Commentary on the Minor Prophets
As the slock in the midst of their fold, ] So will God, first shut you up by strait sieges, and then number you out to the sword: and ye shall all bow down to the slaughter, Isaiah 65.12. There is a memorable story of the suffering of certain good people in Calabria, Anno 1560. by the hands of the bloody Papists there. A great sort of them being thrust up in one house together, as in a sheep-fold, the executioner comes in: and among them, takes one, and blindfoldeth him with a muffler about his eyes, and so leadeth him forth to a larger place, where he commandeth him to kneel down: which being done, he cutteth his throat, and so leaving him half-dead, and taking his butchers knife, and muffler all of gore-blood, cometh again to the rest; and so leading them one after another, he dispatched them all to the number of eighty eight. In Ireland many like barbarous butcheries have been committed, by those breathing devils the Romish Rebels, those fat-wolves worrying Christ's flock in the midst of the land. But shall they thus escape by iniquity? No verily, in thine anger cast down that people, O God, Psal. 56.7. Give them blood again to drink, for they are worthy. A Lapide saith, that Bozrah signifieth Rome: and that Micah here, after a sort foretelleth, that the Church of Rome should be the common sheep-fold of the sheep of Christ, under one chief shepherd the Pope. But this conceit is far fetched: and Rome (the slaughter-house of the saints) is no otherwise Boz • ah, then that she is of Edom (the Rabbins for Dumah, Isaiah 21.11. read Roma, and call the Court of Rome, the wicked kingdom of Edom ) and that her brats, as the Vultures young ones, do glut-glut blood (so the Hebrew soundeth, Job 39.30.) and where the sl •• a • e, there is she.
They shall make a great noise. ] Heb. a humming noise. By reason of the multititude of men, or rather wolves, Lycanthropi, wherewith they are environed, to their no small heart-break.
Verse 13. The breaker up is come up before them ] The 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , breach-maker shall handle them hardly and cruelly, as Gally-slaves, or men condemned to the mine-pits.
They have broken up ] Made havoc, and laid heaps upon heaps.
And their king shall pass before them ] Not only fex populi, but Rex ipse, shall be carried captive, as were Hoshea, and Zedekiah, the city being broken up, Jer. 52.7.
And the Lord on the head of them ] Jehovah, that man of war, Exod. 15.3. going before them, as Captain of the enemies forces, to avenge the quarrel of his covenant, Levite. 26.25.
CHAP. III.
Verse 1. AND I said, ] viz. at another time, and in a new discourse: the heads whereof 〈…〉 we have here recorded. A stinging Sermon it is, preached to the Princes, and Prophets, those great Heteroclites in the house of Israel. For as in a fish, so in a Church and State, corruption begins at the head: and as • heume falling from the head upon the lights, breeds a consumption of the whole body, so is it here. To the chieftains therefore, and Capitanei, our Prophet applieth himself: And as it is said of Suetonius, that ealibertate, scripsit Imperatorum vitas quà ipsi vix • runt, that he wrote the Emperors lives with as much liberty, as they lived them: so did Micah as boldly reprove the Princes sins, as they committed them. Such another Preacher amongst us was Latimer, and after him De • ring; who in his Sermon afore Queen Elizabeth, speaking of the disorders of the times; These things are so, saith He, and you sit still and do nothing. And again, May we not well say with the Prophet, saith He, It's the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed, seeing there is so much disobedience, both in subjects and Prince. Once it was Tanquam ovis, as a sheep before the sheerer: but now it is Tanquam • uvenca petulca, as an untamed heifer, &c. In our days, Reverend Mr. Stock had this commendation given him by a faithful witness; that he could speak his mind fitly, and that he durst speak it freely. I will go to the Bishop ( Steven Gardener, then Lord Chancellor) and tell him to his beard, that he doth naught, said Dr. Taylor Martyr; and he did so, though his friends dissuaded him. Truth must be spoken, however it be taken. And if God's Messengers must be mannerly in the form, yet in the matter of their message, they must be resolute, and plain-dealing. It is probable that Joseph used some kind of preface to Pharaohs Baker, in reading him that hard destiny, Gen. 40.19. such haply as was that of Daniel to Nebuchadnezzar, chap. 4.19. or as Phile brings him in with a Utinam tale somnium non vidisses, &c. But for the matter, he gives him a sound, though a sharp interpretation. So dealeth Micah by these corrupt Princes, to whom nevertheless he giveth their due Titles: and of whom he fairly begs audience. Hear I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, &c. Or, hear ye now, who formerly have refused to hearken. It was in Hezekiah's days, that this Sermon was preached, as appeareth, Jer. 26.18. not long before Sennacherib invaded the land, Mic. 5. And although the King himself were religious, and righteous, yet many of his Princes and Courtiers, who in the reign of his father Ahaz, had been habituated in rapine, and wrong-dealing, still played their pranks, and are here as barely told their own.
Is it not for you to know judgment? ] To know it, and do it? as it is said of our Savior, that he knew no sin, that is, he did none. And have the workers of iniquity no knowledge? they eat up my people as they eat bread, and call not upon God, Psal. 14.4. Of all men Magistrates should be knowing men, fearing God, hating covetousness, and cruelty, Exod. 18.21. They are the eyes of their Country, and if they be dark, how great is that darkness? They are the common looking-glasses, by which other men use to dress themselves. Judges they are, to discern, and decide controversies: fit it is therefore and necessary, that they know • udgement: how else shall they execute it? Tully complaineth of the Roman Priests in his days, that there were many things in their own laws that themselves understood not. I will get me to the great men, saith Jeremy, (when he found things far amiss among the vulgar) and will speak unto them; for they have known the way of the Lord, and the judgment of their God: but these have altogether broken the yoke, and burst the bonds, Jer. 5.5.
Verse 2. Who hate the good, and love the evil, ] q.d. That you know not judgment, but are men ignorant of the truth, which is according to godliness, appeareth by your wicked practices. For you stand acrosse to what God requireth, hating what you should love, and loving where you should hate. Goodness is in itself amiable, and attractive: but you are perfect strangers to it, and therefore hate it, and those that profess it. Evil is of the Devil: and must therefore needs be loathsome: and yet you love it, allow it, and wallow in it: whereas you should abhor that which is evil (hate it as hell) and cleave (or be fast glued) to that which is good, Rom. 12.9. You are direct Antipodes to the godly, Psal. 15.4. and have nothing in you of the divine nature, 2 Pet. 1.4. or of the spot of God's children: but are a perverse and crooked generation, Deut. 32.3.
Who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones. ] Like so many carnivorous Cannibals, or truculent wild-beasts. As the Ossi •• age, or Breakbone pursueth the prey, tears off the flesh, breaks the bones, and sucks out the marrow: such were these griping tyrants: their furious rapacity surmounted all bounds of humanity. Such an one was Verres among the Romans, as Tully describeth him: that Tigre Tiberius, those Romish Usurers in King Johns time here, called Caursini quasi capien • es Ursi (quoth Paris ) devouring Bears: who left not so much money in the whole Kingdom, as they either carried with them, or sent to Rome before them. Money and lands are here called men's skin, flesh, and bones: and a poor man's substance is his life. See Mark 12. ult. and Luke 8.43. Hence oppression is called a bony sin, Amos 5.12, 13. and Oppressors Men-eaters, Psal. 14.4. and murderers, Hab. 2.12. Cyprian cries out, F • rae parcunt Danieli, Aves pascunt Eliam, homines saeviunt; Lions spare Daniel, ravens feed Elias; but men rage and are worse then both. Melancthon maketh mention of a certain Prince, some few years before his time, who, to get money out of his subjects, would send for them: and by knocking out first one tooth, and then another (threatening to leave them toothless else) would extort from them what sums soever he pleased. Our King Johns exactours received from his subjects no less sums of curses, then of coin, saith the Chronicler: And so did Cardinal Wolsey, under Henry 8. by his importable Subsidies: which caused Suffolk to rise up in arms, making poverty their Captain.
Verse 3. Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin, &c. ] He stills proceeds in the Allegory, the better to argue, and aggravate their extreme cruelty. Money, saith the Heathen, is a man's flesh, blood, life, all. Of this, when the people were pilled, and polled, by their cruel princes, who are here compared to butchers and cooks, they are looked upon as not only excoriated, but exca •• i • ied, and even exossa • ed, and laid for dead: for mortis habet vi • es quae trahitur vi • a gemitibus. It is a lifeless life that many poor people live for want of necessaries. Such savage Shepherds Ezekiel inveighes against, that not only sheer their sheep, but held them, and suck their blood. Atqui pastoris est pecus tondere, non degl • bere, non carnem & ossa concidere, &c.
Chop them in pieces, as for the pot, &c. ] Making no more bones of undoing them and their families, then to eat a meals-meat, when hungry: yea nourishing their hearts therewith, as in a day of slaughter, or good cheer. Jam. 5.3.
Verse 4. Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will not hear them ] Then sc. when God shall have changed their cheer, pulled the fat morsel from between their teeth, and fed them with the bread of affliction, and water of affliction, with prisoners pittance as they call it, which will neither keep them alive, nor suffer them to die; Then shall they cry, and whine as hogs when hungry, as dogs when tied up from their meat; but God will not hear them. He will even cast out their prayers with contempt, as being the prayers of the flesh for ease, and not of the spirit for grace. They cry unto the Lord aloud, but it is only to be rid of his rod, they roar when upon the wrack, but 'tis only to get off, they look rufully as the fox doth when taken in a gin, but it is only to be set at liberty, they chatter out a charm when God's chastening is upon them, yea they may be with child (as it were) of a prayer, and yet bring forth nothing but wind Esa. 26.16, 17, 18. For either God answereth them not at all, which was Saul's case & curse 1 Sam. 28.15. & Moab's Isa. 16.12. and David's enemies Psal. 18.41. Or else he gives them bitter answers Ezek. 14.4. Judge. 10.13, 14. Or if better; it is but for a further mischief, that he may curse their blessings, and consume them after that he hath done them good Josh. 24.20. Their preservation from one evil is but a reservation to seven worse; as we see in Phaoh, Senacherih, Ahab, and others. Lo, this is the portion of a wicked man with God, and the heritage of oppressors which they shall receive of the almighty Job 27, 13, 14, 15. &c. See the place. Remedilesse misery shall befall them, calamities that shall wring from them clamours but to no purpose, or profit See Prov. 1.28.
he will even hide his face from them ] that is, withdraw his savor, care, providence, help, presence, and benefits, of all which the face is the symbol: that like as they have turned upon God the back and not the face, and have been merciless to men, hiding their eyes from their own flesh: so shall it be done to them in the day of their distress, God will award them judgment without mercy who shown no mercy I am. 2.13. He will set off all hearts from them, as he did from wicked Haman, when the king frowned upon him. Lastly, he will turn their own consciences loose upon them (as once he did upon Joseph's brethren Gen. 42.21.) to ring that doleful knell in their ears Isa. 3 • 1. Woe to thee that spoilist, &c. when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled, &c. Talionis lege mulctabere, as Adonibezek, Phocas, Charles 9. &c.
Verse 5. Thus saith the Lord concerning the Prophets ] False prophets, who pretended divine authority, when as God never sent them, but expressly declareth here against them, and threateneth them. Those profane Princes had their flesh-flies, those court-parasites, to sooth and smooth them up in their sins: to promise th • m peace, albeit they walked in the imagination of their own hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst, and to live as they listed. Mirifica est sympathia inter Magnates & parasitos, saith One. There is a strange sympathy betwixt Great men and claw-backs: nothing so troublesome to such, as truth; nothing so toothsome, as flattery: this is the fruit of 〈◊〉 self-love: and the end thereof are the ways of death Prov. 16.25.
that make my people to err ] That 〈◊〉 them and carry them out of the right way into by paths, and blind thickets 〈◊〉 • rrour, where they are lost forever. Deut. 13.13. Seducers are said to draw 〈◊〉 violently or to thrust them onward. Jeroboam is said to have driven Israel from following the Lord: and the false Apostles to drag disciples after them Act. 20. compelling them by their persuasions to embrace those distorted doctrines, that cause convulsions of conscience.
that bite with their teeth ] The dogs of Congo bite through they bark not, saith Mr. Purchas: there are a sort of cu • -dogs, saith Another, that suck a man's blood only with licking. Seducers are such: Beware of false Prophets: for they come to you in sheep's clo • thing; but inwardly they are ravening wolves. And in this sense Jerome and Theodoret take this text: they devour those they make prize of, as the Apostles word signifieth Colos. 2.8. Others think their covetousness and gormandise is noted.
And cry, Peace ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 All shall be as well as heart can wish, or need require. Let these Cerberusses but be morselled, and you shall hear no worse of them. Like they are to the ravens of Arabia that full gorged have a tuneable sweet record: but empty, screech horribly. Si ventri been si lateri as Epicurus saith in Horace, Let their bellies be filled and their backs fitted, and they will prophecy all good to you: as those false Prophets nourished by Jezebel did to Ahab; as the Pharisees cried up the Centurion, who had built them a synagogue Luk. 7. as the Popish Clergy canonize their benefactors, and extol them to the skies. Wvlsin Bishop of Sherborn displaced secular Priests and put in Monks. Hence the Monkish writers make him a very holy man; and report of him, that when he lay a dying he cried out suddenly, I see the heavens open, and Jesus Christ standing at the right hand of God, and so died. Yea, they had a trick to make their Images speak their minds this way. As the rode of grace here in England had a man within it enclosed, with an hundred wires to make the image goggle with the eyes, nod with the head, hang the lip: move and shake his laws according as the value was of the gift that was offered. If it were a small piece of silver, he would hang a frowning lip: if a piece of gold, then should his jaws go merrily. This idolatrous forgery was at last, by Cromwell's means, disclosed: and the image with all his engines shown openly at Paul's cross, and there torn in pieces by the people, who had been so seduced.
and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him ] Heb. sanctify a war, id est, excomunicatis aquâ & igni interdicunt, crucem adversus eos praedicant &c. they thunder against them, and throw them out of the Church: publish their Croysades, as they did against the Waldenses in France, the Hussites in Bohemia, and Luther in Germany: whom the pope excommunicated, the Emperor proscribed, diverse divines wrote against: the reason whereof when Erasmus was asked by the Electour of Saxony, he rightly answered, Because he meddleth with the Popes tripple crown, and with the Friars fat paunches.
Verse 9. Therefore night shall be unto you ] Ye shall be benighted, your gifts blasted, and your persons baffled: your lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness: the sword shall be upon your arms, and upon your right eyes: your arms shall be clean dried up, and your right eyes utterly darkened. Those illuminations and inspirations that ye seemed to have, shall be taken from you: and God shall pass that dreadful sentence, Take the talent from him, even here in this life: let him not have the least dram or drop of a prophetic Spirit, of ministerial abilities; and then, in the next world, cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness &c. Mat. 25.28.30.
and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine ] Tenebrae vobis à divinatione, vel propter divinationem, so Calvin. All the reward ye shall have for your divination shall be disgrace and confusion: your folly shall be manifest unto all men, as was that of Jannes and Jambres 2 Tim. 3.9.
And the Sun shall go down over the Prophets ] The same thing is set forth by sundry Metaphors, for more assurance: for Hypocritis nihil stupidius, it is hard to persuade an hypocrite, that evil is toward him: see ver. 11.
