Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. I.

Verse 1. I N the eighth month, in the second year of Darius ] Two months after Haggai began to prophesy. See the Note on Hagg. 1.1. These two Prophets did jointly together reprove the Jews, for their sloth in reedifying the Temple, and incite them to set forward the work, Ezra 5.1. contributing their utmost help thereunto, verse. 2. They were also a singular help the one to the other, in the execution of their office. For two are better then one; and why, see Eccles. 4.9. with the Note. For which cause also Christ sent out first the twelve, and then the seventy, by two and two, Mar. 6.7. Luk. 10.1. So Paul and Barnabas were sent abroad; the two faithful witnesses, Revel. 11.3. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Poet speaks of Ulysses, and Diomedes sent to fetch in the Palladium. One good man may be an Angel to another, (as Bradford was to his fellow-Martyr Dr. Taylor ) nay, a God to another, as Moses was to Aaron. And for others; in the mouth of two or three witnesses a truth is better believed by them: and a twisted cord not easily broken. Haggai lays down the mind of God to the people more plainly in direct and down-right terms: Zacharias flies an higher pitch, abounding with types and visions; and is therefore worthily reckoned among the abstrusest and profoundest Pen-men of holy Scripture. For it must be understood (and let it here be prefaced) that albeit all Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is prositable to instruct, 2 Tim. 3.16. pure, precious, and profitable, every leaf, line, and letter of it, Psal. 12.6. Prov. 30.5. Yet, between scripture and scripture there is no small difference; some pieces of God's Book for their antiquity, and some other for their obscurity do justly challenge our greater attention and industry. Of the former sort famous for their antiquity, are the five Books of Moses; whom Theodoret fitly calleth the great Ocean of divinity, the fountain of the following scriptures. Of the second sort, noted for their difficulty, and that will not be acquainted with us but upon further suit, some are hard through their fullness of matter in fewness of words, as the Poetical books, wherein (no doubt) the verse also hath caused some cloud: And others again, by the sublimity of the subject they handle: such as are the books of Ezekiel, and Daniel, and this of Zacharias, who is totus fere symbolicus, and is much followed by St. John in his Revelation. Hence Jerome in his prologue to this Prophet saith, Ab obscuris ad obscuriora transimus, & cum Mose ingredim • r ad nubem & caliginem. Abyssus abyssum invocat &c. We pass from dark prophecies to that which is much more dark: and with Moses we are entering into the cloud and thick darkness. Here one deep calleth upon another; and being in a Labyrinth, we hope to get out by Christ's golden clue: concerning whose Passion, Resurrection and glory he speaketh more like an Evangelist then a Prophet, and may therefore be rightly styled, The Evangelical Prophet.

came the word of the Lord unto Zachariah the son of Barachiah ] Therefore the same that our Savior speaketh of Mat. 23.35. Luk 11.51. though I once thought otherwise, after Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Beza, Glassius, Grotius &c. But 1. the name of his Father Berechiah. 2. the manner of Christ's account (reckoning from Abel the first Martyr to this, penultimus Prophetarum last save one of the Prophets, and last of all that was slain by the Jews, after the reedifying of the Temple, whither being assaulted, he ran for sanctuary) easily persuades me to alter mine opinion. As for those that hold that our Savior there spcaketh of Zacharias the Father of John the Baptist Luk 1. slain by the Jews, because he preached Virginis partum & Christi ortum, Christ born of a Virgin, Baronius, Tolet, and others, as they affirm it without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation. Hoc, quia de scriptures non habet authoritatem, eâdem facilitate contemnitur, quâ probatur, saith Jerome.

the son of Iddo the Prophet ] Whether the word Prophet be to be referred to Zechariah, or to Iddo, is uncertain. That there was a Prophet Iado we read, and Zechariah might well be of his line, after many descents. He is here mentioned (as also Ezr. 5.1.) ut nepoti suo Zachariae nomen & decus conciliet, for an honout to his ab-nephew Zechariah; according to that of Solomon, The glory of children are their fathers, to wit if they be godly and religious. What an honor was it to Jacob, that he could swear by the fear of his father Isaac? to David, that he could say, Truly, Lord, I am thy servant, I am thy servant, the son of thine handmaid? to Timothy, that he had such a mother as Lois, such a grandmother as Eunice? to the children of the Elect Lady, to the posterity of Latimer, Bradford, Ridley, and other of those men of God, who suffered for the truth? If the degenerate Jews so boasted of Abraham their father, how much more might Zechariah (no degenerate plant, no bastardly brood as they were Mat. 12.39.) boast and bear himself bold on his father Berechiah (the blessing of God) and his grandfather Iddo (God's Witness, Confessor, or Ornament ) since he trod in their holy steps, and was adorned with their gifts and virtues? The Papists brag much of Peter, and other Apostles their founders and predecessors: But this is but an empty title, to talk of personal succession (which yet cannot be proved) unless they could also show us their gifts and graces, as all the world may see they cannot. We read of a painter, who being blamed by a Cardinal, for colouring the visages of Peter and Paul too red, tartly replied, that he painted them so, as blushing at the lives of their successors.

Verse 2. The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers ] Heb. He hath boiled against your fathers with foaming anger, with height of heat. There are degrees of anger, see Mat. 5.22. and Deut. 29.28. The Lord rooted them out of their land in Anger, and in wrath, and in great Indignation. Surgit hic oratio: and the last of those three words is the same here used in the text: noting an higher degree then the two former, even such a fervor and fierceness of God's wrath, as maketh him ready to kill and cut off (see 2 King. 6 6. and note the affinity of that word with this) like as he had much ado to forbear killing of Moses, when he met him in the Inn; and as Nebuchadnezzar was not only angry, but very furious, and commanded to destroy all the wise men of Babylon Dan. 2.12. Now if the wrath of a king be as many messengers of death Prov. 16.14. what shall we think of the foaming and frothing wrath of God, which burns unto the lowest hell, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains, Deut. 32.22. After which followeth, in the next verse, I will heap mischiefs upon them, I will spend minc arrows upon them &c. He had done so upon the Ancestors of these refractary Jews, who had been saepius puncti & repuncti, minime tamen ad resipiscentiam compuncti, ost punished, but could never be reclaimed; so incorrigibly flagitious, so shamelessly, so prodigiously wicked were they, till there was no remedy. This their vile stubbornness made him sore displeased with them: and put thunder-bolts into his hands to destroy them; For though Fury be not in God Isaiah 27.5. to speak properly, he is free from any such passions as we are subject to, yet if briars and thorns set against him in battle, if a rabble of rebels conspire to cast him out of his throne, saying We will not have this man to rule over us &c. I would go through them, I would burn them together, saith he, in the same breath. Abused mercy turneth into fury. Nothing so cold as lead, & yet nothing so scalding, if molten. Nothing more blunt then iron: & yet nothing so keen, if sharpened. The air is soft & tend: yet out of it are ingendered thunder and lightnings. The sea is calm, and smooth: but if tossed with tempests, it is rough above measure. The Lord, as he is Father of mercies, so he is God of recompenses: and it is a fearful thing to fall into his punishing hands. If his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, woe be to all those upon whom it lights: how much more when he is sore displeased with a people or person as here? For who knoweth the power of thine anger, saith Moses? even according to thy fear, so is thy wrath: that is, let a man fear thee never so much, he is sure to feel thee much more, if once he fall into thy fingers. And this is here urged by the Prophet as a motive to true repentance: since by their fathers example, they might see there was no way to escap • the dint of the divine displeasure, but to submit to God's Justice and to implore his mercy: men must either turn or burn, For even our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29.

