Commentary on the Old Testament Volume 2-4
I am the Lord which teacheth thee to profit, Hebr. to make thee profit. Here is shown why the Lord so often calleth upon his people to hear his word, viz. not that any benefit shall hereby redound unto him, but to themselves, if the fault be not their own, great shall be the benefit; for hereby they shall be directed in the way of blessing and life; which should stir all men up with all diligence to hear to be directed; not saying with the wicked in Job, We care not for the knowledge of his ways, What profit shall we have if we call upon him?
That it might appear what profit cometh by God's teaching, if they would have been directed thereby, verse. 18, 19. he saith, Oh that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! then thy peace had been as a river, &c. That is, in abundance, because then thy righteousness should have been as a flood to make this river to run full; as it is said, That the fruit of righteousness is peace, Isa. 32. 17.
Go ye out of Babylon, &c. This he speaks for their greater comfort, as if it were now in doing, which should not be till above an hundred years after; and he stirs up to talk much of it, that it might be commonly known and expected. And verse. 21. to make them expect then a comfortable passage, and the supply of all necessaries even miraculously, he remembers them of the rocks slowing with waters in the wilderness, through which they came, when out of Egypt, Exod. 17. Numb. 20.
There is no peace to the wicked. That all might not promiscuously lay hold upon the comfortable promises before going, but the faithful only, sometime called the remnant whom the Lord will save; he thus concludeth against the multitude of the wicked, that they may never expect peace or comfort, whether of the Jewish Nation or of any other. They may have present prosperity [Note.] indeed, but yet none of God's servants stumble at this, to be made the more remiss in their piety, but considering what horrible destruction shall at length come unto them, be constant even under sufferings in the good way to the end, lest fainting and falling off, they come into the same danger.
CHAP. XLIX.
LIsten ye Isles, and hearken ye people from far, &c. Having spoken in the former Chapter to Israel, to comfort the Jews in respect of their deliverance to come out of Babylon; now he speaks to the people of all Countries and Nations, of another greater deliverance to come by Christ Jesus, because it concerned all Nations, as is plain, verse. 6. I will give thee a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation to the ends of the earth. Yet the Hebrews, saith Lyra, apply it to Cyrus, but Paul and Barnabas to Christ, Act. 13 47. And Simeon, Luk. 2. 32. And therefore all Christian Expositors agree about it, amongst whom Calvin saith, that they who divide the Prophecies of Isaiah into Books, make the sixth and last to begin here, wherein Christ is plainly spoken of, who was before set forth more obscurely. Yet R. Solomon agreeth that the Messiah is here prophesied of, but not he in whom we believe, but one who they imagine is yet to come. But Jerome divideth these Prophecies not into six, but into eighteen Books. Junius saith, that two deliverances are spoken of by this Prophet, one from the Babylonish Captivity, chap. 40. and hitherto; the other by Christ, from hence to the end of the Prophecy. Howsoever I assent not to him in the first, because both deliverances are touched in the premises; yet I do in the latter. And with him I take these words, Listen ye Isles, as spoken in the person of Christ, intimating, that his Gospel should be preached to all Nations, even the furthest off from Judea, as well as the nearest; that is, to the Islands, for they were furthest off: And therefore Musculus noteth, that by the Islands and those afar off, are meant the same, and not divers people: see the like compellation, chap. 41. 1, 5. 34. 1. From the bowels of my mother he hath made mention of my Name. For so it was said by the Angel to Joseph, the husband of Mary, when she was with child, Thou shalt call his Name Jesus.
And he hath set my mouth as a sharp sword. Christ is here set forth by two comparisons, 1. Of a sharp sword. 2. Of a bright and sharp arrow, to show that his words should not be vain, but piercing into men's hearts, galling the malicious wicked, as the Scribes and Pharisees, and pricking others to their conversion. Of the Pharisees see Matth. 21. Of others Joh. 7. 36. So the word is also compared, Heb. 4. 12. and it appeared to be so in the mouth of his servant Peter, Act. 2. 37. when his hearers were pricked in their hearts: and out of Christ's mouth is said to come a two-edged sword, Revel. 1. 16. And, as for a sword, there is a scabbard; for arrows, a quiver to hide them in: so Christ was sheltered under God's protection, till that voluntarily he went to his passion; thus Calvin and Musculus. But Jerome expounds his hiding of his Divinity, hidden under the flesh, which he took, as in a quiver; see chap. 45. 25. Thou art a God that hidest thyself. And he saith that the Apostles were arrows to wound the hearts of them to whom they preached, but he a chosen arrow above them all; and that there are more arrows, is implied by saying, a chosen arrow; that is, one more excellent amongst many, and Ps. 45. Thy arrows are sharp, and thy enemies shall be subdued unto thee. And he is a sword to divide between the good and the bad, for which he saith, I came not to send peace, but a sword.
Thou art my servant (O Israel) in whom I will be glorified. Here God the Father speaks to his Son, calling him his servant; for so Christ said of himself, that he came to minister, Matth. 20. or to serve; and Phil. 2. 6. he came in the form of a servant; and Israel, because he came of Israel, and was most worthy of this name of all others; for not all that come of Israel according to the flesh, are Israel, though of Israel, Rom. 9. 6. But one specially is honored with this name, and who can this be but he, who is singularly said to be the seed of Abraham, that is, Christ, Gal. 3. 16. and in and through him all the truly faithful, being his members; who yet I cannot think are together with him here meant, as Calvin contendeth; and this the next words evince, verse. 4. I said I have labored in vain. Wherein the Son and not the whole body of the faithful, answereth to the Father, saying before, My servant in whom I will be glorified: But alas, saith he, how shall this be, seeing I labor for this indeed, but in vain, seeing so few were converted to the faith by his teaching. And few, saith Sasbont, to this day, will take time to consider his labor in preaching, in prayer and fasting, and suffering a cruel death for us; for if they did, they would be more affected with love towards him that loved them so dearly. Yet my judgment is with the Lord, &c. That is, to judge betwixt me and the people, with whom my labor takes none effect for their conversion, pronouncing on my side that I have done all that could be done for their salvation; and denouncing against them damnation, who would not be moved to repent and believe, what pains soever I took to bring them hereunto. By which words, saith Jerome, he intimateth a liberty of will in them, which because they abused to make them averse from Christ, they shall be most justly condemned. And my work with my God. That is, the reward of my work; for although the Jews, through the hardness of their hearts believed not, his labor was not lost, but highly rewarded, when he had a Name given him above all names, Phil. 2. 6. Neither shall the labor of any faithful Minister of his be lost, although ineffectual to those amongst whom, through their own malice.
That I should bring Jacob to him, and that Israel should not be gathered. Hereby, saith Jerome, is meant that Christ should first preach only to the Jews, and seek their conversion; according to which he saith, I am not sent, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But when they instead of embracing his doctrine, sought to kill him and did kill him, as is set forth in the parable, Matth. 21. of the husbandmens having the Vineyard let unto them, then this doom against them took effect; that he intended the gathering of them no more, but he sent his Apostles to the Gentiles. And whereas the Septuagint hath it, and I Israel shall be gathered, And Aquila, so skillful in the Hebrew, That Israel should be gathered to him; he censureth both, as eluding a most pregnant testimony against the Jews, of their obduration and being forsaken, after that they had been a while by Christ preached unto; saying that it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 not, and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to him, which is here used: and therefore Symmachus and Theodotion render it not also. The Hebrews say that there be fifteen places in the Bible, in which 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is put for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and this is one, and therefore in the margin it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; hereby Aquila is thought by Jerome to have been deceived; but we must take heed how we be led about all the rules of the Jews; so Sasbont. Retain we therefore the reading in the text in the sense before going, and yet neglect not that in the margin, being haply apposed to intimate their future conversion, when they shall cease to be abdurated any longer, Rom. 11. 2 Cor. 3. I shall be glorious in the eyes of the Lord, that is, Although Israel be not gathered, as in our N. Tr. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 and, being rendered by although. These words are added to show how Christ should not lose his labor, of which it was spoken before, verse. 4. for he should be glorious notwithstanding, and of great power amongst other Nations; as is immediately shown, verse. 6. Having turned some of the Jews first, he shall be a light to lighten the Gentiles, &c. upon which I have spoken before, verse. 1.
Thus saith the Lord to him whom man despiseth, &c. Here, as verse. 5. the Lord replieth to his Son Christ again, comforting him in this, that although he were contemptible to man, yea to the Nation of the Jews, and used like a servant by their Princes, Herod, Annas, Caiaphas, and Pontius Pilate; that is, basely; yet Kings and Princes should see and rise and worship him; that is, saith Jerome, first, at the day of judgment; but by and by better, embracing his faith, and so doing him reverence, as the Son of God. But some, he saith, by the despised here, understand the Jews, whom he also calleth an abominated Nation, and this is followed by Musculus and Calvin, referring it to the contempt wherein the Jews were had under the Babylonish Kings in the time of their Captivity, being made their servants: But when Cyrus the Persian was King over all, the King himself and his Princes rose up for honors sake to them, and in so doing they are said to worship him, that is, God. But he preferreth the former, as there is good reason. Junius is also for Christ, here understood by the contemptible soul; for so it is Hebr. and whereas Calvin renders the next words, The abominable Nation, he whom the Nation abominates, meaning the Nation of the Jews; but Calvin's reading being admitted, as agreeable to the Hebrew, and followed by the Vulg. Lat. yet it is not necessary to understand the Jewish Nation here spoken of: But as Lyra hath it, The Christian had in abomination by the Jews, for believing in Christ, and made servants by being condemned to the mines by Heathen Emperors, for Christ and his Church are one. But when the whole current of the Prophecy is touching Christ, it is altogether from the purpose to bring the Jew in here delivered by Cyrus, especially their obduration being before prophesied of, verse. 5. It is therefore undoubtedly spoken of Christ and his Church, the miracles done wherein when Kings should see, they should rise up and turn Christian also, and worshippers of Christ, as Constantine the great and other Emperors after him. But Christ might well be called a contemptible soul or man, because so hated by the Jews; that, as Jerome saith, they cursed him in their Synagogues three times in a day.
Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time I have heard thee, &c. Here the Prophet goeth on to speak more comfort to Christ, who was by the wicked Jews despised, and in despite crucified. The Lord saith, that he heard him in an acceptable time; that is, saith Jerome, when hanging upon the Cross he cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? For God made it appear, that he heard him and forsook him not, in that he raised him from the dead, and gave him for a Covenant to the people, that he should raise up the earth, &c. For thus S t Paul applieth it, 2 Cor. 6. 2. Having chap. 5. 2. said, He made him to be sin for us, that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God through him. He here to prove it to be so saith, For in an acceptable time I have heard thee, &c. That is, through thy death to be so reconciled to all that believe, as to justify them by thy righteousness, and to save them. For accordingly he gave him for a Covenant to the people, that is, to such of the Jews as believed: And stirred up the earth, that is, men of other parts of the earth, who lay buried in the error of idolatry, And possessed the dissipated inheritances, or desert inheritances: So called because they had not God dwelling in them, but now he takes them into his possession when they are converted. And he saith to them that are bound, Go out; that is, bound with sin and in darkness of ignorance as in a dark dungeon; Be refreshed with the light of saving knowledge. They shall be fed in the way, That is, with wholesome instructions out of the world whilst they live in this world, for here we are in the way, and afterwards in heaven they shall neither hunger nor thirst anymore, but enjoy perpetual satiety of joys and pleasures unspeakable; see the same, Revel. 7. And I will set all my mountains for a way for them. That is, heightening low places, that all their way may be plain and so delightful. Lastly, showing who they be with whom he will deal thus, he saith, Behold these shall come from far, these from the north, and the sea, or west, and these from the land of Sinim, that is, the South; and then those from afar, are from the East. But the Septuagint, for the Land of Sinim, hath, the land of the Persians, which is East, and then they from afar must be South. Thus Jerome, saying, that it is here prophesied of the conversion of people's in all parts, East, West, North and South, and consequently of their salvation according to that of our Lord, Luk. 13. 29. They shall come from the East, West, &c. and sit down in the Kingdom of heaven. Lyra differs little from Jerome, and whereas it is said, They shall be fed in all plain places. He saith, hereby are meant the good examples of the Saints, which are more available to teach simple people then the instructions of the word: And he is said to be a Covenant to the people, because they came by him to be in Covenant with God. They shall be brought to the fountains of water. This implieth full rest in the good attained in heaven: So Calvin applieth all this from, v. 8. to v. 13. Christ, that he draweth almost all first to the Jews delivered out of Babylon, and generally to all God's faithful people, both Jews and Gentiles. For first, In an acceptable time I have heard thee. This is manifestly spoken to the comfort of every believer, and to Christ in relation to his Church, the good whereof he sought and not his own continually; and so it is applied by the Apostle, 2 Cor. 6.
Neither sun nor heat shall smite them. This is spoken in allusion to the pillar of a cloud shadowing them in the wilderness: And whereas he speaks of their feeding upon high places, he assimulates them to sheep, and Christ to a shepherd, leading his sheep into divers pastures; intimating that everywhere there should be pasture enough, even upon the tops of hills. Here the Vulg. having it, In plain places, is to be amended, for the worn 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here used is high places. Vers. 11. I will make all my mountains ways, That is, I will remove all impediments from before them. Vers. 12. Some by Sinis understand mount Sinai, and hereby the South, because it was southward; some Siene, under the tropick of Cancer: But without contending further about it, we may rest in that which hath been already said.
Sing O heavens, &c. Of this see before, chap. 44. 23. being the same almost verbatim.
Can a woman forget her sucking child? In the former verse Zion is brought in complaining, The Lord hath left me, &c. to that it is here replied. Now Zion or Jerusalem, saith Jerome, is taken four ways; 1. For the place properly so called. 2. For the Congregation of Saints, both of Jews and Gentiles; of which it is said, the Lord loveth the gates of Zion more then all the habitations of Jacob: For hereby cannot be meant Zion properly, which was long ago destroyed, but that Zion which God loves cannot be destroyed. 3. For the company of Angels, according to Heb. 12. 22. Ye are come to mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of Angels. 4. For that Jerusalem which shall be, spoken of Revel. 21. and 22. of which our Judaizers speak many things which they understand not, and upon the description of it, Ezek. 44. Here, by Zion, of which God will be so mindful, the Congregation of Saints is to be understood. Thy builders came, which destroyed thee, they shall go out of thee. Who were the builders but the Scribes and Pharisees? for they were the builders which refused the Stone, which is the chief Stone of the corner, building by traditions of men, and so destroying those that were thus built by them; for they compassed sea and land to make one Proselyte, and then he is twofold more the child of hell then themselves. But now they shall go out from the true Zion, the Church of Christ, and so shall all heretics, for the Church shall not follow such anymore in their teaching, but separate from them. Lift up thine eyes and see, all these are gathered to thee. To this our Lord alludeth, when he saith, Lift up your eyes and see, the regions are already white unto the harvest. As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt be clad with all these as with an ornament. Here for more assurance the Lord confirms by oath, that the faithful Jews, that is, Apostles and other preachers shall convert the Gentiles to the true faith, and the great multitudes of them that they converted shall be as an ornament making them glorious in all the world in the eyes of believers, as a brides ornaments doth her of the spouse of Christ, the Church thus adorned, see Ps. 45. Her clothing is of gold, wrought about with divers colors, For thy desolate places and wildernesses shall be straight for thy inhabitants. That is, The Gospel being so readily everywhere received by so many. And they that devoured thee shall be driven far away; that is, false teachers before said to destroy her, And the children of thy barrenness shall say in thine ears, the place is too straight, &c. That is, whereas thou wert formerly barren and despairedst of ever having any children, thou shalt now have so many as that it shall drive thee into an admiration how thou camest by them. Calvin and Musculus understanding Zion literally of the inhabitants of Zion; the Jews say, that this is spoken for their comfort, although their City should be destroyed and lie long desolate; yet God did not all this time forget it, no more then a man doth the signet upon his finger, the continual seeing whereof maketh him that he cannot forget it. Wherein it is alluded to that precept which God gave of binding the commandments to their right hand. And because he also addeth [Thy walls are continually before me] But when they should afterwards see the City lie in ruinous heaps seventy years together, they might despair of this promise, saying, Alas our walls are all down and lying in ruinous heaps: He saith, verse. 17. Thy builders make haste, thy destroyers shall depart far from thee. That is, The Persians taking care to build the Temple and City again, when the time which God hath appointed shall come, shall provide for the doing of it with all speed; and the Chaldees their enemies, who destroyed and kept them under, shall go out of their Country, as having nothing to do there anymore. Here the reading of the text, I confess, is more according to the Hebrew then that of Jerome, so that it needs to be corrected. But being thus corrected, the sense will be good of the Evangelical Church, Thy builders hasten; for the Apostles went preaching from place to place, and being persecuted in one City, went to another; and false teachers, who had formerly misled the people, and so indeed were their destroyers, continued not in any credit amongst the faithful any longer, which is meant by their going out of thee. But whereas he speaks of the people returning to Zion in great multitudes, as an ornament unto her; Calvin noteth rightly, that when the Church of Christ hath many children, that embrace the truth from their hearts and live accordingly, she is adorned and beautified indeed, but not when the Temple is decked with glorious Images, which the Papists count great ornaments. So S t Paul calleth the Corinthians his crown, and Cornelia a great Lady in Rome, as I remember, her two sons, the Scipio's her ornaments; saying to a noble man that shown her the costly furniture of his house, they coming in in the interim, Et haec sunt ornamenta mea. And verse. 19. finding that the great multitudes of children making that Jerusalem was too little to contain them, cannot be applied to the Jews returning from Captivity, for Jerusalem had so few inhabitants, that they were constrained for a supply to provide by laws for the peopling thereof out of the Country, he applieth it with Jerome to the times of the Gospel, and likewise ver. 20. where the Church is brought in admiring at her own so numerous a brood, all true children that any knew of, failing, and the means of begetting them, true doctrine, till Christ and his fore-runner and Apostles came. Whence note how vain the Papists are in [Note.] making the perpetual visibility of the Church a mark thereof, seeing at Christ's coming she was so destitute of children, and so shall be at his second coming, of which he saith, When the son of man cometh, shall he find faith upon the earth? And the Churches lying hid in the wilderness before that 1260 days argueth the same, that none be deceived hereby.
