyl as the sparks fly unwards Job 5.7 And Spinster they say is a term given the greatest women in our Law Our lives are called the lives of our hands Isa 57.10 because to be maintained by the labour of our hands But much increase is by the strength of the Oxe This is one of those beasts that serve ad esum ad usum and are profitable both alive and dead An Heathen counselleth good husbands that would thrive in the world to get first
And in his answer to Staphylus hee ingenuously confesseth or rather complaineth Quos fugiamus habemus quos sequamur nondum intelligimus Wee know whom wee are to flye from meaning the Papists but whom to follow wee as yet know not Such divisions there were amongst themselves and such lack of light at the beginning of the Reformation that it was an ingenuous thing to bee a right reformed Catholick A young man one Vincentius Victor as Chemnitius relates it when learned Augustine demurred and would not determine the point concerning the original of a rational soul censured boldly the Fathers unresolvedness and vaunted that he would undertake to prove by demonstration that souls are created de novo by God For which peremptory rashness the Father returned the young man a sober reprehension a milde answer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat respondere humiliare negotiari as the Hebrew word here used importeth not so sharp as that of Basil to the Emperours Cook who yet well enough deserved it For when the fellow would needs bee pouring forth what hee thought of such and such deep points of Divinity which hee understood not Basil rounded him up with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is for thee man to look well to thy porridge-pot and not to meddle with these disputes Vers 29. The Lord is far from the wicked Hee was so from the proud Pharisee who yet gat as near God as hee could pressing up to the highest part of the Temple The poor Publican not daring to do so stood aloof off yet was God far from the Pharisee near to the Publican Videte magnum miraculum saith Augustine Altus est Deus erigis te fugit à inclinas te descendit ad te c. Behold a great miracle God is on high thou liftest up thy self and hee flyes from thee thou bowest thy self downward and hee descends to thee Low things hee respects that hee may raise them proud things hee knows a far off that hee may depress them When a stubborn fellow being committed was no whit mollified with his durance but the contrary One of the Senatours said to the rest let us forget him a while and then hee will remember himself Such is Gods dealing with those that stout it out with him I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence and seek my face in their affliction if ever they will seek mee early Hos 5.15 Hos 5.15 And it proved so Chap. 6.1 But hee heareth the prayer of the righteous The Lord is near to all that call upon him Psal 145.18 His ears are in their prayers 1 Pet. 3.12 Yea hee can feel breath when no voice can bee heard for faintness Lam. 3.56 when the flesh makes such a din that it is hard to hear the Spirits sighs hee knows the meaning of the Spirit Rom. 8.26 27. and can pick English out of our broken requests 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yea hee hears our afflictions Gen. 16.11 our tears Psal 39.12 our chatterings Isa 38.14 though wee cry to him but by implication onely as the young Ravens do Psal 147.9 It is not with God as with their Jupiter of Creet Non vacat exiguis Lucian Dialog that had no ears that was not at leasure to attend small matters that had cancellos in coelo as Lucian feigns certain crevises or chinks in heaven thorough which at certain times hee looks down upon men and hears prayers whereas at other times hee hears them not though they call upon him never so long never so loud Neither is it with God as with Baal that pursuing his enemies could not hear his friends nor yet as with Diana that being present at Alexanders birth could not at the same time preserve her Ephesian Temple from the fire Am I a God at hand saith the Lord and not a God afar off Jer. 23.23 Yes yes hee is both and delights to distinguish himself from all dunghil-deities by hearing prayers Hereby Manasseh knew him to bee the true God 2 Chron. 33.13 and all Israel hereupon cryed out with one consent The Lord hee is God the Lord hee is God 1 King 18.39 See the Note on vers 8. of this Chapter Vers 30. The light of the eyes rejoyceth the heart Light and sight are very comfortable Hee was a mad fool that being warned of wine by the Physicians as hurtful to his eyes cryed out Vale lumen amicum If they will not bear with wine they are no eyes for mee Truly the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun Plutarch Eccles 11.7 Eudoxus professed that hee would bee willing to bee burnt up by the Sun presently so hee might bee admitted to come so near it as to behold the beauty of it and to see further into the nature of it And a good report maketh the bones fat Fama bona vel auditio bona A good name or good news Ego si bonam famam servasso sat dives ero saith hee in Plautus It is riches enough to bee well reputed and reported of It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Xenophon the sweetest hearing It pleased David well that whatsoever hee did pleased the people It pleased St. John well that his friend Demetrius had a good report of the truth 3 Joh. 12. and hee had no greater joy than to hear that his children walked in the truth Pindarus could say that the Bath doth not so refresh the bones as a good name doth the heart Vers 31. The ear that heareth the reproof of life That is lively and life-giving reproofs Veritas aspera est verùm amaritudo ejus utilior integris sensibus gratior quam meretricantis linguae distillans favus Truth is sharp but bee it bitter Joh. Saris de nugis curialium yet is it better and more savoury to sound senses than the hony-drops of a flattering tongue Vers 32. Hee that refuseth instruction despiseth his own soul Is a sinner against his own soul as Core and his complices were and sets as light by it as if it were not worth looking after Oh is it nothing to lose an immortal soul to purchase an ever-living death wilt thou destroy that for which Christ dyed 1 Cor. 8.11 What shall a man give in exchange for his soul There is no great matter in the earth but man nothing great in man but his soul said Faverinus Whose image and superscription is it but Gods Give therefore unto God the things that are Gods by delivering it up to his discipline But hee that heareth reproof getteth understanding Hebr. Possesseth his heart This is like that sentence of our blessed Saviour Mat. 20.22 Luke 21.19 In your patience possess yee your souls They have need of patience that must hear reproof for man is a cross creature and likes not to bee controlled or contraried But suffer saith that great Apostle the words of exhortation suffer them in Gods name sharp
superiour to fortune yet in an instant with his state in one battel overthrown into the bottome of misery and despair Ibid. 287. and that in the middest of his greatest strength Vers 19. Better it is to bee of an humble spirit An humble man is worth his weight in gold hee hath far more comfort in his losses than proud Giants have in their rapines and robberies Truth it is that meekness of spirit commonly draws on injuries A Crow will pull wooll from a Sheeps side shee durst not do so to a Wolf or Mastiff Howbeit it is much better to suffer wrong than to do it to bee patient than to bee insolent to bee lowly in heart and low of port than to enjoy the pleasures or treasures of sin for a season Vers 20. Hee that handleth a matter wisely shall finde good Doing things with due deliberation and circumspection things of weight and importance especially for here Deliberandum est diu quod statuendum est semel wee may look for Gods blessing when the best that can come of rashness is repentance Youth rides in post to bee married but in the end findes the Inne of repentance to bee lodged in The best may bee sometimes miscarried by their passions to their cost as good Josiah was when hee encountred the King of Egypt and never so much as sent to Jeremy Zephany or any other Prophet then living to ask Shall I go up against Pharaoh or not And who so trusteth in the Lord happy is hee Let a man handle his matter never so wisely yet if hee trust to his own wisdome hee must not look to finde good God will cross even the likeliest projects of such and crack the strongest sinew in all the arm of flesh The Babylonians held their City impregnable and boasted as Xenophon witnesseth that they had twenty years provision afore-hand but God confuted their carnal confidence The Jews in Isaiah when they looked for an invasion looked in that day to the Armour of the house of the Forrest and gathered together the waters of the lower Pool numbred the houses and cast up the ditches to fortifie the wall but they looked not all this while to God their Maker c. therefore they had a day of trouble and of treading down and of perplexity by the Lord God of Hosts in the valley of Vision Isa 22.5 8 9 10. where the beginning is creature-confidence or self-conceitedness the end is commonly shame and confusion in any business Whereas hee that in the use of lawful means resteth upon God for direction and success though hee fail of his design yet hee knows whom hee hath trusted and God will know his soul in adversity Vers 21. The wise in heart shall bee called prudent Hee shall have the stile and esteem of an intelligent though not haply of an eloquent man Of some it may bee said Solin Praefat. as Solinus saith of his Poly-histor to his friend Antius Fermentum ut ita dicam cognitionis ei magis inesse quam bracteas eloquentiae deprehendas you may finde more worth of wisdome in them De libris Aâ—â—ici scriptum reliquit Cicero ces hoc ipso fulsse ornates quod ornamenta negligerent than force of words Bonaventure requireth to a perfect speech Congruity Truth and Ornament This latter some wise men want and it is their Ornament that they neglect Ornament as Tully writes of Atticus and as Beza writes of Calvin that hee was facundiae contemptor verborum parcus sed minime ineptus scriptor a plain but profitable Author And the sweetness of the lips increaseth learning That is eloquence with prudence edifieth and is of singular use for the laying forth of a mans talent to the good of others As one being asked whether light was pleasant replied That is a blinde mans question 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so if any ask whether eloquence and a gracious utterance bee useful in the Church of God It is an insulse and inficete question Zanchy speaking of Calvin and Viret who were Preachers together at Geneva when hee first came thither out of Italy useth these words Zanch. Miscel Ep. ded Sicut in Calvino insignem doctrinam sic in Vireto singularem eloquentiam in commovendis affectibus efficacitatem admirabar i. e. As Calvin I admired for excellent learning so did I Viret no less for his singular eloquence and efficacy in drawing affections Beza also was of the same minde as appears by that Epigram of his Gallica mirata est Calvinum Ecclesia nuper Quo nemo docuit doctius Et miratur adhuc fundentem mella Viretum Quo nemo fatur dulcius Vers 22. Understanding is a well-spring of life Vena vitae as the heart is the principle of life the brain of sense so is wisdome in the heart of all good carriage in the life and of a timely laying hold upon eternal life besides the benefit that other men make of it by fetching water thence as from a common Well But the instruction of fools is folly When they would shew most gravity they betray their folly they act not from an inward principle therefore they cannot quit themselves so but that their folly at length will appear to all men that have their senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil There are that read the Text Castigatio stultorum stuititia est It is a folly to correct or instruct a fool for it is to no more purpose than to wash a Blackmore c. Vers 23. The heart of the wise teacheth his mouth Frameth his speech for him and seasoneth it with salt of grace ere it sets it as a dish before the hearers Nescit paenitenda loqui qui proferenda prius suo tradidit examini saith Cassiodere Lib. 10. Ep. 4. Hee cannot lightly speak amiss that weighs his words before hee utters them The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so melodious as that which comes from the depth of the breast Heart-sprung speech hath weight and worth in it And addeth learning to his lips By restraining talkativeness and making him as willing to hear as to speak to learn as to teach to bee an Auditour as an Oratour Vers 24. Pleasant words are as an hony-comb Dainty and delicious such as the Preacher set himself to search out Eccles 12.10 Such as his father David found Gods words to bee Psal 119.103 Wells of salvation Isa 12.2 Breasts of consolation Isa 66.11 The hony-drops of Christs mouth Cant 4. Oh hang upon his holy lips as they did Luke 19. ult Hast thou found hony with Sampson Eat it as hee did Prov. 25.6 Eat Gods book as John did Rev. 10.9 finde fatness and sweetness in it Psal 63.5 Get joy and gladness out of it Psal 51.8 And if at any time the word in searching our wounds put us to pain as hony will cause pain to exulcerate parts let us bear it and not bee like children who though they