Verse 7. Then shall the Seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded ] They shall be hissed and hooted at for Impostor, and falsaries: shame shall be the promotion of these fools, as it is at this day of the Heathen Philosophers, of the Jewish Rabbins, of the Popish Doctors and School-men: who once carried the bell for most acute and accurate Divines, but now appear to be great triflers, a rotten generation of dunghill-divines as one styleth them: in detestation of whose vain jangling and doting about questions 1 Tim. 6.4. Luther saith, Prope est-ut jurem &c. I could swear almost, that there was not a Schoolman that understood one chapter of the Gospel. Latimer professed that by hearing Bilneys confession, he learned more, then afore in many years. So from that time forward, saith He, I began to smell the word of God, and forsake the School-doctors, and such fooleries.
yea they shall all cover their lips ] And stand aloof; as lepers. See Lev. 13.45. Ezek. 24.17, 22. Or they shall leave off their lying; for I will stop their mouths, that they shall not hereafter so much as mute anymore. The Septuagint render it, All men shall abhor them, shall open their lips against them. Montanus, involuent mysta cem suam, they shall wrap up their mustachoes, which (saith à Lapide ) the false Prophets wore upon their upper-lip, & incedebant comptuli, and went neatly trimmed, as do now the Calvinistical Ministers. But if some do so, yet this is better then the Popish priests shaving, which is a ceremony so bald, that some Priests in France are ashamed of the mark: and few of them have it, that can handsomely avoid it.
for there is no answer of God ] He comes not at them, as sometimes he did to Abimelech, Laban, Balaam; neither speak they according to his word, for why? there is no light in them Es. 8.20. The Philosophers professing themselves to be wise (but wanting the wi • dome from above) became fools Rom. 1.22. The Pharisees had they known anything aright and as they ought, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8. Oracles they had and miracles enow: but they rejected the counsel of God against themselves being not baptized Luke. 7.30. or if they were, yet remained they a viperous brood Mat. 3. and never attained to that answer of a good conscience toward God 1 Pet. 3.21. The Schoolmen often cite the Philosophers, seldom the Apostles; they count the authority of Fathers as good as that of Scriptures: neither doubt they to call the writings of the Eathers by the name of Scripture. Was not this to set men's threshold by God's threshold: and their posts by his posts Ezek. 43.8. what marvel therefore though they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened, while they taught for doctrines men's traditions? what marvel though Popish fopperies once so admired be now so much slighted, since the world seeth further into them, then formerly? Notable is that passage in K. Henry the eights protestation against the Pope; England is no more a babe; there is no man here, but now he knows that they do foolishly, that part with gold for lead &c. Surely except God take away our right wits, not only the Popes authority shall be driven out forever, but his name also shortly shall be forgotten in England. We will from henceforth ask counsel of him and his, when we list to be deceived, when we covet to be in error, when we desire to offend God, Truth, and honesty &c.
Ver. 8. But truly I am full of power ] But doth it become the Prophet thus to praise himself? Laus proprio sordescit in ore: and those who vaunt most, have oft the least courage; as those creatures who have the greatest hearts of flesh, are the most timorous; as the Stag, Panther, Hare &c. For answer, it must be considered, that the Prophet speaketh not here of his own good parts, out of a vain glorious humor (it was enough for him that he was all glorious within, virtusque suo contenta theatro est ) but to separate himself from those false prophets aforementioned, and to assert his calling by his qualifications, as doth likewise St. Paul 2 Cor. 12. to those who sought a proof of Christ speaking in him. The word rendered But truly signifies, All which notwithstanding: q. d. Albeit there is such a general defection from God, and such unfaithfulness in the Prophets of these times, yet I am full of power, lively and lusty, vigorous and vivacious.
by the spirit of the Lord ] That noble Spirit, as David calleth him, that spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind (as Paul, that putteth spiritual mettle into the soul, and steeleth it against all opposition. And truly if the spirit put not vigor into us, how dead and flat are our duties and all ordinances like liquor that hath lost its spirits? there is as much difference many times as betwixt cold water and Aquavitae.
and of judgment ] to discern of things that differ, to time a word as the Prophet Isaiah hath it, and to teach things profitable and proper to my auditors (not as He in the Emblem that gave straw to the dog, and a bone to the Ass; or as those false Prophets, who spake good of evil, and evil of good) and wisely to distinguish betwixt law and Gospel in praxi; which who so can do, let him thank God, saith Luther, and let him know, that he is a Divine indeed.
and of might ] Or, of manhood, virtue, prevalency against an adversary, patience under whatsoever cross occurrences for the truths sake, and for my p • ain-dealing. A minister had need be a man, every inch of him; and to play the man 1 Cor. 16.13. yea, as the good soldier of Jesus Christ, to suffer hardship; being strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. He must be like the diamond in the High-priests breastplate for hardness and hardiness, as of Athanasius Naz • a • zen testifieth, that he was Magnes & Adamas, both a loadstone for his loveliness and humility, and an Adamant for his resolute stoutness and magnanimity against those that were evil.
to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and to Israel his sin ] to tell them of their wickedness with the same liberty that they commit it. See here the true picture of a Preacher, both how he must be gifted, and how deeded; A thankless office it is with the world to be thus bold and busy; and very many ministers affect to be counted no medlers: they think it enough to preach toothless truths, and not to incur the displeasure of people, by telling them of their transgressions, and God's jud • gements. But this is not the garb and guise of those that are sent and gifted by God. see Ezek. 3. and 33.
Vers. 9. Hear this, I pray you, ye heads, &c. ] He had had a bout with them before: but because little good was thereby done, he is at them again; according to that counsel of the wiseman, In the morning sow thy seed, in the evening withhold not thy hand; for thou knowest not, &c. Preach the word saith the Apostle, be instant (or stand over the work) in season, out of season, &c. 2 Tim. 4.2. Chrysostom told his Antiochians, that he would never give over preaching against that sin of swearing, till they gave over their swearing: which because he could not get them to do, he breaks out into these words. It will be an hard speech unto you, but I will speak it: Though there be so many thousands of you, yet there cannot be found an hundred that shall be saved: and I tell you true, I doubt of them too.
Ye heads of the house of Jacob, and Princes of the house of Israel] As bad as they were he gives them their titles. The devil also is to have his due: he is called by the holy Ghost Prince of the air, and his Angels are styled Principalities, powers, Rulers of the darkness of this world, Eph. 6.12. See the Note on verse. 1.
that abhor judgment ] They were not only ignorant of it, verse. 1. but abhorred it; and therefore abhorred it, because they knew it not. Plato could say, that if moral virtue could be beheld with mortal eyes, it would attract all hearts to itself. But these, as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, spake evil of those things that they understood not, 2 Pet. 2.12. and what they knew naturally as brute beasts, in those things they corrupted themselves, Jude 10. being carried away by their impetuous and imperious lusts, they not only did that which was evil, but also hated the light of the law that reproved and sentenced them: licensing others by their practice at least, to do the like. Such Centaures and Cyclopes were these princes of Israel grown; such Heteroclites these heads of the house of Jacob. The whole head was sick, Isai. 1.5. the Rulers were a scab, Chap. 5.7. The Lord looked for judgment, but behold oppression: for righteousness, but behold a cry. They had made the age not unlike that under Nero, wherein nothing almost was unlawful: but villainy was acted by authority.
and pervert all equity ] Heb. they pervert, &c. It is spoken to others, in token of abomination: See the like, Gen. 49.4. with the Note. Now equity or rectitude is perverted, when the guilty are acquitted and the innocent condemned, (See Isaiah. 5.20, 23. when there is accepting of persons, and receiving of gifts.
Vers. 10. They build up Zion with blood ] Heb. bloods, that is, with goods gotten by rapine and robbery, to the utter undoing of many poor oppressed, whose livelihood is their life, Mar. 12. ult. Luk. 8.43. How much better Selymus the great Turk, who being upon his death-bed moved by Pyrrhus the Bassa to bestow the great wealth, taken by him from the Persian Merchants, upon some notable hospital for relief of the poor, took order that those evil-gotten goods should be forthwith restored again to the right owners, to the shame of many Christians who will not be drawn to do so. Our Henry the seventh indeed in his last will and Testament, devised and willed restitution should be made of all such moneys at had unjustly been levied by his officers. But how few such princes are to be found? It is held a goodly thing to build Zion, though it be with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. But God, as he will not have ex rapina holocaustum, so he infinitely abhorreth all those, who, under pretext of religion in building some poor hospital with the fragments of their accursed wealth, seek to make him a party, a partaker of their cruelty, as those did, Esa. 66.3, 4, Mar. 7.11. Mat. 23.14. Our Henry the third, when he had (after his many great exactions) sent the Friar-Minors a load of freeze to clothe them, had the same sent back again with this message, That he ought not to give alms of what he had rent from the poor, neither would they accept of that abominable gift. Zion is not to be built or beautified with bloods, &c.
Vers. 11. The heads thereof judge for reward, ] Being so many locusts, & latrones cum privilegio, as one saith, Well might Saint Paul say that covetousness is the root of all evil, 1 Tim. 6.10. It is here assigned as one cause (and carnal security as another) of that Regiment without righteousness, here justly complained of. And it was the worse, because it had over-run all sorts of such as were in place of power, whether Civil or Ecclesiastical. The Princes and Judges took gifts, which they should not only not have taken, but have hated, Prov. 15.27. they should have shaken their hands from holding of bribes, Isaiah. 33.15. since there is a curse to such Magistrates with an Amen to it, Deut. 27.25. and Psal. 15.5. exclusion out of heaven: Olim didici quid sint munera, said one once, Rain is good (said another) and ground is good, sed exeorum conjunctione fit lutum, of the mixture of these two is made dirt: So, Giving is kind, and taking is courteous: yet the mixing of them maketh the smooth paths of Justice foul and uneven. Nec prece nec precio, should be the Magistrates Motto. And Justice Justice (as Moses phraseth it, Deut. 16.20.) that is, clear sheer justice without mud should run down as waters, and righteousness as a mighty torrent, Am. 5.24.
and the Priests thereof teach for hire, and the Prophets thereof divine for money ] They were merely mercenary: and as Apollo's Oracles, corrupted by Philip's gold, were said 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to speak as he would have them, so was it here. Both Priests and Prophets were ignava ventris mancipia, (see verse. 5. with the Note) greedy dogs, slow-bellies, they all looked to their own way, everyone for his gain from his quarter, Isaiah. 56.11. Albertus Magnus complained of the covetousness of Pastors in his time: Bernard for this cause calleth them Impostours, and By-seers, Hugo Cardinalis said that the devil had two daughters, Avarice and Luxury: the former whereof he had married to the Jews, the latter to the Gentiles: but now, saith he, the Priests have taken away both of them from their right husbands, and make use of them for their own. Si posui aurum in conjugium meum, So the Septuagint read that text, Job. 31.24. signifying the covetous man's great love to money: whence Saint James calleth such, adulterers, and adulteresses, Chap. 4.4. Saint Paul saith they mind only earthly things (sc. their purses and paunches) Phil. 3.19. and and incessantly woo this Mundus immundus, this vile strumpet the world: having eyes full of the adulteress, and that cannot cease to sin. But their money shall perish with them that teach for hire, that follow the ministry only as a trade to pick a living out of, qui plus fisco quam Christo vacant, plus attonsioni quam attentioni gregis, & ubi non vident quaestum, rident Christum, &c. All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's, Psal. 2.21.
yet will they lean upon the Lord ] Or, lay their weight upon him, as upon a staff or crutch, velut firmissimo scipione. Thus their forefathers ( Psal. 78.32, 35.) though they sinned still, and believed not for his wondrous works, yet they would needs believe that God was their Rock, and the high God their Redeemer. So their successors, Jer. 3.3, 4, 5. when they had spoken and done evil as they could, yet, having a whores forehead, they could give goodly words, Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth? Will he reserve his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end? Here were good words (for they are good cheap, as we say) but nothing more. The Lord was much in their mouths, but far from their reins, Jer. 12.2. Self-deceivers think they lean upon the Lord, when it is no such matter: Their faith is a mock-faith, a strong fancy, a blind presumption, which will prove but a broken reed, and was never true to those that trusted it. Surely as he that maketh a bridge of his own shadow cannot but fall into the brook; so neither can he escape the burning lake, that had rather be carnally secured, then soundly comforted. Good gold is a cordial; so is not Alchymy gold: neither will it pass the seventh fire, as the other will. Security is the forerunner of calamity: neither miscarry any so sure or so soon, as the over-confident.
and say, Is not the Lord amongst us ] And hath he not promised so to be forever? True, but upon condition that you be with him, and no otherwise, 2 Chron. 15.2. He is not so tied to you, but that he can go away from you. See his many removes, Ezek. 9, 10, and 11 Chapters; and observe, that still as he goes out, some judgment comes in. They call themselves of the holy city, and stay themselves upon the God of Israel, the Lord of hosts is his name, Jer. 48.2. but all this was but court-holy-water, as they call it, empty words; such as our profligate professors are full of. But wilt thou know, O vain man, (or, O empty man ) that words without works are bootless? Jam. 2.20. that external privileges alone profit not, Jer. 7.4. Act. 6.14. that formal profession and performances are disaccepted, and those that please themselves therewith are but as women travelling with a false birth, Isai. 26.18. Men are wont to do with these, as those Conjurers did with the name of Jesus; they thought if they used that name, it was enough. They hear therefore, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye? So shall it fare with such as glory in this, that they were born in the bosom of the Church, live under the means of grace, &c. Gehazi took the Prophets staff: but there was something more, else the child had not been raised. Those tell but an ill tale for themselves, that have no more to say but this, Is not the Lord amongst us? Men are the worse for his presence with them, if they walk not worthy of the Lord in all well-pleasing, if they have not grace to serve him with reverence and godly fear: for even our God is a consuming fire, Heb. 12.28, 29.
None evil can come upon us ] Let Prophets say what they please, we shall have peace, Deut. 29.19. all shall be well with us, whiles God is with us, and for us. But God will not take the wicked by the hand, saith Job, neither will he at all acquit the guilty, saith Moses. The foolish shall not stand in his sight, saith David: for he hateth all the workers of iniquity, Psal. 5.5. Beware of him and obey his voice; provoke him not: for he will not pardon your transgressions, Exod. 23.21. or if he do, yet 'tis two to one, that he will take vengeance of your inventions, Psal. 99.8. Shake off therefore carnal security: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
Vers. 12. Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field ] even for your sakes, O wicked Princes, Priests and Prophets; you are the traitors that have betrayed us all into the hands of divine justice: to be angry with us for saying so, and telling you what to trust to, is as if some fond people should be angry with the herald, or the trumpet, as the cause of their wars.
Zion shall be • lowed as a field ] Shall be utterly laid waste and sevelled. Conquerors used to plow up those places that they would not have re-edified; and to sow them with salt, Judge. 9.45. It must needs be a dismal destruction, that is described in such exquisite terms. Alterius perditio tua sit cautio. This threatening of the Prophet took so well, that the judgment was respited for above an hundred years, Jer. 26.19. But now men's hearts are more hardened, and therefore their destruction more hastened.
and Jerusalem shall become heaps ] Rupes ruderum, This they once thought as possible, as to overthrow God's own throne: the very disciples had a conceit that the World could not outlast the Temple, as may be gathered from Mat. 24.3. But they (some of them) lived to see themselves confuted, and our Savior's words verified, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down, Vers. 2.
and the mountain of the house ] that famous house that was worthily reckoned one of the seven wonders of the world, and stood upon mount Moriah.
As the high places of the forest ] As wooddy and desert places, fit only for wild beasts, Lege & Luge, saith one, speaking of Jerusalem's desolation.
CHAP. IV.
Vers. 1. BUt in the last days it shall come to pass ] God reserveth his best comforts till the last, as that Ruler of the feast did his best wine, John. 2.10. and as the sweetest of the honey lieth at the bottom. These last days are Gospel-days, Heb. 1.2. times of Reformation, Heb. 9.19. of Restitution, Act. 3.21. called the World to come, Heb. 2.5. that new heaven and earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness, 2 Pet. 3.13. that new Jerusalem that is all of gold, Rev. 2.1. Ezekiel's new Temple, bigger then all the old Jerusalem; and his new Jerusalem bigger then all the land of Canaan, chap. 40.41.42, &c. Let Popish buzzars blaspheme that description of the Temple and City: calling it, (as Sanctius doth, once and again) insulsam descriptionem, a senseless description: so speaking evil of the things that they know not, Jude 10. We believe and are sure, Joh. 6.69. that God hath provided some better thing for us, then for those under the law, Heb. 11.40. viz. that great mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh, 1 Tim. 3.16. who should again restore the kingdom to Israel, the spiritual kingdom to the Israel of God: as is here foretold in the self-same words with those of Isaiah chap. 2.1, 2. whence he is not ashamed to take it.
That the mountain of the house of the Lord ] The Church, 1 Tim. 3.15. called elsewhere, the mountain of the Lord, and his holy hill, Psal. 15.1. and 24.3. and 48.2. Isaiah 30.17. both for its sublimity, Gal. 4.26. and firmness, Psal. 46.3. and 125.1. wind and storms move it not: no more can all the power and policy of hell combined prevail against the Church, Mat. 16.18. She is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a kingdom that cannot be shaken: and may, better then the city of Venice, take for her Posy, Immota manet.