I will lift up my hand to the Gentiles, and set up a Standard to the people. This is spoken in answer to the Church complaining of her barrenness, but comforted with a Promise of a most numerous offspring. Here it is shown, how this shall be, even as a King by setting up his Standard, gathers multitudes of men about him to increase his Army; so he saith, that he would by the Gospel lifted up by his hand of miracles, and made so glorious that Nations should desire it, draw innumerable multitudes out of the Nations to the faith of Christ herein set forth. Jerome thinks the sign of the Cross to be meant by this Standard. Of lifting up an ensign, but for another end, see before Chap. 5. 22. Sasbont, the first sign lifted up was the Gospel, the second, the whole word of God, the third, the sign of the Cross. And they shall bring thy sons in their arms, &c. That is, saith Lyra, their children to be baptized, and thus to be made sons of the Church, for which he saith, Thy sons and thy daughters, he meaneth, that they should first by hearing believe, and be admitted into [Note.] the Church by Baptism, and then all their little ones also, as it is commonly said, Believe and thou shalt be saved and all thy house, and he was baptized and all his house. A plain place against them that deny the baptizing of Infants; for to whom is salvation promised, but to him and all his family upon his believing? and what were his children but of his family? When he was baptized then, and all his house, who can deny that his children were baptized also? If any man shall say, haply he had none, we may more certainly affirm, if he had, they should have been baptized, because otherwise all his house should not have been saved, because not all baptized; and yet I say not, that all are saved that are baptized, but whomsoever we would have saved, we ought to baptize upon this ground. And Parents cannot say of their children to the Church, They are thy children, unless they bring them in their arms to be so made by Baptism. I know that it is by some expounded metaphorically, as Deut. 32. 10. God is said to have carried the Hebrews in his bosom, Hos. 11. 3. But it is a rule in Theology, That when any sentence of Scripture may be taken properly without absurdity, it is so to be understood; as when children were brought to Christ to be blessed, and he took them up in his arms; so here there being no absurdity to say that Parents carry their children in their arms to be baptized, the literal sense is to be taken, and no need to flee to a metaphorical. If it be objected, he saith not Theirs, but Thy children, speaking to the Jew; Sol. He saith Thine by anticipation, meaning such as I will presently making them to be of Israel, whereby the children of Zion, that is, the mother-Church of the Jews shall be so wonderfully increased, as hath been said.
And Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers, and Queens thy nursing Mothers. The children of the Church growing so wonderfully numerous, as hath been said, if she shall begin to take care how to nourish and maintain so many; here that Query is satisfied, Kings shall be thy nursing Fathers, &c. Now the Nurse feeds the child, and defends it from harm, so it is hereby intimated, That Kings and Queens should do by the faithful under the Gospel, 1. Providing that the Preachers thereof may have sufficient maintenance, that they may not need to trouble themselves about worldly things. 2. For the maintenance of Schools of good literature, as Seminaries of godliness and learning, that the Church may thence have a continual supply of able Pastors. 3. For the relief of poor Widows and Orphans, and other impotent persons, that none may be suffered for want to wander as vagabonds, which is a disgrace to Christianity: and to this end to build Hospitals and Alms-houses, and indowing them with means. 4. Defending the innocent from oppressors by judging righteously, and the Church in general from enemies, that seek to overthrow it, either by force of arms, or to corrupt it by any kind of heresy. They shall worship thee with their faces bowed to the ground, &c. That is, Christ Jesus, believing him to be the Son of God and very God. For although the speech be directed to Zion, that is, the Church, yet when anything of adoration is brought in, it is to be referred to the Head thereof, who cannot be considered as separate, but joined as one with his Church. Wherefore it is meant first, That Kings and Queens, as well as common people should serve Christ with all reverence. 2. Bow to the truth taught by his Ministers becoming in all things obedient unto it, and submitting themselves to hear it with fear and reverence, and such Kings as do not these things are unworthy of Christ, and the inestimable benefits coming by him. But this is not to be applied to any man of the Church or men, though never so eminent, as if Kings and Queens were bound thus out of their piety to bow to him or them, as the proud Bishops of Rome apply it to Peter, and to themselves: But if they [Note.] would look into Act. 10. and see how Peter would not endure Cornelius to bow to him, they would be greatly ashamed of this their pride, whereby they rather represent Heathen Emperors who were ambitious of divine honors, then Christ's Ministers, whose greatest glory is humility towards one another; and therefore much more towards Kings and Princes. Neither can it be hence commended for Kings to be profuse towards any of Christ's Mininisters in respect of worldly honors or riches, because he saith, They should be nursing Fathers, and honors of this kind, are plainly interdicted, Matth. 20. and a Bishop must not be given to filthy lucre, 1 Tim. 3.
Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the captive justly taken delivered? Having spoken hitherto of the deliverance of the faithful by Christ, that it shall certainly be, and of their glorious condition after this deliverance, now he removeth an objection against it, and so seeks further to confirm it. Although it be not commonly done, that the prey is taken from the mighty, or the captive taken in war justly without agreeing upon a price, yet as the Jews had this performed to them, when they were plucked out of the hands of the King of Babylon, who had made a prey of them, and delivered out of Captivity gratis, so God's chosen people of all Countries and Nations being before made a prey by the devil, whilst they lived in Idolatry, and so justly taken captive, although held by a strong man armed, were taken away by a stronger, and by him delivered, he being destroyed in respect of all his strength against them by his death. And he renders a reason hereof, verse. 25. I will contend with him that contends with thee, &c. And the Lord's power is irresistible.
And I will feed thy spoilers with their own flesh, &c. That is, as they had destroyed his people the Jews, thus feeding, as it were, upon their flesh, and drinking their blood, so they should be destroyed, their feeding upon the flesh of others according to this sense being turned into feeding upon their own flesh, when they should be slain in great multitudes, as they had slain others in most cruel manner: they are then threatened Lege talionis, and it is not necessary as Musculus and Calvin do, to expound it of their falling together by the ears amongst themselves, thus by their swords mutually devouring one another, as sometime the Edomites and Moabites did 2 Chron. 20. For God makes them to feed upon their own flesh, to whose ravenous desire to eat the flesh of others, he putteth an end by destroying them by whomsoever, and making them to fall thick one upon another, and to lie deep in their own blood. For the Babylonians never ate so their own flesh that we read of, but this was done when the Persians overcame Babylon, and according to this Thomiris the Scythian Queen did sometime to Cyrus, when having cut off his head she put it into a vessel filled with his and his men's blood, with this exprobation, Satia te sanguine quem diu sitisti, Fill thyself with blood which thou hast long thirsted after. Neither did the Heathen afterwards, who had shed the blood of innumerable Saints under the New Testament, pay for it by destroying one another, but the Christians under Constantine overcoming Lycinius, and his Army, and under Theodosius the idolatrous people that came against them.
CHAP. L.
WHere is the bill of your mothers divorcement that I have put away? &c. Here by mother Jerome understands Jerusalem, whom the Lord suffered to be destroyed, and then by her children must be understood children according to the flesh. And he saith, it was not through harshness in the Lord giving her a bill of divorce without cause that this came unto her, but by her own sins.
Wherefore when I came was there no man, none to answer? And this he applieth to Christ coming in the flesh, to whose calling none of the carnal Jews answered, and he noteth that he saith [no man] because they were all turned into beasts, Herod their King into a fox, some into a generation of vipers, some that are fleshly and lustful and sensual into swine, the impudent into dogs, for which it is said, Cast not your pearls before swine, &c. and he called them, by saying, Come to me all that be weary, and, If any man thirsteth, let him come. And to this agreeth Cyril, Procopius, Eusebius, Ambrose and Origen, who upon Matth. 26. saith, that the whole Church consents about it. The same also appears by Lyra. Yet some understand it of the Jews in Captivity: But we may well rest in the first, taking it, as further spoken to the complaint made Chap. 49. 14. of being forsaken. Only there the faithful amongst the Jews complain and are comforted, here the carnal are challenged for laying the fault upon the Lord, that Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. If so, he bids them show their mothers bill of divorce, whereby it might appear that the fault was in the Lord and not in her that she was put thus away. For as Calvin hath it, a woman being put away by a bill of divorce from her husband, was hereby justified, that it was not for her fault, but through his mo • osity that she was put away. Wherefore he bids them if they can to bring forth such a bill, but this they could not, and therefore the cause was manifest, their sins. The Jewish Church had been the Spouse of God, but now she is for her sins put away, and the Church of the Gentiles called to this honor. And this was her main sin, that he calling to the faith of the Gospel, none would answer, but all hardened their hearts. And being hereupon put away, when for the Jews refusal the Apostles turned to the Gentiles, her destruction soon followed. For the cause of this could not be any inability in God, or mutability in respect of good will: For his hand he saith was not shortened; and to show how able and willing he was he recounteth his drying up of the sea, that is, the red sea to let them go thorough upon dry Land, thus delivering them from the Egyptians that pursued them, his drying of rivers, that is, Jordan in like manner, and smiting the rivers in Egypt that the fishes died, and covering the face of the Heaven over that Land so with darkness, that they could not see for three days. Sasbont expounds this only, as showing what God can do. Lyra varieth only about covering the Heavens with darkness, referring it to the darkness upon all the earth at the time of Christ's passion. The Hebrew words are all of the future tense, whereby I think with Sasbont, that God can do it when he pleaseth, and being able to do these things he can doubtless deliver his people also, not only from Babylon, but from sin and death by his Son Jesus Christ.
He hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I might know in season a word exciting to the weary. Thus it is Hebr. and the meaning is plain, how to speak a word of comfort to the weary, whereby their drooping spirits might be stirred up and cheered. And although the Hebrews, and Thomas Aquinas, and Calvin apply this to Isaiah and other Prophets of God in general, set to comfort his afflicted people after threatening and reproof, yet I doubt not but with Jerome and all other ancient Expositors, to refer it to Christ, as Junius also doth. For having declared his power to save verse. 2, 3. challenging the hard-hearted Jews for their obstinacy, of whom none would answer, when he came into this world, and taught, and did wonders amongst them, showing therein so great power indeed, as that they might easily gather him to be Almighty, and so able to do all the things mentioned there. Now he is brought in further speaking of his admirable gift in teaching; for it is said, That be taught with authority, and not as the Scribes, and the Officers sent to take him, said, Never man spake as he did; and for the weary in particular, Come to me all that be weary and heavy laden. And whence this admirable faculty came, he showeth in the next words, Morning by morning he shall stir up my ear, that I may hear as the learned; that is, God makes me from day today to hear, and so to speak what he biddeth me, and how. For so Christ the son of man often saith, That he did and spake nothing but from his Father, and what he heard of him. And well may his speaking seasonably to the weary be here spoken of; and whence he had this learning, now that he is declaring his power. For his comfortable speeches were not bare words, but words accompanied with power, to heal the sick, to give sight to the blind, to cleanse lepers, to cast out devils, to appease tempests, to make fishermens labors prosperous, when they had before toiled all night for nothing: And which is above all; to raise the dead, and even the dead in sin, and to forgive sins, wherein the greatest comfort in the world lieth to such souls as feel the load of sin, and are weary of it. Moreover the words following ver. 6. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks, &c. do most notably agree unto Christ, whom they whipped, and buffeted, and spit upon, but of any such thing done to Isaiah we read not. Whereas Calvin saith, Neither were David's hands or feet pierced, neither had he gall and vinegar given him to drink, &c. as Psa. 22. many things that were done to the servants of God of greatest note, not being set down, and therefore these things might be done also to Isaiah, though we read not of them; It is of no force to justify the exposition applying it to Isaiah: for we are sure that they were done to Christ, but know not that they were done to Isaiah, and it is unprobable that those things Psal. 22. were ever done to David; therefore the most certain understanding of both places is of Christ in Ps. 22. typified in David, or by him spoken of in the person of Christ, here properly, as brought in speaking. And it is to give advantage to the Jew to apply this place otherwise, who will not endure to hear that Messiah should be thus misused, but reign as a King in great glory, subduing all the Jews enemies to them, which made them to despise Christ when he came so poor, and suffering himself to be such a scorn and reproach amongst men. And the like is manifestly spoken of Christ Cha. 53▪ expounded thus, Act. 8.
The Lord hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious. That is, He hath not only given me learning to speak to others by opening the ears of my mind to hear him instructing me, but to obey his will in keeping all his Commandments, yea the very hardest, even by suffering death upon the Cross. And herein every Minister of Christ should make him his pattern, 1. By endeavoring to be taught of God to speak most effectually, to this end praying for the assistance of his Spirit, and not depending upon words taken out of Books. 2. To live in all things in obedience to God's will. 3. Constantly to bear sufferings in what kind soever.
For the Lord is with me, therefore shall I not be confounded, &c. God was joined with man in the person of Christ suffering, and therefore he could not be confounded, how shamefully soever abused. And God, he saith, justified him, therefore none can condemn him, as suffering for his own sins, for he suffered all to save his people, as Chap. 53. For which cause he challengeth his adversaries to contend with him, and prove the contrary if they could, but because they could not, and yet laid wickedness and deceit to his charge, he threateneth them, that they should be as a Garment eaten by moths, a similitude often to set forth the utter destruction of the wicked, from which there is no recovering again. Of this, or the worm that never dieth, read again Isa. 66. for Jerome makes them both one, gnawing upon and stinging the conscience for their evil doings. But Lyra better aith, because Pilate and the Priests condemned Christ unjustly, they were destroyed as a garment by moths; Pilate being banished by Tiberius, and the Priests by Titus burnt in the Temple, sorrow eating upon the one, and fire upon the other, of whom Titus said, That it was fit that they which served in the Temple, should perish together with it.
Who is there amongst you that feareth the Lord, that walketh in darkness? &c. Having threatened Christ's enemies verse. 9. now he layeth all the fault of the destruction threatened upon the wicked Jews themselves, challenging them to say, if they can, whether there be any amongst them that fear the Lord and hearken to Christ's teaching, who are left in darkness, that is, to sink in the foresaid misery: No, let such trust and stay themselves upon God, for when this time of destruction cometh, they shall be safe, as indeed they were, the Christians a little before the siege of Jerusalem being by a voice from heaven called out to go to Pella; so Josephus.
All ye that have kindled a fire, &c. That is, The fire of God's wrath by your sins, as ye have made it burn about you, so ye shall walk in it to your torment, And lie down in sorrow, that is, perish miserably, and this is said to have come to them from God's hand, because that although the Romans destroyed them and their City, yet it was by God's arming them so to do, and in revenge of their malice and cruelty against Christ and his faithful servants. To this effect Lyra, and Jerome saith the same upon ver. 11. but upon verse. 10. That walketh in darkness and hath no light; these words are by him referred to Christ, as a description of him, being the servant before spoken of, to hear whom is commended to all that fear the Lord. And by his being without light he understands the light of outward glory, for this was hidden under the form of a servant, wherein he appeared, as the light of the Sun being hidden by a thick dark cloud, and whilst it is so walks in darkness. In this sense it is an exhortation to such as fear the Lord, that is, with such a fear, as to slee all sin, and hearken to Christ to believe in him, though nothing outwardly appeared in him to induce them to it, to trust in the Lord and to rest upon his help in the midst of greatest dangers that should come, for in so doing they should surely be in safety. Junius refers it to them, whom Christ called to faith and repentance, that walked in the darkness of ignorance, & of Pharisaism, but now gave ear to Christ's teaching. Sasbont, Who is there that feareth the Lord, which hath walked in darkness, but now heareth his servant Christ? Verily none; if there be let him trust in the Lord. But I propound this in vain unto you, for ye make you a fire to burn you by obstinate going on in sin, instead of being moved by any good • nstruction to fear the Lord. Of all these I prefer the first, taking it as a consolation to such as fear God, though for the present in the darkness of miseries, and without all light of worldly comfort or prosperity.
CHAP. LI.
LOok to the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit, &c. Having stirred up the faithful to trust in God Chap. 50. 10. although they should lie long in misery, here he seeks to confirm them by the example of Abraham, who was, as it were the rock out of which they were hewed, and he is so called for his firm faith. Of the like to which when Christ heard from Peter, he said, Upon this rock I will build my Church, which although I do not expound of Peter, but of Christ, as the main foundation and the corner Stone, yet neither he, nor the rest of the Apostles are to be excluded, for we are built upon the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief Stone of the corner, Eph. 2. 20. and Abraham and Peter may as well be said to be rocks for their admirable faith, wherein they began to others, the one in the Old Testament after the flood, the other under the new by a communication of the name from Christ the rock of us all, as other believers Christi, or anointed from him, the anointed above his fellows. And by the hole or cavern of the pit, out of which they were digged, Sarah is set forth, who was also famous for her faith Heb. 11. and so had power in her old age to conceive and bring forth a son, of whom Israel, and all Israelites descended. Some think that it is alluded here to the water coming of the rock Numb. 20. but this cannot be, because hewing is here spoken of. They render a better reason, who, because a family is like unto a building, think Abraham to be compared to a rock, and Sarah to a pit, for the materials of which a building is made stone out of a rock, and cement out of a pit. The difficulty also of their being begotten and brought forth is intimated, as it is hard to hew stone out of a rock, and to dig stuff for buildings out of a pit that is deep, for so Isaac was brought forth, when it was thought by reason of Abraham's and Sarah's age impossible. Now to these he bids them look, that their faith might be stayed, because to Abraham the promise of inheriting Canaan was made four hundred years before the accomplishment, and therefore although many years passed before the Messiah came, in whom the comfort of all that feared God lay, they might well be comforted, even until the accomplishment of that most blessed Promise. Touching the rock here spoken of and the pit, excellent is the saying of Cyril, As it is a most hard thing out of a solid rock to cut stones, and to draw out of a deep pit; so, that a son should be born of an old man, and a barren old woman; but this was done beyond all men's opinions by the command and beck of God. Calvin thinks all this is spoken in respect of the increase of the Jews again after their diminution, and that they were brought to so few by the Babylonish Captivity. For God could as easily multiply them again, as he did Abraham's posterity formerly. This I deny not to be true, but cannot understand it of the increase of Israel according to the flesh, because in showing how they should be so greatly increased, he saith verse. 5. The Isles shall wait upon me; and Chap. 49. 22. I will lift up an ensign to the Gentiles; upon which see what hath been written.