Verse 3. Therefore say thou unto them ] These Jews, saith Cyril, had neither seen their fathers wickednesses, nor heeded their calamities. mittitur ergo ad cos Zacharias quasi paedagogus, Zacharias therefore is sent unto them as a schoolmaster or Monitour: that by considering what had been, they might prevent what otherwise would be: and redeem their own sorrows.

thus saith the Lord of hosts ] A far greater Lord and Potentate then that great King of Persia, who was now their sovereign. True it is that they had been commanded by a former King to desist from building the city Ezr. 4.12, 21. But there was no one word in that letter to forbid the building of the Temple. There was also now another King set up, and of another family. They are therefore by this Prophet and by Haggai called upon again and again to turn to the Lord, and to return afresh to their work Ezra 5.1. Wherein, because they were sure to meet with many enemies, therefore here and elsewhere (eighteen several times in that eight chapter) there is frequent mention made of the Lord of Hosts, for their better encouragement. See the Note on Mal. 3.17.

turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts ] This is the great Doctrine of the Old Testament: as Repent ye, is of the New. And this He purposely prefixeth, as a preface and preparative to the other Prophesies both of Mercies and Judgments, whereof the whole is fitly made up. Sowr and sweet make the best sauce. Promises and Menaces mixed, make the most fruitsull discourse: and serve to keep the heart in the best temper. Hence David's ditty was composed of discords, Psal. 101.1. I will sing of mercy and judgment, and so be both merry and wise. But, to the words of the Text;

turn ye unto me &c. ] By sin men run away from God (whereby it appeareth that sin is the greatest evil, because it sets us furthest off from the greatest good) and by repentance they return unto him. Deut. 30.2, 8, 9, 10. Mal. 3.7. Ier. 4.1. Hos. 14.1. Act. 26.18. Hence Act, 3.19. Repent and be converted. Contrition is repentance for sin 2 Cor. 12.21. Rev. 9.20. Conversion is repentance from sin Act. 8.22. Heb. 6.1. Hereunto is required first a serious search of our ways (for it is a Metaphor taken from a traveler) Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord Lam. 3.39. I considered my ways, and then (seeing myself far wide) I turned my feet to thy Testimonies. Psal. 119.59. Satius est recurrere, quam male currere, said that Emperor in his symbol, It is better to stop or step back, then run on, when out of the way: for here he that hasteth with his feet sinneth Prov. 19.2. the faster he runs, the farther he is out. But as the deceived traveler (when once he finds his error) in his judgment he dislikcth it, in his will he turneth from it, in his affections he grieveth at it, and is angry with his false guides, with his utmost endeavor he not only turns again to the right way, but makes the more hast that he be not benighted: So is it here, David not only turned his feet to God's • estimonies, from which he had swerved, but he thenceforth made hast and delayed not to keep his commandments Psal. 119.59, 60. For, this true conversion we are speaking of, this repentance never to be repented of, is an upright, earnest and constant endeavor of an entire change of the whole man from all that is evil to all which is good. This is the doctrine of the Gospel, Tit. 2.11. and this is all the fruit Isaey 27.9. To turn from one sin to another, is but to be tossed from one hand of the devil to the other: it is but with Benhadad to recover of one disease, and die of another: it is but to take pains to go to hell. See this in Saul, John, Herod, Agrippa, and others, who gave but the half turn: turned not from East to West, but from East to North only: their change was not essential but only gradual: it is not a through change for subject and object, but partial and temporal, as being but moral, or formal, or merely mental. It proceeds from conviction of judgment only, and not for aversion of will: from horror of punishment, not from hatred of sin; which they leave (haply) but loath not: leave it, I say, for the inconveniences that follow it, for the fire that is in it, not for the filthiness that is in it. Now all these seeming Converts, because they cast not away all their transgressions ( All is a little word, but of large extent) are therefore to be reckoned among those fools of the people that pass on and are punished, those enemies of God that instead of turning again (turning short again upon themselves with the prodigal, and returning to the Lord with Ephraim) go on still in their trespasses till their hairy scalp be wounded, till evident and inevitable judgments be incurred, till iniquity prove to be their utter ruin Ezek. 18.30. Wherefore now Turn ye unto me, saith the Lord of Hosts, Add not to all your other sins that of Impenitency, for which there remains no more sacrifice (as Herod added to all his former abominations the beheading of the Baptist) but Turn you, Turn you, why will ye die O house of Israel. And for this, consider these ensuing particulars. 1. Who you are that are required to return: weak and worthless creatures, the slime of your fathers loins, dust and ashes, altogether unable to avert or avoid God's judgments: beaten rebels you are: and have therefore no help left, but to fall down before God and implore his mercy. Turn and live, except ye repent ye shall all perish. 2. Next, see who it is to whom ye are required to return: Not to some tyrant, or implacable enemy that having gotten us into his hands, will deal cruelly with us, (as the Duke of Alva roasted some to death, starved others, and that even after quarter) but to the Lord your God, who is gracious and m • rcifull, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and quickly repenteth him of the evil Joel 2.13. He will surely both assist such as have but a mind to return (why else doth he bid us turn, which he knows we cannot do without him? and why doth he bid us pray to him to Turn us? when we bid our children ask us for this or that, it is because we mean to give it them.) He will also accept us with all sweetness, as he did Ephraim, Ier. 31.19, 20. and the Prodigal Luk 15. The father met him ver. 20. so he will do us Isaiah 65.24. The Prodigal came, the Father ran Tantum velis, & Deus tibi praeoecurret ) he fell on his neck, as Jacob did on his dear Josephs, he kissed him, when one would have thought he should have kicked him, or killed him rather for his former riotousnesle. He calleth for the best robe, and for the gold-ring, and for the fatted calf. Filsus timet convitium, Pater adornat convivium, Let us eat and be merry saith He, For this my son was dead (given up for dead, free among the dead, free of that company) and is alive again: He was lost and is found. Of himself he lest his father and ran riot: and yet he is called the lost son, in the best sense. Hunger drove the wolf out of the wood: and yet he is accepted, as if not necessitated. 3. Thirdly take notice from what you are required to turn. Turn ye, turn ye, from your evil ways: for why will ye die, ye house of Israel? Ezek. 33.11. It is your sin only that you are to part with, and why should ye be so fond of it? if you look upon it, either in the Author of it, the devil, John. 8.44. Or in the Nature of it, as it is an Offence against God (your rightful Lord, your bountiful Benefactour) and a breach of his Law which is holy, and just, and good; Or in the horrid effects of it (as upon other creatures for man's sake, so especially) upon man himself, whom Sin hath excluded from the possession of the lower paradise, and the possibility of the higher, into an eternity of all extremities, after many a little hell here afore-hand. Or (lastly) in the ransom of it, Christ's blood and bitter sufferings, that soul of sufferings which his soul then suffered when God made our sins to meet upon him Isaiah 53.6. Oh think on these things sadly, seriously, fixedly and copiously, and you will soon see caul enough to turn to him from whom these children of Israel had deeply revolred, and were therefore grievously plagued, they and their fathers, that they might return to him that smote them. Which because they did not, but stood stouting it out with God (which was their manner from their youth ) therefore were the Syrians before, and the Philistines behind to devour Israel with open mouth: and for all this his anger was not turned away, but his hand was stretched out still Isaiah 9.12, 13. Besides the hindrance and hurt they did to others by standing out: For ifye turn again to the Lord, your brethren shall find compassion, said Hezekiah to his people, moving them to repent 2 Chr. 30.9. And should not we lend them this friendly help.

and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of Hosts ] And should not such a favor from such a Lord melt them and make them malleable? Should not the goodness of God lead them to repentance? Should they not rent their hearts because God is gracious? return unto him because he will multiply pardon? repent because his kingdom is now at hand? fear him the rather, because with him there is mercy? draw nigh to him, who thus draws nigh to them? make hast home with the prodigal, where there is bread enough? Surely nothing worketh so much as kindness upon those that are ingenuous. Those Israelites at Mizpah drew water, and poured it forth before the Lord, upon the return of the Ark. There is no mention of their lamenting after the Lord, while he was gone; but when he was returned and settled in Kiriath-jearim 1 Sam 7.6. David argues from mercy to duty Psal. 116.8, 9. Ezra from deliverance to obedience chap. 9.13, 14 The love of Christ constraineth us saith Paul, his grace that bringeth salvation teacheth us to denyungodlinesse, and to live up to our principles. I beseech youby' the mercies of God, saith the same Apostle, as not having anymore prevailing, more heart-attaching, attracting argument in the world to press them with; I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with mercy have I drawn thee Ier. 31.3. And again I drew them with the cords of a man, with bands of love, Hos. 11.4. that is, with reasons and motives of mercy befitting the nature of a man, with rational motives: to neglect mercy is to sin against humanity: not to convert by kindness, is to receive the grace of God in vain: nay, it is to heap up wrath against the day of wrath. A son feeling his fathers love, creeps nearer under his wing. A Saul, sensible of David's curtesy in sparing him, when he might have spilled his blood, was strangely mo •• ified and melted into tears. Shall God offer to turn to us, and we refuse to turn to him? Shall he beseech us to be reconciled, and we go on in our animosities and hostilities? Doth he offer to pour out his spirit even upon scorners, and to make known his words unto them, and all this, that they may turn at his reproof Prov. 1.23? And shall they yet turn their backs upon such blessed and bleeding embracements? Had God given us but one Prophet, and forty days time only to turn unto him (as he dealt by Nineveh that great city) surely we should have repented long agone in sackcloth and ashes. But how justly (alas) may he complain of us, as he did once of Jezebel Rev. 2.21. I gave them space to repent, but they repented not. I have striven with them by my spirit, and wooed them by my word. I have heaped upon them mercies without measure: and all to bring them back into mine own bosom. I have also smitten them with blasting and mildew, with judgments public and personal: and yet they have not turned unto me saith the Lord Am. 4.9. Ah sinful nation &c. If any ask, What can we do toward the turning of ourselves to God? I answer:

First you must be sensible of your own utter inability to do anything at all toward it Ier. 10.23. Job, 15.5. Philip. 2.12. Non minus difficile est nobis velle credere, quam cadaveri volare. It is no less hard for us to be willing to believe, then for a dead carcase to fly upwards.