Shall be established in the top of the mountains ] Constituetur firmiter, shall be strongly set upon a sure bottom, upon munitions of Rocks: yea upon the Rock of Ages, Mat. 16.18. Jer 31.35. Isaiah 33.20. Some, by the house of the Lord, here understand the Church: and by the mountain of this house, Christ, whereon it is built, and whom Daniel describeth by that great mountain that filled the whole earth, Chap. 2.35. that stone cut out without hands, that smote in pieces the four Monarchies, ibid. And hence it is, that this mountain of the Lord's house is exalted above the hills: the Church must needs be above all earthly eminencies whatsoever, because founded upon Christ: who therefore cannot be exalted, but she must be lifted up aloft together with him. God who is rich in mercy, saith, that great Apostle, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, Ephes. 2.5, 6. The Church is mystical Christ, 1 Cor. 12.12. she is his wife, and wheresoever he is Gaius, she is Caia: she shineth with his beams, and partaketh of his honors; union being the ground of communion.
and people shall flow unto it. ] As waters roll and run toward the Sea: but that these waters should flow upward, flow to the mountain, as here, is as wonderful; as that the Sun should send his beams downward to the earth, when as it is the property of all fire to aspire and fly upwards. This is the Lord's own work, and it is marvelous in our eyes. The metaphor of flowing, importeth the coming of people to Christ, by the preaching of the Gospel. 1. Freely, Psal. 110.3. 2. Swiftly, as the waters of the river Tigris, swift as an arrow out of a bow. See Isaiah 60.8. 3. Plentifully, by whole Nations turned to the faith, and giving up their names to Christ. 4. Jointly, as verse 2. and Zach. 8.21. 5. Zealously, bearing down all obstacles that would damme up their way. 6. Constantly, and continually, as rivers run perpetually, by reason of the perennity of their fountains; and are never dried up, though sometimes fuller then some: quin ut fluvij repentinis imbribus augentur, saith Gualther, as rivers swell oft with sudden showers, and overflow the banks, so beyond all expectation, many times, doth God take away tyrants, and propagates his truth, enlarging the bounds of his Church, with new confluxes of Converts.
Verse 2. And many nations shall come and say ] The conversion of the Gentiles is here foretold, a piece of that mystery of godliness, 1 Tim. 3.16. The Jews usually call Christians in contempt Gozin, (the word here used) and Mamzer Goi Bastard-Gentiles. But, either they must come under this name themselves, or deny that they are the posterity of Abraham, Gen. 12.2. Where God saith, I will make of thee a great Nation.
Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord ] The wicked have their Come, Prov. 1.11. and would not go to hell alone. Should not the Saints have theirs? should they not get what company they can toward heaven? The Greeks call goodness, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , because it doth as it were, invite and call others to it; and every man is willingly to run after it.
and to the house of the God of Jacob ] to the public ordinances, where we may hear, and believe, and be sealed with that holy spirit of promise, as those Ephesians were, chap. 1.13. We read that Marcellinus, Secundanus, and some others, were converted to Christianity by reading Sibylla's oracles of Christ's birth: and that by Chaucers Book, some were brought to the knowledge of the truth. But either this was not so, or not ordinary: for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word preached, which therefore the people of God do so prize, as Luther did, who said, He would not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible: and that without the preaching of the word, he could not live comfortably in Paradise: as with it, he could live and enjoy himself, though it were in hell.
and he will teach us of his ways ] Cathedram in coelis habet qui corda docet, saith Austin. All true Converts are taught of God, Joh. 6. and then quàm cito discitur quod docetur? saith the same Father; how soon are men discipled? how soon learn they the ways of God, whereby to serve him here, and be saved by him hereafter. For it is false that some contend for: sc. that every man may be saved in his own faith, be it right or wrong: For none can come to the Father but by the Son, Joh. 14.6. Neither is there any other name but His under heaven whereby men must be saved, Acts 4.12. See Joh. 17.3. and 6.40. Heb. 11.6. whatsoever the Huberians affirm of Universal Election; or the Puccians of a natural faith.
and we will walk in his paths ] which are all paved with mercy and love: so that the saints run therein and faint not; walk, and are not weary, Isaiah 40.31. They are all Peripatetics, ever in action, Gen. 17.1. they are Currists, not Quaerists, saith Luther elegantly; they do not reason, but run the paths of God's precepts. Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus Sancti gratia.
For the law shall go forth of Zion ] The law, or doctrine, as Prov. 13.14. Understand here the Gospel, that Law of God, Psal. 19.7. that Law of Christ, Gal. 6.2. that perfect law of liberty, Jam. 1.25. a counter-pane whereof God putteth into the hearts of his people, Jer. 31. whereby they become (as it was once said of the Thracians ) 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a law to themselves; as being transformed into the same image with the Gospel, like as the pearl, by the often-beating of the Sun-beams upon it, becometh radiant as the Sun.
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. ] Not from Africa at first (as the brethren of the rosy-cross would have it) though 'tis thought the Gospel was received, and the Christian faith professed even from the Apostles time, in that large region of Nubia in Africa. But repentance and remission of sins was preached among all nations beginning at Jerusalem, Luke 24.41. The Jews were God's Library-keepers, and the Apostles sent and went from Jerusalem to plant Churches abroad the world, and to gather into one, the children of God that were dispersed, John. 11.52.
Verse 3. And he shall judge among many people, ] We had before, Christ's Prophetical Office: here we have his Princely, and elsewhere his Priestly, (wherein both the former are founded) for he is the true Trismegist, and Melchizedek was a right type of him. He is the only judge, and needs no Vicar upon earth, such as the Pope claims to be, Isaiah 33.22, no such Officers to see his laws executed, as the Ephori were among the Greeks, and the Censores among the Romans. The Lord that sent the rod of his strength out of Zion, as verse 2. doth also give him to rule in the midst of his enemies, whiles his people are willing in the day of his power, in the beauties of holiness, Psal. 110.3. willing that Christ should send forth judgment to victory, Mat. 12.20. that is, perfect his own work of grace begun in their hearts. To which end, as it here followeth,
He shall rebuke (or convince) strong nations ] Convince them, I say, (by his Spirit) of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, • oh. 16.8. Of the lothesomnesse of sin, of the necessity of getting righteousness by Christ, and repentance from dead works; that men may serve the living God, and as much as in them is, live peaceably with all.
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares ] i. e. their fierce and fell natures shall be mansuefied, as Isaiah 11.6, 7, 8, 9. and if they wage war, it shall be non nisi coacti, either for the just punishment of Delinquents, whom they cannot otherwise come at: or for their own necessary defense, and that they may establish peace with truth. But if men would live by the laws of the Gospel, they need not wage war, or want peace, either of country or of conscience: but they might take for their Motto, that of David, Ani shallom, I am peace: and have for their portion that peace, peace, Isaiah 26.3. even a perfect, sheer, pure-peace, a multiplied peace with God, with themselves, and with others: this is a main piece of Christ's kingdom upon earth, who is the Prince of peace, and came in a time of peace: viz. in the reign of Augustus, when as there was Totius orbis aut pax aut pactio, saith Florus, a general peace, or truce throughout the whole world.
neither shall they learn war anymore ] To make a trade or a gain of it, and so to earn a curse Deut. 27.25. to delight in it, Psal. 68.30. and make a sport of it (as Abner did, 2 Sam. 2.14. and Pyrrhus king of Epirots ) to wage it without weighty reason rashly. If we Princes (said our Hen. 7.) should take every occasion that's offered, the world should never be quiet, but wearied by continual wars. We may also here take warring (as St. James doth, chap. 4.1.) for jarring, and jangling, for private discords, and dissensions. Now these the people or God are so far from learning, that they utterly lay them aside, and are kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake forgave them, Ephes. 4.32.
Verse 4. But they shall sit every man under his vine ] seeding upon the fruit that shall even fall into his mouth, saith à Lapide. Sit they shall under Christ, the true Vine, saith Hugo, and under the holy Ghost, as a fig-tree, whose fruit is far sweeter then any honey. But these are coynt interpretations saith Gualther. I should rather expound this Text by that 91. Psalm; wherein the safe and happy condition of the godly is at large described. Vineyards and fig-yards were ordinary in those countries: and hence this proverbial expression, to set forth doubtless, the spiritual security, and that peace of conscience chiefly, that is granted to Christ's subjects: a peace, far beyond that under Solomon, which is here pointed at: or that under our Queen Elizabeth, not to be passed over without one touch at least upon that string, which so many years together sounded so sweetly in the ears of our Fathers. Then it was, if ever, that the mountains brought forth peace, and the little hills righteousness, Psal. 72.5. The great ones defended their inferiors, and the inferiors blessed their superiors; the Magistrate righted the subject, and the subject reverenced the Magistrate.
and none shall make them afraid ] God, they know, will not hurt them, man cannot: he may take away their heads, but not their crowns; their lives, but not their hopes: for the righteous hath hope in his death: his Posy is not only, Dumspiro spero, but Dum expiro. Let the wicked have a trembling heart, and failing eyes while he lives, Deut. 28.65. and when he dies cry out, as a great man was heard to do, Spes & fortuna valete, Farewell life and hope together. The servant of Christ, as he sits mediis tranquillus in undis all his life long: so when he dies, he can call his soul to rest: and sing old Simeon's Nunc dimittas, Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace, &c.
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts, ] And what better assurance can we desire, since God can neither die, lie, nor deny himself: Since, secondly, he is the Lord of Hosts, and so armed with power to make good what he hath spoken. Peter had a will to deliver Christ from the Jews, but wanted power. Pilate had power to have done it, but wanted will. God wanteth neither of these to do for his people, and to deliver them out of danger. Courage therefore.
Verse 5. For all people will walk everyone in the name of his god, ] They will do so, they are resolved not to alter their religion: as Tully said, Me ex ea opinione quam à majoribus accepi de cultu deorum, nullius unquam movebit oratio: I will never be dissuaded by any one from that way of divine worship, which I have received from my forefathers. How willful at this day are Jews, Papists, Pagans, Heretics? And how much easier a matter do we find it, to deal with twenty men's reasons, then with one man's will? A willful man stands as a stake in the midst of a stream, lets all pass by him, but he stands where he was. Nay but we will have a king say they, when they had nothing else to say. Nay, but I will curse howsoever, though against my conscience, said Balaam: and do not the Popish Balaamites as much as this, many of them? As for the Vulgar sort of them, they are headlong and headstrong, resolved to retain contra gentes the senseless superstitions transmitted unto them by their Progenitours. But what saith the Oracle Rev. 14.7. Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and (what ever your ancestors did) worship you him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God ] This was well resolved, and is as well practiced by all Christ's faithful people, who dare not follow a multitude to do evil Exod. 23.2. dare not walk by their fathers practice Josh. 24.2, 14, 15. for they consider that no commandment doth so expressly threaten God's judgments upon posterity as the second. They therefore resolve to walk in the name, that is, by the laws and under the view of the Lord their God, who is God of God's, and Lord of Lord's, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, as Moses describeth him, in opposition to all other deities, whether so reputed or deputed Deut. 10.17.
forever and ever ] We will not only take a turn or two in his ways, as temporaries; who are hot at hand but soon tire, and give in: but we will hold on a constant course of holiness, and not fail to follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth Psal. 1.2. John. 8.12. and 10.4.14. Rev. 7.17. As for those Apostates that change their God, that change their glory for that which doth not profit, as they therein commit an horrible wickedness, such as the heavens have cause to be astonished at Ier. 2.11, 12, 13. so they could not choose out for themselves a worse condition Heb. 10.37, 38. for why? they put the son of God to an open shame chap. 6.6. like (as those that are carted amongst us are held out as a scorn) and do in effect say, that they have not found him such as they took him for.
Verse 6. In that day ] sc. of grace and of the Gospel: It is called a day and that day, by an excellency in regard of Revelation, Adornation, Consolation, Distinction, speedy Preterition.
saith the Lord ] Whose word cannot be broken John. 10.35. and is therefore the best security 2 Cor. 1.20.
will I assemble her that halteth ] Heb. that goeth sideling, that is maimed, disioynted, lamed, Esa. 35.3. torn Psal. 35.15. and tired out with long journeys into captivity, as the Jews were by the Babylonians, Greeks and Romans before Christ's coming: that they might breath after those days of refreshing from the presence of the Lord Mal. 3.1.
and I will gather her that is driven out ] Or, rejected, thrust away with a force, that is, the Gentles, suffered to walk in their own ways Act. 14.16. and carried away unto dumb idols, even as they were led 1 Cor. 12.2.
and her that I have afflicted ] Both Jews and Gentiles, the whole community of people: for God shook all nations then, when the desire of all nations (Christ Heb. 12.25.) was to come Hag. 2.7. See verses 22, 23. Junius, after the Septuagint, rendr • th it ut veniant desiderati omnium gentium, that the Saints, those desirable ones, out of all nations may come: for unto Shiloh in a most afflicted time (when the scepter was departed from Judah &c.) was the gathering of all people to be Gen. 49.10. Esa. 26.8, 9. See Isaiah. 66.20. rather in litters as lame people are carried) should they come, then not at all: rather on one leg with Jacob, should they wrestle, then not prevail.
Verse 7. And I will make her that halted a remnant ] Yea a renowned remnant Zeph. 3.19. Not many Jews were converted in comparison of the Gentiles: hence they are called a remnant. They both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own Prophets: they have also persecuted us, saith the Apostle or cast us out, as by an Ostracisme, and they please not God, and are contrary to all men, forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles &c. Thus the generality of them then: and so to this day they continue cross, and cursing Christ and his followers, thrice a day in their synagogues: Howbeit at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace Rom. 11.5. and that remnant became the seminary of the Christian Church.
and her that was cast far off, a strong nation ] Numerous and valorous. Vide fidem & passionem martyrum & de gente robusta non ambiges, saith Jerome here. Consider the faith and patience of the Martyrs, and you will easily yield them to be a strong nation indeed: Christians have shown as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdom, as in the faith of miracles. They can do that which others cannot turn their hands to: they can suffer wrongs, best of any: Compel them to go a mile, they will be content to go two: yea as far as the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace will carry them. There is nothing that they date not undertake and undergo for the glory of their God. Thi courage in Christians, Heathens counted obstinacy; but they knew not the power of the spirit, nor the privy armor of proof that the Saints have about their heart, which maketh them insuperable, more then Conquerors.
and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion ] i. e. In the Christian Church, out of which went the law, that is, the Gosp • l ver. 2. See Esa. 40.9. and 52.7. Heb. 12, 22. There shall Christ reign, and so he did ever: but now he shall declare himself to be Messiah the Prin • e Dan. 9.25 Lord and h •• st Act. 2.36. Savior and Sovereign. As king he 1. of rebels makes them s •• jects, willing to be ruled by him. 2. He preserves them in that privilege by his spirit. 3. He gives them laws far better then those of the twelve tables •• Rome, which yet far exceeded (saith Cicero ) all the learned libraries of the Philos • ph • rs in worth and weight. 4. He sweetly inclineth their will • to ye •• d universal obedience thereunto, and to cross themselves so they may please 〈◊〉 5 He rewards them with comfort and peace here, and with life eternal hereafter. 6. He destroys all the enemies of his Church, and then at last delivers up the kingdom to his Father 1 Cor. 15.24. not his essential kingdom as God, but his oec •• omical kingdom, as Mediator.
Verse 8. And thou O tower of the flock ] that is, O Church of Christ, who is oft compared to a shepherdesse in the Canticles: here to a Migdal- • der or tower of the flock (that flock of Christ which hath golden fleeces, precious souse:) in reference either to that tower, Gen. 35.21. built for the safety and se • vice of shepherds: or else to the sheep-gate in Jerusalem (whereof read N • h. 3.1. and 12.39.) so called from the sheep-market, which for the conveniency of the Temple was near to it; as was also the sheep-pool called Bethesda John 5.2. where the sacrifices were washed. The world is a field, the Church a fold, in that field; and a strong fold (strong as a tower ) yea a strong-hold Ophel as it is styled in the next words; and that of the daughter of Zion, that is of the Christian Church, the inviolable security whereof is here noted.
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion ] such as was in David • days and Solomon's: la • ge, rich, peaceable, prosperous, terrible to other nations &c. This was carnally understood by the Jews, who therefore dr • ame to thi • day of an earthly kingdom, and have in their • ynagogues a crown ready to set upon the head of their Messiah whensoever he shall come: neither were Christ's disciples without a tincture of this Pharisaical leaven: whence their often-enquiries when the kingdom of God shall come? and their frivol • us contests among themselves, who should be the greatest in Christ's kingdom? who should sit at his right hand and at his left &c. as if there should have been in Christ's kingdom (as in Solomon's ) a distribution here of honors and offices. And this groundless conceit hung as bullets of lead at their eye-lids; that they could not look up to see that Christ's kingdom was spiritual and not of this present world.
the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem ] This the Jews (mistaking it as before) pray earnestly that it may come cito, citiùs, citissime, bimherah, bejamen • s, with speed, and even in our days; oft throwing open their windows to behold their King, and to receive their long-looked-for preferment, in his earthly monarchy.