For the increase of Abraham's seed, that it is meant is plainly shown v. 2. I called him alone, and blessed, and increased him. Whereby he intimates that he could do so again in respect of spiritual children, who only are his true seed, Gal. 4.
For the Lord will comfort Zion. That is, spiritual Zion, the Church, re-erecting her decayed buildings, by the conversion of many in all Countries to the true faith, of which the Church shall have great joy.
For a law shall proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light of the people. This law, saith Lyra, is the Gospel, which went out as a light to all people's, as also the words following declare. Yet some Christian Expositors do herein more Judaize then the Hebrews themselves, expounding it of the Decree going out from Cyrus, for even their rare Rabbins do not so understand it, but of the Messiah. Judgment is the same with the Law, the same being sometime called by one of these names, sometime by another; and by this that it was a light to people's or Gentiles, the preaching of the Gospel is often celebrated.
My righteousness, or righteous one, that is, Christ, is near, Mine arms shall judge the people; that is, by my strength overcoming the devil they shall be delivered out of his power; according to that, Now is the judgment of the world, now is the prince of this world cast out.
My salvation shall be forever. Here is a comparison made betwixt this world consisting of heaven and earth, and salvation to come by Christ, these shall wax old and vanish, but that is everlasting. Jerome takes occasion here to speak of these creatures, as not quite to vanish, but to be burnt unto a change into better. But of this I have said enough upon 2 Pet. 3. 10. and upon Rom. 8. 21.
Unto this taken from the heavens, &c. he addeth another from men, the enemies of his people, whom he biddeth them not to fear, for the moth shall eat them as a garment; of which before, chap. 50. 9.
Awake, put on strength thou arm of the Lord, &c. Because the Lord had made such gracious promises, verse. 6, 7, 8. here the faithful are brought in, saith Jerome, stirring up the Lord by his Almighty power to do as he had promised, recounting his ancient mighty acts, Art not thou it that cut Rahab, or as he reads it, The proud one, expounding it of Pharaoh the King of Egypt, called also the Dragon, both here, and chap. 27. 1. See a like place, Psal. 74. 13. and of proud Egypt set forth by Rahab, Psal. 87. 4. and Pharaoh again by a Dragon, Ezek. 29. 3. and the word Rahab signifieth strength or pride. And that Egypt is meant hereby in this place appears, because the mighty acts done of old recounted here, were in drying the sea to make a way through it, and the bringing it upon the Egyptians, and the striking of Egypt with divers plagues before that, for then that proud Nation was cut, and their King being terrible before as a Dragon near the river Nile destroyed. As for the words, Awake, awake, it may be taken either for the Prophets prayer, teaching us how we [Note.] ought to seek the accomplishment of God's gracious promises by prayer, and not to say, He that hath promised will perform, whether we seek to him or no; or for the Churches prayer, not calling upon the Lord here set forth by his arm, sometime by his eyes, ears, or his name to awake, as if he slept at any time, for he that keepeth Israel neither slumbereth nor sleepeth: But because as when the Champion sleepeth, they that should be defended by him are endangered by the enemies coming, he must be awaked to save them; so the Church is brought in calling upon the Lord when she is in danger, and so continueth long and no help yet appeareth, and that after the manner of men. By the arm of the Lord, some understand Christ, who destroyeth our proudest and stoutest spiritual enemies, because, verse. 6. he speaketh of the salvation forever, and that is by Christ: and of this Zacharias speaking saith, He hath raised up for us a mighty salvation; and what is this but the arm of the Lord? And indeed both, I take it, are here meant, the power of God, whereby, as by his mighty hand and stretched out arm he brought his people out of Egypt, and his Son by as great power delivering from sin, death and the devil. And to show this, it is added, The Redeemed of the Lord shall come, with singing to Zion, and everlasting joy upon their heads, as before, chap. 35. 10. intimating the redeemed by Christ, and not only from the Babylonish Captivity, for their joy was but temporany, neither was it ever so full.
I, even I am he, who art thou that thou shouldst be afraid of a man. The Church having called upon the arm of the Lord to awake, verse. 9. now the Lord answereth; I am he that comforteth thee, &c. That is, by promising deliverance from all enemies, yet thou art afraid of the least of them all, Of a man that shall die; that is, Thou (O my Church) of men stirring up persecution against thee, and he challengeth the Church for fearing not a brunt for a little time, but daily and continually because of the fury of the oppressor: And as if this were a thing not to be feared, he saith, Where is the fury of the oppressor? As if he had said, it is a thing of naught, since his power is but over the body, and this shall soon have an end also; see the like Matth. 10. 28. and how much they forget the confidence that David had in God against all men that sought his destruction, I trust in God and will not fear what man can do to me. Vers. 14. He shall soon come that goeth to open, and he shall not slay to death, neither shall his bread fail; Thus Jerome. N. Tr. The captive exile hasteneth, that he may be loosed, and that he should not die in the pit, nor his bread fail. Junius, He will hastily bring forth his bound one afar off, who is to be loosed, he shall not die in the pit, neither shall he be failed of his bread. And Jerome accordingly expounds it of the Son of God, as if it had been said, My Son shall soon come and open thee the way of victory; when thine enemies rage most, and yet he will not slay them to death, but save such of them as shall be converted; and his bread of heavenly doctrine feeding the souls of them that are saved, shall never fail, but be in his Church plentifully. Vers. 15. But I am the Lord thy God, which trouble the sea, and the waves thereof arise. Here by an apostrophe, God the Father turns from speaking to the Church, to his Son, telling him that the troubles of his Church, as of the sea, did not arise without him, and therefore he could easily appease them again: And he addeth, I have put my words into thy mouth; according to which Christ saith, that he spake only what the father bad him speak: That thou shouldst plant heaven and earth, and say to Zion, Thou art my people; that is, that new heaven and the new earth. Hitherto for the most part Jerome. For the divers readings of verse. 14. the Hebrew will bear any of them; but forsomuch as verse. 13. speaking of the fury of the oppressor, he saith, lastly, Where is it? This verse seems to me to answer it better, being understood of the Son of God hastening the opening of the prison to the bound. For it is, as if he had said by way of answer, His fury is nothing, because his oppression shall not continue, forsomuch as the opening of the prison to the bound there shall speedily be, so that he shall not die there; and until this time he shall want no bread, as poor prisoners in bands use to do. And that this sense may be more apparent, we may render it thus verbatim, The bound is hastened to the opening, he shall not make him die in the pit, and his bread shall not fail.
For Which trouble the sea. N. Tr. Which divide the sea, for so the word signifieth; and he meaneth the red sea, of which he often speaks, as most remarkable, that they might not be unbelieving; and this verse is to be read as coupled to the other by the word and, not but; another act of the person, who is said there to open to the prisoners, &c. being here mentioned to make that the more credible, That thou mightest plant the heavens and found the earth. This is by Lyra expounded, the heavens of contemplative men, and the earth of active. By Sasbont, of the Apostles and other Preachers addicted only to heavenly things, and of other Christians, who although they be conversant about earthly things, yet their hearts are lifted up to heaven. But the best Exposition is by Musculus made thus, I will send you forth to preach my word, the power whereof shall be so great, through the Spirit accompanying the same, that the world shall hereby be renewed; and because the world consists of heaven and earth, he calls this renovation the planting of the heavens and earth. For the Evangelical Church is often called the Kingdom of heaven: And in respect of this, saith Augustine, that we have souls from heaven and bodies from the earth, we may be called both heaven and earth. Therefore purge out the earth, that is, earthly affections, from thy heart, and thou shalt be heaven; thou bearest flesh indeed, and so art earth, but in thy heart thou art heaven. Again, God dwells in heaven, and he dwells in all the righteous and holy, Therefore the Apostles, though they were in the earth in the flesh, were heaven, and God sitting in them walked all over the world; in Psalm. 122. 2. The faithful are called heaven, because of an heavenly life, and earth, because firmly founded by faith, as the earth that cannot be removed. 3. That they are called heaven there is another reason from the name of heaven, Lat. Coelum, quasi coelatum, carved or adorned with stars; so the faithful with graces that shine more brightly: so Varro etymologizeth heaven; or as Isidor, a celando from hiding, because in them much more virtue is hidden then appears. Greece 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ab 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to see, because it was the first of visible things; or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a boundary, because it is the utmost bound of all things visible, according to Philo; so the faithful are, as it were, the bound or end of God's creating all things in this world. 4. Bernard likeneth the faithful to heaven, in whom virtues shine as the stars there, yet as the stars are not seen in the day, but in the night, so their virtues shine most in adversity. 5. Chrysostom saith, We are made heaven, when we are always clear by virtue as the heavens; for when it looks dark, it is not through any change, but because the clearness is hid from our sight by clouds. 2. When we are so high lifted up in our minds, that as the heavens are not corrupted by rain or tempests, because they are above them, so our faith and grace is not impaired by Persecution. To conclude this verse, there is no need with Junius to, going from the native signification of the words, to turn them, that I will plant, but to render it, I will put my words into thy mouth, to plant heaven, &c. as they properly signify; for it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ad plantandum.
Awake, awake, stand up (O Jerusalem.) As verse. 9. the faithful stir up the arm of the Lord to awake, so the Lord doth the Church or company of the faithful here, recounting what they had suffered to verse. 21. and he thenceforth comforteth them to the end of the Chapter: Thus Junius, Calvin and our other new Writers generally. But Jerome and others following him expound the first words of awaking, and rising up by repentance, as if old Jerusalem were meant, hardening herself in sin and infidelity, but moved earnestly under the Gospel to turn therefrom; which because she did not, the Prophet showeth what miseries should befall her, both temporally by the Romans, and spiritually by the enemies of their souls carrying them on in blindness and hardness to everlasting destruction. And Sasbont argueth from verse. 18. There is none of her sons to guide her. That it must needs be meant of Jerusalem suffering by the Romans, and not by Nebuchadnezzar, because then she had Prophets meant by these sons to guide and instruct her, sundry Prophets; but in the time of the Romans not one Prophet more. And verse. 21. a conditional deliverance only is promised, saith Jerome, viz. if the Jews would turn. Dionys. Carthu. that they should turn towards the end of the world is here prophesied. Sasbont, that it is spoken of a remnant of them only who embraced the Gospel, the rest being hardened. But I prefer the first, expounding it as a stirring up to be comforted against the miseries shortly to be suffered by the faithful in that common destruction of the Jews by Nebuchadnezzar; because the fame afflicted City is spoken to, verse. 21. as having been drunken, and now promised that she should be so more, but the enemy should after this have his turn of drinking of this cup of God's wrath. As for that which is said v. 18. that she should have no sons to guide her, it may well agree in the sense before spoken of; if by sons to guide or govern, we understand Kings to rule her, for the Jews were always after their Captivity under the rule of others, although by the permission of the Persians they had Princes to rule amongst them of their own Nation, yet not in that absolute power, which they had formerly had in the time of David, Solomon, Asa, &c. For which he saith, they had no sons to rule, that is, but only permissu superiorum. The scope of the place being thus cleared, that it is to comfort the faithful by the promise of a full and final deliverance from all evils by which they should first be grievously pressed, that they might in all extremities stay themselves, upon this as a sure anchor-hold. The sense of particular passages will now be easy to be understood. Thou hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury, &c. That is, thou hast suffered grievous things; but although he speaks of them as past, it is in a Prophetical manner, whereby things to come are spoken of as present or past, and this cup was drunk when Jerusalem was so cruelly destroyed by the Chaldeans, and afterwards by the Romans. For such a great judgment is often called a Cup, because as a cup of wine mingled with intoxicating things, operates strongly upon the brain, making such as drink sometimes very sick, so that the power of nature is overcome and sudden death follows; so the Lord's judgments stupefy and trouble the heads of the judged, that they cannot devise any good counsel to escape, but perish under them. Vers. 18. hath been expounded already, only the misery of Jerusalem is here aggravated by a comparison from a mother in distress, which had sons able to help her, but now none, when she hath most need. Vers. 19. These two things shall happen to thee in one day, desolation and contrition, famine and sword. That is, famine bringing desolation, and the sword contrition; there be four things named, but they are only two coming by the other two, and in this misery he saith there should be none to pity her, but contrariwise insulting over her and deriding her; as is also shown, Psal. 137.
They be at the head of every street, as a wild Bull in a net: Or, as Jerome, Oryx a kind of Goat, taken by hunters, so the Jews by their enemies.
Thou drunken, but not with wine. Musculus here noteth that there be two sorts of cups that make drunken; the one of sin, when the head is intoxicated with infidelity, error, pride and corrupt affections; and the other of God's judgments, making such to staggar and fall and to be taken, as being without all power to help themselves against their enemies, as Belshazzar and his Babylonians that night in which they were taken by the Persians and destroyed. And this cup of God's fury is offered, and men are made to drink it by God, as a punishment for their other drunkenness in sin and error.
I will put it into the hand of thy oppressors, which say to thy soul, Bow, &c. Here, and verse. 22. and end of the Jews miseries by the Babylonians, is prophesied of, and their coming into the like, as was fulfilled at the destruction of Babylon; and the condition wherein the Jews were when they were under them, their souls, by which word yet their bodies are meant, as the next words declare, lay as the way in the street, upon which men tread and go, not being moved with any compassion hereat, so without all mercy had they been under their enemies feet. But now the Lord promiseth a blessed alteration, and this may well be extended to the Church under the Gospel, which after many miseries long suffered at the hands of Persecutors, had their case likewise altered by Constantine the Great, to their great joy and comfort; and so shall it be with all the faithful and their Persecutors, that now tread God's people [Note.] underfoot, and despise them as most base, they shall be brought down in like manner, and these despised ones shall be had in honor, as is promised to the Church of Philadelphia, Revel. 3. 9.
CHAP. LII.
AWake, awake, put on strength (O Zion.) Here the Lord repeateth again that of Chap. 51. 17. but for Jerusalem he saith both Zion and Jerusalem, meaning hereby one and the same, viz. the Church of God consisting both of Jews and Gentiles, when she shall be most purged from uncleanness; according to that which is here further added, There shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised or unclean; of which see before, Chap. 35. 8. He goeth on to Prophecy of Zion's joyful condition, which is fulfilled when a strict care is had of separating the notoriously wicked in any kind from others, and not permitting them promiscuously to the holy Ordinance of the Lord's Supper, as hath been done in the Primitive Church, and is now done in Churches most reformed, and endeavored to be done in the Church of England.
Ye have sold yourselves for naught and shall be redeemed without money. In the former verse he bids her shake off her dust in alluding to the Metaphor begun, Chap. 51. 23. where she is said to have lien down to be trodden upon on the dusty ground, and to cast the bands off from her neck, implying her bound estate then, but her deliverance and advancement now; for so the advanced by God from a most low estate, are said to be raised out of the dust, Psal. 113. In this third verse he sets forth by another Metaphor what her condition had been, viz. as of those that are sold for slaves, but they take no price; for so indeed the Jews for their sins were made slaves to their enemies, and now he promiseth that they should likewise be set at liberty, nothing being paid for ransom; see the like before, Chap. 41. 13. where their being set at liberty by Cyrus is plainly spoken of, and therefore this is likewise to be expounded. But a spiritual application is to be made of all, the things done then not being only aimed at by the Prophet, but under them the spiritual deliverance of the faithful from the sordes or dust and bands of sin by Christ, figured out in Cyrus, both by justification and sanctification, whereby this filth is shaken off, and there is newness of life. And as men sell themselves for slaves to sin and the devil, receiving naught, so believers are again delivered; the devil, by whom they were held, receiving naught therefore; and yet to satisfy God's justice a great price is paid, even Christ most precious blood, 1 Pet. 1. 18. If profits and pleasures which men have for their souls sold by sinning, shall seem to be somewhat, they all verily are nothing, being compared unto the soul, [Note.] because they are momentary; the soul everlasting, they earthly and inferior, the soul spiritual and supernal, as coming from heaven, and so of a condition so far excelling, that if all earthly things be compared hereunto they are as nothing, for which our Lord saith, What shall it profit a man to win the whole world and to lose his own soul?
And the Assyrians oppressed them without cause. He commemorates here, first their going down into Egypt, being enforced by famine, and then speaks of their going into Assyria as Captives, upon no such occasion; for which he saith Without cause, yet not excluding a cause in themselves, viz. their sins; whereby, as was said before, they sold themselves into their hands.
Now therefore what have I saith the Lord, that my people is taken away for naught? their rulers make them to howl, and my Name is every day blasphemed. The Lord's people being carried away for naught, he here asketh what he had, as meaning that he had nothing; it was not a bargain of his making, but of their own, they had sold themselves, not he them, for then he would surely have taken a price for them. And having shown that he was not the cause of their oppressions by the Assyrians, and coming into their hands, he next showeth who were; Their rulers make them howl: Which Jerome expounds of the wicked Priests and Elders of the Jews, who stirred them up to cry against Christ, Crucify him▪ crucify him; and the blaspheming of God's Name daily, of their custom in their Synagogues three times a day to blaspheme Christ Jesus constantly ever since. Junius, Their rulers howl, as if he had said, Not only the common people suffer grievously, but even men of greatest eminency, their rulers, to the making of them to cry out and howl, And my Name is daily provoked. But forsomuch as the word is in Hiphil, this cannot stand. Calvin expounds it of the rulers set over them by the Assyrians, who oppressed them so greatly, that they made them even howl under their oppressors, and hereunto was added daily blaspheming on the enemies part, being ready to detract from their God, as if he were not able to deliver them, which is spoken in way of showing the cause why the Lord would now deliver and restore his people, as being full time so to do, lest he should seem to those Heathens most contemptible. This I grant is good, but when Rom. 2. 24. I find the last clause otherwise applied by the Apostle, the best Interpreter of the Spirits meaning, viz. against the guides and leaders of the Jews, teaching well but practicing the contrary, to the opening of the mouths of the Gentiles against their God, as if he were a patron of licentiousness and all manner of wickedness; I cannot subscribe to him, but hold that the rulers making of them howl here spoken of, was their own rulers misleading them (of whom it is said before, They that rule over thee cause thee to err,) and consequently bringing them to all the miseries, under which they lying, cried out most lamentably. And likewise of blaspheming on the enemies part, who upon this, that his people came into their power, vilified him as unable to help them, or seeing their wickednesses exclaimed upon him as a God of adulterous, sacrilegious and thievish people. And because the Prophet in speaking of the Jews miseries, suffered by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, had a further aim withal to speak of things done under the Gospel; that of Jerome may well also have place here, They like wolves howled against Christ, and blasphemed his Name, and then God in his just judgment left them to the destruction of the Romans.