Secondly, know that yet it is possible, feisable, by the use of these means that God hath appointed: who also hath promised to make it both possible and easy to us. He bad Moses fetch his people out of Egypt: but himself effected it. He bad the Israelites go and blow down the walls of Jericho: they obeyed him, and it was done: So here.

Thirdly as our liberty in external acts is still some, (as to come to the public ordinances, to set ourselves under the droppings of a powerful ministry, and there to lie, as he did, at the pool of Bethesda, waiting the good hour) so must our endeavors be answerable. The Bereans brought their bodies to the Assembly, took the heads of St. Paul's sermon, compared them with the scriptures Act. 17.11, 12. and yet they were unconverted.

Fourthly, make much of the least beginnings of Grace, even those they call Repressing: since they prepare the heart for conversion. See Luk. 11.32.

Fifthly, Pray, Turn us O God and we shall be turned, Draw us and we shall run after thee. And here remember to be earnest. Ask, seek, knock, as the importunate neighbor that came to borrow two loaves, or as the widow that came for justice, and would not away without it. He that heareth the young ravens that cry only by implication, will he be wanting to his weak but willing servants?

Lastly wait for the first act of conversion, the infusion of the sap of Grace, which is wholly from God; our will prevents it not but follows it: and whensoever the spirit imbreatheth you, turn about, like the mill; when God hath tuned and doth touch you, do you move and make melody: resigning up yourselves wholly to him, and putting yourselves out, God into possession. Thus if you turn to him, he will turn to you. The Lord is with you, whiles ye be with him. If ye seek him he will be found of you: but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you. 2 Chron. 15.2. See that ye refuse not him that speaketh in this text with so much affection and earnestness: see that ye slight him not, that ye shift him not of • (as the word signifieth:) for if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that thus speaketh from heaven, sc. by his blood, Word, Sacraments, Mercyes, motions of his spirit, crosses &c. When Physic, that should remove the disease, doth cooperate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. The stronger the conviction of sin is, the deeper will be the wrath against it, if it be not by repentance avoided. No surfeit more dangerous then that of bread: no judgment more terrible then that which grows out of mercy offered, and despised.

Verse 4. Be ye not as your fathers ] Man is a creature apt to imitate, to be led more by his eyes then by his ears: and children think they may lawfully Be as their fathers. St. Peters converts had received their vain conversation from their fathers, as it were ex traduce, or by tradition 1 Pet. 1.18. And St. Steven tells his perverse hearers that they were as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as their fathers had been before them Act. 7.51. They used to boast much of their Ancestors John. 8.33. and to bind much upon their example and authority Ier. 44. 17. Mat. 5.21. They thought they were not much to be blamed, because they did but as their fathers had done before them. The Prophet therefore dehorts or rather deterrs them from that folly: serting forth both the crime and doom of their forefathers, whom they so much admired, and so stiffly imitated, and this he ost repeateth that they might once consider it, and be wrought upon by those domestic examples.

have cried ] Loudly and lustily; according to that, Cry aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet: sic clames ut stentora vincas, A minister should be a Simon Zealots, a son of thunder: as Basil was said to thunder in his preaching, lighten in his life; as Jerome for his vehemency was called Fulmen Ecclesiasticum, the Churches light-bolt: as Harding, before his shameful Apostasy, wished he could cry out against Popery, as loud as the belles of Oseney: and as Farellus (that notable French Preacher) whose voice when the envious Monks sought to drown by ringing the bells as he was preaching at Metis, he lifted up his voice adravim usque: and would not suffer himself to be outroared. The Saints-bell (as they called it) Pierius useth for an hieroglyphick of a preacher, who must not speak the word only, but sound it out into all the earth, Rom. 10.18. not preach it only, but cry it, as the Apostles word signifieth, 2 Tim. 4.2. clangite, clamate, Jer. 4.5. Boâte, vociferate, Mat. 3.3. Ministers have to do with deaf men, dead men, living carcasses, walking sepulchers of themselves. Now therefore as our Savior lifted up his voice when he said, Lazarus come forth: so must they stand over men and cry aloud, awake thou that sleepest, and stand up from the dead, that Christ may give thee light, Eph. 5.14.

turn you now from your evil ways &c.] This was the constant cry of the Prophets as here, and Apostles as Acts 26.18. to open men's eyes (naturally closed up that they cannot see the evil of their ways, Ier 2.35. Rev. 3.15.) to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God.

and from your evil doings ] Heb. Designes, gests, or exercises enterprized advisedly, and prosecuted studiously, of natural disposition and inclination as Prov. 20.11. and 1 Sam. 25.3. This St. John usually calleth committing of sin. 1 Epist. 3.4, 8, 9. John 8.34. this is to add rebellion to sin, Job 34.37. impudence to impotence, brows of brass to iron sinews, Isa. 48.4. This is wickedness with a witness, which if men could but see in its native colors, and cursed consequents, they would soon be persuaded to turn from it. As the eye cannot but be offended with a loathsome object: so neither can the understanding. Take rats-bane, it looketh not evil: bu • when a man feels it boil, burn, torture him, &c. he hates it extremely. So he should do sin: he will do else at length, when it is too late. For prevention:

but they did not hear ] Though the Prophets cried, and spake loud enough to be heard and heeded. An heavy ear is a singular judgment, Isa. 6.10. An hearing ear, a precious mercy, Prov. 20.12. God must be entreated to boar our ear Psal. 40.6. and to make the boar so big that the word may enter; to say as Isa. 42.18. Hear ye deaf, and look ye blind, that ye may see.

Verse 5. Your fathers where are they? ] Is not the grave their house? have they not made their beds in the dark? are not they gone down to the Congregation house of all living Job 30.23? Every man should die the same day he is born; as being born a child of death: the wages of sin is death, and this wages should be paid him down presently. But Christ begs their lives for a season 1 Tim. 4.10. he is the Savior of all men, not of eternal preservation, but of temporal reservation. But what a sad thing is it for men to die in their sins as these in the Text, and their Nephews did John 8.21, 24. How may such men, on their death-beds, say to their sins, as Charles the fifth did of his honors, victories, riches, Abite hinc, abite longe, Go, go, get you out of my sight: or as Cornelius Agrippa the conjurer did to his familiar that used to accompany him in the shape of a dog, Abi à me perdit a bestia, quae me perdidisti, Be gone thou wretched beast that hast wrought my ruin: Petrus Sutorius speaks of one that preaching a funeral sermon on a religious man (as he calls him) and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the Church, mortuus sum, judicat us sum, damnat us sum, I am dead, judged, and damned. The Devil preached Saul's funeral, 1 Sam. 28.19. though David made his Epitaph, 2 Sam. 1.

And do the Prophets live forever? ] Those false Prophets (so Jerome senseth it) that cried peace, peace to your fathers, and made all fair weather before them, when the fierce wrath of God was even ready to burst out upon them, as an overflowing scourge. But they do better that understand it of God's true Prophets, who are dead indeed (for wise men die as well as fools Psal. 4 • .10. Good men die as well as bad, Ezech. 21.4. yea good men oft, before the bad, Isaiah 57.1.) but their words died not with them: the truth of their prophesies not only lived forever (forever O Lord thy word is stablished in heaven Psal. 119.89.) but struck in the hearts and flesh of their perverse hearers, like the envenomed arrows of the Almighty throughout all eternity. Wicked men may, as the wounded Hart, frisk and skip up and down when the deadly arrow sticks in their ribs, but not so easily shake it off.