Ep 120. whiles as grasse they flourish and then de-flourish And thine expectation shall not be cut off As the wickeds shall Psal 37.38 Chear up therefore and doe not despond Flebile principium melior fortuna sequatur as Queen Elizabeth was wont to say whiles she was yet a prisoner Then she envied the Milk-maid that sang so merrily But if she had known what a glorious reign she should have had for four and forty years she would not have envied her Vers 19. Hear thou my son and be wise Hearing is one of the learned senses as Aristotle calls it Wisedome entreth into the soul by this door as folly did at first when the woman listned to the old Serpents illusions This sense is first up in a morning and this preface the Wise-man purposely premiseth to his following discourse as well knowing how hardly young men are drawn off from drinking matches and Good-fellow-meetings And guide thine heart in the way That is to say let knowledge and affection be as twins and run parallel let them mutually transfuse life and vigour the one into the other Practise Gods Will as fast as thou understandest it The Tigurine translation reads it Vt beatum fit in via cor tuum that thine heart may be blessed in the way Vers 20. Be not amongst Wine-bibbers Follow not the custom nor company of such thou knowest not what thou maist be drawn to doe though of thy self averse to such evil courses Noah got no good by the luxurious old world Matth. 24.38 with whom he lived Nor Lot by the intemperate Sodomites Ezek. 16.49 Vriah a good man was at length over-perswaded to over-drink himself 2 Sam. 11.13 Let him that stands take heed last he fall That evil servant that presumes to eat and drink with the drunken 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be cut off in the middle Matth. 24.49 Among â—iâ—tous caters of flesh Amongst flesh-mongers qui crapula indulgent that pamper their panches In cute curanda plus aequo operaci See my Common-place of abstinence These be all for themselves as Nabal was Helluantursibi carnem so the Hebrew runs they ravin up flesh for themselves Vers 21. For the drunkard shall come to poverty Nay to eternal misery in Hell 1 Cor. 6.10 but few men fear that beggery they hold worse than any hell Per mare pauperiem fuginal per saxa per ignes Herat. But poverty to such is but a prelude to a worse matter Vers 22. Hearken to thy father c. See the Note on chap. 1.8 And despise not thy mother when she is old Dr. Taylour Martyr said to his Son among other things when he was to suffer When thy mother is waxed old forsake her not Act. M on 138. but provide for her to thy power and see that shee lack nothing for so will God blesse thee and give thee long life upon Earth and prosperity Vers 23. Buy the truth and sell it not Every parcell of truth is precious as the filings of gold as the Bezar-stone when beaten are carefully lookt to and preserved Hold last the faithfull word as with both hands Tit. 1.9 Strive together for the faith of the Gospel Phil. 1.27 Be zealous for it Jude 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either live with it or dye for it As we have received it as a legacy from our fore-fathers who sealed it with their bloud and paid dear for it so we must transmit it to our Posterity pure and entire Arrii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nestorii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whatever it stands us in They were so religious that they would not exchange a letter or syllable of the faith wherewith Christ had betrusted them So zealous in buying the truth that they would give five marks and more for a good book and that was more mony than ten pound is now Some gave a load of hay for a few Chapters of Saint James or of Saint Paul in English sitting up all night in reading and hearing c. What a deal of charge was the Queen of Sheba at for Salomons wisdome The wise Merchant for the pearl of price Act. Mon. fol. 756. Hieron and Reuchlin for their Hebrew-learning Pro singulis horis singulos aureos numerabant Reuchlin gave a crown an hour to the Jew that read to him Mat. 13.44 Hieron ventured his life to repair by night to a Jew-doctor Vers 24. The Father of the righteous c. See the Note on chap. 10.1 Vers 26. My son give me thy heart There is a strange strife not of earthly but of spiritual powers after the possession of mans heart and through mans transgression Satan hath gotten strong hold thereon Act. 5.3 Luke 22.3 Once he strove about a dead mans body Jude 9. but doubtlesse his purpose was therein to have set up an Idol for himself in the hearts of the living If Satan can get the heart he is safe and so is Satans Vicar It was a watch-word in Pope Gregory the thirteenths time in Queen Elizabeths days My son give me thy heart Be in heart a Papist and then go to Church dissemble do what ye will Among the Heathens when the beast was cut up for sacrifice the first thing the Priest lookt upon was the heart and if the heart were naught the sacrifice was rejected As among the Jews Philo observeth that the heart and the horns or brains were never offered with the sacrifices for they are the fountains and secret cels wherein lurks and out of which flows all impiety But whatever was in the type this is in the truth As the heart is by nature the Lord will have none of it yet till the heart be renewed and given to the Lord he will accept nothing can come from man Esay 29.13 and 66.3 Jer. 42.20 Of the heart God seems to say to us as Joseph did to his brethren concerning Benjamin Gen. 43.3 Ye shall not see my face without it The heart is Christs bed of spices Cant. 6.2 wherein the delights Psal 50.17 and for which he wisheth Deut. 5.29 O that there were such an heart c. And let thine eyes observe my ways Look well to thy pattern so fairly pensild out unto thee take true stitches out of this perfect sampler take right strokes after this incomparable Copy The Hebr. here hath it Let thine eyes run through my ways Get a full prospect of them and diligently peruse them Fix and feed thine eyes upon the best objects and restrain them from gazing up on forbidden beauties lest they prove to be windows of wickedness and loopholes of lust Vers 27. For an whore is a deep ditch Fitly so called quod nullus neque modus neque finis sit in amore meritricio because lust is boundless bottomless Hee is a perfect slave that serves a whore See the Note on Prov. 22.14 Vers 28. She also lyeth in wait Terence calls harlots Cruces crumeninculgas sordida poscinummia c. base beg-pennies
is holy both in body and spirit 1 Cor. 7.34 and this with delight out of fear of God and love of vertue God did much for that libidinous Gentleman who sporting with a Curtezan in a house of sin happened to ask her name which she said was Mary Mountaignes Essayes whereat he was stricken with such a remorse and reverence that he instantly not only cast off the Harlot but amended his future life But the Sinner shall be taken by her See the Note on Prov. 22.14 The Poets fable that when Prometheus had discovered Truth to men that had long lain hid from them Jupiter or the Devil to crosse that design sent Pandora that is Pleasure that should so besot them as that they should neither mind nor make out after Truth and Honesty Vers 27. Behold this I have found 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found it I have found it said the Philosopher Vicimus Vicimus we have prevailed we have prevailed said Luther when hee had been praying in his Closet for the good successe of the consultation about Religion in Germany So the Preacher here Aperit sibi diligentia januam veritatis Amb. having by diligence set open the door of truth cries Venite videte Come and see my discoveries in the making whereof I have been very exact counting one by one Ne mole obruerer lest I should bee oppressed with many things at once Vers 28. Which yet my soul seeketh but I finde not There is a place in Wiltshire called Stonage for divers great stones lying and standing there together of which stones it is said Camden that though a man number them one by one never so carefully yet that he cannot finde the true number of them but that every time he numbers them he findes a different number from that he found before This may well shew as one well applies it the erring of mans labour in seeking the account of wisdome and knowledge For though his diligence be never so great in making the reckoning he will alwayes be out and not able to find it out One man among a thousand Hand facile invenies multis è milibus unum There is a very great scarcity of good people These are as Gideons three hundred when the wicked as the Midianites lye like Grashoppers for multitude upon the earth Judg. 7. and as those Syrians 1 King 20.27 they fill the country they darken the air as the swarms did the Land of Aegypt and there is plenty of such dust-heaps in every corner But a Woman among all those have I not found i. e. Among all my Wives and Concubines which made him ready to sing Foemina nulla bona est But that there are and ever have been many gracious Women see besides the Scriptures the Writings of many Learned men De illustribus foeminis It is easie to observe saith one that the New-Testament affords more store of good Wives than the Old And I can say as Hierom does Novi ego multas ad omne opus bonum promptas I know many Tabithaes full of good works But in respect of the discoverie of hearts and natures whether in good or evil it is harder to find out throughly the perfect disposition of a Woman than of Men. And that I take to be the meaning of this text Vers 29. That God hath made man upright viz. In his own Image i. e. knowledge in his understanding part rightnesse in his will and holinesse in his affections his heart was a lump of love c. when he came first out of Gods Mint he shone most glorious clad with the royal robe of righteousnesse created with the imperial crown Psal 8.5 But the Devil soon stript him of it he cheated and cousened him of the Crown as we use to doe children with the apple or whatsoever fruit it was that he tendred to Eve Porrexit pomum surripuit paradisum Bernard Lib. 1. legis allegor Hee also set his limbs in the place of Gods Image so that now Is qui factus est homo differt ab eo quem Deus fecit as Philo saith Man is now of another make than God made him Totus homo est inversus decalogus whole evil is in man and whole man in evil Neither can hee cast the blame upon God but must fault himself and fly to the second Adam for repair But they have sought out many inventions New tricks and devises like those poetical fictions and fabulous relations whereof there is neither proof nor profit The Vulgar Latine hath it Et ipse se infinitis miscuit quaestionibus And hee hath intangled himself with numberless questions and fruitless speculations See 1 Tim. 1.4 and cap. 6.4 doting about questions or question-sick Bernard reads it thus Ipse autem se implicuit doloribus multis but hee hath involved himself in many troubles the fruit of his inventions shifts and sherking tricks See Jer. 6.19 CHAP. VIII Vers 1. Who is as the Wise man Velut inter stellas Luna minores QUa dic Hee is a matchless man a peerless Paragon out-shining others as much as the Moon doth the lesser Stars Plato could say that no Gold or Precious stone doth glister so gloriously 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the prudent spirit of a good man Gen. 41.38 Thou art a Prince of God amongst us said the Hittites to Abraham Can wee finde such a man as this Joseph in whom the Spirit of God is said Pharaoh to his Counsellors Hast thou considered my servant Job that there is none like him on the earth c Job 1.8 My servant Moses is not so who is faithful in all my house and shall bee of my Cabinet-Counsel Numb 12.7 To him God said Tu verò hic sta mecum But do thou stand here by mee Exod. 34.5 Sapiens Dei comes est saith Philo. Look how Kings have their Favourites whom they call Comites their Cousins and Companions so hath God Nay the righteous are Princes in all Lands Psal 45.16 Kings in righteousness compare Mat. 13.17 with Luk. 10.24 the excellent Ones of the Earth Psal 16.3 the Worthies of the world Hom. 55. in Matth. Heb. 11.5 fitter to bee set as Stars in Heaven and to bee continually before the Throne of God Chrysostome calls some holy men of his time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Earthly Angels and speaking of Babylas the Martyr hee saith of him Magnus at que admirabilis vir hee was an excellent and an admirable man Orat. contra Gentiles c. And Tertullian writing to some of the Martyrs sayes Non tantus sum ut vos alloquar I am not good enough to speak unto you Oh that my life and a thousand such wretches more might go for yours Oh why doth God suffer mee and other such Caterpillars to live saith John Careless Martyr in a letter to that Angel of God Mr. Bradford as Dr. Taylor called him that can do nothing but consume the alms of the