Therefore my people shall know my Name. Because God had been vilified, he would do so for his people; that is, all such as should believe in Christ, that they should know him to be such a God as he published himself to be, that is, Almighty, by his saving them and confounding their enemies. And hereupon the Prophet crieth out, as if he then saw John the Baptist going before, and Christ coming soon after, proclaiming salvation to all that repent and believe.
How beautiful are the feet of them that bring glad tidings of peace, &c. And this is shown by the Apostle, Rom. 10. 15. to extend also to all other preachers of the Gospel. In saying, How beautiful are the feet, he alludeth to the long travel of the Apostles on foot to preach the Gospel into other Countries and Nations, whereby their feet were indeed fouled and worn; but in the sight of those to whom they came and were converted by them, they seemed beautiful and amiable. But it is said here, How beautiful are the feet of him, although Rom. 10. 15. it be of them, for Christ is first and chiefly meant, and then the Apostles, by whom also he preached. For all honor and blessing indeed is to be ascribed to him, not his instruments, as he taught when he answered the woman that blessed the womb which bare him, &c. Nay rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Yet even their feet are said to be beautiful, because so joyful a message was brought by them that walked upon these feet: As we say of a box having in it the Kings pardon of a condemned person, a blessed box bringing so great a good in it. Upon the mountains. This is inserted to show both whence this preaching first came, and where it first was, viz. in Zion standing upon a mountain, and how easily all might hear, as from a mountain one speaking is heard by all round about, Chap. 4. 9.
Thy watchmen shall lift up their voice. That is, the Apostles and other preachers said to watch for your souls, Heb. 13. 17. For the Preacher stands, as it were, upon a watch-tower, and tells the joyful news of Christ coming to save, expressed here by singing, which is the expression that joy maketh commonly; and so John the first Preacher of Christ said, that he was the friend of the Bridegroom, and that he heard his voice and rejoiced. Whereas it is added, [They shall see eye to eye] it is meant that they should not go upon the report of others, so that the thing declared and joyed in by them should be uncertain, but they should be eye witnesses thereof; according to which is that 1 Joh. 1. 1. That which we have seen with our eyes, &c. declare we unto you. When the Lord shall bring back Zion. That is, saith Calvin, first out of Babylon, to declare which some went from thence to Judea first, and after that by a spiritual bringing back of sins captives by Christ figured out thereby. After this he stirreth up to rejoicing again for the Jews deliverance and salvation coming to all Nation; v. 9. 10. as he had done chap. 51. 17. and 49. 6.
Depart, go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing. Chap. 48. 20. the same is spoken in other words, go out of Babylon; and here to show that not only the Jews going out thence is meant, but separating from idolaters, it is added Touch no unclean thing, which is thus applied, 2 Cor. 6. 16. Whereas in the words following they are bidden to be clean that bear the vessels of the Lord. Hereby are meant the Priests and Levites, to whom this office belonged. But in speaking to them he meaneth all the people, they being named, as who ought to go before others in holiness, and indeed all God's people are here spoken to, who under the Gospel are made Priests unto God, Revel. 1. 6. And if they purge themselves, they are his vessels of honor.
His visage was marred more then any man's. This is spoken of Christ, whom he calleth his servant, verse. 13. and chap. 42. 1. saying that he shall deal prudently and shall be exalted very high; see Phil. 2. 10. how this was done. But before that his visage was so marred, being in the form of God he came in the form of a servant, that the Jews were ashamed to own him for their King and Messiah. But he shall sprinkle many Nations. Though the Jews rejected him, yet the Gentiles shall embrace his faith and be sprinkled or baptized in his Name, and by his blood be cleansed from their sins, as the phrase is used, Heb. 10. 22. and this is now fulfilled in our Church, wherein we Baptize either by dipping or sprinkling; and therefore although we do but sprinkle on water in baptizing, here is good ground for it; his Ministers sprinkling is his sprinkling, and therefore he will not have it be in vain no more then if the party Baptized were washed all over. Kings shall shut their mouths, for that which had not been told them they shall see. That is, Shall, renouncing their own wisdom, whereby they formerly spake against Christ and Christians, commanding that they should be rooted out of their dominions, silently and reverently submit unto him, as holding him worthy of all honor; and this, he saith, shall be at the sight of things to which they had not formerly heard the like, that is, the miracles wrought by his Ministers in their Countries. For the power of working miracles continued five hundred years after Christ, even till the Saxon Kings here in England were converted. And their reverent submitting to Christ may well be set forth by their silence, because thus servants commonly reverence their Masters, and children their Parents, when they are in their presence.
CHAP. LIII.
WHo hath believed our report, &c. Here the Prophet further amplifieth the strange thing touching Christ before declared, chap. 52. 14, 15. that his visage was so marred, and yet he should so mightily prevail, that Kings should submit unto him. And he beginneth with the Jews infidelity touching the same, as if he had said, We the Prophets of God have sufficiently set forth Christ, the power and arm of God, to come, and by powerful miracles showing himself to be the Son of God, and an arm to save all that believe in him, but few of the Jews will believe this, and to few shall he be revealed to be such. Of the arm of the Lord spoken of in this sense, see before, Chap. 5. 9.
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and a root out of a dry ground. By this name of plant or branch, he was set forth before, chap. 11. 1. and he is here prophesied of as a root out of a dry ground, to intimate his coming forth out of the Virgin Mary, a Virgin, that knew no man, being like unto the dry and barren ground in respect of fruit-bearing. Of this he spake before more plainly, chap. 7 14. He hath no form nor comliness: of which chap. 52. 14. and it is chiefly to be understood of him being poor and despised, and hanging upon the Cross. But how doth this agree with Psal. 45. Thou art fairer then the sons of men: and in Cantic. My beloved is white and ruddy, the chief of ten 〈2 pages missing〉 faithful are begotten by his Word, he is called the everlasting Father, Isa. 9. 6. Calvin by the will or pleasure of God prospering in his hand, noteth that by his hand he setteth forth his Ministry, wherein he served to the death, this prospereth when we are hereby delivered from our sins, and from his death virtue cometh to us to make us die to sin and live to righteousness.
Of the labor of his soul he shall see, he shall be satisfied. Here in other words he expresseth the same that he had said before, for when by his Word preached souls are begotten, it is the fruit of his labor by his Ministers, which his soul thirsted after, and now it is satisfied: a notable expression to show how our conversion and salvation is by Christ longed after, and taken pleasure in, even as one hungry takes pleasure and is satisfied with his meat. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; That is, by knowing him to be the true Son of God, and believing in him so, as to rest wholly and only upon the merits of his death. For justification and salvation, and not in any part upon our own or other men's, we are justified before God, and so shall stand and appear so at the last day, none of our sins being once remembered to endanger us in respect of the second death, but in his righteousness we shall live forever. According to this it is said Joh. 17. 3. This is life eternal to know thee to be the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. For he shall bear their iniquities] That is, of all them that know him, as hath been said, all their iniquities being put upon him, as the common sacrifice for their sins, as he was called verse. 10. and when our sins are taken and put upon him, what strange thing is it to say, that we are perfectly righteous, against those that count it absurd to say that we are righteous by the righteousness of another? For this is righteousness that will hold, when that which is by entering into this or that religious order, or doing the works of the Law, or any good deeds being trusted to, will prove but like a broken reed.
He shall divide the spoils with the strong. One and the same thing is set forth by these words, and those immediately before them in this verse. I will divide a part unto him with the great ones. The meaning being, I will impart unto him such glory and riches after his sufferings, as conquerors use to have, and he shall have them, as a reward of his conflict with reproach and death by him undergone, as is expressed again in the next words, Because he poured out his soul to death, &c.
CHAP. LIV.
SIng (O barren) thou that didst not bear, &c. After Christ's passion undergone for our sins, and a generation or seed soon coming from him after this spoken of Chap. 59. here the Nations amongst whom this seed should be begotten, are stirred up to rejoice in it; so that these words are directed to the Church of the Gentiles, as Paul also teacheth Gal. 4. 27. being a Prophecy of the great increase of the faithful amongst them, and he saith, That she had more children then a woman having an husband, hereby meaning the Church of the Jews, whose husband God had been, forsomuch as they had his testament, whereby he bound himself to them, and they likewise were bound to him, but now through infidelity she was divorced, and the Church of the Gentiles taken in her stead, which abounds much more with children then ever she did.
Thus Jerome standing so yet for the Church of the Gentiles so to be meant here, as that the delievers of the Jews be not excluded, but both together understood to make her that is bidden to rejoice. So likewise Lyra. The Church of God which is always one and the same, because consisting of them that hold the same faith from the beginning to the end of the world, of what Country or Nation soever, whether Jews or Gentiles, is here spoken to, and she is set forth as barren and without an husband first, but then on the sudden made most fruitful, which may best be referred to that part of the Church first, which consisteth of Gentiles. Then she that is spoken of as having had an husband, but now in widowhood verse. 4. setteth forth that part of the Church which consisteth of the Jews, whose husband God is often said to have been, when there were many of them living in all righteousness, but she had a time of widowhood and barrenness, when Christ being preached to them, they rejected him and his faith, having before maliciously crucified him, whereupon Paul leaving them went to the Gentiles. But both parts of this one Church are here comforted with a promise of fruitfulness in children beyond all that ever the Church had since the beginning of the world. Some, saith Lyra, understand this of the Jews in Captivity so many years, when their state was like unto both a barren woman and a widow, unlikely ever to flourish again, and to increase in their own Land, yet after their return out of Captivity they reflourished and filled the Land; but this, he saith, cannot stand, because although they increased then, yet nothing so much as they had done in former times, neither had they so much cause of joy, as at some other times before, when Kings of their own reigned over them in greatest prosperity, for now they lived in subjection to strangers. Yet Calvin understands it so, as if the Church of the Jews had been called barren in respect of Babylon, which flourished so greatly when the Jews were in misery, but then he saith, That the state of the Church spoken to here, is to be considered from the Jews coming out of Captivity to the end of the world, before which all that is here promised shall be perfectly fulfilled. Some again, saith Lyra, understanding the Church of the Jews, refer it to the destruction made by the Romans, after which she is barren till the coming of the Messiah, but then shall abound thus with children again. But this is a Rabbinical dotage, that will not be beaten from the expectation of the Messiah yet to come. And for that of Calvin, the order of the things here prophesied of after Christ's being made an offering for sin, and seeing his seed, showeth plainly, that nothing is meant done before, but after Christ's death. Then the barren being before without an husband living in fornication by multifarious Idolatries, was converted to the faith, and the Church, that is, the Congregation of the faithful both of Jews and Gentiles increased so as is here said, but specially of the Gentiles, the Nation of the Jews for the far greatest part living still, as it were, in widowhood.
But this reproach he saith also shall be done away verse. 4. For thy maker is thy husband. Vers. 5. That although for a moment he forsook her, yet he would show her everlasting mercy, amplifying this from the waters of Noah, which he saith shall no more drown the whole earth, yea he hath sworn to it, so wrath shall no more come upon her, yea the mountains shall rather be removed then the Lord will be moved to displeasure against his Church, being once fully gathered, as it shall be before the end of the world. Neither indeed will he ever be moved to displeasure so against his Church, as to destroy her, as he did the old world, or the Jews being unbelievers, only she shall be temporally chastised, but continue still inexpugnable by the gates of hell to the worlds end, and then attain a full fruition of God's favor forever and ever. But to what time is it to be referred, that he saith, For a moment I have forsaken thee? Answ. If by the Church we understand, as hath been said, the company of the faithful in all times and ages, we must begin our account of the time that God forsook her in respect of her greater part, that is, the Gentiles from the days of Noah. For soon after the flood men being again multiplied forsook God for Idols, and then they were forsaken of God, being left in a most miserable condition to run on to everlasting destruction, until that by the preaching of the Gospel they were converted and by faith married to God, or taken by him to wise again, as they had been for some time after the flood, till they degenerated and were cast off for all that long interval of time betwixt that and the Gospel. But this may seem to be too long to be set forth by a moment being two thousand years at the least, yet being compared with eternity, it is but as a moment; and therefore the Promise being here of everlasting favor, and never casting off again world without end, that time may well be thus set forth. The Jews indeed deride this Exposition as improbable, but in applying this moment of time to their being in desolation till the Messiah cometh, whom they have now expected in vain sixteen hundred years, they deride themselves as much as us Christians; yea our Exposition is made good by the event, but theirs shall never be made good. According to this Exposition also verse. 6. where the Church is called a wife of youth, or young wife, but refused, agreeth very well, for such was the Church of the Gentiles taken by God to wife betimes in the beginning of the worlds renovation after the flood, but soon after refused, Abraham and his seed being chosen, to the fifty year of whose age Noah lived.
Behold I will lay thy stones with Sapphires and fair colors, &c. Here Jerome having spoken somewhat of the different reading of the stones mentioned betwixt the Septuagint, Symmachus and Theodotion giveth this for the sense, Christ is the most precious stone, having in him the fair colors of the most excellent, and upon him as a foundation I will build my Church, which shall be most glorious, and other parts of this building added to him are the Apostles, and other faithful persons, who together make a perfect Temple of the Lord complete in respect of all parts: For it is common in holy Scripture to set forth Christ as a stone elect and precious, and the foundation and corner stone, and the Prophets and Apostles also, as a foundation, and the faithful generally by the name of living stones. So that the beauty of the Church, and fair stones of her foundation, windows and gates here spoken of, set not forth a flourishing estate of the Church and rich in this world; but in respect of righteousness, as is further intimated, where varying the words he saith, verse. 14. Thou shalt be built in righteousness] And for the stones in particular here mentioned, the Jasper is of a sky-color, setting forth the heavenly-minded, and such as by studying the holy Scriptures soar highest in divine knowledge, and are strongest to hold up the truth against all oppugners. For Agates he hath Crystal, setting forth purity and clearness. By Carbuncles being of a red color like fire, fiery Doctrine purging out error. And he finally expounds all this of the Church triumphant in heaven, of which only the next words are true, They shall be all taught of God, because then all shall see God, and be always in his presence, as Lyra further expresseth, The Church here described being the same with the new City Jerusalem, Revel. 21. And being thus understood, the stones here spoken of are the Saints in heaven in their several mansions and degrees of glory; but if of the Church militant, of holy men shining diversely by graces and gifts most excellent of the Spirit. I take it to be meant of the Church militant upon earth, because this Church hath been hitherto described by the multitude of her children, which was before barren and forsaken, but now received and with all love embraced; and because he speaketh of one made to slay after this verse. 16. and of weapons formed against her in vain, verse. 17. And whereas he saith, Her children all taught of God, hereby is meant, That all the true children of the Church shall not only be taught outwardly by the Word, but also inwardly by the Spirit, becoming such as they are taught to be, for divine knowledge, and all graces; see the like Jer. 31. 33. Calvin and all ours generally agree to this, and he renders it, I will lay thy stones upon the Carbuncle, as the word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 also signifieth as well as Stibium, that is, a painting, wherewith women paint their faces to make them show fair. And verse. 12. whereas N. Tr. hath, I will make thy gates of Carbuncle, he hath it, Ex lapide rutilante, of a stone looking red; but the word signifieth a Carbuncle, although the word of which it cometh signifieth to burn, but the Carbuncle hath the name from burning, because it looks like a fiery cole. Here be three parts of the spiritual building, that is, the Church spoken of, the foundation, the windows and the gates: the foundation is Christ, the windows the Apostles and Prophets, by whom the light enters, the gates God's protection, continually defending it; so Musculus. Now because all the stones of which this building is said to consist, are precious stones, some gather, that the Church under the New Testament consisteth only of Saints, and therefore it is no true Church, which consisteth of precious stones and common, good and bad persons together in one Congregation; for which cause they hold it necessary not to rest in any Congregation in England, but that there should be a gathering together of Saints only into companies, and for him that will be saved to join with such a company leaving all others. But the meaning is not so, but that the Church under the N. T. should be more glorious and beautiful then that under the Old, as Hag. 2. 9. is shown under the types of the Temple built by Solomon, and that built by Zerubbabel after the Captivity, concerning which last, he saith, That is should be of greater glory then the former, and how should this be, but for the light of knowledge, being now greater (in regard of which the time past is called the night Rom. 13.) and of the graces of the Spirit much more illustrious in the faithful, and the abundance of the Saints, in whom these graces shone more then in former times, there being then also but few in comparison of the Saints under the New Testament, and all being put for very many, or the far greater part, as it was indeed in the Apostle first beginning to preach, they being above three thousand, were altogether of one accord or mind. Of the Temple built after the Captivity it cannot be understood, because that was never of so great glory, as Solomon's. But to return to our argument in hand, the Church continued not long in that glorious condition, but corrupt members intruded themselves, as is shown Jud. epist. Act. 5. 1 Cor. 5. & 15. Gal. 1. 5, &c. This Prophecy then was accomplished in respect of the outward constitution of the Church only, as hath been said, and the like is never again to be expected in this world; and therefore whereas a perpetuity is promised, it is to those only that are sanctified in heart, who are visible to God alone and not to us, amongst whom are so many hypocrites undiscernable by the eye of man. The company of the truly sanctified shall have this Promise made good unto them to the worlds end, and then in heaven everlastingly, when indeed all the stones of this building shall be precious, not one excepted forever.