Verse 6. Did they not take hold of your fathers ] Overtake and catch them (as Huntsmen their prey, or as one enemy doth another in flight 1 King. 18.27. 2 King. 25.5.) to drag them down to the bottom of hell. A godly man, as he hath peace with God, with himself, and with the creatures: so he hath also with the Ordinances, and may say as Hezekiah, Good is the Word of the Lord which thou hast spoken. Are not my words always good saith God, to them that walk uprightly, Mic. 2.7? Excellently Augustine, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus & ipsi nobis: quamdiu tu tibi inimicus es, inimicum habebis sermonem Dei. God's word is adversary to none but such as are adversaries to themselves: Neither doth it condemn any, but such as shall be assuredly condemned by the Lord; for what is the Word, but the heart and soul of God, as Gregory saith. And what saith the Essential Word of God, who came out of the bosom of his father and knew all his counsel? He that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the some shall judge him in the last day, John 12.48? Oh consider this ye that forget God, that slight his word as if it were but wind, that bely the Lord and say, It is not he neither shall the cvill (foretold) come upon us, neither shall we see sword nor famine. And the Prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in them, thus shall it be done unto them, Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, because ye speak this word (and is there not such language of many men's hearts now-adays?) Behold I will make my words (not wind, but) fire and this people wood, and it shall devour them, Ier. 5.12, 13, 14. The Word of God in the mouths of his Ministers may well be likened to Moses his rod: which whiles he held it in his hand, it flourished, and brought forth almonds: but being cast upon the ground it became a serpent. Semblably, God's words and statutes, if laid to heart, they yield fruit and comfort: but if slighted or snuffed at (as Mal. 1.13.) serpent-like they will sting the soul, and become a savor of death &c. This contempt will also call for a sword, to revenge the quarrel of the Covenant: as it did upon these men's fathers for their instance, and admonition. It is reckoned by Daniel as a great aggravation of Belshazzar's sin Dan. 5.22. that he was not sensible of his father Nebuchadnezzar's pride and fall. And thou his s • nne Belshazzar, hast not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this. The sin of these Jews in the Text was the greater, because their Fathers and Elders (either out of sound conversion, or at least out of clear conviction of conscience) had confessed and remonstrated the truth and justice of God in threatening and executing his judgments upon themselves, saying as Lam. 1.18. The Lord is righteous, for we have rebelled against his commandments: and as chap. 2.17. The Lord hath done that which he had devised, he hath fulfilled his word, he hath thrown down and hath not pitied &c. Hear them in their own words here like as the Lord of hosts (whose power is irresistible) thought (devised, determined with himself, and accordingly denounced by his Prophets) to do unto us (who did not the words which he commanded us, Ier. 11.8.) according to our ways (which were always grievous, Psal. 10.5.) and according to our doings ( that were not good, Ezek. 36.31.) so hath he dealt with us: for he loves to retaliate and to render to every transgression and disobedience, a just recompense of reward, Heb. 2.2.

Verse 7. Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month ] The third month after the former prophecy, when the Jews probably had practiced the doctrine of Repentance, so earnestly pressed upon them: and had humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, who was now ready to lift them up by this and the seven following most comfortable Visions touching the restauration and reformation of the Church and State. The Devil and his imps love to bring men into the briars, and there to leave them, as familiars forsake their witches, when they have brought them once into fetters: as the Priests left Judas the traitor to look to himself, Mat. 27.4. and as the Papists cast off Cranmer, after that, by subscribing their Articles, he had cast himself into such a wretched condition, that there was neither hope of a better, nor place for a worse; ut jam nec honest mori nec vivere inhoneste liceret. But such is not God's manner of dealing with those that tremble at his word, and humble at his feet. Deijcit ut relevet, premit ut solatia praestet, He comforteth those that are cast down, 2 Cor. 7.6. commandeth others to comfort the feeble-minded, 1 Thes. 5.14. and noteth those that do not with a black-coal, Job 6.14. See the workings of his bowels, the rowlings of his compassions kindled into repentance toward his penitentiaries, Jer. 31.20. Hos. 11.8. Isaiah 40.1, 2. See how he comforts them with cordials according to the time wherein he had afflicted them, Psal. 90.15. and in the very thing wherein he had abased them; as he once dealt with their Head, Philip. 2.7, 8.

Kerse 8. I saw by night ] The usual time for such revelations. It may note (moreover) the obscurity of the Prophecy: whence also the mention of myrtletrees (low and shady) and that in a bottom, as Calvin conceiveth: and all this, that he might give a taste of good hope to the Jews by little and little.

and behold a man riding upon a red horse ] Not Alexander the Great, riding upon his horse Bucephalus, and translating the Empire from the Persians to the Grecians, as Arias Montanus conceited it: But the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Tim. 2.5. the Captain of the Lord's Host, Josh. 4.14. and of our salvation, Heb. 2.10.

riding upon a red horse ] In the same sense (saith One) that this color is given to his garments, Isaiah 63.1, 2, 3. and to the Angels horse, Rev. 6.4. The wild Bull (saith Another) of all things, cannot abide any red color. Therefore the hunter for the nonce, standing before a tree, puts on a red garment; whom when the Bull seeth, he runneth at him as hard as he can drive. But the hunter stepping aside, the bulls horns stick fast in the tree: as when David slipped aside, Saul's spear stuck fast in the wall. Such an hunter is Christ: He lifted up upon the tree of his cross, had his garment dipt and died in his own blood, as one that cometh with red garments from Bozra. Therefore the Devil and his Angels (like wild bulls of Bashan) ran at him with all their force, (in that three-hours darkness especially) but he delivering himself, as a mighty Conqueror, their horns stick fast, as it were in his cross: as Abraham's ram, by his horns stuck fast in the brier, &c.

and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom ] Myrrh-trees some render it. Here Christ, that horseman and head of his Church, keepeth himself, as touched with the feeling of our infiunities, Heb. 4.15. as suffering and sorrowing with his people, who are fitly compared to myrtles, that grow in a shady grove, in valleys and bottoms, and by waters sides. Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, Isaiah 32.20. Myrtles also are odoriferous, and precious, Isaiah 41.19. and 55.13. so are the Saints, Isaiah 43.4. Colos. 4.6. they cast a good scent where-ever they go, by the grace of God that is in them: as Alexander the Great is said to do, by the excellent temperament of his body. Lastly, Levite. 23.40. with Neh 8.15. the Jews at their joyful feast of Tabernacles, used myrtle-branches among others, to testify their thankfulness for a settlement in the promised land, after so long wandering in the wilderness. The Gentiles also in their solemn feasts, interludes, and — cingebant tempora myrto, wore garlands made of Myrtle. Let us keep the feast: Let us keep holy-day, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 5.8. who himself did over-abound exceedingly with joy, had an exuberancy of it, at that constant feast of a good conscience. Diogenes could say, that a good man keeps holy-day, all the year about: Christ crowneth the Kalendar of his people's lives with continual festivals here: how much more in heaven? Pliny tells us, that ex myrto facta est ovantium corona, subinde & triumphantium; of Myrtle was made, among the Romans, the crown or garland, of those that did shout for victory, or ride in triumph.

and behind him were there red horses ] i. e. horse-men: Nam nimis crassum est illud commentum, fuisse locutos equos, saith Calvin here. These horse men are Angels, as verse 10. deputed to several offices, and executions, for judgment, fo • mercy, or both; shadowed by the divers colors of their horses.

Verse 9. Then said I, O my Lord what are these? ] Thus the Prophets inquired and searched diligently (as saith Saint, Peter, 11 Epist. 1.11.) for the truth of things, as hunters seek for game, and as men seek for gold, in the very mines of the earth: who not content with the first oar that offereth itself to their view, dig deeper, and deeper, till they are owners of the whole treasure. See Prov. 2.4. and rest not, till ye see that blissful sight, Ephes. 1.18, 19.

and the Angel that talked with me, ] Or, in me, as the Vulgar rendereth it. This was some created Angel, who might reveal things to the Prophet by working on the fantasy, and spirit, by way of information and instruction, as Dan. 9.21. Luk. 1.11. Apoc. 1.1.

I will show thee what these be ] How ready are the holy Angels to serve the Saints, Heb. 1.14. rejoicing more in their names of office then of honor, of employment, then preferment, to be called Angels (that is, Messengers, or Internuntio's) then Principalities, Thrones, Dominions, Ephes. 1.20. accounting it. better to do good, then to be great, to dispense God's benefits, then to enjoy them. Hence they are with, and about the Saints, as their companions, guides, protectours, monitours, and rulers of their actions, as here.

Verse 10. And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees ] The man Christ Jesus, that is ever with his Church, and in the midst of his people, that feedeth among the lill • es, and walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. He being asked by the foresaid Angel, answered him (in Zacharias' hearing) for he is Palmoni hammedabber, that excellent Speaker, as Daniel calleth him, and therefore asketh him of the vision, Dan. 8.13.

These are they whom the Lord hath sent ] As his Epoptai, or Overseers and Intelligencers. Not that God needeth them, as Princes need the counsel and aid of their subjects. The holy Angels receive möre from God, then they perform, or bring to him. But he maketh use of their service about us. 1. For the honor of his Majesty, and comfort of our infirmity. 2. To make out his love unto us, by employing such noble creatures for our good. 3. To make and maintain love and correspondency between us and Angels, till we come to walk arm in arm with Angels, as Zach. 3.7. and to be like unto them, yea their equals, Luke 20.36. if not more, Ephes. 1.23.

Verse 11. We have walked to and fro thorough the earth ] Itavimus, we have coursed up and down with incredible swiftness. Hence they are called the chariots of God, Psal. 68.17. (Heb. God's-chariot, to note out their joint-service, as of one) as here, his horsemen, ready pressed to do his pleasure.

and behold all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest ] excepting the Church alone, which like Noah's Ark, is ever tossed up and down, till it rest at last on the everlasting mountain: then she shall have her happy Halcyons: then she shall see her enemies afar off, as Lazarus did Dives, or as the Israelites at the red-sea did their persecutors, dead upon the shore. Mean-while, she must not expect to be calm, and quiet for any continuance. In the world ye shall have trouble, And ye shall weep and lament: but the world shall rejoice: they shall revel, and laugh themselves fat. The king and Haman sat down to drink: but the city Shushan was perplexed. The Church is called God's threshing-floor, because threshed with continual crosses: and God's-husbandry, because he will be sure to plow his own ground, and to make long furrows upon their backs, whatsoever become of the waste; and to weed his own garden, though the rest of the world be let alone, and grow wild. Moab is not poured from vessel to vessel, but settleth upon the lees: when the Israel of God is poured out as milk, and curdled like cheese, as Job speaketh in another case.