the Barons of England in King John's daies Marcidi Ribaldi Walsing Epit. hist Gallic p. 30. Godw. Catal. when declaring against the Pope and his Conclave by whom they were excommunicated they cried out thus in their Remonstrance Fy on such rascal ribals c. Adelmelect Bishop of Sherborn Anno 705. reproved Pope Sergius sharply to his face for his Adultery So did Bishop Lambert reprehend King Pepin for the same fault Anno 798. And Archbishop Odo King Edwin burning his Concubines in the fore-head with an hot Iron and banishing them into Ireland Father Latimer dealt no less faithfully with King Henry the Eighth in his Sermons at Court. And being asked by the King how hee durst bee so bold to preach after that manner hee answered that duty to God and to his Prince had enforced him to it and now that hee had discharged his conscience his life was in his Majesties hands c. Truth must bee spoken however it be taken If Gods Messengers must be mannerly in the form yet in the matter of their message to Great ones they must bee resolute It is probable that Joseph used some kinde of Preface to Pharaoh's Baker in reading him that hard destiny Dan. 4.19 Gen. 40.19 Such likely as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar My Lord the Dream bee to them that hate thee c. or as Philo brings him in with an Utinam tale somnium non vidisses c. But for the matter hee gives him a sound though sharp interpretation Vers 5. Whoso keepeth the commandement scil The Kings commandement Hee that is morigerous and goes as far as hee can with a good conscience in his obedience to the commands of his Superiours Shall feel no evil i. e. hee shall lack no good encouragement Rom. 13.3 4. Or if men slight him God will see to him Ephes 6.7 8. as hee did to the poor Israelites in Egypt and to David under Saul Mordecai lost nothing at length by his love and loyalty to God and the King Sir Ralph Percy slain upon Hegely-Moor in Northumberland by the Lord Montacute General for Edward the Fourth hee would no waies depart the field though defeated but in dying said I have saved the bird in my breast Speed 869. meaning his oath to King Henry the Sixth for whom hee fought And a wise mans heart discerneth both time and judgement scil When and how to obey Kings commands the time the means and manner thereof dispatching them without offence to God or man And this a wise mans heart discerneth saith the Preacher it being the opinion of the Hebrews that in the heart especially the soul did keep her Court and exercise her noble operations of the understanding invention judgement c. Aristotle saith Sine calore cordis anima in corpore nihil efficit Without the heat of the heart the soul does nothing in the body The Scripture also makes the heart the Monarch of this Isle of Man Vers 6. Because to every purpose there is time Therefore the wise man seeketh after that nick of time that punctilio of judgement that hee may do every thing well and order his affairs with discretion A well-chosen season is the greatest advantage of any action which as it is seldome found in haste so it is too often lost in delay Therefore the misery of man is great upon him Because hee discerns not apprehends not his fittest opportunity hence hee creates himself a great deal of misery When Saul had taken upon him to sacrifice God intimates to him by Samuel that if hee had discerned his time hee might have saved his Kingdome So might many a man his life his livelihood nay his soul The men of Issachar in Davids daies are famous for this that they had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do 1 Chron. 12.32 their posterity are set below Stork and Swallow for want of this skill Jer. 8.7 and deeply doomed Luke 19.44 Vers 7. For hee knoweth not that which shall bee Mans misery is the greater because hee cannot fore-see to prevent it but hee is suddenly surprized and hit many times on the blinde side as wee say Nescia mens hominum fati sortisque futurae Men are in the dark in regard of future events God onely knows them and is thereby oft in Isaiah distinguished from the dung-hill-deities of the Heathens In his mercy to his people hee gave them Prophets to tell How long and when these failed the Church heavily bewails it Psal 74.9 Howbeit a prudent man fore-seeth an evil and hideth himself Amb. de Offic. l. 1. cap. 38. Prov. 22.3 See the Note there By the strength of his mind saith Ambrose hee presageth what will follow and can define what in such or such a case hee ought to do Sometimes hee turns over two or three things in his mind together of which conjecturing that either all may come to pass jointly or this or that severally or whether they fall out jointly or severally hee can by his understanding so order his actions as that they shall bee profitable to him Vers 8. There is no man that hath power c. Death man is sure to meet with whatsoever hee miss of but when hee knows not neither Of Dooms-day there are signs affirmative and negative not so of death Every one hath his own Balsam within him say some Chymicks Greg. Moral his own bane it is sure hee hath Ipsa suis augmentis vita ad detrimenta impellitur Every day wee yeeld somewhat to death Stat sua cuique dies Our last day stands the rest run Virg. Ancid Nulli cedo Death is this onely King against whom there is no rising up Prov. 30. The mortal Sithe is Master of the Royal Scepter and it mows down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the grass of the field saith a Reverend Writer Mr. Ley his Monitor of Mortality And again Death suddenly snatcheth away Physicians oft as it were in scorn and contempt of medicines when they are applying their preservatives or restoratives to others as it is storied of Caius Julius a Surgeon who dressing a sore-eye as hee drew the Instrument over it was struck with an Instrument of death in the act and place where hee did it Besides diseases many by mischances are taken as a bird with a bolt whiles hee gazeth at the bow There is no discharge in war Heb. No sending either of Forces to withstand death or of messages to make peace with him The world and wee must part and whether wee bee unstitcht by parcels or torn asunder at once the difference is not great Happy is hee that after due preparation is passed thorow the gates of death ere hee bee aware saith one Whether my death bee a burnt-offering of Martyrdome or a Peace-offâ—ring of a natural death I desire it may bee a Free-will-offering a sweet sacrifice to the Lord saith another Neither shall wickedness deliver No It is righteousness
Mon. 865. than swear The Merindolians those antient French Protestants were known by this through all the Country of Province that they would not swear nor easily bee brought to take an oath except it were in judgement or making some solemn covenant Vers 3. This is an evil Hoc est pessimum so Hierome the Vulgar and Tremellius renders it this is the worst evil this is wickedness with a witness scil that sith there is one event to all graceless men should therehence conclude that sith there is one event to all graceless men should therehence conclude that it is a bootless business a course of no profit to serve God Hence they walk about the world with hearts as full as hell of lewd and lawless lusts Hence they run a madding after the pleasures of sin which with a restlesse giddiness they earnestly pursue yea they live and die in so doing saith the Wise-man here noting their final impenitency that hate of Heaven and gate to Hell Ex primis per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eorum sermones Lav. Joh. 24. Sic Benedic 9. Alexand. 6. Leo. 10. Vers 4. For to him that is joyned to all the living there is hope These are the words of those wicked ones whose lives and hopes end together whose song is Post mortem nulla voluptas when life ends there is an end of all Is there not such language in some mens hearts who knows whether there bee any such thing as a life to come c. Now I shall know said that dying Pope whether the soul of man bee immortal yea or no and whether that tale concerning Christ have any truth in it Oh wretch So a living Dogg is better than a dead Lion But so is not a living sinner better that a dead Saint for the righteous hath hope in his death and they that dye in the Lord are blessed Rev. 14.13 how much more if they also dye for the Lord these love not their lives unto the death Rev. 12.11 but go as willingly to dye as ever they did to dine being as glad to leave the world for a better especially as men are wont to bee to rise from the board when they have eaten their fill to take possession of a Lordship Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis Lucret. Vers 5. For the living know that they shall dye Hence that Proverb amongst us As sure as death Howbeit that they think little of it to any good purpose appears by that other Proverb I thought no more of it than of my dying-day But the dead know not any thing So it seemeth to those Atheists that deny the immortality of the soul but they shall know at death that there is another life beyond this wherein the righteous shall bee comforted Luk. 16.25 and their knowledge perfected but the wicked tormented and with nothing more than to know that such and such poor souls as they would have disdained to have set with the Doggs of their flocks are now sitting down with Abraham Job 30.1 Luk. 13.28 Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdome of God and themselves thrust out into utter darkness Augustin in tenebras extenebris infeliciter exclusi infelicius excludendi Neither have they any more a reward What Psal 58.11 not a reward for the righteous Not a certain fearful looking for of judgement and fiery indignation which shall devour evil-doers That were strange Heb. 10.27 But wicked men would fain perswade themselves so ut liberius peccent libenter ignorant Bern 2 Pet. 2.5 Of these things they are willingly ignorant For the memory of them is forgotten This is true in part but not altogether Joseph was forgotten in Egypt Gideon in Israel Exod. 1 Judg. 9 Joash remembred not the kindness which Jehoiadah had done to him but slew his son 2 Chron. 