In righteousness shalt thou be established. Having spoken before figuratively by stones, now he telleth plainly what he meant thereby, viz. righteousness, by which word alone are meant all graces, as by unrighteousness all vices, verse. 13. he shown what manner of persons he meant by those precious stones, viz. her sons, who were all taught of God; here what qualities, viz. righteousness, graces, which are also set forth by gold, silver, and precious stones, 1 Cor. 3. 12. And he meaneth that her righteousness, that is, taking divine Doctrine to heart, and living accordingly, shall be her establishment, so that she shall not fear the violence of her enemies, or coming into such miseries again anymore, because God is a protector of the righteous; for which cause it is said, Chap. 52. 17. The effect of righteousness is peace, &c. being the same in effect which is here said; thus also Haimo. A notable place to be looked at by all rulers: Would you have your Kingdom enjoy stable peace, and not be brought into danger of ruin? establish it by righteousness, let judgment be administered to all men a like in justice and equity, and encourage all your righteous subjects, but punish and discountenance all the wicked. Calvin understands that which is opposite to oppression practiced hitherto against them by their enemies, whereby they could not stand but fall; contrariwise God that had promised would now be just of his word to do, as he had said, not only by restoring peace unto them, but also to keep them in peace and quietness forever. I prefer the former, as being most agreeable to the words before-going, and to the place before-cited.
I have created the Smith, &c. To show that his Promise of keeping them from oppression shall be made good, he here declareth this further by giving them to understand that whereas nothing can be done against them, but by weapons of war, and not by weapons without the hand of man, having power hereby to destroy, there shall neither be weapons made, nor an hand to destroy therewith against them. For weapons must be made by Smiths, and God makes Smiths, and giveth them their skill this way; and he giveth power to men to destroy, when ever they have power; but neither shall Smith make a weapon, nor man go forth with weapon against them to prevail; yea if the tongues of any did but rise against them power should be in their hands to judge and do execution upon them, Vers. 17. And to show that this shall not be for a time only but forever, he saith, It is the heritage of the Lord's servants, and their righteousness, whereby they come thus to walk in his ways, and consequently enjoy so safe a condition, is of the Lord, because of his Spirit, as chap. 32. 15. for we of ourselves are averse herefrom and then only incline to it when we are moved by God's Spirit. Some by tongues speaking against them, which they should judge, understand the tongues of heretics, who are to be judged and censured by the Church, and the authority set up therein, and not only that peace and safety, but the gems before-spoken of shall be made as firm to the faithful as an inheirtance, and by righteousness the reward thereof being given by the Lord, that is, the reward before-spoken of, and what he will give is given indeed against all men that seek to frustrate it.
CHAP. LV.
OH everyone that thirsteth, come to the waters, and he that hath no money, let him come, and buy and eat. Having concluded the former Chapter with these words, Thy righteousness is of me, saith the Lord. Now he showeth how it may be attained, viz. the Spirit, which being received into the heart worketh all grace, which giveth a sure settling in peace, viz. if we thirst after it. For it is common with the Lord to set forth himself and his Spirit by waters, as before Chap. 32. 15, 16. Joh. 7. 37, &c. But to intimate the dullness and backwardness of men to thirst after this drink, though ready to perish for want thereof, he saith, He, he that thirsteth, after the manner of one making Proclamation, or of a Crier that crieth aloud (O yes!) But what meaneth he after calling to the waters the thirsty, to bid them buy and eat, he should rather one would think bid them buy and drink? Sol. Although waters only be first named, which are to be drunk, yet milk is also immediately spoken of, and bread ver. 2. which are to be eaten, and hereunto he hath relation when he biddeth eat. The speech is concise, being as if he had said, Let everyone that is thirsty come to the waters and drink; Let the hungry come and buy milk and bread and eat; Wine is also named, because this water is as much cheering the heart as wine. And the Spirit is thus variously set forth, to show the full satisfaction that is to be had herein by those that receive it, for wouldst thou being dry drink water to moisten and cool thee? the Spirit is living water. Wouldst thou drink wine to put away the heaviness of thy spirit, and to cheer thy heart? the Spirit is wine. Wouldst thou being young and tender have milk to nourish thee? the Spirit is milk. Wouldst thou have bread or other strong meat to strengthen thee? the Spirit is bread, and the only bread. For which he saith verse. 2. Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread? And by bread in Scripture all food is commonly set forth. But what meaneth he to bid us buy, and yet without money? Sol. By buying here is nothing else meant, but getting, and because this is the common way of getting food, he saith Buy, as also Revel. 3. 18. It is no more then but as if he had said, Get ye wine and milk; to explain which further he saith, Without money or price, therefore not properly called a buying; so also Musculus; It is a getting of this spiritual food, as a poor man that is hungry and thirsty getteth an alms by begging; so we must get the Spirit by thirsting first, and finding the great need that we have; yea that our need is so great, that if God extend not this charity to us, we must needs perish; and secondly begging most earnestly at the throne of grace for the Spirit, and then we shall be sure to have it given us, as the Lord saith Luk. 11. God will give his Spirit to those that ask him. And [Note.] of our so great poverty we must be persuaded by hearing it laid open in the preaching of the Word, and also hunger and thirst, and beg thus, as therein we are moved to do, least any should say we neither do nor can find, that our danger is so great of perishing for want, but are rich and want no grace that is sufficient for us; or if we do, we are of ourselves blind, and so cannot see or know it, much less thirst and beg so earnestly for it. And to move to get this food, he speaks as if all food else without this were naught worth; Why do ye spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfieth not? By labor men get money, and with money they buy bread for the body, yet the body thus carefully provided for, must to the dust and to rottenness, and whilst nothing is gotten for the soul, that it may live forever, all that food whereby the body is fed with so much pleasure is in fine nothing beneficial. Eat that which is good, and let your soul delight in fatness. Corporeal things, as daintiest food, and apparel, and riches, are not good, but virtue and grace only, and these worldly things are good to the good, evil to the evil. Then doth a man eat of the fat and best, when he receives the Spirit of God bringing joy which passeth understanding: so that poverty or impotency, or any other bodily misery is not evil in itself, by the reason of contraries, but to the wicked; to this effect Jerome.
Incline your ear and hear, come to me and your soul shall live. Here the Lord doth further inculcate the same, which he before exhorted to in other words, somewhat enlarging himself, and showing how we should come, as he had moved verse. 1. viz. Incline your ear to hear, and to whom, Come to me, and to what end, And your soul shall live; whereby is intimated, that to the end we may hunger and thirst after righteousness, we must be forward and diligent in hearing the Word of God, a thirst after this is a beginning of the thirst after the spirit. But we must hear to come to God who calls us to him in his Word, which is when we believe and obey him in all things, And thy soul shall live, in which words he showeth to what end the food before spoken of, is to be thirsted after, viz. that soul might be fed and live forever. And I will make an everlasting Covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Hereby he meaneth the Covenant of the New Testament confirmed by Christ's blood, which is not temporany as that of the old made by the blood of beasts, but everlasting. And what this Covenant is the Psalmist showeth, saying, I have made a Covenant with David, and sworn, Thy seed will I establish forever, Psal. 89. 3, 4. verse. 38, 29, 34, 35. by which feed he meaneth Christ, who is also called David, that should be sent to feed his people, but herein is the difference, this David died, he liveth forever, he fed them by ruling them aright for a time, Christ the second David with his own flesh and blood, and by ruling them righteously forever. After the death of that David they suffered many miseries, and were long left to the will of their enemies for their sins, and were finally brought to desolation, but this David dying rose again and reigneth in all the world so, as that his faithful people shall always be preserved, and continue as a Fort impregnable here, and everlastingly in heaven hereafter; and that not for their merits, but for his mercies, for which he calleth this Covenant, The sure mercies of David. But this Covenant, as Calvin noteth, is all one in effect with the old, for thereby God bound himself to Abraham and his seed forever, but being broken by his seed according to the flesh, he as need required renewed it with his seed according to the spirit both of Jews and Gentiles to continue forever and ever.
I have given him a witness to the people, a leader, &c. That is, the foresaid David, Christ Jesus, and he is said to be given as a witness of the Covenant mentioned verse 3. because as witnesses serve to confirm; so by him was this Covenant made by God with his people abundantly confirmed, and accordingly he telleth Pilate, For this cause came I into the world, that I might testify the truth. And to Nicodemus, We say what we know, and testify what we have seen; and Revel. 1. 5. he is called The faithful witness; so Musculus, and A commander to people's. The same Christ who was said Chap. 53. to have been as a sheep before the shearer, is here said to be a Leader and commander, as Lord and King. And over what people's he should be thus advanced is shown verse. 5. Thou shalt call the Nations whom thou hast not known, and the Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee. That is, the Gentiles called by the preaching of the Gospel, for they knew not God in former times, and God passing by them as if he knew them not, tendered the Israelites, and taught and delivered them, and put them into a most fruitful possession. For such as God neglecteth and puts away, he is said not to know, Mat. 7. 21, 22. See the like speech uttered by David in the person of Christ, Psal. 18. 43. it being hereby further confirmed, That David spake there of Christ, as I have also shown upon that place. And here the misery of the unconverted or uncalled is shown; till [Note.] they come to Christ, they neither know God, nor are known of him, nor regarded whatsoever evils befall them, no, though they call and cry unto him, as is shown in the same Matth. 7. 21. and Psal. 18. 41. But when Christ's voice calling them is heard by their hearts being opened, as was the heart of Lydia, they do not come but run unto him, as in the next words. Wherefore if any [Note.] think they will come by turning from sin, but they need not make any such haste, Christ hath not yet spoken to their hearts, though he hath to their ears, they have no dram of grace in them, but continue such as he will not know at the last day. All that hear with their hearts run unto him; neither can the pleasures of Sodom make them delay one moment longer, because they now know and see so much glory and happiness in Christ, that all the profits, pleasures and glory of the world are nothing to it, as is shown in the next words, For the Lord thy God, the holy One of Israel, who hath glorified thee. The faithful do see so great glory in Christ, through whom they are united unto the Father, when they come unto him, as that this is a spurr to make them run to him without any delay. Now God made him glorious in his Birth by his Angels, in his Baptism by his speaking of him from Heaven, as his beloved Son in his Transfiguration, in his Resurrection, and ascent into Heaven.
Seek the Lord whilst he may be found, call upon him whilst he is near. Having shown how the Gentiles should run unto Christ, he here stirreth up the Jews to do likewise, whereby their slowness and backwardness in coming to him is intimated, for which they had need to be pricked on. For these words, Whilst he may be found, Hebr. is, in making him found] meaning, that to find him is to seek him, for he that seeketh findeth, and how we ought to seek him, the next words show, and with what speed, Call upon him whilst he is near. He is indeed always near to everyone of us, Act. 17. 28. in respect of his universal presence, whereby he is everywhere: but then he is said to be near according to the meaning of this place, when he offers his grace to the penitent and believing; so his Word is set forth as most near, Rom. 10. 8. But he is near only today whilst he is offering it by the Ministry of his Word, whether he will be near thee tomorrow or no, knoweth no man. Wherefore he that will turn from profane to a devout caller upon God whilst he is near, must do it today, lest tomorrow he be further off, and hear not. And it is to be noted, That whoso seeks the Lord calleth upon him, and dares not sin anymore, lest he pray in vain, forsomuch as God regardeth not the prayers of the wicked, Isa. 1. 12.
And therefore verse. 7. the wicked is charged to leave his evil ways and thoughts also, and so to come to the Lord.
For neither are my thoughts your thoughts, nor my ways your ways. This is by Musculus understood of God's thoughts and ways of mercy; and of these he saith thus, meaning that he was not implacable when he was angered, as men commonly are. Jerome, That he was not like unto men, to purpose one thing now, and after to change his mind, or to have in his thoughts to do a thing, and not to be able to perform it, as men: and this is spoken, lest they should doubt of his performing what he had promised, in calling the Nations to his grace, who had gone so long away from him; or in showing mercy unto, and pardoning the Jews, who had so greatly sinned against him. And thus indeed these words will answer well to those immediately before-going, He is merciful and will abundantly pardon. But if they be referred to the former, Let the wicked turn from his ways, and from his thoughts: These words will more aptly answer to those ways, to ways, and thoughts to thoughts, and then the meaning will be, Till ye turn from your ways and thoughts, and come into my ways, ye cannot partake of my mercy, for my ways and yours are contrary, yours earthly and sensual, mine heavenly. So also Ezek. 18. God's ways and man's ways are opposed, and whoso will live is required to turn from his ways, which be the ways of unrighteousness, into God's ways, which be the ways of righteousness; and these ways are so high above man's ways as heaven is above the earth, and therefore he must be much elevated in his mind by heavenly thoughts, as Col. 3. 1. and in his conversation, which [Note.] must likewise be heavenly, that would have his former sins pardoned, and be made a vessel of mercy. And for the last words of verse. 7. those of verse. 10. and 11. do better answer; and to those before-going also verse. 5. where he promiseth to call the Gentiles to his grace, and to pardon the Jews, and bring them out of their misery, if they turn; for though this might seem to men impossible, yet as the rain coming from heaven effects that for which it is sent down, and returns not frustrated of this end, viz. the making of the earth fruitful, so shall it be in respect of any word or promise that cometh from the Lord by his Prophets that shall certainly be effected, that is thus spoken of whatsoever it be. Yet if these words, My thoughts are not your thoughts, be referied to both this of earthly and heavenly, and to that of constancy and power to do as in mercy he promiseth; we have for this last a like comparison in speaking of God's mercy made Psal. 103. 11. And some look yet further back to verse. 3. where a promise is of making an everlasting Covenant, and will have these words of the sublimity of God's thoughts above man's spoken, as answering to that. As if the Lord had said, Doth any man ask how this everlasting Covenant shall be made? I answer, The way whereby is so high that man cannot reach unto it; Believe it therefore, and rest expectation of accomplishment of it, for the Lord whose ways are so high, hath said it, and therefore knoweth the way, and will do it undoubtedly. I have nothing to except against this, and therefore conceive that the sense may extend to that Promise also.
For ye shall go out with joy, &c. That is, Ye both, the called of the Nations, and converted of the Jews, from your own ways shall go out of them with joy, because there is no joy to that which comes to man's heart by the Spirit of grace entering, as is prophesied Isa. 9. and fulfilled Act. 8. in Samaria. But in saying, Ye shall go out, he alludes to the Jews going so joyfully out of Babylon in Cyrus his days. And this is the fruit of the rain of God's Word, according to that before-said verse. 10, 11. for then it took effect, when the Jews in great multitudes believed, and the Gentiles embraced the faith preached amongst them. For the rejoicing of the mountains, see before upon Chap. 49. 13. And for the Trees it is hyperbolical, For the thorn the fir-tree, the Vulgar Latin Prosaliunca, abies, which saliunca is described to be low and bushy, but sweet, and therefore doth not so aptly set forth the condition of man before grace cometh, but the thorn and the nettle for their baseness do, but now they are turned into Firres and Myrtles, that is, whereas their minds were set upon things below, now they are lifted up to things above, and whereas by the harshness of their manners they did prick and sting as thorns and nettles, now they are gentle as myrtles. Gregory, This is done, when for the baseness of earthly thoughts the height of supernal contemplation doth arise, and hereby the itching desires of the flesh tending to vice are extinguished, a better temper of the whole man being attained. The Cald. for wicked shall spring up righteous, and for ungodly such as fear God.
And it shall be to the Lord for a name and a sing. That is, this admirable conversion of the Gentiles shall make Christ's name famous in all parts of the world, when they shall glory to be called by his name, Christians; and as Emperors having obtained great victories set up monuments thereof for signs, to continue the memory thereof to future generations; so the Nations turning Christians should be a monument to the honor of Christ, who by his Word and Spirit subdued them to himself everlastingly. Some will have the sign of the Cross, meant by this sign; some the scars in Christ's body being unto it a greater glory; as also the marks of the sufferings of his Martyrs; some his Baptism which he instituted for our Regeneration that we might be complete Christians. But I rest in the first.
CHAP. LVI.
THus saith the Lord, Keep judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near. Having comforted the faithful in showing the happy and joyful condition to which they should come by Christ Chap. 55. Now lest any should think to partake of this happiness, and yet live still in sin; the Lord here exhorts us all that would have joy of salvation by Christ, to judgment and justice, that is, to do righteously in all things, and specially such as are in place, to judge righteously betwixt man and man, and to stand for the just cause of the poor, without respect of persons or bribes. And to this he moveth from this consideration, that his righteousness, Christ Jesus, who is also the salvation whereby we are saved from our sins, is near; as when Christ came indeed, he cried, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand; because there is a remedy in Christ against sin, the wicked are the more licentious, saying, Let us continue in sin that grace may abound. But the faithful know, That the grace [Note.] of God hath appeared, that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live temperately and righteously, because as he is salvation, so he is righteousness and sanctification, not saving any, but such as are first made just and holy as well by inherent as imputative justice.
Blessed is he that doth this and lays hold upon that. That is, doth justice, and by faith layeth hold on this salvation. That keepeth the Sabbath, and his hands from doing any evil. Besides righteousness towards men, everyone is exhorted to keep the Sabbath, which then was a sign betwixt God and his people, and he speaketh to men then living, and both then and always a Sabbath is to be kept, that is, a rest from doing evil, which is the devils work. And to intimate that the Apostles and other faithful persons kept such a Sabbath, and no six working days, Christ saith unto them, Ye are not of the world, meaning, as Jerome hath it, Ye are not of the world made in six days, to work the works of sin in them, but every day's a Sabbath perpetually to you, or must be. The keeping of the Sabbath was not then to rest only, and in idleness to keep at home, for God takes no pleasure in this. But to rest from labor, to attend to duties of devotion; and thus, saith Musculus, the Lord's day is now to be kept, and that by keeping the Sabbath, as wherein all duties of piety are to be performed, all such duties are meant, wherein a man must be daily conversant that will be blessed, as is here promised.