Ver. 9. Now why doest thou cry out aloud? ] Hout and howl? q.d. hast thou any such cause to be so unreasonably and out ragiously impatient so long as Christ is thy king and counselor? What if there now be no king in th • e? What if thy counselor be perished? A woe-case I confess, and great confusion most needs be the issue of it; as it fell out in Jerusalem after Josiah was slain: Confer Hos. 3.4. with the Note there. But yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing; neither need the Saints be so excessively dejected with outward crosses, so long as Christ is with them, and for them. If Seneca could say to his friend Polybius, Fas tibi non est salvo Caesare, de fortuna tua queri, Be thy case never so miserable, thou hast no cause to complain, so long as Caesar is in safety: How much less ground of mourning or murmuring have Christ's subjects, so long as He liveth and reigneth? Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est, alioqui totus desperassem writeth Miconius to Calvin, of the Churches enemies: I am glad that Christ is Lord of all: for otherwise I should have had no hope of help at all. David in deep distress comforteth himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6. and Psal. 119.94. I am thine, save me, saith He: q. d. my professed subjection to thee calleth for thy care and protection of me: and here he stays himself. Kings and Counselors are great stays to a state: but Christ is not tied to them. These are but particular good things, as is health against sickness, wealth against poverty &c. but Christ is an Universal good, all sufficient and satisfactory; every way proportionable and fitting to our souls, and several necessities. Why then do we cry aloud as utterly undone? why sing we not rather with David when at greatest under, The Lord liveth, and blessed be the God of my salvation. It is God that avengeth me, and delivereth me from the violent man &c, He is King of all the earth. He is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working &c. It was a learned man's Motto, Blessed be God, that he is God; and blessed be Christ that he reigns forever; that Counsel is his, and sound wisdom: that he hath understanding, he hath strength Prov. 8.14.
for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travel ] They have, but they needed not, hadst thou but turned into thy counting-house, and considered thy manifold privileges in Christ, thy King and Counselor. We oft punish ourselves by our passions, as the lion that beats himself with his own tail. Sed ô been (saith an Interpreter here) quod sint hidolores saltem similes parturientium, It is yet an happiness, that the Churches pangs, though bitter, yet are no worse then as those of a woman in travel. For 1. The pains of travel seldom bring death; but life both to mother and child: so do afflictions to the Saints 2 Cor. 4.17. Heb. 12.9. 2. Travel comes not by chance, nor for long continuance: neither doth affliction John. 7.30. Luk. 22.53. 3. Travel is unavoidable, and must be patiently born: so must affliction; or else we lose the fruit of it: Act. 14.22. 2 Tim. 3.12. 4. Sharp though it be, yet it is short: so mourning lasteth but till morning Psal. 30.6. and 73.24. and 135.14. John. 16.15. Ier. 10.23. 5. As the travelling woman hath the help of other women: so hath the afflicted, of God, Angels and men. 6. Lastly, as she remembereth the sorrow no more for joy of a manchild born into the world: so is it here John. 16.20. Rom. 8.17, 18.
Verse 10. Be in pain and labor to bring forth &c. ] Be sensible of thine ensuing captivity, and take on: but yet with hope of a gracious deliverance in due time. See the Note on ver. 9. It is no less a fault to despise the chastening of the Lord, then to faint when thou art rebuked Heb. 12.5. The hypocrite in heart heapeth up wrath saith Elihu, and why? he crieth not when God bindeth him Job. 3 • .11. The wicked saith Hannah, are silent in darkness, and shall therefore lie down in sorrow. This is not patience but pertinency, the strength of stones and flesh of brass Job 6.12. It is not vasour but apathie, stupidity and indolency, much complained of in scripture, and threatened with a succession of sorrows Lev. 26.18, 28. seven more, and seven more, and seven to that. Three times in that chapter God raiseth his note of threatening, and he raiseth it by sevens, and those are discords in music. Such sayings will be heavy songs; and their execution heavy pangs: worse then those of a woman in travel.
for now shalt thou go forth out of the city ] This Now fell not out of an hundred years after. Foule weather seldom rotteth in the air. Time weareth not out God's threatenings. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi, nedum Deo, Time can be no prejudice to the Ancient of days: sooner or later his word shall be accomplished. When the sins of the Amorites are full, they shall be sure of their payment. The bottle of wickedness, when once filled with those bitter waters, will sink to the bottom.
and thou shalt dwell in the field ] Sub dio, having no canopie over thee, but the azured sky: so little account is made of poor captives: If they may have the open air to breath in, though they lie without doors, 'its better then a stinking dungeon, or to be shut up close under hatches among the excrements of nature, as Barbarussa Christian prisoners taken in Greece were: so that all the way as he went home with them to Constantinople, every hour almost some of them were cast dead over-board.
and thou shalt go even to Babylon] there to dwell among plants and hedges, making flower-pots for a foreign prince. There they dwelt with the King for his work: 1 Chron. 4.23.
there shalt thou be delivered, there the Lord shall redeem thee ] This There, is as Emphaticall as that Yet so oft repeated Zech. 1.17. See the Note there. It seemed improbable to many, and to some impossible, that ever they should return out of Babylon. But God effected it to the great astonishment of his poor people, who were like them that dream Psal. 126.1. and could scarce believe their own eyes. God loves to deliver those that are forsaken of their hopes. Ad nos ergo transferamus promissionemistam, saith Gualther upon the text. Let us apply this promise to ourselves: and as oft as we are pinched with poverty, or tormented with diseases, or cast out into banishment, or are in any great danger by water or land, or under terrors of conscience, let us think we hear God thus speaking to us, There shalt thou be delivered: there I will redeem thee &c.
Verse 11. Now also many nations are gathered &c. ] that is, they shall be once gathered, when the Babylonians, who are Lord's of the world, shall muster many nations against thee. Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther? then let him paint a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, bores and bears, and with all manner of cruel and hurtful beasts, and in the midst of a great many furious men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition in the world.
that say, Let her be defiled ] sc: with blood and slaughter. Or, Let her be condemned as an hypocrite, Let her be stoned as an adulteress, so the Trent translation. Thus they pretend, as Rabshakeh did, that they were sent by God against an hypocritical nation, that had broken their faith with God and men. The like craft and cruelty was used in the Parisian massacre, and Gunpowder-plot: God and man; said they (in that blind letter, that brought all to light) have agreed to punish the wickedness of this age. Those that would kill a dog, give out that he was mad first, saith the French Proverb. Whom no man looketh after Jer. 30.17.
and let our eyes look upon Zion ] Let us feed our eyes with such a delightful spectacle: and say as that cruel Charles the 9. of France did, when he saw the streets strawed with the bodies of the massacred Protestants, and the rivers died with their blood, O pulchrum spectaculum! O brave sight, Or, as the Q. Mother of Scotland, when she beheld the dead carcasses of her Lutheran subjects, said, that she never saw a goodlier piece of Arraz in all her days. See the accomplishment of this prophecy in the Lamentations, Psalm. 137. and in the book of Nehemiah.
Verse 12. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord ] Nothing like their thoughts Es. 55.8. Confer Es. 10.7, 8. Zach. 11.15, 16. &c. His thoughts are fatherly, whiles theirs are butcherly: the Physician in setting leeches to his patient, seeks his good: he aims not at filling the leeches gorges: neither will he set more on him, then will make for his health. God by his wisdom, and according to his eternal counsel (which the wicked understand not) ordereth and draweth the blind and brute motions of the worst creatures to his own honor, and his churches good; as the huntsman doth the rage of the dog to his pleasure, or the marriner the blowing of the wind to his voyage, or the Artist the heat of the fire to his work, or the Physician the blood-thirstiness of the leech to a cure. Surely, (saith the Psalmist speaking of Sennacherib's cruelty in the siege of Jerusalem) the wrath of man shall praise thee (eventually, though not intentionally) the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain Psal. 76.10. Let the enemies think and project as they please, let them rage and resolve upon your utter ruin. I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end: to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you, and to you who are troubled rest &c. For thus saith the Lord God the Holy One of Israel, In returning and rest shall ye be saved, in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength Isaiah. 30.15. And I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph, and I will bring them again to place them, for I have mercy upon them, and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them, Zech. 10.6. Surely as it was said of old, Neither shall Rome fall while Scipio standeth: neither shall Scipio live when Rome falleth: so may it more truly be affirmed of Christ, that he and his people shall stand and fall together. But he shall stand at the later day upon the earth Job 19.25. yea he shall set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth Rev. 10.2. as Lord of sea and land, maugre the malice of all, that sought to supplant him, who shall there-hence fall, and never rise up again Am. 8.14.
Verse 13. Arise and thresh, O daughter of Zion ] Go in this thy might (wherewith thou so lustily threshest out thy wheat by the wine-press said the Angel to Gideon Judge. 6.14) and thresh the Midianites another while, thou shalt smite them as one man ver. 16. thresh them as the sheaves of the floor that lie ready for the flail, or (as the custom of those countries was Deut. 25.4. 1 Cor. 9.9. 1 Tim. 5, 18.) for oxen to tread out, or the wheel to turn over Esa. 2.28.
for I will make thine horn iron &c. ] So that thou shalt do great exploites, by mine assistance, against Sennacherib, Antiochus and other enemies subdued and threshed down to straw by the valiant Maccabees. Spiritualiter etiam hoc intelligendum, saith Sa. here; this is also spiritually to be understood of converting people to the faith separatâ paleâ infidelitatis. This the Apostles did vigorously and effectually, being furnished by Christ with horns of iron, and hoofs of brass; with spiritual courage and metal, whereby they did soon beat in pieces many people, and brought them to Christ by the obedience of faith, together with all their wealth and substance, which they cheerfully consecrate unto the Lord of the whole earth. This was typified of old by the Tabernacle built with the spoils of the Egyptians: and by David's dedicating to the Lord the gold and silver which in great abundance he had taken from the enemies 2 Sam. 8. It is prophesied of Tyrus, that being converted she should find another manner of merchandise then formerly, viz: to feed and cloth God's poor with durable clothing. The Centurion, when once he became a Proselyte, built the Jewish Synagogues, that had been thrown down by Antiochus. Constantine the Great was bountiful to the Church above measure, insomuch as that he was by the heathens in scorn called Pupillus, as if he had wanted a guardian to over-rule and order his expenses. Sed refriguit hoc studium hodie in magistratibus plerisque, as Gualthe • • re complaineth, and not without cause. The Church is not only scanted, but spo • ed of her revenues: and that which was piously consecrated, is impiously converted to other uses &c. Thus He.
CHAP. V.
Ver. 1. NOw gather thyself in troops, O daughter of troops ] Here the Virgin, the daughter of Zion despiseth her adversaries of Assyria and Babylon, and laughs them to scorn: the daughter of Jerusalem shaketh her head at them Isa. 37.22. and bearing herself bold upon the foregoing promise ( chap. 4.13.) that she should beat in pieces many people, she taketh liberty to taunt the Assyrian Monarch with all his troops beleaguering her, and basely abusing her Judges: telling him, that the Babe of Bethlehem would shortly take an order with him. And although she were but a Virgin, yet, having such a Champion as Christ, who is in love with her, that will take her part and fight her quarrel, she doubteth not to say, Now gather thyself in troops &c. Nunc turmatim coito, ô turmaria, Increase thine army and come forth, Gather yourselves and ye shall be broken in pieces, gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught: speak the word and it shall not stand, for God is with us, Jehovah is our Juge, Jehovah is our Champion, Jehovah is our king, he will save us. Lo, this is the Churches confident boasting in Christ, this is the triumph of her, trust in him. The thought of his birth swalloweth up all her fears and discontents; and compasseth her about with songs of deliverance.
He hath laid siege against us, ] And already devoured us in his hopes: but if we do but turn us to Christ, and say, Behold she whom thou lovest is distressed: the Assyrian as a strong river is come up over all his channels, and reacheth even to the neck: yea the stretching out of his wings filleth the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel, Isaiah 8.7, 8. he will soon bestir himself, he will besiege our besiegers, he will smite them upon the cheek-bone, and break the teeth of those ungodly, that smote the Judge of Israel with a rod upon the cheek, for a reproach to the whole people. Hugo, by this Judge of Israel, understandeth Christ, who was indeed at his passion contumeliously buffeted, and smitten with rods upon the cheek, Mat. 20.6, 7. But this, though it be true, yet cannot be the sense of this text.
Verse 2. But thou Bethlehem Ephratah ] Not so called from Ephratah, Calebt wife, 1 Chron. 2.19, 50, 51. but from its fruitfulness: whence also it had the name Bethlehem, that is, the house of bread, where Jesus, (that Bread of life, that came down from heaven) was born in the fullness of time, as is here first foretold by this Prophet: that great mystery of godliness being revealed to the world by degrees, in several Ages. Here was Christ born by mere accident; in regard of his parents, who were brought hither by a tyrannical Edict of Augustus, Luk. 2.2. but yet by a sweet providence of God, that this Scripture might be fulfilled, and our faith in Christ settled.
Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah ] Or, Art thou little, &c? q.d. No such matter: and so it agreeth with Mat. 2.6. Or thus: And thou Bethlehem Ephratah, it is a small thing to be among the Princes of Judah: Out of thee shall come a Ruler, &c. q. d thou hast a dignity above this, and above them all, in that out of thee shall come a Ruler, &c. Take tsagnir in the Neuter gender, (as Scultetus after Osiander, and Forster doth) and then the • eeming difference betwixt the Prophet and Evangelist is taken away. Some make St. Matthew to relate the words of the Scribes to Herod, as they had varied the Text before him. But we find not that they are anywhere taxed for altering or corrupting the Text; but for misinterpreting it only, Mat. 5. Besides that, they were by their office Text-men, to look to the letter of the Scripture, and to keep it pure, 1 Cor. 1 20. where they are distinguished from teachers of traditions, and teachers of Allegories.
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me ] that is, to God the Father: that we may know that the coming of Christ in the flesh, was a plot of God's own contriving. He came not by c ••• ce, but by counsel: him hath God the Father sealed, anointed and appointed to the work. This is comfortable to consider of.
that is to be Ruler in Israel ] Matthew rendereth it, a Captain that shall feed my people Israel, Mat. 2.6. See the Note there.
whose goings forth have been from of old ] This is spoken of Christ's eternal generation, which none can declare, Isaiah 53.8. What is God's name, and what is his Sons name, if thou canst tell? Prov. 30.4. The Scripture usually speaketh of this grand Mystery by way of circumlocution. It is here spoken of in the Plural number for the excellency of it. In this Text then we have a description of Christ, in his natures and offices. See the like, Rom. 1.3, 4. and adore the fullness of the Scriptures.
Verse 3. Therefore will he give them up ] As a little before the day springeth, it is darker then ordinary: so before the day-spring from on high visited God's people, they were under very hard and heavy pressures and miseries: whereby their desires after him were increased and ineagered. The enemy oppressed them, by God's permission, yea by his active providence: that they might pant after a Savior, and sigh out with old Jacob their father, Gen. 49.18. O Lord, I have waited for thy salvation.
until the time that she which travelleth hath brought forth ] She, that is, the Virgin Mary, say some: Or, she, that is, say others, the afflicted Church, according to chap. 4.9, 10. See the Notes there. She must have a time of travel, of trouble, before she can bring forth, and be delivered. Luther saith well, that the Church is haeres crucis, and that every Christian is a Crucian: we must suffer before we can reign, and bear the cross, or ere we wear the crown.
Then the remnant of his brethren ] i. e. the converted Gentiles, whom Christ is not ashamed to call his brethren, Heb. 2.11, 12. shall return unto the children of Israel ] shall be proselyted, and conjoined to the elect Jews, that there may be one sheep-fold under one shepherd. And the Lord shall be king over all the earth: In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one, Zech. 4.9. See the Note there.