24.22 Nevertheless the foundation of God stands firm having this seal the Lord knoweth them that are his 2 Tim. 2 Mal. 3.16 Luk. 10.20 and there is a book of remembrance written before him for them that fear the Lord their names are written in Heaven and the memory of the just is blessed Proverbs 10.7 See the Note there Vers 6. Also their love and their hatred c. Here is lie upon lie The Atheist as hee had denyed knowledge to the dead so here hee denies affections as love hatred envy or zeal as Hierome renders it But it is certain that those that are dead in Jesus do very dearly love God and hate evil with a perfect hatred The wicked on the other side continue in that other world to hate God and goodness to love such as themselves are to stomach the happiness of those in Heaven c. Vers 7. Go thy way eat thy bread with joy Vade juste Go thy way thou righteous man live in cheerfulness of mind proceeding from the testimony of a good conscience so Lyra senseth the words Gods grace and favour turned brown bread and water into manchet and wine to the Martyrs in prison Rejoyce not thou O Israel for joy as other people for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God Hos 9.1 Thou eatest thy bane thou drinkest thy poison because to the impure all things are impure and without faith it is impossible to please God Prov. 29.6 In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare or a cord to strangle his joy with but the righteous doth sing and rejoyce Hee may do so hee must do so what should hinder him hee hath made his peace with God and is rectus in curia let him bee merry at his meals lightsome and spruise in his cloaths cheerful with his wife and children 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jam. 5.13 c. Is any man merry at heart saith St. James is hee right set and hath hee a right frame of soul is all well within let him sing Psalms yea as a traveller rides on merrily and wears out the rediousnesse of the way by singing sweet songs unto himself so should the Saints Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage Psal 119.54 Vers 8. Let thy garments bee alwayes white i. e. Neat spruse cleanly comely Or by a metaphor it may signifie Be merry in good manner for they used to wear white clothing on Festivals Devita theoretica Stuckius in Antiq. conviv Anton. Margarit and at Weddings as Philo witnesseth At this day also the Jewes come to their Synagogues in white rayment the day before the Calends of September which is their New-years-tide Purple was affected by the Romans white by the Jewes see Jam. 2.2 Hence Pilate clad Christ in purple Matth. 27.28 Herod in white Luke 23.11 Herod himself Acts 12.21 was arrayed in royal apparrel that is in cloth of silver saith Josephus which being beaten upon by the Sun-beams dazeled the peoples eyes and drew from them that blasphemous acclamation The voyce of God and not of man And let thine
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
a dead lift Yea bee thou like a Roe or a young Hart Come sweetly and seasonably to my relief and succour To set thee a time were to set the Sun by my Dial. But when thine own time is come 2 Sam. 2.29 their come Lord Jesus come quickly bee as nimble as a Roe or young Hart upon the Mountains of Bether called elsewhere Bithron beyond Jordan which mountains were much haunted by Hunters Mountains of division some render it and one descants thus The Spouse of Christ in that heavenly Marriage-Song calleth him a young Hart on the Mountains of Division D. Hall Epist 5. dec 3. Tell mee then whither will you go for truth if you will allow no truth but where there is no division CHAP. III. Vers 1. By night on my Bed I sought him whom my soul loveth SHee had not a name good enough for him shee therefore makes use of this powerful Periphrasis Before hee had been her Beloved but now the love of her soul because now hee had withdrawn himself It was night with her now shee walked in darkness and had no light as Isa 50.10 and as before day break the darkness is greatest so was it now with the woful Spouse Shee was indeed upon her bed of ease but to her in this case it was a little-ease a bed of unrest her soul was tossed and troubled with solitary seeking longing and looking after him whom her soul loved By night therefore or night after night sundry nights together as some read it Shee sought and sought being constant instant and indefaâ—igable in the scarch shee sought him early and earnestly with utmost attention and affection with her whole heart and soul Jer. 29.13 according to the measure of her love to him which was modus sine modo as Bernard hath it Now whatsoever a man loves that hee desires and what hee desires that hee seeks after especially if hee apprehend some singular worth in it In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge Col. 2.3 Hee is better than Rubias saith Solomon and all the things that may bee desired are not to bee compared unto him Prov. 8.11 Hence the good soul seeks him as eagerly as the Mammonist seeks silver the Ambitionist honour the affamished man bread the condemned prisoner a pardon or as one that seeks for a lost Jewel hee over-looks all till hee hath found it Christ I must have saith shee whatever it cost mee this gold cannot bee bought too dear Shee longeth sore as David did saying Oh that one would give mee of the water of the Well of Bethlehem 1 Chron. 11.17 Oh for a blessed arm-full of the Babe of Bethlehem such as Simeon once had Give mee Christ or else I die None but Christ none but Christ. All is but dung and dross to Christ Phil. 3. God offered Moses an Angel to go along with them in the wilderness Hee would have no Angel nor stir a step unless God himself would conduct them Barak would not march without Deborah c. I found him not i. e. I had not so full a presence nor so fast hold of him as I desired hee had got behinde the wall or the window as in the former chapter and Joseph-like concealed his love out of increasement of love as also that hee may stir up strong affections after him in the hearts of his people for hee well enough knows how to commend his mercies to us as Laban did his daughter Rachel to Jacob by holding us off by suspending us for a season Even barren Leah when unloved and unlookt on becomes fruitful and the drowsie Spouse when shee misseth her Beloved becomes restless till shee have recovered him In their affliction they will seek mee early Hos 5.15 Affliction excites devotion and makes the Saints seek again with a redoubled diligence as here See Psal 78.34 35. It fares with the best sometimes as it did with Saint Paul and his company in the shipwrack Act. 27.20 when they saw neither Sun nor Stars for divers daies and nights together In this dismal and disconsolate condition if they can but cast anchor and pray still for day Christ will appear as here verse 3. and all shall clear up the day will dawn and the day-star appear in their hearts Mourning lasteth but till morning Psal 30. and the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lye it will surely come it will not tarry Hab. 2.3 But what shall wee do in the mean while may some say how shall wee sustain our spirits sith hope deferred makes the heart sick Though it tarry wait for it saith the Prophet Have patience and learn to live by Faith The just shall live by his Faith vers 4. Wee are usually too hasty and do antedate the promises neither will any reason satisfie us unless wee may have all Christs sweetness at once and at present Excellent is that discourse that Mr. Bradford the Martyr makes in a consolatory letter to a good woman that was troubled in conscience You are not content saith hee to kiss Christs feet Act. and Mon. 1490. with Magdalen but you would bee kissed even with the kisses of his mouth You would see his face with Moses forgetting how hee biddeth to seek his face Psal 27. yea and that for ever Psal 105. which signifieth no such sight as you desire to see in this present life which would see God now face to face whereas hee cannot bee seen but covered under something yea sometime in that which is clean contrary unto God as to see his mercy in his anger c. How did Job see God but as yee would say under Satans cloak c. You know that Moses when hee went to the Mount to talk with God hee entred into a dark cloud And Elias had his face covered when God passed by Both these dear friends of God heard God but saw him not But you would bee preferred before them See now my dear heart how covetous you are Ah bee thankful bee thankful But God bee thanked your covetousness is Moses covetousness Well with him you shall bee satisfied But when forsooth when hee shall appear c. God would have his people discontentedly contented with what measures of grace and feelings they have attained unto and to know that Tota vita boni Christiani sanctum desiderium est Bern. the whole life of a good Christian is an holy desire after more and that those very pantings inquietations and unsatisfiablenesses cannot but spring from truth of grace and some taste of Christ Vers 2. I will rise now and go about the City c. The holy City Jerusalem whither the Tribes went up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel Psal 122.4 There was the likeliest place to finde Christ there his Parents found him once after three daies search Luk. 2.46 sitting in the Temple there hee dwelt amongst men there hee gave gifts
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
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
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
out unto them in my word and their conformity thereunto for the lives of Gods people are but the Word exemplified they walk as patters of the rule and are of exemplary holinesse as Luk. 1.6 To swear by my Name In righteousness in truth and in judgement as chap. 4.2 Then shall they be built i. e. Blest Ver. 17. But if they will not obey The tartnesse of the threatning maketh us best taste the sweetness of the Promise and a mixture of them serves to keep the heart in the best temper I will utterly pluck up and destroy that Nation This is fulfilled to the utmost upon the Jews especially since the last destruction of Jerusalem CHAP. XIII Ver. 1. GO get thee a linnen girdle Or belt or swath And put it not in water Or lye to wash it or whiten it but take it as it is first made us sordâ—ciem magis contrahat to shew say some that the Jewish Nation when first chosen was black by sin and nothing amiable better skilled and exercised in making morter and bricks in Egypt then in the worship of God and in good manners Or put it not in water i. e. Keep it from being rotted as a type of Gods care of and kindnesses to that people Ver. 2. So I got a girdle God is to be obeyed readily and without sciscitation Ver. 3. And the Word of the Lord came to me Heb. Was to me At sundry times or piece-meal God spake to his servants the Prophets Heb. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per gradus momenta non sâ—mul semel Ver. 4. Arise go to Euphrates A river which ran by Babylon six hundred and fourescore miles from Jerusalem The Prophets journey therefore thither seemeth to have been but visional as was Isay's going barefoot Hosea's marriage with a whore Ezekiels lying on one side three hundred and ninety dayes together his journey from Chaldea to Jerusalem chap. 8.3 c. Ver. 5. So I went and hid it by Euphrates In the cliffe of a rock where it might lye dry never once asking the reason This was simple and acceptable obedience far beyond that of the Popish Novices who yet if their Padres or Superiours send them to China or Peru without dispute or delay they do presently set forward Ver. 6. And it came to passe after many dayes See on ver 3. Ver. 7. Then I went to Euphrates See on ver 4. Those that are for an actual journey alledge that Jeremy might do this without danger in the dayes of Jehoiakim who was the King of Babylons Vassal and paid him tribute And behold the girdle was rotted it was profitable for nothing This shewed that the Jews should in that Country lye rotting as it were in basenesse and servility and sin together many years so that God might justly have left them there still in misery as a man leaves his rotten girdle to become dung Ver. 8. Then the word c. Adaptat simile See ver 3. Ver. 9. After this manner will I marre the pride Their pomp and power wherein they pride themselves Ver. 10. This evil people Populus ille pessimus these Pâ—neropolitans who are naught all over nequitiâ cooperti Walk in the imagination of their heart See chap. 9.13 and 11.8 Ver. 11. So have I caused to cleave unto me For nearness and dearness the loines are the seat of strongest desires and affections And for a name and for a praise That I might be magnified and glorified in them and for them also among other nations Ver. 12 Therefore Or Moreover Thou shalt speak unto them this word This other paradigmâ— or parable an excellent way of teaching and much used in both Testaments Every bottle shall be filled with wine Wine they loved well and a great vintage they now expected They shall have it saith God but of another nature then they look for Their heads not altogether unlike bottles for roundness and emptiness of all good shall be filled with a dry drunkennesse even with errours and terrours a spirit of giddinesse c. Do not we certainly know c. This they seem to speak insolently and jearingly q. d. you should tell us some news Ver. 13. Behold I will fill Heb. Lo I am filling but the lâ—quour is such as whereof you shall have small joy See ver 12. Ver. 14. And I will dash them one against another As so many earthen bottles brittle and soon broken Si collidimur frangimur said those in the fable Ver. 15. Hear and give ear Or Hear and hearken be not haughty Here the Prophet calleth upon them again to repent and to that end to listen diligently and to lay aside the highness of their hearts and the stoutness of their stomacks sith it is the Lord that speaketh The Lyon roareth who can but fear Am. 3.8 Repentance is the Removens prohibens as being founded in humility and wrought by the Word preached Jonah 3. Act. 2. Ver. 16. Give glory to the Lord your God Confess your sins Josh 7.19 one part of repentance put for the whole Jeremy was as constant a Preacher of Repentance as Paul and after him Austin were of the free-grace of God The impenitent person robbeth God of his right the penitent man sarcit injuriam Deo irrogatam seemeth to make some kind of amends to God whom he had wronged by restoring him his glory which he had run away with whilest he putteth himself into the hands of justice in hope of mercy Before he cause darknesse sc Of calamity and captivity Currat poenitentia ne praecurrat sententia Modestissima explicatio infaelicitatis Before your feet stumble So before ye fall upon the dark and dangerous cragges and precipices of eternal perdition Which to prevent work whiles the light lasteth walk whiles it is yet day Ver. 17. My soul shall weep in secret places Good men are apt to weep Et faciles motus mens generosa capit Good Ministers should be full of compassionate tears weeping in secret for their peoples unprofitableness and their danger thereby The breast and right shoulder of the sacrifice belonged to the Priest to shew that he should be a breast to love and a shoulder to support the people in their troubles and burthens Ver. 18. Say to the King and to the Queen Or Madam the Lady or Mistresse that is to the Queen Regent even to Necustah the mother of Jeconiab say the Jews When Beza in the behalf of the reformed Churches in France made a speech at Possiacum before the young King and the Queen-Mother he spake so effectually saith Rivet that a great Cardinal who heard it wished that either he had been dumb that day or that they had all been deaf This King and Queen in the text might be as much convinced though not throughly converted Humble your selves sit down Heb. Humble sit below For your Principalities Or your head-attires The crown of your glory Or your crown of glory that is your glorious crown
running from Babylonia into the Persian sea Hence most Geographers hold and not improbably that that land was a part of the garden of Eden fruitful it was beyond credulity Thine end is come and the measure Heb. the cubit of thy covetousnesse Cujus avaritia totus non sufficit orbis The covetous Cormorants mouth with his Give Give shall shortly be stopped with a spade-full of mould and his never-enough quit with fire enough in the bottom of hell Ver. 14. Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillars So they shall seem both for multitude and humming noise barritu militari They shall lift up a shout against thee As pesants did at their harvest-home See chap. 48.33 Ver. 15. He hath made the earth by his power And can therefore easily and quickly unmake this great Monarchy See chap. 10.12 with the Note Ver. 16. When he uttereth his voice c. See chap. 10.13 Ver. 17. Every man is brutish See chap. 10.14 Ver. 18. They are vanity See chap. 10.15 Ver. 19. The portion of Jacob c. See chap. 10.16 Ver. 20. Thou art my battle-ax and weapon of war Cestra fuisti mihi Thou hast been my pole-ax such as horse men use to batter their enemies helmets and other harnesse Ver. 21. And with thee O Babylonian King Will I break in pieces Or rather have I broken in pieces And hence thy perdition Ver. 22. With thee also will I break or by thee have I broken in pâ—eces man and woman But especially my people of the Jewes whom I more valued then all the men and women in the world besides Ver. 23. The shepherd and his flock the husbandman and his yoke c. This particular enumeration is very Emphatical so chap. 50.35 37 38. Ver. 24. And I will render unto Babylon See chap 50.15 29. Isa 47.6 8. 10.5 6 12. In your sight You my prisoners of hope shall live to see it Psal 79.10 Ver. 25. O destroying mountain O Babylon thou that art amplitudine altitudine instar montis for thy large command and lofty buildings like a mountain and that dost abuse thy power to other mens destruction And will make thee aburnt mountain A great heap of ashes and rubbish such as burned and ruined Cities are Ver. 26. And they shall not take of thee a stone Thou shalt never be reedified So it is foretold of Rome Tot a eris in cineres quasi nunquam Roma fuisses Ver. 27. Set up a standard Thus God the great Induperator bespeaketh the Medes and Persians as his field officers Prepare the Nations against her Heb. Sanctify call them together to wage this sacred war against Babylon Call together against her the Kingdoms of Ararat Minni Xenoph. Cyrop lâ—b 7. and Ashkenaz i. e. Of both the Armenia's and of Ascania subdued by Cyrus before he marched against Babylon Vatablus will have Ashkenaz to be Gothland the Jewes Germany but these were too far remote Ver. 28. Prepare against her Heb. Sanctify as ver 7. With the Kings of the Medes Darius and Cyrus Ver. 29. And the land shall tremble and sorrow As a travelling woman so shall it be pained Ver. 30. The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight At Cyrus his first coming they gave him battel but being worsted they from thenceforth remained in their holds till Babylon was taken Their might hath failed Or their courage is shrunk as Jacob's sinew did Gen. 32.32 They became as women See chap. 50.37 Ver. 31. One post shall run to meet another Observe how punctually all things were foretold in the several circumstances above fifty years before At one end sc where Euphrates had run till diverted and dryed up by Cyrus See on chap. 50.38 Ver. 32. And that the passages are stopt Or taken seized surprised as ch 48.41 And thereeds Or Marishes made by Euphrates overflowing It is well observed that the Babylonians might by this Prophecy have been forewarned and fore-armed against Cyrus his stratagem But they slighted it and never enquired after it likely Ver. 33. The daughter of Babylon Proud of her wealth and strength as young maids many are of their beauty And the time of her harvest shall come When God shall put in his sickle and cut her down being ripe and ready See Rev. 14.16 Gen. 15.16 Ver. 34. Nebuchadnezzar hath devoured me he hath crushed me A graphical description of the Babylonical cruelty He hath cast me out He hath gorged himself with me and laid up his gorge Ver. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh Torn and tost as carrion by that ravenous beast the Lord look upon it and require it Ver. 36. Behold I will plead thy cause Not so much verbally as really here 's a present answer to Israels cry Ver. 37. And Babylon shall become heaps See chap. 50.39 Ver. 38. They shall roar together like Lions When hongerbit The Babylonians terrified and the Persians tumultuating together The old Latine Version hath it they shake their shaggy hair Ver. 39. In their heat I will make their feasts Or I will dispose their drinkings that is I will pour into their cups the wine of my wrath Now poison mixt with wine worketh the more furiously God can punish one kind of drunkennesse with another worse That they may rejoyce That they may revel it and sleep their last and so they did Ecce hic compotationum est finis as being slain in a night of publike solemn feasting and great dissolutenesse which was soon turned in moerorem metum into heavinesse and horrour And not wake Till awakened by the sound of the last trump The Chaldee here hath it They shall dye the second death and not be quickened in the world to come sc unto life everlasting Ver. 40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter All that with followeth here to the end of this oration is no lesse easy then elegant in holding forth the power justice and truth of God in fulfilling this Prophecy exactly though divers years after Ver. 41. How is Sheshack taken i. e. How is Babylon destroyed beyond all expectation See chap. 25.26 Ver. 42. The sea is come up upon Babylon A sea of hostile forces what wonder therefore though she be taken Ver. 43. Her Cities are a desolation See chap. 2.6 9.12 Ver. 44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon Nimrod was after his death called the Babylonian Saturn Belus who succeeded him the Babylonian Jupiter as Berosus testifieth This Idol of massy gold and of a huge bignesse was carried away by Cyrus thus Bel was punished And I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up Bolum ex ore Beli such an elegancy there is also in the Original Of the rich presents spoils costly furniture found in Bel's Temple see Diodore lib. 2. Those taken from Gods Temple at Jerusalem and laid up in his 2 Chron. 36.7 he was forced to regurgitate Ezr. 1.7 5.14 See
sit Gen. 34.20 to judge between party and party The young men from their musick From their ordinary and honest recreations and disports Ver. 15. The joy of our heart is ceased Heb. keepeth Sabbath i. e. is vanished and that because we made not Gods Sabbath our delight as Isa 58.13 Ver. 16. The crown is fallen from our head i. e. All our glory both of Church and State because we refused to serve God which indeed is to reign in righteousnesse Now neither is all this nor any of this spoken to exasperate or exulcerate peoples hearts to fret against God or to faint under their pressures but to put them upon the practice of true humiliation that so they may not lose the fruit of their Afflictions whence the following passage Woe unto us that we have sinned Which as it runneth sweetly and rythmically in the Original so it pointeth us to that savory and soveraign practice of lamenting our sins more then our miseries and humbling our selves to the utmost under the mighty hand of God that he may lift up in due season Ver. 17. For this our heart is faine Ponit symbolum vere contritionis we are sin-sick even at heart our sins are as so many daggers at our hearts or bearded arrows in our flesh For these things our eyes are dim we have well-nigh wept them out whereby neverthelesse out minds have been illightened Lachrymae sunt succus cordis contriti seu liquores animae patientis Ver. 18. Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate q. d. Next unto our sins which are our greatest sorrow nothing troubleth us more then this that the publike exercises of Piety are put down Sion the seat of Gods Sanctuary is desolate Ver. 19. Thou O Lord remainest for ever Alioqui totus totus desperassem as that good man said once in like case Otherwise I should have but small joy of my life But thou art everlasting and invariable in essence truth will and promises This is mine Anchor-hold Thy throne from generation to generation i. e. Thy most equal and righteous ordering of all things utut nobis quaedam confusiusculè currere videantur though some things may seem to us to be somewhat confusedly carried and even to run on wheels yet it shall one day appear that there was a wheel within a wheel Ezek. 1. that is an over ruling and all-disposing Providence Ver. 20. Wherefore dost thou forget us Sith thy Covenant runs otherwise 2 Sam. 7.14 See on ver 1. And forsakest us so long time Heb. to length of dayes as Psal 23 6. Not for Seventy years only but to the end of the world till wrath is come upon us to the utmost as 2 Thes 2. Ver. 21. Turn thou us unto thee That thou maist turn thee to us as Zach. 1.3 Let there be a through-reformation wrought in us and then a gracious restauration wrought for us Est Aposiopesis ad pathos Ver. 