And let not the son of strangers say, &c. Here because such might fear, that the blessedness spoken of was nothing to them, but belonged to the Jews only, and hereby be discouraged from a godly care of righteousness, he bids them not thus to despair, or the Eunuch, as if he were a dry tree, that could not spring up, as was before-said, Chap. 55. 13. that for Thorns should come up Fir-trees, &c. For the Lord promiseth even to such, if they keep his Sabbaths and please him, a name better then of sons and daughters. And this is spoken, saith Jerome, not of Eunuchs gelt by men, but of those that make themselves chaste for the Kingdom of heaven, as Christ afterwards speaketh. For such if they refrain from women indeed, to live the more freely to God, and to care for the things of the Lord, are famous in the Church, yea more then they that beget many children in whom their name is continued; because that although they have no natural, yet they have many spiritual children, wherein they are more blessed. Calvin by Eunuchs understands all such as had any note of disgrace, because to be barren was counted a curse amongst Abraham's posterity, one of whose blessings lay in the increase of posterity. But here are two sorts spoken to, 1. Sons of strangers, 2. Eunuchs, both which were basely accounted of amongst the Jews: For the reason before-said. Eunuchs and strangers, because out of the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed, of which they were not. And the time was coming wherein all that contain, should be exhorted to it, as they were Matth. 21. 12. Therefore to move men the rather to do so that could; Eunuchs, others of strangers children, that is, of the Gentiles turned to the faith, are thus encouraged to use their gift. And although the Prophet began with sons of strangers, and then came to speak to Eunuchs, yet in promising he speaks first to Eunuchs, as whose devoting of themselves wholly to God, refusing for his sake to take such pleasures as lawfully they might, was most highly accepted of before him; and then to the Gentiles converted of all sorts, verse. 6, 7. comforting them with the like comforts, of bringing them to his house, and accepting their Sacrifices, thus making his house an house of prayer to all Nations, that is, not the Temple, for that was destroyed together with the City not many years after that the Jews had wickedly crucified Christ, but any house built in any Country for divine worship. Wherefore this is a Prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles, betwixt whom and Jews believing now there is no difference, but all are one in Christ, Gal. 3. 28. The Papists here and upon Matth. 19. take occasion to extol too highly the single life of Priests and votaries, and to dabase the married life: but in so doing they have no ground in either place, or 1 Cor. 7. for Virginity is nowhere so commended that marriage is on the contrary side any whit blemished, but pronounced honorable in all men, Heb. 13. 4. and no more difference put between the married and unmarried, but that the one doth well, the other better. Always provided also, that the Eunuch or unmarried be a keeper of the Sabbath and of the Covenant, and please God in his ways, as it is in this place; otherwise his forcing of himself to this seeming continency being mean while incontinent and desiling himself with harlots, is most damnable hypocrisy, taught him, not by God, but by the devil, whose Doctrine it is said to be 1 Tim. 4. of which sort there are so many of the Priests and Votaries in Rome, that all Writers cry shame against them therefore.
The Lord who gathereth the outcasts of Israel, I will yet gather others to him, Hebr. Above him to his gathered ones. That is, the Lord, who gathereth together the dispersed Jews, bringing them from Babylon into Judea, will as certainly to the Jews gather Peoples, Countries and Nations all over the world to be his Church in the time of the Gospel, in which sense also Christ said, When the son of man is lifted up, he will draw all men to him.
All ye beasts of the field, come to devour. Having hitherto spoken comfort by Christ, now to the unbelievers and persecutors of Christians amongst the Jews he speaketh terror, especially to their Priests, the greatest adversaries of the Gospel. The beasts, whom he inviteth to devour, are the Romans, the people to be devoured, the Priests, Scribes and Pharisees, and other unbelieving; so that this is a Prophecy of Jerusalem's destruction to come by Titus: Thus Jerome, Cyril, Theodosius, Sashont, &c. Neither doth Calvin or Musculus dissent, but that Calvin will have not only the destruction by the Romans here prophesied of, but by Antiochus Epiphanes, and the Chaldees, but chiefly by the Chaldees; and they understand beasts properly, by inviting of whom is intimated a great destruction of the Jews to be made by their enemies, so that their dead bodies would suffice all beasts of prey coming from far or near. Oecolampadius is for men cruel and bloody called beasts; and I see no reason but that it may be taken either way; see the like Jer. 7. 33. chap. 34. 20. but that the destruction by the Romans was chiefly meant, seemeth to be implied, ver. 10. where he crieth out against the watchmen as the cause, and that not by reason of their Idolatry, as when the Chaldees destroyed Jerusalem, but of their blindness and ignorance wherewith Christ oft upbraided them, their drunkenness and covetousness and other notarieties following thereupon. For when the Romans came against Jerusalem, all abominable sins, saith Josephus, did so abound, that if they had not come and destroyed so wicked a City, fire and brimstone must needs have come down from heaven upon them as upon Sodom. All the watchmen are blind, they are dumb dogs. So Christ said often to the Scribes and Pharisees, calling them fools and blind, Mat. 23. and dumb dogs, the Prophet saith they are, which lay sleeping, because as the dog which should by barking keep the Wolf from the flock; but if he lieth sleeping and barketh not, so that the Wolf cometh and makes havoc of the sheep, is worthy to be hanged, especially being scarefull and given to devour excessively that he should not also; in like manner if such as are appointed to watch over the Lord's flock, do nothing less then by sound and diligent teaching chase away Wolves or Lions, as devils are called, that they may not devour; but contrariwise by their ill example teach them riot and intemperance, and make it all their labor to get worldly gain, they shall have the great Judge of the world most infense against them to the hanging of them in hell forever, as they are well worthy.
CHAP. LVII.
THe righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, &c. This is by Jerome applied to Christ and his Apostles, thus. The righteous man Christ is put to death by means of the blind watchmen before-spoken of, who instigated the people against him, and by much pressing of him prevailed with Pilate to condemn him, although by his wife he had warning to do nothing against that righteous man; and amongst the Jews there were few or none that considered it afterwards to repent. But they generally took him to be justly cut off, as one that wrought by the devil and deceived the people. Yet the true cause, as the Prophet assigns it, when he repeats again, The righteous is taken away, by reason of malice, Heb. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which if we render it word for word, is, from the face of the malefactor, or malice. To the Apostles he applieth the next words, Merciful men are taken away, none considering it. For as they persecuted Christ, so they did them who preached and offered the greatest mercy in the world, Forgiveness of sins, to all that would believe in Christ, and were so merciful that they could not be made to curse, but prayed for their Persecutours, as Christ had done, and it is expressed that Stephan the first Martyr did.
He went away in peace, they rest in their beds, he that walketh before him. Jer. In directione ejus, because the word signifieth either Before him, or right over against him, that is, keeping equipage with him, as when one friend walketh with another. N. Tr. That walketh in righteousness, respecting rather the sense then the words. He, that is, Christ, went away in peace, as being Prince of peace, and bequeathing the legacy of peace to his Disciples a little before, saying, My peace I leave unto you: They, that is, the Apostles cut off by persecution rest in their graves, as in beds, everyone that walks before him, and is upright shall also do likewise. But the Jews, saith he, understand all this as spoken of the righteous slain by Manasseh, or of Isaiah himself, who was cut asunder with a saw. Others understand any righteous persons, who are taken away a little before greatest misery coming upon their Country, that they might not see it, as Josiah, and Augustine before the enemies taking of Hippo his City. But all things do so aptly agree to Christ and his Apostles, that I cannot but think Jerome’s exposition most genuine, and to him agree Cyril, Procopius, Theod. Tertullian, Justin, Cyprian, Rupertus, Lyra, &c. Yet touching these words 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , which may also be rendered, Because of evil] there may be another Exposition, Christ died for the sins of his people, which otherwise would have destroyed them, as is expressed Isa. 53. If any man shall apply this Text to the righteous in general perishing by the hands of the wicked, or otherwise evil, being now ready to invade his Country, or when such die they are but taken away from evil of sin and misery to the good of sanctity and glory, I shall readily assent unto him: only the first, as I take it is the most proper meaning of the place.
But come hither (ye sons of the sorceresse) ye seed of the adulterer. Having spoken to the comfort of the righteous, verse. 2. now he turns himself to wicked persecutors of Christ and his servants, the malicious Jews, whom he calleth the seed of the adulterer for their spiritual adultery with Idols by worshipping them in every place, as is expressed verse. 5, 6, 7, &c. For such were the Progenitors of the wicked Jews which persecuted Christ and slew him. And he challengeth them, saying, Against whom do ye sport yourselves and make a wide mouth? wherein he pointeth at their scoffs, He saved others, let him save himself, &c. and Hecrieth to Eli, and reproaches, He casteth out devils by none other but Belzebub the prince of devils, &c. Thus Jerome. And this is further confirmed from Psal. 22. 7. 13. where in the person of Christ it is said, They shoot out the lip at me, they gaped upon me, &c. Calvin. After comfort to the righteous, here followeth terror to wicked and rebellious idolaters, who survived after that the righteous were taken away, and because they escape hitherto, think of impunity forever. By bidding them [Come hither] he meaneth, that they shall come to judgment; neither shall they be able to lurk in any place without being found out and brought to severe punishment. And he upbraids them by their parents to meet with their high conceitedness of themselves in respect of Abraham their father, calling them witches children, &c. as Christ afterwards tells them, Ye are of your father the devil. He calls them the children of wizards or witches, saith Lyra, because in the days of Manasseh, and of other idolatrous Kings, they were much addicted to divinations, as indeed idolaters commonly are; and therefore to Jehoram was objected by Jehu the abundance of his mother Jezebel's witcherafts, as well as whoredoms spiritual. But he, as Jerome, applieth all against Christ's persecutors; but Calvin, Musculus, &c. to the wicked Jews of those times, understanding their mocking and contemptuous speeches of which they are accused to have been against Isaiah and other Prophets of the Lord, as 2 Chron. 36. 16. But in asking them Against whom have ye put out your tongues] he intimates, that it was not so much against them as against God their master, that they might be terrified to think upon it, and all other wicked despisers of God's Ministers at this day. Which is indeed a good and pious application, and will hold as well if it be expounded of the persecutors of Christ and his Ministers, as was said before; and so I take it, we shall best go with the sense of the Prophet. And he calls them also a lying seed] because they falsely gloried that they were the seed of Abraham, who, as Christ said unto them, did not so; therefore he tells them, That they were of their father the devil, adding, that he was a liar, and so in effect pronouncing them a lying seed for the same reason, as in this place.
Inflaming yourselves with Idols under every green tree, slaying your children. That which followeth here of their Idolatry, and offering their very children in Sacrifice in valleys and groves, hath been so much spoken of, 2 King. & 2 Chron. that I shall not need to say anymore hereupon, but refer the Reader to my Commentary upon the Histories of Ahaz and Manasseh, &c. Only Isaiah in setting forth these abominations continueth his Allegory begun, taken from adulterers and whores, who commit their wickedness in beds, and in secret behind doors being shut, v. 7, 8.
Thou wentest to the King with oil, and didst increase thy perfumes. Here also he goeth on still in the same Allegory. For an whore anoints or paints her face with oil, and takes to her much sweet perfumes to make her the more amiable to the adulterer: so he showeth that wicked Idolaters, who served Molok, which signifieth the King, did; and this was the Idol of the Ammonites, to whom they sacrifced their children, as is said before verse. 6. The oil and perfumes with which they went, were offerings which they brought to that Idol. And thou didst send thy Messengers far off, that is, to the Assyrians, whose gods thou didst also worship, of which more is spoken Ezek. 16. and of those of the Babylonians. And debasedst thyself even to hell] by such an humbling, as whereby Amon humbled Tamar, of which Jerome saith, A great humbling, from the light and height of chastity, to the darkness of the Stews. Calvin expounds it of foreign and remote Kings, whose friendship they sought by sending them gifts of oyls, most precious and sweet odors, wherewith their Country abounded, as to the King of Assyria sometime, and then to the King of Babylon, because they were most mighty, as they thought, to defend them: and to intimate this, Legates are said to be sent far off. But because the whole scope of the place is to declare them to be gross spiritual adulterers with all sorts of false gods, whether of the Nations near or far off, and killing their children was before mentioned, which is notoriously known to have been done to Molok the King; I rather assent to Jerome in the first; and for Messengers sent far off in this negotiation, which implieth nothing, but that as they committed adultery with Molok, the God of the Ammonites, who were near, so they had their factors to bring in Idols also, such as they had amongst the Heathen in Countries more remote.
Yet saidst thou not, There is no hope, thou hast found the life of thine hand, therefore thou wast not grieved. Vulg. Non dixisti, quiescam. But the Hebrew word signifieth desperatum est, there is nothing but despair, if I go on thus still. Thou hast found the life of thy hand, that is, herbey thou hast been hardened to go on in these abominable ways without repentance, because thy wealth which is as a life to thee is great, making thee proud, and to sleight all admonitions of the Prophets without being moved to grieve for thy sins: Of the like obstinacy taxed, see Jer. 18. 12.
Of whom hast thou been afraid, that thou hast lied? That is, saith Jerome, Consider since thy heart hath been hardened by reason of thy wealth wherein thou hast trusted, and hast not been grieved for thy sins, that thou mightest call upon and turn to me, what other Potentates thou hast feared, who indeed have been a terror unto thee; and if then being by necessity enforced, thou hast sometime sought unto me, Thou hast lied, for thou hast not in truth remembered me then, but thy heart hath still been towards thy Idols: Have not I held my peace of old, and thou fearest me not, Hebr. Am not I silent even from everlasting; the meaning, As I have not been called upon, so I have left thee in misery at all times most anciently, And thou hast forgotten me; or forgetting thee, as thou hast forgotten, and put me out of thy mind. Thus Jerome. But the Hebrew, Thou hast not feared me; and the sense is given otherwise thus by Calvin, Have not I shown as much patience as any God could show in forbearing all this while to execute my severest judgments upon thee, and yet thy hard heart is not wrought upon to fear me?
And this seemeth to be best, because verse. 12. he saith, I will show thee thy righteousness and thy works, and they shall not profit thee; As who should say, I have not hitherto done it, as now I will, but have held my peace, as it were, in times past, and have not spoken by the voice of so great and long-lasting judgments, as now I will. For all the judgments of God against Israel in former times were nothing to that by the Babylonians, and afterwards by the Romans, which is specially meant, for he chargeth them with their despising of his dear and only Son, v. 4.
When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee. Symmachus, for companies or congregated ones, as the Septuagint have it, render it, Thy Synagogues] to the same effect, that is, the company of gods which thou hast gathered together, and made thee from all Nations far and near, according to that which hath been already said. Thus Deut. 32. 37, 38. they are bidden to do likewise; and Elijah biddeth Baals servants to cry aloud to him; and Elishah Jehoram, to get him to the gods of his father and mother, 2 King. 13. but when they did so so, he showeth that it should be vain, only such as trust in God shall not do it in vain, but possess the Land, as it followeth in the next words.
Cast up, cast ye up, prepare the way. Having said, that the faithful should possess the Land, he now showeth how a way should be made for them; see the like before, Chap. 40. 1. 62. 10. It is a metaphorical speech taken from the making of a causie by casting up the earth high; and because great stones sometimes lying in the way hinder passengers by their stumbling at them, it is further added, Take up the stumbling block out of the way of my people, Chap. 62. 10. the stones; whereby, saith Jerome, the Jews understand the removal of all impediments of the way, that they might safely and without any let return out of Babylon to Mount Zion according to the letter; but it is rather and more agreeably to the premisses to be understood of the Church of Christ, which is commonly compared to a mountain, as Matth. 5. 15. and Isa. 2. 1, &c. and because it is such, it is said, Cast up, cast up, as intimating, that the way must be made high to come to this high mountain: And then is every stumbling block and stone, at which men might stumble, taken away, when all things obscurely set forth in the Word, are by the industry of the Pastors of the Church made plain; and hereby Christ is made manifest to be the Messiah that was to come.
For thus saith the high and lofty One, &c. Having promised to such as trust in him, that they inherit his holy mountain, and have a way made thither, now he showeth a reason why it should be so, viz. because he that dwelleth on high, dwelleth with the humble and contrite in heart, who are the only men that have this grace bestowed upon them to trust in God, according to to that, God despiseth the proud, and gives grace to the humble; see the like Chap. 66. 2.
For I will not contend forever, nor be always wroth. As if he had said, I have indeed striven by my judgments with these my humble servants to bring them to this grace, but now I will do so no more. For if I should be extreme this way, all the souls that I have made must needs perish.
For the iniquity of his covetousness I smote him, &c. It was not because I delight in the destruction of sinners, but to correct and amend them, that I might pardon their sins and save their souls after that I have thus judged their bodies. But what is meant by covetousness here? Sol. Some understand it of that love and desire of money, which is said to be the root of all evil, some of an inexpleble desire of sinning, as the word is used Ephes. 4. 19. and some of sinful desires of the heart in general, which God punisheth as well as acts, because they make men guilty before him, but this dissers little from the former, and according to either of them, if for covetousness we render it desire, it will be best.
I saw his ways, and will heal him. That is, even when I smote him I saw his obstinacy and incorrigibility in sin, yet I thought I would not proceed in judgments any longer, but allure him by mercies, delivering him from the miseries of which he is even sick unto death under the hands of his enemies. And this is first spoken of the Jews, with whom he dealt thus, and then of all sinners amongst whom the Gospel cometh, it cometh as unexpected or undeserved, for which the Lord saith, I was found of them that sought me not. But when their ways were most wicked, and they had been striven withal by many dreadful judgments in vain, by offering the grace of the Gospel the Lord healed them. And he saith, That he will comfort him and his mourners, whereby some few godly persons amongst the Jews were meant according to Ezek. 9. who mourned for the sins of the Land, and not only for external miseries, of whom it is said, Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.