Verse 4. And he shall stand and feed (or, rule) in the strength of the Lord ] He shall stand, and none shall be able to stir him: there shall be lifting at his government, but it stands firm and fixed. Earthly Monarchies have their times, and their turns: their ruin, as well as their rise. The Roman Empire fell under the weight of its own greatness. The Turkish, although it be indeed very strong, yet is it by many probably thought to be on the declining hand. But Christ shall stand, when all earthly greatness shall lie in the dust. And He shall feed his flock in the strength of the Lord: neither shall any ravenous Lion, or grievous Wolf, pluck them out of his hand; because He and the Father are one, Joh. 10.39. and God hath laid help on one that is mighty, Psal. 89 19.
and in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God, ] that is, by the power of God's word, called his name, Acts 9 15. and elsewhere. This word hath a singular majesty in it, whereby it aweth and affecteth men's consciences, to the propagating of Christ's kingdom: viz when it is accompanied with the Spirit of God, called his strength in the former clause. And that these ever go together, in all the subjects of Christ's kingdom, see Isaiah 59 21. As for me, this is my Covenant with them, saith the Lord, My Spirit that is upon them, and my word which I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seeds s • ed, saith the Lord, from henceforth and forever.
for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth. ] Now, that is, ere long: in God's due time, which oft seems long, because we are short; apt to antedate the promises, in regard of the accomplishment, to limit the Holy One of Israel, and to set him a time, to set his Sun by our dial, Jer. 8 20. help they would have that Summer at furthest. But as God never fails in his own time, so he seldom comes at ours: We must live by faith, Hab. 2.2. and stay God's leisure, as David did for the kingdom, and those in Esther, for deliverance. God's promises will at length take their way over all Alps of opposition: but we have need of patience &c. For yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry, Heb. 10 36, 37.
Verse 5. And this man shall be the peace ] The man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. 2.5. that man, that shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest: as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, Isaiah 32.2. Winds and tempests will arise, and that upon the Church; Assyrians, and Babylonians, ( Nimrods brats) will invade, and infest her: but that famous He afore-mentioned shall be her peace, her Prince of peace, Isaiah 9.6. who giveth her pacem omnimodam, peace internal, external, eternal, called by the Apostle life and peace, Rom. 8.7. This peace, peace, as Isaiah calleth it, chap. 26 3. that is, a multiplied, renewed, continued peace: this peace Regionis & Religions, of Country, and of Conscience, as God hath promised, and Christ hath purchased. He merited, and made it through the blood of his Cross, Col. 1.20. Isaiah 53.5. Ephes. 2.16. And hence it was, that as he was brought from heaven, with that song of peace, Luke 2.14. so he returned up again, with that farewell of peace, Joh. 14.27. left to the world the doctrine of peace, Ephes. 2.17. whose Ministers are messengers of peace • R • m. 10 15. whose followers are the children of peace, Luke 10.6 whose unity is in the bond of peace, Ephes. 4.3. and whose duty is the study of peace, Rom. 12.18 and to whom God hath promised, I will give peace in your land, &c. And ye shall chase your enemies, &c. If any ask, how peace, and pursuit of enemies can consist? It is easily answered. You shall have civil peace amongst your selve, and besides an ability to quell, and quiet foreign enemies. Or, you shall have peace: and if it hap that war arise, you shall have the better in batte •• If the Assyrian come into your land, he shall be a loser by it: if he tread in your palaces, he shall retreat with shame, and defeatment, as it befell Sennacherib.
Then shall we raise against him seven shepherds ] that is, a competent number of Chieftains and Champions, with their victorious forces, which shall repel the enemies, and secure the Church, Christo duce & auspice Christo, under Christ the Arch shepherd. This some understand of the Apostles, those anointed, or authorized Ones, (as the word here signifieth) the weapons of whose warfare were not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong-holds, 2 Cor. 10.4, 5. and bringing in, not the heads, but hearts of those whom they had subdued: as Paul did of Sergius Paulus, the Proconsul, Acts 13.9. where also he is first called Paul, in memory (belike) of those first spoils he brought into the Church. By shepherds here, are meant (saith Gualther ) the Ministers and Preachers of the word, who feed, defend, and watch over the flock. By principal men, Magistrates, endued with that free, (or, as the Chaldee hath it) kingly spirit, Psal. 51.12. to decree, and act for the good of the Church. Such shepherds, in the time of the Assyrian war, were Isaiah, Micah, Joel, &c. such principal men, were Hezekiah, and Eliakim, Isa. 22. &c. Such after the captivity were, Ezra, Haggee, Zachariah, Malachi, Zerubbabel, Nehemiah, Judas Macchabeus, &c. Qui nutantem remp. & Ecclesiam suis consilijs, & fortibus gestis fulserunt, who under-propped and kept up the tottering Church, and Common-wealth by their prayers, counsels, and valiant achievements, both before and since the days of Christ upon earth.
Verse 6. And they shall wast the land of Assyria, ] Heb. They shall eat it down, as shepherds do pastures with their flocks. Pascere is put for perdere, saith Calvin: they shall leave nothing there safe or sound, but either bend, or break the Churches enemies, bring them to Christ, by the sword of God's word, or utterly ruin them by temporal slaughters. Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum.
Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian ] It is Christ that delivereth his, what instruments soever he please to make use of, Luke 1.71. 1 Cor. 15.24. an • he must have the praise of it. The Grecians thankfully acknowledged to Jupiter their deliverance from the Persians, wrought by Themistocles; and therehence called him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : as the Romans for like cause Sosp • tator, presenting a Palme to him, and sacrificing a white Ox: • o acknowledging, it was his power, whereby the conquest was achieved. Our Edw. 3. after his victory at Po ••• ers, (where he took the French king Anno 1356.) took speedy order, by S • mon Archbishop of Canterbury, that eight days together should be spent in giving God the thanks and glory How much more should we praise him for spiritual deliverances, from sin, Satan, the world, &c. and consecrate ourselves wholly to his service, since Servati simus ut serviamus, Luke 1.74. deliverance commands obedience, Ezra 9.14.
Verse 7. And the remnant of Jacob ] The remnant according to the election of grace, Rom. 11.5. these are but a few in comparison, as a remnant to the whole piece, or an hand-full to an house-full: but they shall increase and multiply, by God's blessing upon them, as is here set forth by two similitudes. First, for their propagation and multiplication, the Prophet compareth them to the dew, which is engendered and distilled from heaven immediately. Therefore also Psal. 110.3. new converts are compared to dew, and God's begetting them, to the womb of the morning, when over-night the earth was dry. Secondly, for their growth and increase, he compareth it to the sprouting up of herbs and grass in the wildernesses, where man cometh not, and so their springing tarrieth not for man, nor waiteth for the sons of men, for them to come with their watering-pots to nourish them (as herbs in gardens do) but these have showers from heaven, that give the increase. I the Lord do keep my vineyard, I will water it every moment, Isaiah 27.3. There is an honor due to God's Ministers, 1 Thess. 5 13. but the word only must be •••• fied, Act. 13.48. and Christ earnestly entreated, that as of old the Manna •• me down with the dew, which covered the Manna (whence that expression, hidden Manna, Rev. 2.17.) so He himself who is the bread of life, would descend into us, by the word of his grace, and fill us with the fruits of righteousness: that he would rigare & recreare, refresh and cherish our hearts, as the dew from heaven doth the dry and fady fields.
Vers. 8. And the remnant of Jacob—as a Lion among the beasts of the forest ] The saints shall prosper and do great exploits, as being endued with an invincible force of the spirit, making them as so many Cuer-de-lions: or as Chrysostom saith of Peter, that he was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble. What Lion-like men were all the Apostles, those white horses upon which the Lord Christ rode about the world conquering and to conquer? Rev. 6.2. That lion of the tribe of Judah Rev. 5.5. had put upon them of his own spirit: and of his fullness bestowed upon them grace for grace: hence their transcendent zeal and courage for the truth. Steven was amongst his country-men the Jews, as a Lion among the beasts of the forest. So were in their several generations Athanasius, Basil, Ambrose, Luther, Latimer, Farel &c. that noble army of Martyrs: One of them told the Persecutours that they might pluck the heart out of his body: but never pluck the truth out of his heart. Another, that the heavens should sooner fall, then he would turn. A third, that if every hair of his head were a man, he would suffer death in the opinion and faith that he was now in. A fourth said, Can I die but once for Christ? And generally, the valor of the patient, and the savageness of the persecutors strove together; till both exceeding nature and belief, bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers; and in some, effectual conversion, as in Justin Martyr, in Calberius, in those 400. said to be converted at the Martyrdom of Cecilia, and lastly in Silvester the executioner at the martyrdom of Simon Laloe at Dyion in France: where seeing the great faith and constancy of that heavenly Martyr, he was so compuncted with repentance, and fell into such despair of himself, that, after much ado, being comforted and converted, he removed with all his family to the church of Geneva. But what a silly conceit is that of the • ewes at this day, that when Messias comes, they shall be these Lions among the Gentiles in the midst of all other people to tread them down, and to tear in pieces without rescue? and what a true character hath a late writer given of them, that they are a light, aerial, and fanatical-brained people; and easily apt to work themselves into the fools paradise of a sublime dotage?
Verse 9. Thine hand shall be lift up upon thine adversaries ] q. d. Adversaries thou shalt be sure of, O my Church: but thou shalt have the better of them. Thou shalt keep footing still under the stan • ard of the cross and prevail. The mountain of the house of the Lord shall overtop all other mountains of worldly power chap. 4.1 It shall be as that mountain not far from Arbela (where the Empire of the world was won and lost in one day) called Nicatorium by Alexander the great, as a constant trophee of that famous victory he there gat over Darius. As she is highest in the favor of God, so she shall be highest in herself: and her enemies shall be found liars unto her. Her hand shall be lifted up, and fall very heavily upon her adversaries: if not sooner, yet at utmost at the Resurrection: the upright shall have dominion over them in that morning Psal. 49.14. the Church shall shine as the Sun in his strength, when her enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them, even the lowest place, the footstool of Christ. Meanewhile she conquereth th • n when she is conquered, (as Christ overcame as well by patience as by power ) and is sure not to be shivered though shaken, not to be drowned though dowsed over head and ears in the waters of affliction.
That ship may be tossed (saith One) not shipwrecked whereof Christ is the Pilot, the scripture the Compass, the promise the tacklings, hope the Anchour, faith the cable, the holy Ghost the wind • , and holy affections the sails filled with heavenly graces. Such a soul sails safely: and will neither fall upon the soft sands of presumption, nor hard rocks of despair.
Verse 10. And it shall come to pass in that day Viz. of Christ's power and kingdom Psa. 110.3. The word day here signifies non spatium diurnum, sed diuturnum, ac à Deo destinatum, saith Danaus, not the space of 24. hours, but a long time, yet certain and set by God.
that I will cut off thy horses out of thee ] for the which thou hast been trading with Egypt: and in which thou trustest more then in me. Some trust in horses, and some in chariots &c. I will therefore cut off both, I will take away thine earthly idol; and that in much mercy to thee: that in quietness and confidence may be thy strength Isaiah 30.15. and ver. 7. your strength is to sit still, or your Egypt is to sit still, q. d. by sitting still you shall have an Egypt (the same word Rahab signifieth strength and Egypt ) by being without their horses, you shall do better then when you had them, and thought yourselves simply the better or safer for them. See Zach. 9.10.
and I will destroy thy chariots ] That other prop and supposed help I will pull from thee: that thou mayest not trust to such uncertainties that cannot save: but in the living God who giveth us all things richly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6.17. Trust is God's jewel: and of all things, he cannot endure to be robbed of it, or wronged in it by creature confidence: for it giveth him the sovereignty Judge. 9.15. and sets the crown on his head: and the contrary.
Verse 11. And I will cut off the cities of thy land ] thy fenced cities, and places of strength, for like reason as before, that thou mayest look upon my name alone as a strong tower, and thereto run and be safe Prov. 18.10. that thou mayest hover and cover under my wings Psa. 91.1, 2. and there hold thee as secure as in a tower of brass, or town of war. Blessed be the Lord (saith David, who could not be safe in Keilah that had gates and bars ) for he hath shown me his marvelous loving kindness as in a strong city, Psal. 31.21. The tower of Shechem saved not those that ran to it Judge. 9. The strong-hold of Zion could not secure the Jehusites, that in the height of their pride scorned David and his host, that laid siege to it 2 Sam. 5.6, 7. Belshazzar and his Babylonians bare themselves so bold upon the strength of their city, and provision laid in for 20. years, if need were, (as Xenophon testifieth) that they reproached the Persians that besieged them, and derided their attempts as to no purpose: yet were shortly after made a prey to the enemy. Arimazes having ga • ison'd a very strong and steep rock in the Sogdian country with 30000. men, sent to Alexander the great (who demanded it) to know whether he could fly or not? But the next day he was taken together with his strong hold, and n ••• ed to a cross. God delights to confute men in their confidences: that those that are his, may run to the Rock of ages Isa. 26.4. to that Arx roboris of his holy Name, which alone is impregnable, inexpugnable. The Spaniards called their Navy in 88. the Invincible Armado: but it proved otherwise: and that upon Saint James his day, whom they count their Patron, their Tutelary-Saint. It is not unlawful to have cities and strong-holds &c. but to confide in them, by rising up to a corky frothy hope when we have them: or to sit down in a faithless sullen discontent and despondency when we want them; this is to make flesh our arm, and so to incur that heavy curse Ier. 17.5. God will cut off all occasions of so doing from those whom he loveth, as here he promiseth: and as accordingly he performed to this people, after their return from Babylon, and especially a little before the coming of Christ in the flesh, when they were reduced by Pompey into a province of the Roman Empire.
Verse 12. And I will cut off witch-crafts &c. ] As before God had p • omised to take away such things as in themselves are not evil, but only by our abuse: so here he will also remove from his people things simply evil, and unlawful, such as are witch-crafts, idolatry &c. that he may make way for mercy which he is ready to give, were they but fit to receive it. The word here rendered witchcrafts hath the signification of changing or turning: and is used for unlawful devilish arts and Artisans. It is also applied to false teachers and their jugglings Gal. 3.1. Rev. 18.23. See a like promise Zech. 13.2. with the Note there. See Mal. 3.5. with the Note.
and thou shalt have no more sooth-sayers ] Or starr-gazers, diviners; fortunetellers. One derivation of the word clepeth them Nebulones or Knaves: as those that undertake to foretell future things ex nebulis by the clouds, planets, stars, by calculating nativities, and the like unlawful practices of Judiciary Astrology, Necromancie, Pyromancie, Oneiromancie, Aruspicie, Sor • ilegie, and other diabolical Arts of that nature. The Ephesians were much addicted to such wicked practices: hence the proverb 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for the black art. The Samaritans also, Act. 8. And hence that malicious slander of the Jews, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, that is, one that dealeth with the devil: for otherwise they knew, that Christ was no Samaritan, but a Galilean, as they called him in scorn, in truth a Bethlehemite, as verse 2. The Jews themselves are taxed, Isaiah 2.6. that they were Soothsayers, like the Philistines; and told, that God had therefore forsaken them, or sent them away into captivity. See more against this sort of sin and sinners, Isaiah 44.24, 25, 26. and 47.12, 13, 14. Jer. 10.2, 2. Dan. 2.1, 2, 3, &c. But especially Deut. 18.10, 11. where we have these five Arguments (as One well observeth) against Astrological, and other unlawful predictions. First, that all such are abomination to the Lord, verse 2. Secondly, that for such Arts, the Canaanites were driven out, verse 12. Thirdly, that unless men cast away the use of the said Arts, they cannot be perfect, that is, upright and sincere with God, verse 13. Fourthly, that godly men must differ from Canaanites and Heathens, in the abandoning such arts, verse 14. Lastly, that instead of such ways of prediction, the Lord raiseth up Christ, the great Prophet, to foretell unto them what is meet for them to foreknow, verse 15. with Act. 3.23. To seek to know more, is condemned for curiosity and rashness, by Christ himself, in his own disciples, Act. 1.7. it derogateth from the glory of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge: it is to go a whoring from Christ, Lev. 20.6. and is therefore in this Text fitly yoked with idolatry: It is here also reckoned among those things that must be cut off, if Christ's kingdom shall be set up amongst us. So that if there were no other text of Scripture against that wickedness but this alone, it were sufficient.