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us This is a sad Catastrophe or close of this doleful ditty Sometimes Gods suppliants are put hard to it in the course of their Prayers the last grain of their faith and patience seemeth to be put into the scale When the Son of man cometh with deliverance to his praying people shall he find faith in the earth Hard and scarce And yet he comes oft when they have even done looking for him he is seen in the Mount he helpeth those that are forsaken of their hopes Hallelujah Sure it is that God cannot utterly reject his people whom he hath chosen Rom. 11. Tremellius rendreth it and so the Margin of our Bibles hath it and I think better For wilt thou utterly reject us or be extreamly wrath with us sc supra modulum nostrum according to thine infinite power and above all that we are able to bear I cannot think it neither doth it consist with thy Covenant Here as also at the end of Ecclesiastes Isaiah and Malachy many of the Hebrew Bibles repeat the foregoing verse Turn thou us unto thee O Lord c. yet without pricks left any thing should seem added thereby to the holy Scriptures The reason here of read in the end of the Prophecy of Isa This is also here observed by the most renowned Mr. Thomas Gataker whom for honour sake I name and to whose most accurate and elaborate Annotations upon Isaiah and Jeremy I have been not a little beholden all along These he finished not long before his death to the great glory of God and good of his Church Fretum Magellanicum And of him and this worthy Work of his I may fitly say as a learned man doth of Magellanus the Portingal that great Navigator that the Strait or Sea now called by his name unâ navigatione simul immortalem gloriam mortem ei attulerit Boxhorn histor universal was both his death and his never-dying Monument 1 Sam. 7.12 Hitherto hath the Lord helped us A COMMENTARY OR EXPOSITION ON THE BOOK of the Prophet EZEKIEL CHAP. I. THe Book of the Prophet Ezekiel The Book of Ezekiel so the Hebrews call it and forbid any to read the beginning and ending of it till he be thirty years of age because it is so abstruse and mysterious Nazianzen calleth this Prophet The Beholder of great things In Apolog. and the Interpreter of visions and mysteries Another calleth him the Hieroglyphical Prophet A third Jeremy vailed a hand shut up A lap Ezâ—chiel scripturarum Oceanâ—â— et mysteriorum Dei labyrinthus Hieron Many both waters and readers have passed over this Prophet as dark difficult and lâ—ssâ— useful Greenhil praef Orat. 47. and you know not what is in it c. Contemporary he was to Jeremy though in another Country and a great confirmer of what he had foretold but could not be credited To him therefore as to many others Ezekiel became according to the import of his name The strength of God who mightily enabled him as Lavater well noteth with a stout and undaunted spirit to reprove both people and Princes and to threaten them more terribly and vehemently then Jeremy had done before him But in the substance of their Prophecies there is no small conformity Ferunt Ezechielem servum Jeremiae prius extitisse saith Nazianzen Some have affirmed that Ezekiel had sometimes been Jeremiah's servant as was afterwards Baruch Ver. 1. Now it came to passe in the thirtieth year sc Since the Book of the Law found and that famous Passeover kept in King Josiah's dayes 2 King 22. 23. since the eighteenth year of his reign ver 33 So elsewhere they began their account from some memorable mercy or remarkable accident as from the promise made to Abraham the birth of Isaac the departure out of Egypt the division of the Kingdom into that of Israel and the other of Judah c. In the fifth day of the month Which was the Sabbath-day say some confer chap. 3.16 Then was
the burnt-offering prefigured Baptism saith Polanus as did the tables ver 39. the Lords Supper wherein Christ the Lamb of God is slain in out sight Ver. 39. Two tables See on ver 38. Ver. 40. As one goeth up to the entry of the North Hereby was signified say some that our corrupt affections must be mortified and our lives laid down if need be for the truths sake seem it never so hard to be done sicut à Septentrione venti flant aspexi as North-winds are cold and comfortlesse Ver. 41. Four tables Not Altars nor yet Oyster-boards as the Papists scornfully call our Communion-tables Ver. 42. Wherewith they slew the burnt-offering The faithful Ministers of the Gospel do daily execute their Priestly offices and have their instruments according See Acts 10.13 Rom. 15.15 16. Philip. 2.17 The Saints also as spiritual Priests c. Rom. 12.1 1 Pet. 2.9 Ver. 43. And within were hooks Where hung the beasts when they were slayed and afterwards the Priests and offerers portions till after the sacrifice they were shared out Ver. 44. Were the chambers of the singers These were to set forth that Pastours should have all necessary help in their places by the other Church-officers The Levites were singers and porters 1 Chron. 23. 26. Ver. 45. For the Priests Let none else intrude into them See 2 Chron. 26.16 Ver. 46. Which come near Exod. 19.22 Levit. 10.3 21.17 18 21 23. Ver. 47. So he measured Christ doth all things in his Church in number weight and measure by his Spirit he ordereth the length bredth and depth of his spiritual house and bestoweth his gifts by measure to each member Rom. 12. 2 Cor. 10. Eph. 3. 4. Ver. 48. The porch of the house Which was covered over head to keep them dry in foul weather What Christ doth for all his See Isa 4.5 6. Isa 25.4 with the Notes Ver. 49. The length of the porch was twenty cubits After the cubit of the Sanctuary the weights and measures whereof were twice as large as those of the Commonwealth to shew that God expects much more of those that serve him there then he doth of others CHAP. XLI Ver. 1. AFterward This Chapter is no lesse dark and difficult then was the former which made Hierom ready to desist and give over commenting but that he thought it better to say something then nothing and was brought to know and say that the greatest part of those things he knew were but the least part of that he knew not What I do understand is good so I think is that I understand not said Socrates once of a certain dark Author We may be sure it is so here and must mirari potius quà m rimari waiting for more light and praying to that purpose as Ephes 1.17 18. He brought me to the Temple Who had hitherto been held in the Porch There was a new Church to be now erected by the preaching of the Gospel and this the measuring of the house chap. 40. of the Temple 41. of the courts 42. and of all the parts noteth And measured the posts Or Fronts or Frontispiece as the Vulgar hath it Which was the bredth of the Tabernacle Made of old by Moses Ver. 2. And he measured the length there of i. e. Not of the door as Hierom would have it but of the Temple the body and Basilike thereof called the first Sanctuary Heb. 9.2 Fourty cubits This noteth say some the long-suffering and patience of the Saints like as the bredth twenty cubits doth their charity Ver. 3. Then went he inward Toward the Holy of Holyes And the door Which in the second Temple was but a veil and rent at Christs Passion Ver. 4. And the breadth thereof twenty cubits So it was a just square intimating the stability of the Kingdom of Heaven a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Heb. 12.28 This is the most holy place The Holy of Holyes the Oracle the house of the soul wherein the only firm hope of Israel resteth so the Jews called it the Adytum or inaccessible place whither none might come but the High Priest only and that but once a year Pompy and Heliodorus for presuming to presse into it were heavily plagued Ver. 5. He measured the wall With the counter-forts added to it for strength and ornament these are commonly called Pilasters Six cubits sc In bredth Ver. 6. And the side-chambers were three one over another Substructiones Polan Costae Vatab. and thirty in order i. e. Three stories and thirty in each story Semblably there is a threefold rank or order of the members of the Church there are lowermost midlemost and uppermost these as they have their several offices and gifts accordingly so they must keep to their own stations do their own businesse live in love and wait till called unto an higher room Ver. 7. And there was an enlarging and a winding about still upward This might inmind Gods people of heavenly-mindednesse whereby their hearts will be enlarged when got once above the world as birds sing sweetly when got aloft into the aire Went still upward Let there be continual ascensions in our hearts Sursum corda Ver. 8. The foundations Plus rei quam ostentationis habebant Oecol The good soul rather seeks to be good then seems to be so Ver. 9. And that which was left Area pura the void place Piscat Ver. 10. And between the chambers Vulg. the treasuries In the Church much more rome is taken up by such as are void of the treasure of Gods grace then by better men rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom of Christ Ver. 11. Toward the place that was leâ—t Which served the faithful saith Hierom for an Oratory whither they went to pray Ver. 12. The separate place The Temple or at least some part of it Ver. 13. An hundred cubits The Temple of Ephesus was 245 foot long and 220 foot broad Howbeit for spiritual employment mystical signification none ever came near this edifice Ver. 14. Also the bredth an hundred cubits Whereas Solomon's Temple was but twenty cubits broad Ver. 15. An hundred cubits See on ver 13. With the inner temple and the porches thereof Summa infima juxtà curat Oecol nihil aspernatur Ver. 16. And the narrow windows and the windows were covered Here Hierom cryes out O the depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! Here be windows but narrow and covered which shews that we see not yet nor can see into heavenly things but obscurely and obliquely How little a thing doth man understand of God The holy Place was without windows Job 26.14 only there burned lights perpetually but in the most holy Place there was no light at all Ver. 17. By measure Heb. measure See on chap. 40.47 Pressa sub ingenti ceu pondere palma virescit Sub crucefic florent dedita corda Deo Plin. l. 13. c. 4. Ver. 18. And it was made with Cherubims