Verse 12. Then the Angel of the Lord ] That Advocate with the Father, Jesus the Juft One, 1 John 2.2. who appeareth for his afflicted people, and feelingly pleads for them, as being afflicted in all their afflictions, even the Angel of his presence that saveth them, Isaiah 63.9. It much moved him, to hear that God's enemies were in better case then his people: and this put him upon the following passionate expostulation.

O Lord of Hosts, How long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem, &c.] Usquequo Domine. Calvin had these words much in his mouth: thereby breathing out his holy desires in the behalf of the afflicted Churches, with whose sufferings he was more affected then with anything that befell himself. It is said of Melan • thon, that the miseries of the Church made him almost neglect the death of his dearest children: and put him upon many prayers and tears; which, like music upon the water, made a most melodious noise in the ears of God. When Luther in a certain Epistle checked him, and chod him for his exceeding great care of the Churches welfare, calling him pertinacissimam curarum hirudinem, &c. he meekly replied, Si nihil curarem, nihil orarem; If I should not care so, I should not pray so. God seemeth sometimes to have lost his mercy, (as here, How long wilt thou be unmerciful to Jerusalem) and then we must find it for him. He seems to have forgot his people: we must remind him. He seems to sleep, delay: we must waken, quicken him, with How long Lord? Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favor her, yea the set time is come, saith Daniel, who is (probably) held to be the Pen man of that excellent Psal. 102. (Confer Dan. 9.2.) and he speaks it with as much confidence, as if he had been in God's blessed bosom the while. This also he spake, not now by a spirit of prophecy, or special revelation; but by way of argumentation, or necessary demonstration: For thy servants take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof; They pity her, and melt over her, therefore thou Lord much more: since all their tenderness is but a spark of thy flame, a drop of thine Ocean.

against which thou hast had indignation, these threescore and ten years ] There is much ado among Interpreters about Jeremiah's 70 and Zacharias' 70, whether one and the same: or different one from another. That of Scaliger is most unlikely, who reckoneth these years of the captivity, from the first year of Xerxes with his father Darius, unto the fourth year of Darius Nothus. How much better our countreyman Lydiat (whom yet Scaliger so much scorned, saying, Quis est ill ex ultima Britannia Canis, qui Ios. Scaligerum audeat allatrare? ) who concludes it to be 70 years from the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, to this second year of Darius Hystaspes, wherein Zachariah prophesied? That of A Lapide upon this Text, I cannot pass by, Moraliter idipsum dicamus, idipsum oremus & obsecremus pro Anglia, &c. Let us say the same, pray the same for England, Scotland, &c. that the Angel here doth for Jerusalem; How long Lord wilt thou not have mercy upon England, where Heresy hath prevailed now these hundred years and upwards? The English fugitives beyond-seas, write upon their College and Church-doors, in great golden letters, Jesu, Jesu, converte Angliam: Fiat, Fiat. Jesu convert England: Amen, Amen. Why, yet this is somewhat better then that of Pererius the Jesuit, upon Genes. 15.16. If any man marvel saith He, why England continueth to flourish, notwithstanding the over-flow of heresy, and cruel persecution of Catholics, (just execution of Catholics, he should have said) we answer, because their iniquity is not yet full, (God grant it, Ier. 28.6.) Sed veniet tandem iniquitat is complementum. But the time is not far off: and forbearance is no quittance, &c.

Vers. 13. And the Lord answered the Angel ] How should God do otherwise then answer his well-beloved Son, with good and comfortable words, since he is all in all with the Father, and can do anything with him? Father, saith he, I know thou hearest me always. Did God hear Abraham for Ishmael, nay for Sodom? Did David hear Joab, interceding for Absalom? Did Herod hearken to Blastus making request for those of Tyre and Sidon, with whom he was highly displeased? And shall not God give ear to his Son, praying for his people, that are as dear to him as the apple of his eye? Good and comfortable words he doth surely answer him: such as were once those, Joh. 12.27, 28. when Christ had thus prayed; Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father save me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour. Father, glorify thy Name. Then came there a voice from heaven ( Bath-chol the Rabbins call it) saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. So, when he shall say in his daily intercession (for he ever liveth to make request for us, at the right hand of the Majesty on high) It irketh me, that the whole earth is at rest, and my Church at so much unrest: Return, O Lord, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants. Save now I beseech thee O Lord: O Lord I beseech thee send now prosperity. How can God do less then answer as Isa. 33.10. Now will I arise, now will I be exalted, now will I lift up myself: Or as in the words next following here (which indeed are all along good words and comfortable words) I am jealous for Jerusalem &c. The Lord shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem; Yet for all the sorrow he shall do it, and for all that Others called her an outcast saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after: and she herself concludeth her doleful ditty with, Thou hast utterly rejected us: thou art very wroth against us. Lam. 4.22.

Verse 14. So the Angel that communed with me ] See the Note on ver. 10.

cry thou saying ] q. d. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God, Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, speak ye to her heart and cry unto her saying, that her appointed time is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned, and so the quarrel is ended: for she hath received of the Lord's hands double for her sins. Nothing so much as I have deserved saith she Ezra 9.13. twice so much as she hath deserved, saith He. O sweet contradiction! O beautiful contention! The same Hebrew word signifieth to repent and to comfort 1 Sam. 15.35. Isaiah 40.1. God's care is to comfort those that are cast down. His command to his Prophet is to cry comfort to the penitent with an extraordiny earnestness, from the God of all consolation.

I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy ] Love is strong as death, zeal, or jealousy (for the same word signifieth both) is hard as hell. Cant. 8.6. Non amat qui non zelat saith Augustine. He loves not that zeales not. And Basil venturing himself very far for his friend, and by some blamed for it, answered, Ego aliter amare non didici, I cannot love a man, but I must do mine utmost for him. When one desired to know what manner of man Basil was, it is said there was presented in a dream to him a pillar of fire with this motto, Talis est Basilius, Lo, such an one is Basil. It is certain that our God is a consuming fire, who would set the briars and the thorns saith He, that is the churches enemies, against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. And yet he saith in the same place, Fury is not in me: What will he do then when jealousy is in him as here? Jealousy is the rage of a man, and hath these three properties.

First it is exceeding watchful, and quick-sighted: hardly shall the Paramour escape the husbands eye, a wanton glance is soon noted and noticed. God is no less sensible and observant of the least indignity done to his dear spouse, his Hephzibah, be it but in a frown or a frump. Why is thy countenance cast down, saith God to that dog-bolt Cain? Why dost lowre upon my righteous Abel? What will he force the Queen also before me in the house? If David's enemies mow and make mouths at him, if they cry Aha, Aha, so would we have it, God will reckon with them for it. If Edom say jearingly to the Prophet, Watchman, what of the night? watchman, what of the night? If Ammon clap but his hands at God's Israel, if he stamp with the feet, and rejoice in heart only, when it goes ill with the church, God will stretch out his hand upon him, and cut him off out of his country, and he shall know that he is Jehovah, Ezek. 25.67. yea that the Lord God of Israel is a jealous God. He will be jealous for his land, and pity his people Joel 2.18.

Secondly jealousy is violent: it is cruel as the grave, the coals thereof are coals of fire Cant. 8.6. The same word is elsewhere put for fiery thunderbolts, Psal. 78.48. also for a carbuncle or burning fever Deut. 32.24. Jealousy puts a man into a fever-fit of outrage: arms him with fiery darts, yea with lightbolts: makes him cast firebrands, be ready to take any revenge: Think the same of God in a way of justice. He will spit in the face of a Miriam, that shall but mut • er against his Moses: what then will he do, (or rather what will he not do) against Jezebel, Athaliah, Herodias &c?

Thirdly jealousy is irreconcilable, implacable, Prov. 6.34, 35. He will not spare in the day of vengeance. He will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou give many gifts, what would not Balak have given to have had his will upon Israel? What large offers made Haman? he would pay ten thousand talents of silver to those that had the charge of the business to destroy the Jews. Ahasuerus yielded: but so did not God. We are sold (said Esther ) I and my people to be destroyed, to be slain and to perish: But God never consented to the bargain. He had war with Amalec forever, and laid his hand upon his own throne, as swearing to root him out Exod. 17.16. And this proud Agagite Haman shall feel the force of his curse in his very bowels. Let the laboring Church but cry out, Help O King, hear O husband, give ear O shepherd of Israel, the enemy is come into thy land O Immanuel, and the stretching out of his wings filleth the whole breadth of it. Where is thy zeal (or jealousy) and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels, and of thy mercies towards me? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our Father, our Redeemer, or near kinsman, nay, our husband. Thy church is unto thee A sister, a spouse: And canst thou hide thine eyes from thine own flesh? from her that is joined to the Lord, and is one spirit? shall Abraham venture for the rescue of his kinsman, David of his two wives, and wilt thou do nothing for the dearly beloved of thy soul? shall she be given up into the hand of her enemies? shall the sword reach unto the soul. Let Christ but hear such words from the mouth of his Spouse: and he will soon gird his sword upon his thigh, he will act Phineas his part and execute judgment: he will smite his enemies in the hinder parts (whip them, as men use to do boys) and so put them to a perpetual reproach; shame them forever, as a company of punyes or Zanies.