Verse 13. Thy graven images also will I cut off ] Sorcery and Idolatry are fitly coupled here and elsewhere: for they commonly go together, as in the Pope and his Clergy. See Rev. 9.21. and 21.8. as also in the Canaanites, Philistines, and other Heathens. True it is, that the Temples at Rome were without images for 170 years after it was built: that the Lacedemonians would not endure pictures or images, lest by them they should be distracted: that the Turks and Jews both, at this day, do abhor Christian Religion, for the abominable idolatry they see among Papists. For since the captivity of Babylon, the graven images and statues have been so cut off from the Jews, that they would never be drawn to worship the work of their hands. They have a saying amongst them to this day, That no punishment befalleth them, wherein there is not an ounce of that golden calf, they once made in the wilderness. Having paid therefore for their learning, they abhor idols, Rom. 2.22. and count it sacrilege, as Plutarch did, to worship by images. The Papists should do so likewise: and not say as their Vasquez (unable to answer our arguments doth) that the second Commandment belonged to the Jews only: or bring such proofs for their idolatry, that the images themselves (if they were sensible) would blush to hear repeated.
Verse 14. And I will pluck up thy groves, &c.] wherein thou placest a part of thy happiness, (as the Hebrew word importeth) and hast an over-high opinion of them, because anciently frequented by the Fathers, before the Law. But it should have been considered, that it was but a will-worship at best; yea, that God had flatly forbidden the planting of groves, Deut. 16.21. as things in use among Pagans, for honor, either of some God, or some great man's ghost, which was thought to dwell there.
The worshippers of Priapus, (that shame) when they had ended their sacrifice, stepped into a grove hard by the altar, and there like brute heasts, promiscuously satisfied their lusts: thereby as they conceived, best pleasing their god.So will I destroy thy cities. ] Or, thine enemies: and this will be the end, or fruit of that forementioned reformation. Mr. Fox observeth, that in K. Edw. the sixts time, the English put to flight their enemies in Muscleborough field, in the selfsame day and hour wherein the Reformation, enjoined by Parliament, was put in execution at London, by burning of idolatrous images.
Verse 15. And I will execute vengeance in anger ] upon those that refuse to be reformed, that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord's Jesus Christ, 2 Thes. 1.8. Such as were the Jews enemies, the primitive persecutors, the stubborn Papists, some of whom have professed, that they would rather take part with the Turks then with the Lutherans: as some rigid Lutherans again have protested openly, that they would return to the Papacy, rather then to admit ever of that Sacramentary and Predestinary pestilence (as they call it) of the Calvinists. But what a sad story is that related by Mr. Burroughs, who had it from a worthy Minister of those parts; that at Hamborough was not long since held a consultation by some learned Lutherans concerning the cause and cure of Germanies calamities: and where it was concluded, that Germany suffered so much in these late wars, because their images in Churches were not adorned enough, which therefore they would presently procure done. Had they consulted this Text, they might soon have seen their mistake, and bethought them of better. But Lord, when thine hand is lifted up, they will not see: howbeit they shall see, and be ashamed for their envy toward thy people: yea, their ears shall be opened, and their instruction sealed, Job 33.16. that they may be accounted worthy to escape that vengeance, that shall be executed in anger and fury upon the Heathen, that have not heard the joyful sound, but, as so many sea-monsters, have with a deaf ear passed by the doctrine of salvation, the Gospel of peace.
CHAP. VI.
Verse 1. HEar ye now what the Lord saith, ] Exordium breve est, sed plane patheticum, saith Gualther. This is a short, but pithy and pathetical preface; wherein he woos their attention: Audit quaeso, Hear, I pray you. Ministers are spokesmen for Christ, and must therefore give good words: and yet remembering on whose errand they come, it is required that they be found faithful, 1 Cor. 4.2.
Arise, contend thou ] Surge, age, O Micah! Debate thou God's cause against this rebellious and ungrateful people, as it were in judgment: calling all, even the insensible creatures to be judges. See the like, Deut. 32.1. Isaiah 1.2. Mic. 1.2. (for these two Prophets have many things common) and be sensible, that some sit as senseless before a Preacher still, as the seats they sit on, pillars they lean to, dead bodies they tread upon: so that we have need (as One did once in my hearing) to call to the walls and windows to hear the word of the Lord. This heavy ear is noted for a singular judgment, Mat. 13.13, 14. Isaiah 30.8, 9. The Philosopher was angry with his Boeotians: telling them that they had not their name for naught, since their ears were Ox-ears, and that they were dull creatures, and uncapable of counsel. Demosthenes also for like cause, called upon his country-men of Athens, to get their ears healed: and Diogenes used to tell his tale to the statues and images, that he might inure himself to lose his labor, as he had so often done, in speaking to the people. Let us, to the wearing of our tongues to the stumps, preach and pray never so much, men will on in sin, said blessed Bradford, in that excellent Sermon of his of Repentance. We cry till we are hoarse (saith another rare Preacher) we speak till we spit forth our lungs: but all to as little purpose as Bede did, when he preached to an heap of stones. Asine quispiam narrabat fabulam: at ill movebat aures. But shall people thus carry it away, and God lose his sweet words? Never think it. Those that will not hear the word, shall hear the rod, verse 9. of this chapter: and if they could but see their misery, they would do as the Prophet requires, cut their hair and cast it away, under the sense of the horror of God's indignation, Jer. 7.27, 29. they would beg of God a hearing ear, (which is as an ear-ring of gold, Prov. 25.12.) and beseech him to make the bore bigger, that his word might enter: yea to draw up the ears of their souls to the ears of their bodies, that one saving sound might pierce both at once. Let him that hath an ear to hear, hear: or if yet any think good to forbear, let him forbear, Ezek. 3.27. but he will certainly repent it. He that now gives God occasion to call to the hills, &c. shall one day tire the deaf mountains, saying, Fall on me, hide me, dash and quash me in a thousand pieces. O that I might trot directly to hell, and not stay to hear that dreadful Discedite, Go ye cursed!
Verse 2. Hear O ye mountains the Lord's controversy ] Although the people would neither hear nor obey God, the Prophet doth: and, according to command, he summoneth the mountains to hear and testify: the Lord seeming to say unto him, as once he did to Ezekiel; But thou son of man, be not thou rebellious like that rebellious house: but hear what I say unto thee, and do it. It might seem to him a senseless thing to cite the mountains, &c. But he knew that if God command a thing, to argue or debate upon it were bold presumption; to search the reason of it, proud curiosity, to detrect or disobey it, flat rebellion. To the mountains and foundations of the earth he applies himself: haply with like mind, and in like manner as the Host of Nola did to the Church-yard: and there called at the graves of the dead; Oh ye good men of Nola, come away; for the Roman Censor calls for your appearance: for he knew not where to call for a good man alive.
and ye strong foundations of the earth ] Those roots of the mountains, Jon. 2.7. yet not so strong, but God can shake them, Job 9.5, 6. Nah. 1.5, 6. and that by so weak a creature as air, gotten under ground, and seeking a vent. He can lift them off their foundations, Deut. 32.22. and carry them to another place to hear his controversy, as he did the hill in Herefordshire, Anno 1571. and that other in the territories of Bern, that removing out of his place in an earth-quake, covered a whole village, that had 90 families in it. See the Note on Amos 1.1.
for the Lord hath a controversy with his people, ] See the Note on Hos. 4.1. and learn to tremble before this great God, who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers, Isaiah 40.22. which he can shake out of their place at pleasure, and send them packing to hell. O consider what a fearful thing it is to be at controversy with God: and to have him both our Accuser, witness, and Judge. O the terror of the Lord at that great and last day of the world! Utinam ubique de hoc judi • io disseretur! Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us (but they shall reply, we are witnesses against you for your detestable unthankfulness) and to the hills, Cover us, but they shall echo out Cover us; for who can dwell with this devouring fire? who can abide these everlasting burnings?
and he will plead with Israel. ] At which time they shall find, that an empty title, hath but an empty comfort; and that tribulation and anguish shall be on every soul of man that doth evil: but of the Jew first, because of his privilege, and then of the Gentile. None so deep in utter darkness, as those that once were Angels of light. Let us all pray with holy David, Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord, &c. And with Job, If thou shouldst contend with me, I could not answer thee one of a thousand. And with Daniel, O Lord, righteousness belongs unto thee: but to us confusion of face, because we have sinned against thee.
Verse 3. O my people, what have I done unto thee? ] Or rather, what have I not done, to do thee good? O generation, see ye the word of the Lord, and not hear it only: was ever anything more evidencing and evincing then what I now allege? Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness? May I not well say unto you, as He did to his ungrateful countrymen; What? Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits from one man? But say; What hurt have I ever done you? and wherein have I wearied you, or been troublesome to you? unless it be by daily loading you with loving-kindnesses, Psal. 68.19. and bearing with your provocations? Forgive me that injury, 2 Cor. 12.13.
Testifie against me, ] Put me in remembrance, let us plead together, declare thou against me, that thou mayest be justified, Isaiah 43.26. See here, first, with what meekness, and mildness God proceedeth against sinners, so Isaiah 5.3. Judicate quaeso. See, next, that God is content, for our better conviction, to submit his courses unto scanning, and to bring his proceedings with us to a trial, before he pass sentence; that he might be justified when he speaketh, and cleared when he judgeth, Psal. 51.4. Here he wills them to plead the cause with him, as it were at even hand; offering to make answer to whatsoever they could object, or lay to his charge. Seipsum quasi reum sistit. He maketh himself the Defendant, and bids them put in their Bill of complaint against him, freely and without fear. This is Stupenda sane dignatio, a wonderful condescension indeed. Should he use martial law against us, and as soon as ever we offend (like Draco ) write his laws in blood upon us (as One well saith) it were but just and right. But for him to reason and plead with us about the justice of his cause before he proceeds to judgment, this deserves admiration and acknowledgement in the highest degree. O the depth!
Verse 4. For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt ] Here God twits them with his former favors: which he never doth, but in case of brutish unthankfulness. Now there was brutish, and worse. To render good for evil is divine: good for good is human: evil for evil is brutish: but evil for good devilish. This makes God, contrary to his custom, upbraid people with what he hath done for them: and angrily call for his love-tokens back again, as Hos. 2.9. For their deliverance out of the Egyptian servitude how great a mercy it was, see the Note on Hos. 11.1. such as they were again and again charged never to forget Deut. 6.12. and 5.15. and 26.5. to 12. How much more bound are we to God for our Redemption by Christ? for what's Pharaoh to Satan? Egypt to this present evil world? Egyptian bondage to fins slavery? Seeing then that our God hath given us such deliverance as this, should we again break his commandments &c. Well might the hills and mountains testify against such a monstrous unthankfulness, and disingenuity.
and redeemed thee out of the house of servants ] Gradatim progreditur, saith Calvin. It was something to be brought out of the land of Egypt, a most superstitious place: where they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man (for they defiled their king Osiris ) and of birds (for they worshipped the hawk and Ibis ) and of four-footed beasts (for they worshipped an ox, a dog, a cat, a swine) and of creeping things, for they worshipped the Crocodile, Ichneumon &c. yea they worshipped plants and pot-herbs. Hence the Poet
To be brought out therefore from amongst such hateful Idolaters was no small favor, lest they should smell of their superstitions, as Mica's mother did after all that erring sin in the desert Judge. 17.3. and Jeroboam, by being there awhile, had learned calf-worship: hence that strict charge never to make leagne with them. But to be redeemed out of the house of servants, was more: out of the iron furnace Deut. 4.20. Ier. 11.4. where they wrought night and day in latere & luto Exod. 1. in setting up those famous Pyramids, and treasure-cities for Pharaoh, where they served with rigor, Exod. 1.13. their lives were made bitter with hard bondage ver. 14. till God withdrew their shoulders from the burden, and their hands did leave the pots Psal. 81.6. till they saw the God of Israel: and there was under his feet as it were a paved-work of a Sapphire-stone Exod. 24.10. to show, that God had now changed their condition, their bricks made in their bondage to Sapphires. Confer Isaiah 54.11. and consider what God hath done for us, by bringing us into the glorious liberty of his own children, who were once the devils drudges and dromedaries, serving diverse lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3. which gave laws to our members Rom. 7. and held us under in a brutish bondage, much worse then the Heathens mil-house, the Turks gallies, Bajazets iron-cage, the Indian mines, or Egyptian furnace. For there, if they did their task they escaped stripes; but here, let men do the devil never such doughty service, they are sure of scourges and scorpions after all, armies and changes of sorrows and sufferings: terrors and torments, without any the least hope of ever either mending or ending. This should make us lift up many an humble, joyful, and thankful heart to our most powerful Redeemer: saying with St. Paul, Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever, Amen. 1 Tim. 1.17.and I sent before thee, Moses, Aaron and Miriam ] As three principal guides, and Miriam for one: who did her part among the women Exod. 15.20. and, having a prophetic spirit, became a singular instrument in the hand of God who spake by her Num. 12.2. But her weak head was not able to bear such a cup of honor, without being intoxicated: which caused her father to spit in her face Num. 12.2, 14. Her death is recorded in scripture Num: 20.1. but not her age, as is Sarah's Gen. 23.1. Some have observed that God thought not fit to tell us of the length of the life of any woman in Scripture but Sarah, to humble that sex. But as souls have no sexes, so of some women (such as were Miriam, Deborah, the Virgin Mary, Priscilla, Blandina, the Lady Jane Gray, Q. Elizabeth &c.) it may be said, that in them, besides their sex, there was nothing woman-like or weak: as if (what Philosophy saith) the souls of these noble creatures had followed the temperament of their bodies, which consist of a frame of rarer rooms, of a more exact composition, then man's doth. It is possible that Miriam might (till that matter of emulation betwixt her and Moses his wife fell out) be as helpful to Moses and Aaron, as Nazianzens mother was to his father; not a help-fellow only, but a doctresse and governesse.
Verse 5. O my people remember now what Balak ] There must be a Recognition of God's mercies, or else there will neither follow Estimation, nor Retribution: Else we that should be as temples of his praises, shall be as graves of his benefits. Our souls are naturally like filthy ponds, wherein fish die soon, and frogs live long; rotten stuff is remembered, memorable mercies are forgotten; whereas the soul should be as an holy Ark, the memory like the pot of Manna preserving holy truths as the Law; and special blessings, as Aaron's rod, fresh and flourishing. This Israel did not, and are therefore justly blamed Psal. 106.7, 13, 21. and here again reminded of one signal mercy among many, that they might take notice of the enemies malignity, God's benignity, and their own indignity and ingratitude, that parching wind, that drieth up the fountain of divine favors.
what Balak king of Moab consulted ] Joshua saith, that he arose and fought against Israel chap. 24.9. that is, he had a good mind to have fought, but he did not because he durst not. So Esth. 8.7. Haman is said to have laid his hand upon the Jews, because he intended and attempted such a matter. They, that is the Sortilegi or Lot-sorcerers, with whom, Balak-like, he consulted, cast Pur, that is, the lot before Haman from day today, and from month to month: viz. to find out what month or day would be lucky for the accomplishment of his intended massacre of the Jews: but before that black-day came, Mordecai was advanced, and Haman hanged. Now, as there, by the special providence of God overruling the superstition of that wicked wreth, way was made for the preservation of God's people: So was it here. Balak consulted, and Balaam answered him: that is, he was as willing to curse as the other would have had him, but might not: for God would not hearken unto him, but blessed his people still, and delivered them out of his hand Josh. 24.10. Yea though at length he was resolved to curse howsoever, and therefore went not forth as at other times to seek for enchantments, but set his face toward the wilderness, as if he would do the deed, whatever came of it Num. 24.1. Yet his endeavor was fruitless and frustrate. So shall the malicious attempts of Rome and Hell be against the Reformed religion and the Professors thereof (whom the Romish Balaam banns and curses with bell book and candle (at the instigation of the Spanish Balak, with his factors the Jesuits ) so long as they adhere to him and pray as Psal. 109.26, 27, 28, 29. Help me O Lord my God: O save me according to thy mercy. That they may know, that this is thy hand: that thou Lord hast done it. Let them curse, but bless thou: When they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy servants rejoice &c. Salvation is of the Lord: his blessing is upon his people.
from Shittim unto Gilgal ] Oratio elliptica: q. d. Remember what I did for you at Shittim in the wilderness, and so all the way until you came into the promised land, even to Gilgal, where you first pitched tent Josh. 5.8, 9, 10. At Shittim it was, where, by the pestilent counsel of Balaam (the devils spelman) the Midianites out-witted them, by setting fair women before them as a stumbling-block Num. 25.1, 18. to draw them to those two sister-sins, adultery and idoaltry. Then and there, the heads of the people were hanged up before the Lord against the Sun, and some others; when as God might justly have cut them all off, and cast them away from being a people before him. Nonne illic refulsit admirabilis Dei gratia? saith Calvin: was not this a miracle of God's mercy?
that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord ] i. e. the faithfulness and goodness of God in keeping promise with your fathers, notwithstanding your provocations. Or my righteous dealings with those fornicators and adulterers, whom I there judged: preserving the innocent, or penitent, till they came to Gilgal, and onwards. Or that thou mayest know how just my complaint is of thee, and mine action against thee. So Vatablus expounds it.