appointeth his Ministers their several stations together with the bounds of their habitations Shall eat the most holy things Ministers must eat as well as others they are not of the Camelion-kind cannot live upon air and the Lord Christ hath ordained that as they which waited at the Altar were partakers of the Altar so also should they that preach the Gospel live of the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.13 14. And the meat-offering and the sin-offering i. e. The Priests share out of them For besides their tithes and glâ—be or subburbs the Priests had many rich revenues and were far better provided for then now-adays Gospel-ministers are however begrudged that little that is allowed them Ver. 14. Then shall they not go out of the holy place Ministers may not leave their station lay aside their holy calling entangle themselves with worldly cares and businesses but Hoc agere make their Ministry their businesse giving themselves wholly to it Verbi Minister es hoc age this was Mr. Perkins his Motto And say to Archippus Take heed to the Ministry which thou hast received in the Lord that thou fulfil it Coloss 4.17 But there they shall lay their garments And not go amongst the people in them lest they make themselves over-cheap or the people superstitious by placing holinesse in their seeing or touching those holy vestments And shall put on other garments Ministers Oecol as in doing their office they must use all becomming gravity and authority as the Embassadours of Christ so at other times they must familiarize themselves with their people becoming all things to all men in Paul's sense that they may win some Ver. 15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house The inner part of the Church the Church invisible is first and chiefly to be looked into rather then the external adjuncts as multitude prosperity clarity antiquity c. the Substantials rather then the Accidentals The Church of Rome borrows her mark from the market Plenty or cheapnesse c. Vilissimus pagus saith Luther the meane stvilage seems to me to be an ivory Palace if there be but in it a faithful Pastour and a few true believers Ver. 16. Five hundred reeds Loe here the large extent of the holy Catholike Church the Communion of Saints See the Note on chap. 40.1 Ver. 17.18 He measured the North-side five hundred reeds To shew that many should come from all coasts and quarters to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 8.11 See the Note there Ver. 20. He measured it by the four sides The Church is fair and firm for it is quadrangular so is every true member thereof homo quadratus four-square stedfast and unmovable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 always abounding in the Work of the Lord c. 1 Cor. 15. ult his heart is fixed trusting in the Lord Psal 112. He quits himself well in all estates and comes of a gainer Gold is purged in the fire shines in the water as on t'other side clay is scorcht in the fire dissolved in the water The new Jerusalem is said to lye four-square Rev. 21.16 See the Note there CHAP. XLIII Ver. 1. AFterwards he brought me Non nisi dimenso prius montis ambitu The Prophet saw not the glory of God till he had first seen the Mount measured the Temple restored Men must usually wait upon God in the use of means ere they see the King in his glory Even the gate that looketh toward the East Men must awake out of the West of wickednesse and stand up from dead courses and companies if Christ the day-star from on high shall give them light Ephes 5.14 Luke 2.78 79. Ver. 2. And behold the glory i. e. The vision of the glory God who by the East-gate had left the Temple and the City chap 10. doth now the same way return and filleth the house with the glory of his presence And his voice was like a noise of many waters Importing the multitude of his attendants and his irresistible power in his Gospel especially which is the power of God to salvation and like a mighty torrent bears down all before it And the earth shined with his glory How can it do otherwise when the Sun of righteousnesse cometh in place and irradiateth both Organ and Object 2 Cor. 4.6 Into Solomons Temple God came in a thick cloud not so here Light is now more diffused then ever woe be to those that wink or who seek straws to put out their eyes withal as Bernard hath it Ver. 3. And it was according to the vision Being so much the sweeter and the welcomer to me Hence he so oft repeateth it And the Jew-doctours observe that eight times in this one Verse Visionis ac videndi vocabulum repetitur the word for Vision and to see it is made use of When I came to destroy the City i. e. To foretel the destruction of it chap. 9.2 5. from which time forth it was a done thing See Jer. 1.10 with the Note And I fell upon my face In reverence to his Majesty in admiration of his mercy and in the sense of mine own unworthinesse The nearer any one cometh to God the lower he falleth in his own eyes and the more doth rottennesse enter into his bones Ver. 4. And the glory of the Lord See ver 2. By the way of the gate The ordinary entrance into the Temple There if anywhere God is to be found where should a man be sought for but at his house Say he be from home a while yet thither he returneth So here Ver. 5. So the Spirit took me up Who was fain upon my face The lowly shall be lifted up And brought me into the inner court As being a Priest so is every true believer 1 Pet. 2.9 Rev. 1.6 Filled the house Gods presence is the full glory of each good soul See Hag. 2.7 Ver. 6. And I heard him speaking unto me The man Christ Jesus standing by Here then is a meeting and the mystery of the blessed Trinity yea here is a double mystery to be taken notice of viz. those two wonderful unions of three persons in one God and of Christs two natures in one person Ver. 7. The place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet i. e. My Church which is unto me instead of heaven and earth Behold the place of my throne c. so some read it others as for the place of my throne c. Isa 66.1 No more defile But hallow for negative holiness alone is little worth Nor by the carcasses of their Kings i. e. Their idols not unfitly called carcasses Piscat 1. Because void of life 2. Stinking stuffe See Levit. 26.30 Jer. 16.18 These were oft brought in and countenanced by their Kings Ver. 8. In their setting of their threshold by my thresholds By broaching falshoods for truth and setting humane devices in competition with the good Word of God That
those fenns and quagmires Job 40 21. they are void of the Spirit Jude 18 19. they say unto God Depart from us we had rather dance to the Timbrel and Harp Job 21.11 whoredom and wine and new wine take away their hearts Hos 4.11 he who had married a wife or rather was married to her sent word flat and plain he could not come others excused themselves more mannerly Mat. 22. such persons chuse to remain in the sordes of their sins and so are miserable by their own election They shall be given to salt Delivered up to strong delusions 1 Thes 2.15 16. vile affections Rom. 1.26 just damnation Rev. 22.11 Ver. 12. Shall grow all trees for meat Arbores esibiles these are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 useful Christians such as whose lips are feeding and their tongues trees of life Prov. 11.30 15.4 See the Notes there Whose leaf shall not fade They will not fail to make a bold and wise profession of the truth See on Psal 1.3 Jer. 17.8 Neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed But as the Lemmon-tree which ever and anon sendeth new fruits assoon as the former are fallen down with ripeness Or as the Egyptian fig-tree which yeeldeth fruit seven times a year saith Solinus and if you pull off one fig another groweth up presently in the place thereof Because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary Hence their so great fruitfulness viz. from the divine influence Hos 14.8 the Word and Spirit going together Esa 59.21 hence it is that the Saints are neither barren nor unfruitful 2 Pet. 1.8 And the leaf thereof for medicine Gods people by their holy profession of religion do much good to many souls as did diverse of the Martyrs and Confessors Lucianus an ancient Martyr perswaded many Gentiles to the Christian faith by his grave countenance and modest disposition insomuch that Maximinus that persecuting Emperour durst not look him in the face for fear he should turn Christian And so Beda telleth us of one Alban who receiving a poor persecuted Christian into his house and seeing his holy devotion and sweet carriage Hist Ang. l. 1. c. 7. was so much affected with the same as that he became an earnest professour of the faith and in the end a glorious Martyr for the faith The like is recorded of Bradford Bucer and others Ver. 13. This shall be the border Here the Prophet returneth again to the dividing of the land begun chap. 45.1 2 c. having hitherto interposed many most memorable matters and of great use to the Church Joseph shall have two portions He had so by his fathers will and for his two sons adopted by his father Ver. 14. And ye shall inherit one as well as another Spiritual blessings are divided in solidum amongst the community of Gods people they all partake of one and the same saving grace of God righteousnesse of Christ and eternal life though there are several degrees of grace and of glory See Gal. 3.26 27 28 29. All Gods Sons are heirs heirs of God and coheirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Ver. 15. And this shall be the border of the land i. e. Of the Christian Church the borders whereof are here set forth as far larger then those of the land of Canaan ever were From the great sea The Mediterranean sea The way of Hethlon From one end of the Kingdom of Damascus to another Ver. 16. Hamath Berothah Sibraim Towns of Arabia deserta All this is to set forth the amplitude of the Christian Church spread far and near upon the face of the whole earth and therefore rightly called Catholike Roman-Catholike is contradictio in adjecto for it is a particular-universal Ver. 17. And the border from the sea shoil be Hazar-Enan Forasmuch as the borders in this description of the land are set to be such as never were in the Israelites possession the Jew-doctours are will they nill they forced to confess that the land of Israel in the world to come shall be larger then ever it had been Now Heb. 2.5 Gospel-times are called the world to come Ver. 18. From Hauran A town of Arabia deserta Ptolomy calleth it Aurana but Felix in this This was Palmira afterwards Hadrianople that it is taken into the Church Ver. 19. From Tamar Hazazon-Tamar which was near the sea of Sodom v. 10. In Kadesh Not in Rephidim Ezod 17.7 Ver. 20 Till a man come over against Hamath To that place of the great sea from which lyeth a straight way from Hamath East-ward Ver. 21. So shall ye divide Epilogus est There is one and the same inheritance of the Saints in light Ver. 22. An inheritance unto you and to the strangers that sojourn among you What can the spiteful Jews say to this who stick not to say that rather then the bastard Gentiles so they call Christians should share with them in their Messiah they would crucifie him a hundred times over and over Under the old Testament though strangers lived with the children of Israel yet they had no inheritance with them at any time as now they are appointed to have Ver. 23. See on ver 22. CHAP. XLVIII Ver. 1. NOw these are the names of the tribes Who are in this chapter assigned their several seats and the land divided amongst them but this division is much different from that of old which was a plain prediction of a perfect and total abrogation of the Mosaical polity and Levitical worship together with a new state of the Church of God after the coming of Jesus Christ To the coast of the way of Hethlon Chap. 47.15 16 17. Judaea was not say Geographers above 200 miles long and 50 miles broad But R. Kimchi here noteth that the Talmudists affirm that the possession of Israel shall extend unto the utmost coasts of the earth Oecol id quod ex spiritu dictum existima This was well and truely spoken though they understood not what they spake as dreaming only of an earthly Kingdom Psal 89.11 12. But as elsewhere so here the land of Canaan is put for the whole world whereof all true believers are heires together with faithful Abraham Rom. 4. whether they be Jews or Gentiles Christs Kingdom runs to the end of the earth Psal 28. 72.8 A portion for Dan This tribe which was for their shameful revolt from the true religion Judg. 18. cut out of the roll as it were 1 Chron. 7. Rev. 7. is here reckoned first of those who had partem sortem part and lot amongst Gods people So true is that of our Saviour Many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first Mat. 19.30 20.1 Judge not therefore according to the appearance c. Repent and God will reaccept The sable of Antichrist to come of this tribe is long since exploded Ver. 2. From the East side to the West The longitude is described not the latitude for why Christs Kingdom is limitless and
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