I create the fruit of the lips, peace to the far off and the near. The conceit of some mentioned hereby Musculus, because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth a bank of a river as well as a lip, that the abundance of peace is meant, running as a river full of water between two banks is not so well agreeing, because neither is a river anywhere called the fruit of two banks (for the word here used is of the dual number) implying two; neither is this word put for anything but two lips. To follow therefore the common reading, hereby is meant either the event of God's gracious promises made by the mouth of his Prophets, for these bring forth their expected fruit, as it were, when it is peace according to the promise made, the enemies being quite subdued. And this he saith, to declare how they should come to have so plain and open a way, as was said, verse. 14. there should be all peace, and therefore no enemies to keep them from their so much desired Country; Thus Jerome. Or hereby is meant, that such as came to bring tidings should bring the glad tidings of peace; or that the Prophets and Apostles should thenceforth preach and comfort, whereas the Prophets had been formerly so much in denouncing the judgments of war and destruction: So Calvin. By the far off are meant the Gentiles, by the near the Jews; or if it be in any part referred to the Jews, some taken and carried into Babylon, and some left to till the ground, the far off were those in Babylon, the near those at home in Judea. But it is applied to Jews and Gentiles, Ephes. 2. 17. the Jews being made the far off there, because rejected for their unbelief, and the Gentiles near, Act. 2. 39. the afar off are the Gentiles, because to be called, but not then called.
But the wicked are like the troubled sea that cannot rest. Lest such should lay hold of this promise of peace they are here cut off from so doing, such as by true repentance turn shall have the peace promised verse. 19. but the wicked going on presumptuously still in sin shall be restless as the sea, which is continually tossed with tempest after tempest; so they with one misery after another, after miseries upon earth with miseries in hell forever and ever. And if any wicked man hath peace external and prosperity as some have sometimes, yet he never hath such peace as is called the fruit of the Prophets lips springing from fiath which justifieth, that is, peace of conscience, which is said also to be peace with God. For although he seems to himself sometime to have this peace, because his cauterized conscience doth not for the present accuse him, [Note.] yet indeed he never hath it, but is like to a condemned person suffered to live for a time; but when the Judge cometh again is full of fear of being condemned: So he, whensoever God will, shall have his conscience set awork to do the office by remembering his sins, and aggravating them against him to the making of him fear even to desperation, as hath been the case of many at sundry times, who to avoid the horror of a troubled conscience have most unnaturally laid violent hands upon themselves, as Judas did. Jerome assenting to this, that it may thus be understood of all the wicked, yet saith, it may more particularly be understood of the Jews who were restless in persecuting Christ, crying with one consent, Crucify him, crucify him; and therefore have ever since been restless in respect of miseries; and thus, as the sea by being troubled is made to foam, and that foam turns into dirt, so the Jews are of all men conculcated and trodden underfoot as mire and dirt in the streets. And herein I will not against Jerome, but it is best to take it, as hath been said, and so it is generally by our new Writers.
CHAP. LVIII.
CRy aloud, lift up thy voice as a trumpt. Having condemned the wicked Jews in the former Chapter to perpetual inquietude, now he cometh by God's direction to declare aloud that all might hear what the sins be that make men so wicked that they can have no peace, as hath been said, particular persons with God and their own conscience, whole Nations with God or men, for the foundation of the peace of a Nation is righteousness, as hath been said before Ch. 32. 17. therefore wickedness of a Nation causeth dissensions and wars, so that there can be no lasting peace. And he calls them his people yet, to show his inclination to mercy, if they would turn, and if not, that they might know what a gracious God they lose by obstinate going on in sin. And the Prophet is bidden to lift up his voice above the ordinary tone, to show how deaf they were to hear to conversion; and the similitude of a Trumpet is used in alluding to that which was done when the Law was given Ex. 19. 16. and which shall be done, when the Lord shall come at the last day to take revenge upon the transgressors of his Laws, that men thinking the voice of the Preacher to be a summons to present repentance, or like the trumpet that shall last sound upon [Note.] earth, a summons to judgment, might be stirred up by turning without delay to use it as a summons to repentace, and not stand out, lest it prove a summons to judgment, unto which how nigh he is even then no man knoweth.
Yet they seek me daily as a Nation that delights to know my ways. Here he showeth, that for their coming diligently to the Synagogues, or care to learn the Laws and Ordinances of God, they were singular; and Josephus saith of them, that they could as readily give account of them as of their names; yea, and they fasted also, verse. 3. Why have we fasted, &c? But he showeth immediately the cause, why all this notwithstanding, they were rejected by God as wicked, In the day of your fast ye find pleasure or desire, that is, your own evil lusts and desires are still afoot, for ye afflict not your soul, that is, your bodies (for so by an Hebraism the body is often called, because of the soul within it, and animating it) to the mortifying of your sins as ye should, but ye go on still in them, and this whoso doth, his fasting is vain. Wherefore Gregory saith excellently upon the words of Joel chap. 2. Sanctify a fast; what is this, but other good things being adjoined to show abstinence worthy of God, let anger cease, let chidings be sopited: for the flesh is macerated in vain, if in the mind it be not refrained from fleshly lusts. And ye exact all your labors, or sorrows; or as others turn it, All your worldly goods, Omnes facultates vestras, being so called, because gotten with labor and sorrow, saith Pagnin; or because being lent to poor men, it was to their sorrow, that they were rigorously required of them again, as by that servant to whom his fellow-servant ought an hundred pence. And this is one sin, from which God looks that we should turn, or else our fasting is vain, the exacting of our debts with rigor, putting our poor debtors to as much charge and trouble as we [Note.] can, and using no patience, or in case that they be so poor that they have nothing to pay, not forgiving them, or so much as their necessity requires, accepting of what they have for all, and forgiving the rest, if without fraud, or first breaking for a color as many do, they faithfully declare what they have. He that requires debt of him that hath nothing to pay, saith Jerome, doth violence to God, meaning surely, because he doth violence to one of Christ's poor members.
Ye fast to strife, and to smiting with the fist. As a man that is fasting is more choleric and quarrelsome and ready to strike naturally, because choler doth the more abound in an empty body, so they being lead more by corrupt nature then by grace grew more impatient, the flesh prevailing above the Spirit, in which case nothing can be expected save death; but if by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh, we shall live: for what profits paleness in the face by fasting if envy be in the heart? or humbling thy body by fasting, but in mind to be lifted up with pride? to which effect Jerome speaks, Ye shall not fast as ye do, to make your cry to be heard on high: That is, either the cry of your prayers made with a voice lifted up on high for ostentation of extraordinary zeal, or the cry of the poor debtor being thus cruelly exacted upon by you, for the cries of the oppressed come up into the ears of the Lord of hosts to provoke him to take revenge, as Exod. 22. 22. In saying therefore, Ye shall not fast, &c. he admonisheth us not to do so, therefore the Vulg. renders it, Do not fast as ye do.
Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to lose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens? The Septuagint which Jerome rather approveth for expressing the true sense, The obligations of violent cautions, whereby were meant written obligations, whereby usurers bound their debtors to pay them the unjust gain of usury: for this was a burden complained of in Nehemiah's time, which they were not able to bear; and this was the hundredth part a month, that is, twelve pound in the hundred for a year, one pound a month monthly to be paid. It is not in the Scripture sense an heavy burden laid upon debtors, to require of them in any Court of Justice, when it cannot be otherwise gotten, our due debts, for then such Courts should be abettors of oppression, because kept purposely to provide that every man may have what is justly due unto him; but either, as hath been said, or debts made so by forged writings, or by the like deceitful way wronging a man in any part of his estate. To let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke; that is, servants unjustly kept after seven years expired, for this was amongst the Hebrews unlawful, and therefore an oppression; therefore he requires if they would not fast in vain, that they would let them go free, or in any Nation, the time of service agreed upon being expired. To break every yoke is also rendered by the Septuagint, To cancel every unjust writing, which is by forgiving poor debtors that have nothing to pay, not casting them into prison, as is the manner now, nor compelling them to be servants, as in those days.
To break thy bread to the hungry. This is added for him that shall say, I have no debtors or servants, what shall I do? yet thou hast bread, one at the least, give, I say, not all, but part of is to the hungry; and if any shall say, I have no bread, it is added, Bring the poor wandering into thy house] Thou hast yet a place to harbor in, bring him in thither to be sheltered; and he addeth further as a motive, Despise not thine own flesh] for everyone loveth his own flesh and cherisheth it, and we took all flesh from Adam, who was but one, to show that we are one, and so should love as one. To this effect Jerome, noting the sweet consent betwixt the Old and New Testament, showing that they both came from spirit; for as there, so here, to feed the hungry, to fear to cast the poor into prison, or to do violence to any, or to oppress servants, is strictly forbidden; but to show pity, and that to strangers, as to near neighbors, is enjoined in that Parable of the man that travelled from Jerusalem to Jericho, &c.
Then thy light shall break forth as the morning, and thy health, &c. That is, saith Jerome, The Sun of righteousness, as Christ is called, with healing in his wings, Mal. 3. 2. because by him we suddenly are healed of all the sores of our sins, to show which it is here added, Thine health shall spring forth speedily, Heb. Thy mattery sore shall hastily heal, and thy righteousness shall go before thee; that is, thy charity, for this is often set forth by righteousness, as Psal. 112. 9. Dan. 4. 24. Act. 10. 35. in saying that it shall go before him, he meaneth to make him gracious to God, so that he will have him in remembrance to protect him, as followeth, And the glory of the Lord shall be thy rearward; Hebr. The glory of the Lord shall gather thee; so likewise Jerome, it being meant, that such shall be gloriously protected, as was Moses sometime being in danger of the murmurers, the glory of God appeared at the door of the Tabernacle, whereby they were daunted. But for thy light breaking out as the morning, it is more generally understood of a comfortable and prosperous estate instead of a miserable; for light is often put for prosperity, and darkness for misery: So Luther. For the sore, or wound soon healed, this is the same in other words, for a man in misery is, as it were, wounded; but his case being altered, as was said before, he is healed. By righteousness going before thy face, he meaneth the righteousness in our dealings and mercy before-spoken of, they shall make manifest that we are not feignedly but truly pious, as Officers with ensigns of honor going before honorable persons, show them to all that are present to be such; so Zwingli. By the glory of God gathering thee, some understand a man's gathering to the Congregation of Saints in heaven after death; but Musculus rejects this, because all the good here promised is in this life, and saith, that nothing else is here meant; but whereas when thou didst bear the punishments of thy sins thou wert in disgrace, now being delivered and brought into prosperity, thou shalt be honored, God bringing it thus about, for which it is said, His glory shall gather thee, thou shalt be by him brought into the number of the honorable.
If thou shalt take out of the midst of thee the burden, the putting out of the finger. Vulg. The chain or band, being by Jerome accordingly expounded of the chains of our sins; for so Peter said to Simon, Thou art in the gall of bitterness and bands of iniquity. The putting out of the finger at those that we would disgrace. But the same word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 here used and verse. 6. showeth, that the same thing is meant, viz. the burden of oppression, whereby a man of mean estate is brought down lower, according to the signification of the word, which is to decline] The chain of our sins then is not hereby meant, but any oppression of the poor. By the putting out of the finger, some understand wicked confederacies, some smiting with the fist, as verse. 4. but because here are other words used, I think that any way of disgracing others is meant, either by pointing with the finger, which is one, or by any other gesture, as making mouths, imitating another in his imperfections, or by jesting or mocking at him, one way of disgracing being put for all. Lastly, vain words must also be put away, where by idle words that profit not, as the Vulgar hath it, are meant, or deceitful to circumvent his neighbor, or cursed speaking. And it is to be noted, That God will not hear us to make our estate prosperous, unless we put away all these evils.
If thou shalt pour out thy soul to the hungry. He spake before of breaking thy bread to the hungry, verse. 7. but now he showeth that it must be done out of the bowels of compassion, love causing a sympathy and cheerfulness in doing this. For without love the giving of all my goods to the poor is vain; and God loves a cheerful giver. Then thy light shall rise out of darkness] To the same effect with verse. 8. for misery thou shalt enjoy prosperity and joy.
And the Lord shall lead thee continually. That is, Be with thee to bless thee even in times of greatest want, that thou shalt always have enough.
And they shall build from thee. That is, which descend from thee, Thy children shall build the old waste places; that is, shall not only have enough to live plentifully upon, but also wherewithal to build this ruinous City of Jerusalem, as indeed the children which came of some of them that now lived, did after their return out of Babylon. So that here is implied misery and ruin to come to Jerusalem, but withal a repairing of these ruins thereof promised, and not only of Jerusalem, and other Cities of Judah, but of the world by building men and women upon the foundation Christ Jesus, that they might be a glorious Temple, who lay before as it were, upon ruinous heaps, when they were by reason of their Idolatries and other abominations under the curse bringing inevitable ruin. And these children of theirs were the Apostles and other Preachers, who went out from Jerusalem into all countries repairing the breaches, which were made amongst men by sin, for this is done when Heathens attain Justification by faith, wrought by the preaching of the Gospel, as they then did everywhere. For the Apostles and seventy sent out to preach, and to cast out devils, are called their children in that saying of our Lord, If I by Belzebub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them out? And the next words, The foundations of generation and generation, that is, many generations, they shall raise them up, that is, foundations having lien ruinous generation after generation, which doth not so aptly agree to Jerusalem, because it lay desolate but seventy years, but to other Nations which had lien desolate in respect of the knowledge of the true God, and his grace, being left to be tyrannized over by devils, no buildings of his being all this time amongst them, but Satan's strong-holds only, and that generation after generation ever since Abraham's time, whom and his seed God chose peculiarly, passing by the rest of the world. But now by these Ministers of the Gospel they were built. Musculus I know and Calvin expound these words The foundation of many generations, of the time to come, as if it had been said to last from generation to generation; as if it were meant that the spiritual building reared up by them should never be ruined again, and this we are sure shall be so, for Christ's Church is built upon a Rock, &c. And therefore not excluding it, I hold that foundations lying in the ruins are also meant here, and so Vatablus hath it. And then it is as if he had said, Peoples and Nations having lien desolate many generations by sin and unbelief, they shall raise up to a Temple of God, and this building shall stand, not as the Temple at Jerusalem many hundreds of years, but generation after generation to the worlds end. And thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach; that is, the Jew shall be famous, as being used by God for an instrument of so great a work; and this he attributeth to the Jews, because the Apostles and seventy were Jews, who went about repairing these decays, and the breach whereby the Gentiles were broken off from being the people of God, for now the partition-wall is broken down, and there is no breaking off of any anymore; but in every Nation all that fear God and believe in Christ are accepted alike before him. And in the same sense it is added, The restorer of paths to dwell in, or to habitation, Vulg. Turning paths into quietness, and that not disagreeably to the Hebrew, for the meaning is, As in time of war bringing ruin, the very ways are dangerous to travel in, by which means Cities and Towns lie unfrequented, and the ways thither are overgrown with grass, now by means of peace they should be renewed again, and by travellers frequented. And this is no small glory to men to be happy instruments of so great a blessing, and therefore it is spoken of accordingly in praising the Apostles, and whoso turns any to God from his sins, participateth in the same honor.
If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, &c. Jerome will have no strict keeping of a day here meant according to the sound of the words, both because it cannot thus be fulfilled, that a man should sit still and not stir from his place an whole day together, as is here said, If thou shalt turn away thy foot, and because not one day of seven must be kept in refraining from our sinful pleasures and ways and words, but all the days of our lives. Wherefore he understands it of this kind of rest, as before also upon Chap. 56. 2. neither do any of our Writers dissent from him herein. When the Lord next unto mercy and charity commends unto us the worthy keeping of the Sabbath both here and in other places, saith Calvin, he meaneth not so much the external rest of the body upon a day, but a continual resting from walking in sinful ways, doing sinful works, or speaking vain words, and then we consecrate the Sabbath as honorable, when our minds and affections are taken off from worldly things, and lifted up to heavenly. Wherefore they err that understand these words as forbidding any other thoughts or talk upon the Sabbath-day besides heavenly, expounding finding pleasure of any other pleasure besides that which is in hearing, praying, &c. and doing thine own ways, of doing any worldly thing though lawful, and speaking words of words touching worldly things. For as in describing a true fast that which is said is not peculiar to one day, men being at liberty to do otherwise the days following, as is intimated verse. 5. Is this a fast for a man to afflict himself for a day, &c. So touching the Sabbath, and therefore all things here must be so understood, as agreeing to the Sabbath day, and to all the days of the week following, for we must no day find our pleasure, that is, as was before expounded, verse. 4. in drunkenness or whoring, or any other unlawful thing that we delight in, or do our own ways, that is in oppressing, deceiving, unjust dealing in any kind, or speak words, for so it is Heb. that is, swearing in our common talk, lying, cursing, railing, being obscene or scurrilous, or flattering herein. Touching the external keeping of the Sabbath, it was no part of the Prophets purpose to prescribe how that should be done, but rather to tax hypocrites who stood so strictly upon that, that they regarded it only, thinking if they kept it outwardly according to the letter, yea more strictly, they highly pleased Almighty God. But that without this perpetual Sabbath-keeping is nothing, and this is most highly pleasing, and whoso keepeth such a Sabbath is in the right way to an everlasting Sabbath or rest from all sorrow in heaven in all joy and glory.