Verse 15. And I am very sore displeased with the Heathen that are at ease ] Heb. I am in such a heat as causeth fuming and foaming. I am boiling-hot, and even ready to burst out upon them, to destroy them: for the word here used hath great affinity with another word that signifieth to cut down, and to destroy 2 King. 6.6. and importeth an higher degree of displeasure, a greater height of heat, then either Anger or wrath, as may be seen in that signal gradation Deut. 29.28. The Lord rooted them out of their land in Anger and in Wrath, and in great Indignation. The last of these three is this word in the Text, Fervore maximo ferveo, I am as hot as may be against those Heathens that are at ease, at heartsease, that come not in trouble like other men, neither are they plagued as better men, and are therefore secure and insolent above measure Job 21.23. haughty and haunty, so that the Church cannot rest for them: they thrust with the shoulder, and push with the horn (as afterwards verse 18.19. with Dan. 8.4.) yea they push the diseased Ezek. 34.21. (which is a singular cruelty.)

they help forward the assliction ] they fall like dogs upon the wounded Deere. This David complains of as an unsufferable grievance Psal. 69, 26. For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten: and they talk to the grief of those whom thou hast wounded. God smiteth his in mercy and in measure, in the branches only, and not at the root, neque ad exitium sed ad exercitium. Displeased he may be with his own, and make bloody wails upon their backs, if need be: but then he looks that others should pity them, and not lay on more load and seek to bring them to utmost extremity. God puts his people sometimes into the hands of his enemies, for correction sake. Now they commonly being enraged with haughty, revengfull, and malicious desires, exceed their commission, and so derive the mischief upon themselves (See Prov. 24.17, 18,) they cannot do but they must overdoe (as Nebuchadnezzar the rod in God's hand Isai 10.) and thereby utterly undo themselves forever. For their cruelty comes up to heaven 2 Chron. 28.9. and God soon heareth the cry of his oppressed ( for he is gracious ) and avengeth himself on their pitiless enemies: standing over them and saying as Isa. 47.6. I was wroth with my people. I have polluted mine inheritance, and given them into thine hand: thou didst show them no mercy: upon the ancient hast thou heavily laid the yoke. And again: Because these Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a deceitful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred: Therefore I will execute great vengeances upon them with furious rebukes, and they shall know that I am the Lord when I shall laymy vengeance upon them. Joab never pleased David better, then when he made intercession for banished Absalom: for the soul of king David longed to go forth unto Absalom, whom yet he had very just cause to be greatly displeased with. God in a heat, as it were, against Israel, offereth Moses a great fortune Exod. 32.10. but would have taken it very ill, that Mos • s should have taken him at his word.

He is but a little angry with his people ] and soon repenteth him of the evil: But woe be to those that help forward the indignation, that deal by God's afflicted as the Herd of Deer do; which, when any of the herd is shot, the hest push him out of their company. It is said of Q. Elisabeth, that she hated ho less then did Mithridates, such as maliciously persecuted virtue forsaken of fortune. Think the same of God. He weareth his rod to the stumps, and then throws it into the fire. He sets his horse-leeches to his people (when he finds them sick of a plethory of pride, when fullness hath bred forgetfulness, saturity security) and suffereth them to suck rill they burst: and then treads them under his feet, and puts them away as dross Psal 119.118, 119.

Verse 16. Therefore thus saith the Lord ] Thus, one deep calleth another: the lower deep of our misery, the higher deep of God's mercy. As Croesus his dumb son burst out into Kill not king Croesus: so, when enemies are ready to devour the Church, God's bowels work: he can hold no longer but cries, Save my child, Handle the young man gently for my sake, See Ier. 31.20. Isa. 57.16. I will not contend forever; neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me &c. when the child swoons in the whipping, God let falls the rod, and falls a kissing it, to fetch life into it again. A Physician, in some cases purgeth his patient till nothing be lest almost, but skin and bone or blooddeth him ad deliquium animae, till he faint and sink, but yet his care is still to maintain nature: so this heavenly Father and Physician is careful to keep up the spirits of his suffering Saints, by comforts and cordials, as here:

I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: Miserationibus visceralibus with multitudes of tender mercies that flow from the inwards, from the bowels, from the bosom and bottom of the heart: had that of a Parent, nay of a mother toward her child in an extremity as 1 King. 3.26. And here observes how fully and sweetly the Angels prayer ( verse 12.) is answered even ad cardinem desiderij. God not only grants him according to his own heart, but fulfills all his counsel, as it is Psal. 20.4. Lets it be to him even as he will, nay gives him an enlarged answer, presseth upon him (as Naaman did upon Gehazi 's two talents when he desired but one.) How long wilt thou not be merciful to Jerusalem saith He?

behold I am returned to Jerusalem with many mercies saith God. ] I went away and hid me from it in my anger Hos. 5.15. but am come again with many comforts, to relieve it. As all light is from the Sun, and all waters from the sea: so is all comfort from God. In thy light shall we see light: but Thou diddest hide thy face and I was troubled Psal. 30.7. as when the Sun is eclipsed, all creatures here flag and hang the head, there is a drooping in the whole frame or nature: and as when the extracting force of the Sun leaves the vapors that are drawn up, they fall down again to the earth; So sares it with the Church: If God withdraw, she lies all amort, yea, she lieth open to all sorts of evils and enemies: for her shadow is departed from her. But he cannot be long absent, such is his love: he will repent for his people when he seeth their power is gone Dent. 32.36. when there is a dignus vindice nodus, an extremity fit for divine power to interpose: when misery weighs down, & nothing but mercy turns the scale, then (at furthest) in the very turning and critical point. He will return to Jerusalem with mercies. He will return to her, not as the winter sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shines, but gives little comfort and heat: but with a Cornu-copia of all manner of blessings will he come.

my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of Hosts: and a line shall be stretched forth upon Jerusalem ] that is both Church and State shall flourish. God will both do good in his good pleasure unto Zion: be will also build the walls of Jerusalem Psal. 51.18. but mark that he saith in his good pleasure, as here in tender mercies; to teachus, that all the good we enjoy is merely of mercy, it is all of free grace: for otherwise, there should not be so much as any face of Church or commonwealth, as we see in the Jews at this day; a miserable dissected people, because Lo-ruhamah, such as have not obtained mercy. Then Ancestors acknowledged with all thankfulness for so undeserved a favor, that Except the Lord of Hosts had left unto them a very small remnant, they should have been as Sodom, and like unto Gomorrah. Had not the Angels laid hold upon Lots hand, and the good Lord been merciful unto him Gen. 19.16. he also had perished amongst those sinners against their own souls. Jehoshua was a brand plucked out of the fire Zech. 3.2.

Verse 17. Cry yet saying, Thus saith the Lord of Hosts my cities ] Here are four Yets in this one verse, and all very gracious ones: to break their hard harts, and to raise their faith in his promised mercies. For it is as if God should say. Though I was sore displeased with your Fathers, and ye are risen up in their rooms a very rate of rebels, so that I have had indignation against you full seventy years, ver. 12. yet I do you to know, and by my Prophet I proclaim with great earnestness and evidence of truth, that I do yet own you my cities (so that ye are not discovenanted) and will yet prosper you (so that it shall no more be said This is Zion whom no man careth for: for you shall have plentiful increase of men, cattle and all manner fruits of the earth as chap. 2.4.) yea you shall have a fullness of all things, not only repletive but diffusive, not only of abundance, but of redundance too; your cup shall over flow into the lesser vessels of others.

my cities through prosperity shall yet be spread abroad ] Diffundentur, dissluent, aut effluent. You shall have not for necessity only, but for lawful delight and honest affluence.

and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion ] sc. with spiritnall comforts, taking her into his wine-cellar Cant. 2. yea into the wilderness, and there speaking to her heart Hos. 2.13.

and shall yet choose Jerusalem ] That is, settle her in the sound assurance of her. Election and Adoption, whereof those outward blessings are both fruits and pledges. Hence David doubts not to conclude his spiritual good estate, and hopes of eternal happiness from his external enjoyments Psal. 23.5, 6. Thou preparest a table before me, thou anointest mine head, my cup runneth over. Hence he infers, Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. In all that is here said, we may see that scripture fully made good Ier. 51.5. Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of Hosts: though their land was filled with sin against the Holy one of Israel. And herein God dealt with his people according to hi • prerogative, and not according to his ordinary course. When the cursed Canaanites had fi • led their land from corner to corner with their uncloannesies, they were devoted to destruction. When the Edomites grew insolent and ripe for ruin, they were called the border of wickedness, and the people against whom the Lord had indignation forever. Mal. 1.4. See the Note there.