Verse 6. Wherewith shall I came before the Lord ] This is vox populi the voice of the people now convinced in part; or at least of someone for them. Praestat herbam dare quàm turpiter pugnare. Better yield then disgracefully hold out the contest. God, say they hath the better of us: neither need he now call upon heaven and earth to arbitrate, nor on the mountains and strong foundations to hear the quarrel, for we are self-condemned Tit. 3.11. Our own consciences read the sentence against us, we have deserved to be destroyed: but oh what may we do to avert and avoid his wrath? what shall we do that we might work the works of God? John. 6.28. Loe this is the guise of graceless men: fain they would pacify God, and work themselves into his grace and favor by ceremonies and frivolous businesses: yea they offer largely for a dispensation to live in their sins, which they had as liefe be knocked o' th' head, as part with. Intere à per flexuosos circuitus fing unt se ad Deum accedere, à quo tamen semper cupiant esse remoti, saith Calvin, they fetch a compass about God, but care not to come near him. Heaven they would either steal if they could, or buy at any hand, if they might: fain they would pass e coeno ad coelum, à deliciis ad delicias from Dalilab 's lap to Abraham's bosom: fain they would (as One saith) dance with the devil all day, and then sup with Christ at night. They seem here very inquisitive and solicitous about their souls health: they give the half-turn sed ad Deum usque non revertuntur but they return not even to God: like a horse in a mill they move much, but remove not at all: like those silly women 2 Tim. 3.6, 7. or as ants that run to and fro about a mole-hill, but grow not greater.
and how myself before the high God ] Or, shall I bow myself &c. will that, or any like bodily exercise please him, or pacisy him? if cringing or crouching will do it, if sack-cloth and ashes, if hanging down the head and going softly, if pennances and pilgrimagts &c. hypocrites do usually herein out-do the upright. Doth the Publican look with his eyes on the ground? the hypocritical Jews will hang down their heads like bulrushes. Doth Timothy weaken his constitution by abstinence? the Pharisees will never give over till his complexion be wholly withered and wanzed. Doth Paul correct his body with milder correction, as it were a blow on the cheek? the Jesuit will martyr his sides with the severe discipline of scorpions. But although God must be glorified with our bodies also 1 Cor. 6.20. and external service is required (what ever the Swenkfeldians say to the contrary) yet Bodily exercise of itself profiteth little 1 Tim. 4.8. and let those that brag off or bind upon their outward worship of Christ consider, that the devil himself in the demoniac of Gadara fell down and worshipped him. What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with devils? who as they believe and tremble, so they tremble and worship. The outward bowing is the body of the action; the disposition of the soul, is the soul of it.
shall I come before him with burnt-offerings &c. ] shall I prevent him, and propiciate him with holocausts? shall I meet him marching against me, and thus make my peace with him? The Jews were much in sacrifices, till they wearied God's soul therewith, and all his senses Isaiah 1.13, 14, 15. but they were sacrificing Sodomites ver. 10. they stuck in the bark, they pleased themselves in the work done, not attending the manner, which either makes or mars every action, and is mainly eyed by God: their devotions were placed more in the massy materiality, then inward purity; and hence rejected David could tell (through these Questionists could not) that God desired not sacrifice, further then as thereby men were led to Christ; and that the sacrifices of God are a contrite spirit Psal. 51.16.17. that no burnt offering is acceptable, not calf of a year old, unless laid on the low altar of a broken heat, which sanctifieth the sacrifice.
Verse 7. Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of ramms ] It was taken for a maxim among all nations, that no man was to come before God empty-handed: nor to serve him of free-cost. And although Lycurgus the Lacedaemonian made a law, that no man should be at very great charge for a sacrifice, lest he should grow weary of God's service: yet when the famous carver Phidias, advised the Athenians to make the statue of Minerva rather of Marble, then of Ivory. 1. because more durable (this passed with allowance.) 2. because less chargeable: at the mention hereof, with infinite indignation they commanded him silence. Pliny tells us, of Alexander the Great, that when, as being yet a youth, he cast great store of frankincense upon the altar, and his School-master told him, he must not be so liberal, till he had subdued the frankincense-countries: when once he had conquered Arabia, he sent his school-master a ship full of frankincense, largely exhorting him to worship the gods therewith. Supersition is, for most part, not liberal only, but prodigal; and no wonder, when as good works are by Bellarmine said to be mercatura regni coelestis the price and purchase of heaven. Hence their Churches are so stuffed with vowed presents, and memories, as at Loretto, and elsewhere, they are fain to hang their Cloisters, and Church-yards with them. What would not men give, what will they not suffer, that they may be saved? I would swim thorough a sea of brimstone, said One, that I might come to heaven at last. But those that would buy heaven, and do offer as these here, a bribe for a pardon, shall hear, Thy money perish with thee: And those that seek to be saved by their works, Luther fitly calls, the Devils martyrs: They suffer much, and take much pains to go to hell, they buy their damnation, as One saith the Pharisees did, when they gave Judas those thirty pieces, for which he sold his salvation.
Shall I give my first-born for my transgression, &c?] The superstitious Jews used, we know, to offer up their children in sacrifice to Moloch, or Saturn, 2 King. 17. and 21. and 23. and that, in an apish imitation of Abraham's offering his son Isaac. to the same Saturn the Phoenicians are said to have sacrificed the best of thei sons. So did the Carthaginians, as Diodorus Siculus testifieth. And when as they had for awhile left off so to do, and were overcome by Agathocles, they (supposing that the gods were therefore angry with them, because they had not done as formerly) slew 200. at once, at the altar, of their young Nobility, to pacify the offended deity. Of like sort were Anammelech, and Adrammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim, unto whom that people burnt their children in the fire, 2. King. 17.13. And little better were our Ancestors, the old Brittones, who not only sacrificed their strangers, but their children too, non ad honorem sed ad injuriam religions. Here then the Prophet seemeth to speak by way of Concession, that he may show these Questionists, how little it would avail them to sacrifice their children, if such a thing were lawful to be done.
Verse 8. He hath shown thee, O man, what is good ] i. e. What is right, just, and acceptable to himself. He shown it by the light of Nature: for Aristotle (Natures secretary) saith, It is not likely that God is so well pleased with the costliness of the sacrifices, as with the godliness of the sacrificers. He hath shown it much more by the light of Scripture: there he hath told thee, what is the unum necessarium, One thing necessary; in comparison whereof all other things are but by-businesses: what is the Totum hominis, the whole duty of man, sc. to fear God, and keep his commandments, Eccles. 12.13. What is the Bonum hominis, as here, yea, the Summum Bonum, or chiefest good of man, attainable in this life; viz. Communion with God, and Conformity to God.
And what doth the Lord require of thee ] But thee? Quia in omni creatura terrena nihil melius fecit te, ipse quaerit te à tu, quia in perdideras te, in te, as Augustine elegantly paraphraseth this Text. In as much, as God hath among all earthly creatures, made nothing better then thee, therefore he requireth thee, of thee, &c.
But to do justly, and to love mercy ] This is the sum of the second Table: as that which followeth, is of the first, to walk humbly with thy God. Here then is a brief of the whole Bible, a little Bible, as the eleventh to the Hebrews, is by One not unfitly called, A little Book of Martyrs. Do this and live: Do this here enjoined, and thou shalt never fall: yea, thou shalt go gallantly into heaven, as Saint Peter hath it, 2 Epist. 1.10, 11. Certa semper sunt in paucis, saith Tertullian. Things simply necessaryk, whether to be believed or practiced, are few in number, but many in virtue; in sight small, but great in weight: like gold, which being solid, is contracted into a narrow room: but may be drawn into so large an extent, that one angel may cover an acre of ground, as the Naturalists have observed. To do justly, is the duty; not only of Magistrates, whom God hath entrusted with the administration of his earthly kingdom, by the due execution of vindicative and remunerative justice, but also of all other persons, in their server all places and stations, whose rule must be that golden saying of our Savior, Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets, Mat. 7.12. See the Note there.
And to love mercy ] This is more then to show mercy: for that a man may do, and yet, for want of love, lose all, 1 Cor. 13. He must not only draw out his sheaf, but his soul to the hungry, Isaiah 58.10. nor distribute spiritual alms, but do it out of deep affection, as Titus, 2 Cor. 7. he must be ready to distribute, willing to communicate, 1 Tim. 6.18. his mercy must flow from him, as water doth from the fountain, or light from the Sun: it must not be wrung from him, as verjuyce from a crab, or as distilled water is forced out by the heat of the fire. Let the love of Christ constrain us to look out some of his receivers, (as David did Jonathan's stock) to whom we may show mercy for his sake. What though we be weak, yet if willing to show mercy, God accepteth according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not. The widows mite is beyond the rich man's magnificence: because it came out of a richer mind: The Apostle bids, Put on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, Col. 3.12. such as the Gaoler had toward Paul and Silas: such as the Samaritan had toward the wounded man by the way-side: such as those primitive Christians had, who came to the Church, with strong affections, with large contributions, Acts 4.34. The like is foretold of Tyrus when converted, Isaiah 23.18. and of Ethiopia, Psal. 68.31. that she shall hastily stretch her hands unto God, Heb. she shall make them run, noting her readiness, and speediness, in giving her goods unto the saints. The tender mercies of the Almighty, shed forth abundantly upon His, leave a compassionate frame upon their hearts, and do die their thoughts, as the die-fat doth the cloth.
And to walk humbly with thy God ] Or, Bashfully, with an holy shamefacednesse, and sollicitosnesse of doing anything that may offend the eyes of God's glory. Yea, what care, faith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 7.11. sc. of walking worthy of the Lord, unto all-pleasing, Colos. 1.10. as proving your hearts and lives to him in every part and point of obedience. This the Lord in a mystery taught his people, Deut. 23.13, 14. when commanding them to cover their excrements with a paddle, he giveth this reason thereof. For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, &c, therefore shall thy camp be holy, that he seen no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee. They that stand in the presence of Princes must be every way exact: and give them all due respect. Now a good man, like a good Angel, is ever in God's presence: and must therefore walk worthy of the vocation wherewith he is called, with all lowliness and meekness, Ephes. 4.1, 2. with all modesty, and demission of mind, and of demeanour, (as the word here signifieth) and especially, when he draweth night to God in holy duties. Then it must be his care to exercise a three-fold humility. First, precedent, before he sets upon God's service, he must in heart devote, and dedicate all that he is, and hath, as a due debt to the Almighty, saying with David, It is of thine own, Lord, that I give thee: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as that good Emperor said. The second is concomitant: when in the performance of good duties, he hath grace, (this lovely grace of humility especially) whereby he may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear; which is nothing else but an awful respect to the divine Majesty, with whom we have to do, Heb. 4.13. The third is subsequent; when after he hath done his best, he is dejected in the sense of his many failings in the manner; and looking on his plumes, he looketh also on his black feet, and is abashed, and abased before the Lord. Lo, this is to humble himself to walk with his God. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Verse 9. The Lord's voice crieth unto the city ] Or, shall cry, viz. by his Prophets. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , said the Heathen. God loves to fore-signify, to warn before he woundeth, to foretell a judgment, before he inflicteth it. He had shown his people what was good, and what he required of them: but to little purpose, through their unteachablenesse, and stubbornness. He thereatneth therefore here to take another course with them.
And the man of wisdom shall see thy name ] Gualther rendereth it, And the man of Essence, &c. that is, qui revera vir est, non caudex aut truncus, he that is a man indeed, or not a stock, or trunck (such an one as was that sapless fellow Nabal, in whom all true reason was decayed and faded) will easily see God's name, that is, the divine majesty of the word, working powerfully upon his heart, as the Sun-beams beat upon Jonas his head, and disquieted him. Danaus rendereth it, And wisdom seeth thy name, that is, wisdoms children, as Luke 7.35. which will justify her, when others are either so froward, that nothing can please them, (neither John fasting, nor Christ eating, Mat. 11.16, &c.) or so dull, that nothing can affect them, as these here: the word of God was worse then spilled upon them. Sure it is, that wisdoms children are not many. Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? saith Hosea chap. 14.9. the very question imports a paucity. See the Note there. Though a gunne be discharged at a whole flight of birds, there are but a few killed: though the net be spread over the whole pond, but a few fishes are taken. Rari sunt qui philosophantur, saith Ulpian. It is with our hearers, as it was with Jonathan's signal arrows, two fell short, and but one beyond the mark: So where one shoots home to the mark of the high-calling in Christ Jesus, many fall short. Three sorts of four of those that heard our Savior, were naught, Mat. 13. And of those that heard Paul at Athens, some derided, others doubted, and but a very few believed: as Dennis, and Damaris, and some others with them, Act. 17.34.
Hear ye the rod ] Since ye would not hear the word, and so redeem your own sorrows. All God's rods are vocal, they are speaking as well as smiting: they are not mute, but mingled with instructions. They are his Free-school-master; cursed, and crabbed, but such as whereby he openeth men's ears (till then, uncircumcised, and stopped with the superfluity of naughtiness ) to discipline, and commandeth them to return from iniquity, Job 36.8, 9. By chastening men, God teacheth them out of his Law, Psal. 64.12. Hence Luther calleth Affliction, Theologiam Christianorum, the Christian man's Divinity: and Another saith, that Schola crucis est schola lucis. There shall be only fear, to make you understand the hearing, Isaiah 28.19. As God is said to hold his peace, when he punisheth not, Psal. 50.21. Isaiah 41.14. so, to preach and teach, when he doth. And look how Gideon, by threshing the men of Succoth with thorns and briars of the wilderness, taught them, Judge. 8.7.16. so here. I have a message from God unto thee, O King, said Ehud, Judge. 3.20. Lo, his ponyard was God's message. Whence, One well observeth, that not only the vocal admonitions, but the real judgments of God, are his errands and instructions to the world. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness, Isaiah 26.9. Smart makes wit; and Vexation giveth understanding.
and who hath appointed it ] God, who hath not only a permissive, but an active hand in all our afflictions. Others render the text, Quis sit, qui accersatistud, who it is that hath procured it, or sent for it, Who, but yourselves? according to Hos. 13.9. See the Note there. Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso. Men may thank themselves for all their sufferings: for God afflicteth not willingly, Lam. 3.35. He cometh forth of his place to do it, Isaiah 16.21. and counteth it his work, his strange work, Isaiah 28.21. He doth justice, (when there is no other remedy) but he loveth mercy, and so requireth us to do in the verse next afore-going.
Vers. 10. Are there yet the treasures of wickedness ] What yet? for all that ever I can say or do to the contrary? Though I cry out unto you by my word (and have set it on with my rod, that it might stick the better) Oh do not this abominable thing! Is there yet unto every man an house of the wicked, and treasures of wickedness? (so some read it) see chap. 2.2. with the Note. The Vulgar reads it, (and Gualther disliketh it not) Is there yet fire in the house of the wicked? sc. the fire of God's wrath? and treasures of wickedness, as fuel cast upon it, to consume all? See Jam. 5.1, 2, 3. Treasures of wickedness profit not, Prov. 10.2. since to heap up sin, is to heap up wrath, Rom. 2. and to rake together ill-gotten goods, is to carry home a fardle of plaguy-clothes, and death with them. Ephraim said yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance Hos. 12.8. But in so doing, Ephraim fed upon the wind ver. 1. yea upon pestilential air: he daily increased lies and desolation, that is, such lying vanities as bring desolation, and not consolation: as hale hell at the heels of them, (as we see in the parable of that wretched rich man Luk. 16.) Animam ipsam incendio gehennae mancipant, the fire that is in them shall feed upon their souls, and flesh throughout all eternity. Out of doors therefore with these treasures of wickedness, by restoring them to the right owners, as Zacchaeus did; and as Justinian the Emperor, who would not put the vessels of the Temple taken by Titus, and recovered from Gensericus, into the treasury, but restored them.
and the scant measure that is abominable? ] Heb: the Ephah of leaxenesse, (so called, both because it want of its due proportion, and makes men lean) full of wrath: q. d. you scant it to those you trade with, but God fills it up with his fierce wrath and indignation. See Am. 8.5. with the Note.