I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth. See a like passage to this Deut. 32. 13. Jerome renders it, I will lift thee up above the heights of the earth: giving this for the sense; If thou shalt keep the Sabbath, as hath been said, Thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, that is, have delight and joy unspeakable in him, and be exalted to the new earth above, which is far higher then the highest parts of this, touching which it is said, Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth, where by earth it is plain, that this earth is not meant, because Psal. 37. 11. this being promised. Vers. 18. it is said, That he shall delight himself in the abundance of peace, And inherit the earth forever. And verse. 29. this inheritance is said to be everlasting, which cannot agree to the earth upon which we now live. And this is further confirmed by the promise of long life in the Land or earth which the Lord giveth them made to children that honor their parents: for this cannot be understood of this earth, because many such children die young, and so it is not fulfilled to them. It is the new earth then above, that is both there and here touched upon, according to that of Peter, We look for a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. And I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob; that is, such food as eye hath not seen, nor ear heard of, neither hath it entered in man's heart to conceive. Yet not according to the opinion of the Millenaries, who hold eating and drinking and marrying, and living in corporeal pleasures a thousand years, whereas we are taught, that we shall be as the Angels, neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and that this happiness shall last not a thousand years only, but forever and ever. Thus Jerome, with whom consenteth Cyril and Procopius. Some others number three benefits here promised, 1. Thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and having joy in the holy Ghost which passeth understanding, and whereunto he that hath it thinks no joy comparable. 2. I will carry thee above the altitudes of the earth] That is, thy mind being thus filled with spiritual joy, thou shalt look upon the earth and all earthly things, as far below, to sleight and despise them in comparison. 3. I will feed thee with the heritage of Jacob, that is, give thee actual possession of all the good promised to all true Israelites in the world to come. Which because it is bound and sealed for a truth by these words, The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it, it showeth, that there are very few merciful and righteous persons, because so few have this joy to contemn earthly things therefore, and for this cause few shall have that heritage. According to this exposition Gregory saith, It is a privilege of the elect, that they know they are now come to high things, for which they trample upon all worldly things, as being under them. And hence it is that the Lord saith by the Prophet to the soul that follows him, I will lift above the heights of the earth. And what are the heights of the earth, but gain, flattery of Subjects, sublimity of honor? &c. But when the heart is fixed in heaven it is soon perceived how abject these things are, which before seemed so high. And in another place speaking of himself, when he lived solitarily, giving himself wholly to divine contemplation, desiring nothing and fearing nothing in this world, me thought I stood as it were upon the top of all, and that the saying of the Prophet was fulfilled in me, I will set thee above the heights of the earth. And this is favored by the words here used, which may as well be rendered, I will make thee to be carried above the heights of the earth, as I will make thee ride upon, because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth as well to be carried as to ride. Yet it is not to be denied, but that the Prophet alludeth to what Moses saith God would do for his people in Canaan, but not resting here he certainly soareth up higher, as hath been said. But herein, I confess, I go from Calvin, Musculus, &c. who dwell upon the sense that leadeth only to a promise of a worldly benefit, to be brought out of Babylon, which was low in comparison of Judea, and where the Jews were of low condition, into Canaan again, the ancient inheritance of the sons of Jacob, there to live in liberty and abundance. But alas what had this been in comparison of the happiness whereby this place hath been expounded, and what to the promises by Christ to the faithful of all Countries, of whom the Prophet plainly speaks, as well as of the Jews, even from Chap. 40. hitherto.
CHAP. LIX.
THe Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, &c. Having made so excellent a promise chap. 58. to the merciful and righteous, now he cometh to show what was the cause of theirs, and the Nations so great miseries before the fulfilling of this, viz. sin so greatly abounding, and not any want of power in God to hear and to help the miserable calling upon him. But sin, as Jerome saith, makes a partition wall betwixt God and us, that keeps the reaching of his hand to us away, and likewise his hearing, for he heareth not sinners. Then verse. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. be capitulateth their sins, 1. Plainly, Cruelty acted with their hands, lying and other wicked speaking with their tongues, verse. 4. their sins of omission, none stood for justice or truth, thus seeking shelter from God against the storms of adversity that were coming, but they vainly trusted in their wealth and worldly power, conceiving that by reason thereof they should be safe, whatsoever the Prophets threatened against them, for this he meaneth by saying, They trust to vain things, &c. 2. Allegorically by a similitude taken from a Basilisk, the most poisonous of all serpents, and of a Spider which is also full of deadly poison; so that it hath been observed by some that a Spider hath poisoned and made a Toad to swell, and a Basilisk kills by seeing. Now to show how dangerous to bring death instead of help, the devices of the wicked were to those that follow them, he saith, They hatch the cockatrices or basilisks egg, and weave the spiders web: he that eats of their eggs shall die. Vers. 6. And their webs shall not be a garment, &c. as he had said, verse. 4. They conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity] That is, which tends to more trouble instead of delivering out of trouble, and makes both them and others that trust to such conceptions fuller of trouble and misery, which are the fruit of iniquity, and therefore are here so called. For as he that eats the Basilisks egg dieth as by poison, and he that trusteth to a Spiders-web for a covering, if a storm cometh shall find it to be none; so he that animates himself to go on in sin, bearing himself upon such vain imaginations, that by some worldly means he shall be preserved, friends being made hereby, or such defensible towers, as that the enemy shall not be able to break into, shall contrary to his expectation be suddenly destroyed, as one that lieth open to a dart without any cover that is able to retort it. The word rendered, They hatch, signifieth properly to break, and because in hatching the egg breaks, it is rendered to hatch, the Vulgar retains the word break; but they that follow it do some of them expound it by hatching, some by breaking to eat thereof, as if it were an hens egg, as Jerome; because some by being deceived receive such evil imaginations of others into their minds, and are poisoned to death hereby. And this is best, as for which the words following make, He that eats their eggs shall die, because eggs are not hatched to be eaten, but broken. And whereas this hath been before applied to the imaginations of worldly great men, and danger by enemies, he applieth it to them that are still in expectation of Christ's coming, saying, These are they that talk vanity, conceive trouble and bring forth iniquity, as indeed they do, for a world of troubles have come upon the Jews by this means, and great is the iniquity upon this conception acted by them in crucifying the Lord of life. And they that have and do take this conceit into their minds at this day, as if they had broken and eaten the Cockatrices egg, die and perish forever in great numbers; and their arguments whereupon they harden their hearts in infidelity, though they seem to them a goodly contexture or well-woven web, yet it is but a Spiders web, and insufficient to cover them from misery. And thus I think it not amiss to apply these things in the second place, as mystically implied here, and so in every passage some touch is given touching Christ and his Kingdom, in prophesying of whom he began to speak Chap. 40. and continueth to the end of his Prophecy, as hath been already said. But whereas the same Jerome following the Seventy expounds breaking this egg, of their breaking it, that having thus done presently perceive by the stench what it is, and abhor from it, I see not how it can agree, because the same who are said to conceive trouble and to bring forth iniquity, or the like unto them, are said to break the Cockatrice▪egg, and are threatened with death, and are further set forth, as most abominably wicked, verse. 6, 7, 8. The Vulgar Lat. for Cockatrice hath Viper, some the Asp most like unto a Cockatrice for incurably poisoning, for against all other Serpents to taste of a Frog, saith Elianus, is a present remedy, but none against the biting of an Asp. Hitherto allegorically of their sins, next he returns again plainly to inveigh against them, making a long catalogue both in this sixth verse, and 7, 8. Their works are works of iniquity, &c. Their feet run to evil, they hasten to shed innocent blood, destruction and calamity is in their way, &c. Whereby their sin in crucifying Christ and persecuting the Prophets are chiefly meant, for these works were indeed works of violence in their hands, as it followeth here, verse. 6. and then more particularly, saying, They hasten to shed innocent blood, as is also objected to them, Matth. 23. 23. and by Stephan, Act. 7. Destruction is in their way, and the way of peace they have not known, for in rejecting him that came and preached peace unto them, yea the prince of peace, they overthrew their own peace, and ran headlong the way to destruction and calamity, as they have since found by woeful experience. And partly from hence, and partly from Psal. 14. the Apostle draweth an argument to convince the Jews of as great guiltiness, if not greater then the Gentiles, Rom. 3. 10. Neither is there judgment in their goings; because there is no peace in their ways, for in rejecting him, in whom all true peace lieth, they put judgment also from them, seeing this is he, of whom it was said before, Behold my servant in whom my soul delighteth, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Where judgment is put for the judgment of absolution from sin, and of inviting in mercy to his grace here, and his kingdom of glory hereafter.
Therefore judgment is far away from us, and justice, lays not hold upon us. Here after the wickednesses of the Jews declared, and indeed generally of all men, for all are gross sinners, he inferreth, That for this cause God left the Jews whom he had most favored, to the fury of their enemies, and stood not to avenge their quarrel. The fault was not in God, or in his want of mercy, but altogether in themselves and their abominable sins. Wherefore though they looked for the light of prosperity and comfort, there was nothing but darkness of misery and sorrow.
We grope for the wall as blind. Jerome referring all to the light of the Gospel, saith, That the Prophet having laid open the sins of the Jews, cometh verse. 9, 10, &c. in their person, to teach them what to say and confess, to acknowledge that the light of saving knowledge was far from them now that the Gospel is by them rejected and gone to the Gentiles. For by this means they are destitute of all true judgment and righteousness, and are in darkness of mind instead of light, having the Scriptures in their hands, but not able to feel or find out the truth touching the Messiah therein set forth, as the blind gropeth for the wall, when it is night to him, and cannot find it.
We roar like bears, and mourn like doves. He compares them to two sorts of creatures of contrary quality, the one cruel, the other fearful, yet both agreeing in roaring and mourning, the Bear being robbed of her whelps, or taken in a pit, roareth; the dove continually mourneth. To be like the Dove for innocence is commended to us, but not without wisdom. The Jews mourn simply now, and are Dove-like full of fear and trembling, but they have no wit to know the original cause hereof, their crucifying of Christ, and tearing his flesh like cruel Bears, this light shineth brightly in all the world, but they alone have no eyes to see it; so Jerome. And I doubt not, but as in other passages, so here he hath a further reach then to set forth the outward calamities by the Jews suffered, and to teach them to mourn for their sins in general, as the cause thereof; and what can this be, seeing he is prophesying of Christ, but to bring them, if it may be, to a sight and sense of that most foul and deadly sin of all other, to lament and confess it, that it might be done away, and they might be converted? Some expound roaring of crying out with a great noise, and mourning with little noise, it being sought to suppress the grief. Some by the roaring like Bears, the impatient cryings out of the wicked, and by the mourning like Doves, the sorrow of the godly. But seeing he saith, We all roar, here is no place for this distinction, but the lamentation to be made by all for their wicked fact done out of cruelty and fear, that if they let Jesus alone all men would follow him, and then the Romans would come and destroy them and their City, is here set forth.
Vers. 12, 13, 14. are nothing else but an Argument of the confession which the Prophet teacheth them to make of their wickednesses grown to that height, that as he concludeth, verse. 15. Whoso departed from evil made himself a prey] Wickedness was grown to that height, that if there were any one that would not consort with them in their unjust and malicious proceedings, they would like savage beasts fall upon him, and spoil him of that which he had, and tear him as enemy to the state, as the wicked Lacedemonians sometime had a kind of banishment called Ostracism, for any honest and temperate man; and this is by Jerome specially applied to the Pharisees, who cast them out of their Synagogues that departed from their evil ways and believed in Jesus, as we may see in the blind man receiving his sight, Joh. 9. and in Stephan persecuted to the death merely for standing to the truth, and reproving their wickedness. And the Lord saw, and it displeased, &c. Here after sin laid open and judgments coming therefore, the Prophet proceedeth to show how displeasing this was to God, and for the comfort of everyone that departed from evil and suffered therefore, that God himself would be a Savior to such, in whose resolution to save every just man might safely confide. And therefore this part of the verse is well by Jerome divided from it, and put to verse. 16. as the beginning of that which there followeth, He marvelled that there was no intercessor] Jerome, That there was not one that occurred; And the Hebrew is occurring or coming out to meet, the meaning is, That they were so universally wicked, that there was scarce one to be met with, that stood right and firm in the truth spoken of verse. 15. see the like Jer. 5. 1. and he meaneth not only one just through eschewing evil, but one opposing the unjust proceedings of the wicked against such, that was a man of power in the Commonwealth, as the inference made hereupon intimates, Therefore his arm brought salvation to him. When there is no mighty man of courage to save the just from being made a prey, the power of the Lord shall do it, and his righteousness, that is, his righteous judging their malicious and blood thirsty enemies. For which verse. 17. he proceedeth saying, He shall put on righteousness as a breast-plate, and the helmet of salvation, after which follow the garments of vengeance, and his repaying them according to their deeds, as to his adversaries, verse. 18. and this Jerome expounds as a Prophecy of the Jews destruction by the Romans; neither is it to be misliked, because the Lord seemed then to be more enraged against them then ever, and the just One, who is the head of all the just, and the fountain of justice or righteousness, had his bloody passion by their hands most remarkably revenged: as they had crucified him, and cried out, Let his blood be upon us and our children, so it came unto them, and thus they were recompensed according to their doings, as is here threatened. But what is this, that it is said, The Lord marvelled? The Hebrew signifieth, he was astonished, and through astonishment was as dumb for a time, which is so spoken to set forth the strangeness and prodigiousnesse of the thing, able to make any man amazed, that such abominable wickedness should overspread all so, as that there was not one that opposed it, that men being so generally corrupted might be astonished in themselves to think upon it, and some at the least in the corruptest times be forward to oppose violence offered to the innocent.
He shall recompense to the Islands. That is, not only to his enemies in Jerusalem, where Jesus was crucified, saith Jerome, but also to the other Cities of Judea, which were to Jerusalem as Islands to the continent. But because the word Islands is nowhere else used in this sense, I rather subscribe to them that expound it as meant of the inhabitants of Islands properly, that is, the remotest parts, and he meaneth, That revenge shall be taken upon wicked oppressors of the righteous there, as well as in any other parts, for God will be alike such in what place so ever, as by his providence administering justice alike in all parts of the world. And if any shall say, But how is this to bring salvation to him, of which he is speaking? Answ. The destruction of the wicked enemies of the Church is the salvation of the faithful; and therefore it is observed, that some tyrants being at the point of death have ceased persecuting, as Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria, and Valerius and Maximianus Roman Emperors, who raised the tenth and most bloody persecution against Christians; or if not, their mighty enemies being destroyed, they are saved, as were the Jews by the fall of the Babylonians by Cyrus a friend, coming to the highest height of power, instead of an enemy an oppressor, the King of Babylon.
Therefore they shall fear the name of the Lord from the West, &c. This shall be the effect of God's judgments against the enemies of his Church, that people's of all Countries and Nations all the world over seeing it, shall fear the Lord, and turn worshippers of him, as the Gentiles indeed did, when the Apostles leaving the Jews to their deserved destruction went and preached to the Gentiles. When the enemy shall come in as a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against him. The Vulgar, The Spirit of the Lord compelling, Hebr. The Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard in him, or by him, which makes the sense more easy, when the Romans shall come against the Jews as a violent flood that beareth down all things, they shall not come without the Lord and his power, and so they shall be unresistible; for that it is meant of Jerusalem, see Dan. 9. 26. the end whereof is said to be with a flood. Some expound the last words, as if it were meant, the Spirit or power of the Lord shall repress him, when he shall come like a flood upon the righteous drowning all by his Almighty power, yet he shall be turned back with confusion. Calvin questions of what enemies this is spoken, and neither liketh of their opinion, who restrain it to the Jews only destroyed for their obstinacy against Christ, nor of theirs that restrain it to the destruction of Babylon by Cyrus, saying that it may best be understood of the whole time of God's proceeding in severity against the enemies of the Church, from the time that Babylon was overthrown to the time of Jerusalem's destruction.
There shall come a Redeemer to Zion, and to them that turn from iniquity. This is by the Apostle Rom. 11. 16. applied to the Jews to prove their conversion to come, about which he also argueth otherwise in that Chapter at large, and layeth this in fine as a ground of it, The gifts and calling of God are without repentance; Upon which I have there written. But it is to be noted, lest it should be thought that all Zion shall be saved, that it is added for further explication, To them that turn from sin in Jacob; so that none shall have benefit of this redemption but converts, who cast away their transgressions and believe, for which also Christ came preaching Repent and believe.
My Spirit which is upon thee, and my words in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth, or thy seeds or seeds seed forever. Here after a Redeemer promised to Zion, that is, the Church or Congregation of the faithful, verse. 20. The Lord is brought in speaking for the greater assurance of this Church, This is the Covenant that I make with thee, My Spirit and my words, &c. whereby the same in effect is promised with that which our Lord speaks of, I will send the Spirit of truth unto you, and he shall lead you into all truth. God was pleased first to make a Covenant with Abraham and his seed according to the flesh; now he fore-tells of another Covenant with Zion after the coming of the Redeemer, of which also Jer. 31. 33. and the meaning is, As a thing covenanted betwixt man and man stands firmly, so far forth as the covenanters have truth or power in them; so this shall continue ratified forever, that the words of the Gospel, and the Spirit being once put into the Apostles and their mouths to preach them, shall never die anymore, but there shall be a seed of faithful preachers generation after generation, going on to preach the same to the worlds end, and in them the Spirit of truth, so that they shall not err therefrom at any time. Wherefore although the representative Church, that is, a general Council convened, may possibly err in some things, yet the universal Church can never err, but still there shall be some faithful souls holding the truth constantly and not corrupted, when errors do most abound; as in the days of Elijah, when he thought none of the true servants of God to have been left, but himself alone, the Lord told him that there were seven thousand left in Israel, whose knees never bowed to Baal, &c. And the like is observed in the corruptest times under the Gospel by him that wrote the book called Catalogus testium veritatis, upon which I have touched in my Catechism in speaking of the Church; so that although the Church of Rome in present calling herself the Catholic Church be degenerated and gone from the truth, yet Christ's promise faileth not, Upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. See also upon this my Antidote against Popery. This seed may indeed sometime be very little as the name of remnant, whereby it is called, and A very small remnant, doth imply, but it is never quite extinct, and although it lieth hid from the world for a time, yet it lifts up the head again, and is conspicuous, as a City set upon an hill. And blessed are they that be of this seed, for such only are redeemed, and are one and the same Zion, to which the promise is made, whether Jews or Gentiles; and it is not being an Israelite or a Christian by outward profession that makes a man one, but still he may be accursed. Wherefore let none be moved by the marks of this seed reckoned up by the Papists, Universality, Visibility and Succession,