Verse 18. Then I lift up mine eyes and saw ] That is, I gave good heed to this second vision also: which was added purposely for confirmation of the former promises; which should be certainly accomplished to the Church, notwithstanding her many and mighty enemies. Horns they are called for their might and mischievousnes: by a metaphor, à feris cornupetis from fierce beasts, whose strength and wrath lies in their horns; or else from warriors, who wore iron horns upon their helmets.

and behold four horns ] Not the four Monarchies (for the Grecians and Romans were not yet: and this is spoken here for the present comfort of the afflicted Church) but the enemeis of Israel from all the four parts of the world (fee Psal. 107.2, 3.) for they were surrounded; On the North were the Syrians, Assytians, and Babylonians. ( Ab Aqu lone nihil boni, Ier. 4.6. and 6.1) On the East, the Ammonites and Moabites. On the South, the Edomites and Egyptians. On the West, the Philistines, as may be gathered out of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Geneva is at this day a small people, environed with enemies, French, Spanish, Savoy, Pope, and barred out from all aid of neighbors, cit • es, and churches: yet, by the mighty arm of God, strangely and strongly upheld and desended.

This Mr. Beza represented in a most elegant emblem of a city depainted as hanged by a twined thread; sustained and maintained by the mighty hand of God alone. Would any man take the Churches picture? saith Luther: then let him paint a a silly poor maid, sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry wolves, lions, bores, and bears, and with all manner of cruel and hurtful beasts; and in the midst of a great many surious men assaulting her every moment and minute, for this is her condition in the world.

Verse 19 And I said unto the Angel that talked with me, What be these? ] Though the vision be dark and mysterious, yet the Prophet despaireth not of a right understanding, neither doth he waywardly reject it with a Quod non vult intelligi, vult negligi. But, wanting wisdom he asketh it of God, as St. James also adviseth us to do chap. 1.5. and as David practiced. Teach me good judgment and knowledge saith He, give me understanding and I shall observe thy law. Thus Daniel prayed, and had an Angel sent to inform him, not once but often in friendly and familiar manner Dan. 9.21. and 10.11. and 11.2, 3. So had Joseph, Cornelius, Paul, &c. And although Angels are not so ready now, or appear not, at least, so visibly to tell us the mind of God: yet He will not be wanting to his willing servants; but in the use of means they shall be all taught of God: as David was by repairing to the Sanctuary Psal. 73.13. and as the Eunuch was by Philip Act. 8.

these are the horns which have scattered ] Heb. tossed them up in the air, as furious beasts do with their homes, and sorely bruised them. Num not modo dispersionem significat quae fit per modum ventilationis, sed etiam quae fit per modum all • isienis & contritionis. See Hos. 10.14. and 13.16.

Verse 20. And the Lord shown me four carpenters ] He that before was called an Angel, is here called Jehovah, this shows him to be Christ, who is God blessed forever. In respect of his eternal essence he is called the Lord: in respect of his office or Mediatorship, an Angel.

four carpenters ] Or smiths: so many horns, so many Artificers to batter and break them. God wants not ways and means to help his at a dead lift: he knows how to deliver saith Peter, and herein usually he goeth a way by himself. Many times he setteth the enemies together by the ears among themselves: whilst that I withal escape, saith David Psal. 141.10. Thus by Nebuchadnezzar, as by a mall or bettle, he brake the rest of those horrible horns: as at this day the Pope by the Turk, and Spaniard by the French, and that the Church may have her Halcions. N. marvel I slept so soundly seeing Antipater was by and watched, said Philip of Macedon. We may better say of Antipater, our gracious Father and guardian, the keeper of his Israel.

Verse 21. What come these to do? ] he asketh not what they were? for by their tools or weapons he perceived they were Carpenters or smith, (as some think) with iron instruments to break these iron homes: confer 1 King. 22.11. He inquireth therefore of their employment only. Futilous and foolish questions should be avoided, Tit. 3.9.

so that no man did lift up his head ] Turn head, or look cheerfully as Luke 21.28.

but these are come to fray them ] deterrere, saith the Vulgar: better deterrere, to fright them, now that they had pushed Israel to the Lord.

to cast out &c. ] Thus Omne sub regno graviore regnum est. See Eccles. 5.7. with the Note there.

CHAP. II.

Verse 1. I lift up mine eyes again and looked ] i. e. I looked wishly, not sluggishly, as betwixt sleeping and waking as chap. 4. I saw further by the spirit then common sense could have carried me. I beheld Jerusalem in her future glory, I looked intently, I took aim, not by the things which are seen, but by the things which are not seen 2 Cor. 4.18. Heb. 11.27. Gal. 4.26.

and behold a man. ] The Man Christ Jesus, as his Mother is called a Virgin Isa. 7.14. the Virgin, that famous Virgin that conceived and bare a Son, that gat a man from the Lord Gen. 4.1. This Man (called before and after an Angel, as appearing in human shape) is here seen and set forth as an Architect or Master-builder, going to take the plot of his Church (see Rev. 21.15. and observe by the way, how in that book the holy Ghost borrows the allegories and elegancies of the Old Testament, to set out the story of the New, in succeeding ages.)

Verse 2. Whither goest thou? ] This was great boldness; But the Prophet understood himself well enough; and Christ approves and assents to it in a gracious answer here, and especially verse 4. Great is the confidence of a good conscience toward God. See Isaiah 63.16, 17. Hab. 1.12. We may come boldly to the throne of grace, Heb. 4.16.

to measure Jerusalem. ] This had been promised before, Chap. 1.16. But for their further confirmation, who saw a little likelihood of such a reedifying and repeopling, it is repeated. Thus the Lord, tendering our infirmity, seals to us again and again in the holy Sacrament, what he had said and sworn to us in his word.

Verse 3. And behold the Angel ] Zacharias' Angel, as One calleth him. Went forth ] to take direction from Christ, and to give the prophet further information. See the Note on Chap. 1.9.

and another Angel went out to meet him ] So ready is Christ to answer prayers, and to satisfy his weak but willing people, that draw near unto him with a true heart. Heb. 10.22. If any such ask and miss, it is because they ask amiss. Jam. 4.3.

Verse 4. Run, speak to this young man ] Not go, but Run: yea, fly swiftly with weariness of slight, as Dan: 9.21. Christ thinks it long ere his praying people hear from him. Only he will be inquired of by them Ezek. 36.37. Zacharias seems to have been a young Prophet, and Christ remembered the kindness of his youth, and became a wonderful counselor to him: He gave to this young man (or greenheaded stripling) knowledge and discretion. Prov. 1.4. Epiphanius saith he was an old man: and that he is called a young man because a client and disciple of the Angel that communed with him. Where Angels are called men, it was no dis. paragement to Zacharias to call himself a lad, or servant considering his distance. Thus Abraham's servant, though old, is called his boy Gen. 24.52. by a Catachresis. That's a good Note that One gives here, That the Angel tells the prophet; but the prophet must tell the people: God using not the Ministry of Angels but men (earthen vessels) to bear his Name to his people Acts 8.26. and 9.6. and 16.9

Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls ] Or shall dwell in towns without walls, viz. in the suburbs or villages, there being not room enough within the walls to receive them. This seemed an incredible thing to this poor remnant now returned from Babylon. But it is the property and duty of believers to trust God upon his bare word: and that against sense in things invisible, and against reason, in things improbable.

for the multitude of men and cattle therein ] That is, saith Augustine, of spiritual and carnal persons in the Church Catholic.