6.2 Shall he honour This doubling of the word seemeth to shew the Angels indignation at the indignity of the fact See the like Gen. 49.4 Ver. 31. Ver. 39. Thus shall he do in the most strong holds Heb. in the fortresses of munitions i. e. both in the Temple called elsewhere a strong-hold and in the places of defence near unto the Temple where he set a garrison to force the people to worship his Idols Whom he shall acknowledge and increase with glory Or those whom he shall acknowledge to be favourers and furtherers of his abominable idolatry those he shall increase with glory he shall raise and prefer them as he did Jason Menelaus c. And he shall cause them to rule over many In praestantes illos so Piscator rendreth it over the godly Jews Gods Rabbines And he shall divide the land sc Of Judaea For gain Heb. for a price Sic omnia Romae vaenalia All things are saleable and soluble at Rome Ver. 40. And at the time of the end The year before his death Shall the King of the South Ptolomie Philometor And the King of the North Antiochus his third expedition into Egypt see ver 39 in favour of Physcon And shall overflow i. e. Victoriously overrun Egypt Ver. 41. He shall enter also into the glorious land Judaea as ver 16. but for no good In Greece they say Where the Grand Signior once setteth his foot there groweth no more grasse But these shall escape Because they shall side with him Ver. 42. He shall stretch forth his hand also He shall be very victorious toward his latter end that he may be the riper for ruine fatted ware are but fitted for destruction Ver. 43. Shall be at his steps i. e. Obey him as their Captain Ver. 44. But tidings out of the East c. It it seldom seen that God alloweth to the greatest darlings of the world a perfect contentment but something or other they must have to trouble them still Ver. 45. And he shall plant the Tabernacles of his palace i e 1 Mac. 3.40 4 3. He shall pitch his tent royal in token of full power given to his Captains Lysias and the rest in Emmaus near to Jerusalem to keep the Jews in subjection Between the Seas The Dead Sea and the Midland Sea Polyb. Joseph l. 12. c. 12. which are the bounds of Judaea called here the glorious holy mountain Yet he shall come to his end A loathsome and lamentable one See 1 Maccab. 6.8 2 Maccab. 9. not so much because he would have spoiled the Temple of Diana but because he did spoil the Temple at Jerusalem CHAP. XII Ver. 1. ANd at that time i. e. In the last dayes and toward the end of the World for in this Chapter seemeth to be set forth the State of the Church in the last times that it shall be most afflicted yet she shall be fully delivered by Christs second coming to Judgement Cyprian was in like sort wont to comfort his friends thus Venit Antichristus sed superveniet Christus Antichrist will come but then Christ will come after him and overcome him Shall Michael stand up i. e. The Lord Christ that Prince of Angels and Protector of his people not a created Angel much lesse Michael Servetus that blasphemous heretike burnt at Geneva who was not afraid to say as Calvin reporteth it se esse Michaelem illum Ecclesiae custodem that he was that Michael the Churches Guardian David George also another blackmouthed heretike said that he was that David foretold by the Prophets Jer. 30.9 Ezek. 34.23 Hos 3.5 and that he was confident that the whole World would in time submit to him Which standeth for the children of thy people For all the Israel of God to whom Christ is a fast friend and will he while the government is upon his shoulder Isa 9.6 And there shall be a time of trouble To the Jews by the Romans after Christs ascension Mat. 24.21 to the Christians by the Romists And at that time thy people shall be delivered The elect both Jews and Gentiles shall be secured and saved Every one that shall be found written in the book Called the writing or catalogue of the house of Israel Ezek. 13.9 and the Lambs book of life Rev. 21.27 which is nothing else but conscriptio electorum in mente divina saith Lyra the writing of the elect in the divine mind or knowledge such are said to be written among the living in Jerusalem Isa 4.4 Ver. 2. And many of them that sleep in the dust Many for all as Rom. 5.18 19. these are said to sleep which denoteth the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body The soul liveth in the sleep of death as it doth in the sleep of the body in this life And this the poor Jews when to lose land and life for the truth are here seasonably and plainly told of amidst other things that are but darkly delivered to bear up their sinking spirits Awake they shall as out of a sweet sleep those that are good and then be full of Gods Image Psal 17. â—it The wicked also shall come forth but by another principle and for another purpose they shall come out of their graves like filthy roads against this terrible storm c. Some to everlasting life Which is here first mentioned in the old Testament See Matth. 25.45 Joh. 5.29 And some to shame and everlasting contempt Christ shall shame them in that ample Amphitheatre and doom them to eternal destruction Graevissima paenarum pudor est saith Chrysostom Oh when Christ shall upbraid reprobates and say Ego vos pavi lavi vestivi c. which way will they look or who shall say for them They shall look then upon him whom they have pierced and lament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but all too late they shall be sore ashamed of their sinful practises which shall all be written in their foreheads and this shall be as a bodkin at their hearts that ever they turned their backs upon Christs bleeding embracements whilst they refused to be reformed hated to be healed Ver. 3. And they that be wise And withal do what they can do to wise others to salvation as all wise ones will for Goodnesse is diffusive of itself and would have others to share with it charity is no churl Shall shine as the brightnesse of the firmament A good amends for their present sufferings chap. 11.33 with Rom. 8.18 Solomon allowed little or no considerable reward to his workmen Mat. 13.42 Cant. 8.12 but Christ doth For they shall shine as the firmament yea as the Stars yea as the Sun in his strength yea as Christ himself shineth they shall appear with him in glory Colos 3.4 Their souls shall shine through their bodies as the candle doth through the lanthorn their bodies shall also be so light-some and transparent saith Aquinas that all the veins humours nerves and bowels shall be
to set forth the danger of a Kings displeasure Omne trabis secum Caesris ira malum Ovid. Thou shalt surely die Abimelech 1 Sam. 22.16 Adonijah shall bee put to death this day c. 1 Kings 2.24 Hang Haman on the tree that is fifty cubits high c. Hunc Pugionem tibi mittit Senatus c. Queen Elizabeth was so reserved that all about her stood in a reverent awe of her very presence and aspect but much more of her least frown or check wherewith some of them who thought they might best presume of her favour have been so suddenly daunted and planet-stricken that they could not lay down the grief thereof but in their grave Speâ—â— One of these was Sir Christopher Hatton Lord Chancellour who died of a flux of Urine and grief of mind Camden Elis 406. Neither could the Queen having once cast him down with a word raise him up again though shee visited and comforted him But a wise man will pacifie it Either by some prudent speech or politick device as Abigail did David and David Saul as Benhadads servants did Ahab and as our King Edward the first his servant did him For this King venturing his life Act. Mon. by spurring his horse into a deep river onely to bee revenged on his servant that had incensed him by a sawcy answer was soon pacified when once hee saw him on his bended knees exposing his neck to the blow of the drawn sword wherewith the King pursued him Vers 15. In the light of the Kings countenance is life As when it is well with the head it is the better with all the members and as when the sky is clear the bodies of men are in better temper When David had given Ziba the Land I humbly beseech thee said hee that I may finde grace in thy sight my Lord the King 2 Sam. 16.4 As if hee should say I had rather have the Kings favour than the Lands Artabazus in Xenophon complained when Cyrus had given him a Cup of Gold and Chrysantas a kisse in token of his special favour saying that the Cup that hee gave him was not so good Gold as the kisse that hee gave Chrysantas Ovid. Ut mala nulla feram nisi nudam Caesaris iram Nuda parum nobis Caesaris ira mali est And his favour is as a cloud of the latter rain that refresheth the ground after drought and ripeneth the Corn afore Harvest In the Island of Saint Thomas Abbots Geog. 251. on the back side of Africa in the midst of it is an Hill and over that a continual cloud wherewith the whole Island is watered Christo optimè congruit haec sententia saith Lavater here This saying of Solomon may very fitly bee applied to Christ the King immortal Hee shall come down like Rain upon the mowen grasse as showers that water the earth Psal 72.6 one cast of his countenance is more worth to a David than all the worlds wealth Psal 4.7 8. yea more worth than the corporal presence of Christ therefore hee tells his Disciples they shall bee great gainers by losing of him For I will send you the Comforter who shall seal up my love to you and shed it abroad in your hearts Vers 16. How much better is it to get wisdome than gold q. d. It is unspeakably better to get grace than gold for what is gold and silver but the guts and garbage of the earth and what serves it to but the life that now is the back and belly and what is the happinesse that a man hath in much store of it Psal 39. but skin-deep or rather imaginary Surely man walketh in a vain shew in heaping up riches c. That I speak not of the uncertainty of riches their commonnesse to the wicked also the insincerity of the comforts they yeeld and their utter insufficiency to fill the infinite heart of man Non enim plus satiatur cor auro quà m corpus aurâ The contrary of all which is true of heavenly wisdome How much better is it therefore c Vers 17. The high-way of the upright is to depart from evil That is his rode Psal 139. his desire and endeavour his general purpose though sometimes by mistake or violence of temptation hee step out of the way and turn aside to sin yet there is no way of wickednesse in him His endeavour is with Paul to walk in all good conscience to shape his course by the chart of Gods Word to shun sin as a Serpent in his way as poison in his meats Hee that keepeth his way preserveth his soul As if a man bee out of Gods precincts hee is out of his protection Hee shall keep thee in all thy waies not in all thine out-strayes Hee that leaves the high-way and takes to by-waies travelling at unseasonable hours c. if hee fall into foul hands hee may go look his remedy The Law allows him none Vers 18. Pride goeth before destruction A bulging wall is near a downfall swelling is a dangerous symptome in the body so is pride in the soul Sequitur superbos ultor à tergo Deus Seneca Surely as the swelling of the spleen is dangerous for health and of the sails for the over-bearing of a little vessel so is the swelth of the heart by pride Instances hereof wee have in history not a few Pharaoh Adonibezek Agag Haman Herod c. Xerxes Harod having covered the Seas with his ships and with two millions of men and passed over into Grecia was afterwards by a just hand of God upon him for his prodigious pride forced to flye back in a poor fishers boat which being over-burdened had sunk all if the Persians by the casting away of themselves had not saved the life of their King It was a great fore-token of Darius his ruine Q. Curt. when in his proud Ambassie to Alexander hee called himself the King of Kings and Cousin of the gods but for Alexander hee called him his Servant The same Senators that accompanied proud Seianus to the Senate conducted him the same day to prison they which sacrificed unto him as to their god Dio in Tiberio which erst kneeled down to adore him scoffed at him seeing him dragged from the Temple to the Gaol from supreme honour to extream ignominy Sigismund the young King of Hungary beholding the greatness of his Army in his greaT jollity hearing of the coming of the Turks proudly said what need wee fear the Turk who need not at all to fear the falling of the heavens which if they should fall yet were wee able with our Spears and Halberts Turk hist fol. 208. to hold them up from falling upon us Hee afterwards shortly received a notable overthrow lost most of his men and was himself glad to get over Danubius in a little boat to save his life What should I speak of Bajazet the terrour of the world and as hee thought