Verse 11. Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances ] Shall I clear and acquit such? I that am the righteous Judge of heaven and earth, I abhor all injustice? I that have named myself a God that will by no means clear the guilty, nor take the wicked by the hand? Do they think to draw me in as a party? or that I will bear with their false and fraudulent dealings, which I have so oftdeclared against, and doomed both in the law, and by my servants Solomon, Amos, and others. No: assure yourselves, your sins shall find you out, and I will curse you, smite you, plague you, and so set it on, as no creature shall be able to take it off. Let earthly Judges warp, as they will, and wink at sin, I neither can nor will: but as men have sowed, so they shall reap; as they have sowed in hardness of heart, so they shall reap in horror of conscience, & quorum eculos culpa clausit, poena aperiet, as they have lived unconscionably, so they shall die uncomfortably: at which times, their treasures of wickedness shall leave them in the lurch: as the devil leaves witches, when they come to prison.
Verse 12. For the rich men thereof are full of violence ] After that they have once enriched themselves by fraud and false-dealing, they take the boldness openly to oppress, and to exercise regiment without righteousness, which is no better then robbery with authority: of which before chap. 2. and 3. Thus wicked men wax worse and worse 2 Tim. 3.13. till wrath come upon them to the utmost 2 Thess. 2.
and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies ] Not the rich men only are in fault: but as the Cretans, so these are always liars, loud and lewd liars: their tongue is deceitful in their mouth; so that they no sooner open their mouths, but swarms of lies issue out: they are mendacierum loquacissimi, they have taught their tongues to speak lies Ier. 9.5. they are now become artists at it: Yea they take fast hold of deceit Ier. 8.5. so that they cannot be got off, without striving. This is lamentable, and yet common: especially in trading and trafficking. But oh when shall that golden age return, that the argument may again proceed, Sacerdos est, non fallet: Christianus est, non mentietur. He is a minister, and will not deceive you: He is a Christian, and will not lie! See Esa. 63.8.
Verse 13. Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee ] This is one twig of that rod Vers, 9. that now they shall hear and feel too, that would not hearken to God's word. Bernard telleth us concerning a brother of his; that when he gave him many good instructions and he, being a soldier, minded them not: he put his finger to his sides and said, One day a spear shall make way to this heart of thine, for instructions and admonitions, to enter. God can (and, where he intendeth mercy will) make way for his his word by his rod: and seal up instructions by chastening men with pain upon their beds, and the multitude of their bones with strong pain Job 33.16, 19. He can fasten them to their beds, as he did Abimelech, David, Hezekiah, and thereby tame them, and take them a link lower Job 33.17. He can smite them with sickness, and make them desolate, as it is here: with such sickness as shall make their best friends afraid of them, and that none dare look at them, but as through a grate: and all this with a sting too in the tail of it, Because of thy sins. Fools, because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth all manner of meat (so sick they are and stomackelesse, that nothing will down with them) and they draw near to the gates of death Psal. 107.17, 18. This was the case of that rich and wretched Cardinal Henry Beauford Bish: of Winchester and Chancellor of England, in the reign of Henry 6. who tossing upon his sick-bed, and perceiving he must die, murmured at sickness and death, that his riches could neither relieve him under the one, nor reprieve him from the other. This was also the case of that great Emperor Charles 5. of whom Du-plessy reporteth, that when he was old and crazy, he cursed his honors, his victories, trophies, riches, saying, Abite hinc, abite longe, Away, be gone miserable comforters are ye all. Mention is made before of a great man that wrote this a little before his death, Spes & fortuna Valete. And surely there are not a few rich Cormorants, who may well say to their wealth when they are sick, as Cornelius Agrippa did to his familiar spirit, Abi perdita bestia, quae me predididsti, Be gone thou wicked beast, that hast been mine undoing. &c. A promise contrary to this threatening in the text is that Isaiah 33.24. And the inhabitant shall not say I am sick: the people that dwell therein, shall be forgiven their iniquity.
Verse 14. Thou shalt eat, but not be satisfied ] Either as not having enough to satisfy; but prisoners pittance, so much only as will keep life and soul together: Or else, troubled with a bulimy, an appetitus caninus, a weakenesie of the disgestive faculty, so that thy meat feeds thee not: the staff of it being also broken by God, the nutritive property of it being taken away. See the Note on Hag. 1.6.
and thy casting down shall be in the midst of thee ] Thou shalt be laid low enough by civil and intestine discords, which as a fire feedeth upon the people Es. 9.19. no man shall spare his brother. Or, like as an hungry man snatcheth on the right haud, and eateth on the left hand, and yet is not satisfied ver. 20. till thine unnatural convulsions end in a deadly consumption.
and thou shalt take hold, but shalt not deliver ] Thou shalt catch up thy children, thy jewels &c. and think to secure them from the enemy, but shalt not be able. Of this misery we had over-woeful experience in our late unnatural garboiles.
and that which thou delivsrest; will I give up to the sword ] Other judgments forerun the sword: which, when they will not do, the sword will then contemn the rod Ezek. 21.10 that is, it will set at naught whatever the rod hath done, and come furbished and sharpened for the slaughter.
Verse 15. Thou shalt sow, but thou shalt not reap ] This had been long since threatened by Moses Deut. 28.38, 39 40. and was now above 700. years after to receive its accomplishment in this people. There is an infallibility in all the menaces of God's mouth. Men are apt to think that they were uttered in terrorem only; and to put them off, as those in the Gospel did, with a God forbid, Whe knows if the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrons works, that this evil may pass from us Ier. 21.2? But what saith the Prophet Zephaniah? The just Lord is in the midst thereof: he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light; be faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame: sin hath woaded such an impudency in his face, that he shuns no sin, dreads no danger.
Verse 16. For the statutes of Omri are kept ] Subest verbis hisce sarcesmus. Here the Prophet taunteth them for their Idolatry: and telleth them plainly what will be the issue of it. q. d. You think you deal wifely and take a safe course for yourselves, that together with Ephraim you are joined to idols, and have such great names as Omri and Ahab to countenance you therein. Omri 's statutes can be observed, when mine lie neglected.
The works of the house of Ahab that Non-such can be imitated, and their counsels embraced, when my work lies undone, and my counsel is rejected Luk. 7.30. Ful well ye reject the commandment of God (being ingrati gratiae Dei as Ambrose speaketh) that ye may keep your own tradition Mar. 7.9. And do not the Papists even the very same at this day. The Popes Canons are kept exactly, and all the rites of the Church of Rome: they walk in the track of the Trent-conventicle, and hold it worse to deface an Idol, then to kill a man: to eat flesh or eggs on a fasting day, then to commit incest: to work on a holy day, then to break the Sabbath. Ther's no command of the moral law but they can dispense with it: but none of their ceremonial laws. Let God (say they, profanely) look to the breach of his own law; we will look to ours.that I should make thee a desolations ] Luther here observeth, that oppression and other violations of the second table, God usually punisheth with war, famine, and pestilence: but breaches of the first table, and especially idolatry, with utter desolation. This is a land-destroying sin Ier. 22.7, 8, 9.
therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people ] that is, of such as had been my people, if you could have held you so; but you are now, loammi, dispriviledged. Or, that which I threatened in the law long since to bring upon you, if ye carried not yourselves as my people; or that which you deserved for having profaned the name and title of being my people Ezek. 36.20, 23. Rom. 2.24. with Luk. 12.47.
CHAP. VII.
Verse I. WOe is me, for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits ] Allai li Alas for me. This last sermon of his, the Prophet begins with a pathetical quiritation: bewailing his own unhappiness in the little good success of his ministry. Mirifice autem nostris temporibus hic sermo convenit, saith Gualther: This discourse suites well with these times; wherein we may justly cry out with the Prophet Isaiah, Who hath believed our report? And again, O my leanness, my leanness! woe is me, for there is only as the shaking of an olive-tree, and as the gleaning grapes when the vintage is done Isaiah. 24.13, 16. Though he had worn himself to a very sceleton in the Lord's work; yet had he labored in vain, Israel was not gathered chap. 49.4, 5. and hence his woeful complaint. The like we read of Elias 1 King. 19.10. where he bitterly bewails his alonenesse: So did A • hanasius in his age, and Basil in his. Fasciculus temporum Anno, 884. cries out, for the paucity of good people, Heu, heu, Domine Deus, Alas, Lord, how few appear to be on thy side.
And Gualther complains, that the Anabaptists in Germany urged this as chief argument to draw people from communion with our churches, that there was so little good done by preaching, and so few souls converted. Hence some ministers despond, and are ready to kick up all. Latimer tells of one who gave this answer why he left off preaching, because he saw he did no good. This, saith Latimer, is a naughty, a very naughty answer. A grief it will be, and fit it should be: piety to God and pity to men calls for it. Christ wept over Jerusalem: Paul had great heaviness and continual sorrow in his heart (not inferior to that of a woman in travel) for his contumacious countrymen: neither could he speak of those lewd losels at Philippi with dry eyes Philip 3.18. But an utter discouragement it should not be, since our reward is with God howsoever Isaiah 49.5. and perhaps a larger, because we have wrought with so little encouragement; we have plowed when others have only trod out the corn: they trod and fed together, when as those that plow have no refreshing till the work be done. Certain it is that God will reward his faithful servants secundum laborem, non secundum proventum, according to their pains taken in the ministry, and not according to their people's profiting.There is no cluster to eat ] None to speak of: hedge-fruit there is great store: wild-grapes not a few: grapes of Sodom, clusters of Gomorrah: But for good grapes, pleasant fruit, godly people, there is a wondrous scarcity of such. Diogenes lighted a candle at noon-day to look for a man: the Host of Nola went to the graves to call for the good men of the town. Tully saith, that if there be one good Poet in an age, it is well. Christ wondered at one good Nathaniel, and tells us in the same chapter, that they are but few that receive him, and with him the adoption of sons John. 1.12. Clusters we must not look for: bu • if there be found two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough: four or five in the outmost fruitful branches, it's well. Sufficit mihi auditor unus, sufficit nullus. Paul when he came first to Philippi had a poor audience; only a few women Act. 16.13. and one convert: neither had he much better success at Athens; and no Church could be planted there Act. 17.
my soul desired the first ripe fruits ] praecocem fructum, the rath-ripe fruit, as a great dainty, a precious rarity. We highly prize nettle-buds, when they first bud: so doth God our young services. Ier. 1.11. he made choice of the almond tree because it blossometh first: so of Jeremiah from his infancy. He called for first-fruits of trees, and of the earth, in the sheaf, in the threshing-floor, in the dough, in the loaves. He would have ears of corn, dried by the fire; and wheat beaten out of the green ears Lev. 2.14. He would have the primirose of our child-hood. There were three sorts of first-fruits: 1. Of ears of corn offered about the Passover. 2. Of the loaves, offered about Pentecost. 3. About the end of the year, in Autumn. Now of the two first God had a part, not of the last. He likes not of those Arbores autumnales Jude 13. that bud at later end of harvest. Conversion (as Divines observe) usually falleth out between eighteen years of age, and eight and twenty: Besides Abraham in the Old Testament, and Nicodemus in the New, we have not many instances of men converted in old age. When people grow crooked and rooted in evil practices, they are hardly ever set straight again. Remember therefore thy Creator in the days of thy youth: his soul delighteth in the first ripe fruits. Remember that Jesus Christ shed his blood for thee, when he was but 8. days old: and took thee into his family by baptism, when thou didst hang on thy mothers breast.
Verse 2. The good man is perished out of the earth ] Heb: The Saint, or gracious man, that out of mercy obtained of God, can extend mercy to men. Rari quippe boni. Of such it may be said, as One doth of faithful friends in this age, that they are all (for most part) gone on pilgrimage: and their return is uncertain.
and there is none upright among men ] None (to speak of) that maketh straight paths for his feet Heb. 12.13. that foots it aright, according to the truth of the Gospel Gal. 2.14. that walketh evenly Gen. 17.1. and accurately, as it were by line and by rule Eph. 5.15. and that halts not between two opinions, as those Israelites; but is right in his judgment, and undefiled in his way Psal. 119.1. rather desi • ing to be good, then to seem to be so: few such to be found surely: black swans you may count and call them.
They all lie in wait for blood ] A company of sanguinaries, blood-suckers, hunting for the precious lives of men; but especially of such as reprove them in the gate. If you touch them in their lusts, they will seek to touch you in your life, as Joash did Zacharias, and as the Priests and people said of Jeremy This man is worthy to die. All malice is bloody, and wisheth him out of the world, whom it spiteth.
they bunt every man his brother with a net ] They add fraud to their force, and craft to their cruelty: these seldom go fundered; as some write of the asp, he never wanders alone without his companion with him; and as the scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation, none of them shall want their mate. Esa. 34.16. The matter is made the worse, because it is a brother whom they hunt; whether he be so by race, place, or grace, a brother should be better dealt with.
Verse 3. That they may de evil with both hands earnestly ] Heb: for good and all, or, for ado: that they may speak and do evil as they can Ier. 3.5. and seek to out-sin one another; like unhappy boys that strive who shall go furthest in the dirt. Nolunt solita peccare, saith Seneca: Et pudet non esse impudentes, saith Austin. Luther testifieth of the Monks in Germany, that they were so desperately wicked, ut nihil cogitent quod non idem patrare ausint, that they could not devise that wickedness, which they durst not do.
The Prince asketh ] A beggarly practice for a Prince, but so base they were grown, and so greedy of filthy lucre. The Prince asketh, and, by asking only, compelleth: for who dare deny him? If some Naboth do, he shall die for it. There is a memorable story of a poor man in Spain, to whom when the Lord's Inquisitors sent for some of his pears, which they had cast their eye upon; he for fear of offending, brought them his pears, tree and all by the roots.
and the Judge asketh for a reward ] Heb. The Judge for a reward, sc. will gratify that sordidum Poscinummium, the Prince: who when he giveth him his Commissions hinteth to him haply, as Nero did to his public Officers, Scis quid nobis opus est. Thou knowest what I want, and must have: see then that thou help me to it. Such trading there was likewise betwixt our Rich. 2. and Judge Belknap with his fellows. To this purpose, the Chaldee paraphrast here: The Prince, saith He, requireth supplies of the Judge, and this bespeaketh him, Fac pro me, & retribuam tibi; Negotiate for me, and I will be thy pay-master; favor me, help me at my need, and I will requite thy courtesy, whensoever thou wilt. Thus muli mutuo scabunt, one hand claws another: and betwixt the oppressive Prince, and uncoscionable Judge, the law is slacked, and judgment doth never go forth: for the wicked doth compass about the righteous: therefore wrong judgment proceedeth, Hab. 1.4.
and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire ] Heb. he speaketh out the corruption of his soul. He doth it. Emphaticum est pronomen Ipse, saith Calvin. This same He hath a special Emphasis in it, q. d. This impudent man being now past all grace (for Illum ego peri • sse dico, cui perit pudor ) boasteth of his villainy: and thinks to bear it out bravely, because it is facinus majores abollae, the fact of a great One. But who is this He, this great man in the Text, that dares thus obtrude, and justify to the world his most malapert misdemeanor? The rich Client, saith Calvin, that hath his money to plead for him: for in suits both of love and of law, money (mostly) maketh mastery: and Angels trouble the current of justice (saith One) at certain seasons. Others understand it of Counselors, Pleaders, Advocates, Sollicitours, and other Officers of Justice: who when as they ought to reprove the iniquity of the Judges, do rather help it forward, by justifying the wicked for a reward, and taking away the righteousness of the righteous from him, Isaiah 5.20. by making the law a nose of wax, and by quirks and devices, varnishing falsehood and wrong-dealing.
so they wrap it up. ] Contorcnplicant: they wreath their wrong-dealings together, as a rope twisted of many threads, till their iniquity be found to be hateful: till there wanteth but an hurdle, an horse, and a halter (as Belknap said of himself) to do them right. They make a league together, they join and strengthen their evil counsels, and frauds, &c, so Mr. Diodate. These men agree among themselves, and conspire with one consent to do evil: so the Genevists.
Verse 4. The best of them is as a brier ] which a man cannot handle without hurt. See 2 Sam. 23.6. Psal. 55.21. and 58.10. Ezek. 2.6. Mat. 7.16. and 13, 7, 22. so, you cannot deal with them without danger: guilt, or grief you shall be sure of. Lot felt it so at Sodom, 2 Pet. 2.7, 8. and so did though • e that set up that