Verse 5. For I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire ] The Church (Christ's garden) may seem to lie open to all incursions and disadvantages: but as it hath a well within it Cant 4. So it hath a wall without it, yea round about it, better and stronger then that about Babylon, or Susa in Persia; the stones whereof were joined together with gold, as Cassiodorus testifieth. The Lacedemonians were forbidden to wall in their city of Sparta: as being sufficiently fortified by the valor of the inhabitants. The Hollanders will not wall the Hague, though it have 2000 households in it: as desirous to have it counted rather the principal village of Europe, then a lesser city. China is said to be surrounded with a strong wall of stone: and England, with walls of wood, sc. A puissant Navy. But what's all this (either for defense or offense) to a wall of fire? who dare venture to scale such a wall? It is not valor but madness to fight with a flame. Fire is terrible to the fiercest creatures, as Lions, Leopards &c. Shepherds and travellers were used to guard themselves by making great fires round about their night-lodgings, to keep of wild beasts. Some think the prophet alludeth to that custom: others, to the Angel guarding of Paradise with a flaming sword, that is, saith Lactantius, with a wall of fire. The Church may sit and sing, we have a strong city: salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Isaiah 26.1. He maketh his Angels spirits, his ministers a flame of fire. These met and ministered unto Jacob at Mahanaim making a lane for him, as the word importeth. These fiery chariots and horsemen appeared, for Elisha by whole legions 2 Kin. 6.17. and do still pitch their camp round about the godly Psal. 34.8. Who therefore cannot but be safe, as being guarded by the peace of God within them, and by the power of God without them, through faith unto salvation.

and will be the glory in the midst of her. ] God is the Churches both bulwark and beauty: her muniment and ornament. His presence, his worship, his Grace, his protection is that tower in the midst of her Isaiah. 5. that golden head of the picture, that tower of the slock and strong hold of the daughter of God's people Mic. 4.8. Hence the Ark is called the glory Rom. 9.4.5. and all comforts without it but Icabods. Hence Judea is called the glorious land: and Heathens are brought in saying, Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what nation is there so great that hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is, in all things that we call upon him for? And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and • udgments so righteous as all this law &c. Surely as Samsons strength and glory lay in his hair, so doth the strength and glory of our land consist in the true religion, and God's sincere service: which if it should be shaved and deprived of, though every shower were a shower of gold (saith a Divine) every stone in the land a pearl, every beggar an honorable Senator, every fool as wise as Solomon, every weakling as strong as Samson; yet our wealth, honor, strength, wisdom, and glory are gone, and we shall sing a doleful Miserere with Phineas his wife Ichabod. ) The glory of England is gone; for Religion is gone.

Verse 6. Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the land of the North ] A proclamation to those in Babylon to make hast home, and come away for shame: now they had so fair a way made, and such free liberty given them to return. A man would wonder they should be so backward to a business of this nature. But they that were born in hell, know no other heaven, as the proverb is. There they had lived a long season in peace and safety in a rich and fat though a foreign Country. There they were at quiet, enjoyed their religion and customs, got wealth, had favorites at Court: and what should they trouble themselves to remove into a Country where they were sure to meet with many bitter enemies, the Samaritans and others? And who can tell whether this Proclamation of King Darius be not a design to try their affection to their country, and so to fall upon such as did offer to return thither? Thus by casting of perils, distrusting of promises, and listening to that Improba Siren Desidia, they staid half of them, at least behind: whatever Josephus hath falsely storied of 4628000. that returned: the contrary whereto see Ezr. 2.64.

for I have spread you abroad into the four winds ] And do now offer to recollect and reduce you to your own country. See that ye shift not off Me that speak from heaven. See that ye neglect not so great salvation. How oft is the Lord even fain to smoke us, and so force us out of our clayie cottages, toward our heavenly home; And what ashame is it to us that a Heathen should say Fugiendum est ad clarissimam patriam: ibi pater, ibi omnia. We should even flee apace to our own country that is above: since there is our Father, there is All that heart can wish or need require.

Verse 7. Deliver thyself, O Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon ] q.d. Is Babylon a fit place for thee to abide in? what comfort canst thou take in such lewd company? Save thyself from this untoward generation Act. 2.40. Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not cut off in her in iquity: for this is the time of the Lord's vengeance: he will render unto her a recompense. Jer 51.6.7. Shortly after this exhortation to the sons of Zion, Babylon revolted from the Persians, and was taken and sacked by Darius in the fourth year of his reign (that is two years after this Prophecy was uttered) by the help of his friend Zopyrus. Two thing should prevail with the people of God to shun the society of the ungodly. 1. Infection of sin, which is more contagious and catching then the plague. Though Lot learned not the evil manners of Sodom, yet his daughters did.

2. Infliction of punishment Zac. 9.2. Hamath lay so nigh Damascus in places that she fared the worse for her neighbourhood. See for both these, Rev. 18.4. and say, if at any time forced to be in bad company, O that I had wings of a dove: for then would I flee away, and be at rest. Or, if this Oh will not set thee at liberty, take up that Woe, to express thy misery, Woe is me that I sojourn in Meshech, &c.

Vers. 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts ] Sanchez referreth these words to those aforegoing, q. d. Deliver thyself, &c. for so the Lord commandeth. But herein he stands alone; the current of Interpreters carrying it against him. This preface seems prefixed for procuring more authority to the ensuing promise, which to the poor Jews might seem incredible. If Jehovah speaketh it, and he that hath all power in his hand to effect what he speaketh, why should any one doubt, or despair?

After this glory ] i. e. these glimmerings of glory, these out goings of grace begun amongst you, and by degrees to be finished.

hath he sent me unto the Nations which spoiled you ] Or, against the Nation • for it is a sending in judgment: and perhaps against either the Chaldeans destroyed by the Persians (see the Note on verse 7.) Or, the Persians, afterwards destroyed by the Grecians, and by Alexander the Great. See Isaiah 33.1. Now, whereas some object, that Christ is her said to be sent of his Father: and this seems to import an inferiority: It is answered: First, that two equals by mutual consent may send one another. Mission doth not always import inequality. Secondly, One may be inferior to another, either by nature, and so Christ is not: or by condition, as he is the Mediator, and as he did voluntarily abase himself; and so he is, Phil. 2.7.

For he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye ] The little man that is in the eye, (as pupilla of pupa ) Or, the black of the eye. God, who at first drew light out of darkness, doth by an admirable work, draw the light of the body out of the black apple of the eye. Philosophers call it, the Crystalline bumour. It is the tenderest piece of the tenderest part: to express the inexpressible tenderness of God's love, saith Salvian. The eye is kept most diligently, and strongly guarded by nature with tunicles. A man can better beat a thultch on the backs then a touch on the eye. Siquis digitum meum mordeat, siquis pungat brachium & crura, siquis etiam duriter vulneret, &c. saith Calvin here. If one bite my finger, prick my leg or arm, yea slash and wound me, I can better bear it, then if he thrust his finger in mine eyes. Amida son of Muleasses king of Tunis, cruelly put out his fathers eyes, by holding hot burning basons before them. Robert de Behasme, Earl of Shrewesbury, Anno 1111. playing with his own child, for a pastime, put his thumb in the boys eyes, and thrust out the balls thereof. We use to say, Oculus & fama non patiuntur jo • os. The eye and the good name. will endure no jests. Let persecutors take heed how they meddle with God's eyes. He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength: who hath hardened himself against God and prospered? Job 94. Some read the text thus. He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his own eye, that is, he very grievously hurteth himself, as procuring and pullingdown upon his own head, the sharp wrath and vengeance of God. But the former is the better.

Verse 9. For behold, I will shake mine hand upon them ] Kings, they say, have long hands; and can easily reach those that are far distant, This is much more true of the King immertall: who can quickly crumble, to crackle the mightiest monarchs: he cuts off the spirit of Princes, Psal. 76.12. he slips them off, (so the Hebrew there imports) as one would slip off a flour between ones fingers: or as one should flip off a bunch of grapes. If the Lord do no more but arise, his enemies shalt be scattered, Psal. 68.1. If he do but show himself in the field (as Xerxes used to pitch bis Tent on high, and stand looking on his Army when in fight) the Philistines will be heard to cry out; God is come into the camp: Woe unto us; who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty God's, &c 1 Sam. 4.8. But if he once shake his hand, (that mighty hand, as Saint James calleth it, that spanneth the heavens, and shaketh the foundations of the earth) how much more if he smite with the hand, and stamp with the foot, (as the Prophet in another case; and as Pompey vainly vaunted, that with a stamp on the ground of Italy, he could raise an Army) the sinners against Zion are soon afraid; fearfulness surpriseth the hypocrites. Woe unto us, say they, for we are spoiled. The very shaking of his hand at them, shall make their hearts ache, shake and fall asunder in their bosoms, as drops of water.

and they shall be a spoil to their servants ] i.e. To the Jews, whom they lately spoiled and enslaved. This was fulfilled in Esther's days: and afterwards in the time of the Maccabees. Besides, what is yet expected to be done by the nation of the Jews; when, at their glorious conversion, Christ shall dwell among them, verse. 10. and the multitude of Nations shall join themselves to Christ, ver. 11. the Jews inhabiting in their own land, verse. 12. to the silencing, amusing, and amazing of all flesh, verse. 13. whilst the enemies of the Church by them subdued, Zach. 10.11. and possessed, Isaiah 14.2. Obad. 17, 19. shall willingly, or perforce come under Christ's obedience. The conversion of the Gentiles (saith a learned Author) is many times intimated by the Israelites mastering of them, spoiling them, possessing them for servants, and for hand-maids, as Isaiah 14.2. Am. 9.11. Obad. 19. and here, which is not meant so much of a temporal subduing, as of a spiritual joining with them in seeking of the Lord; yet so as the chief soeveraignty and stroke of keeping men within the lists of their subjection and obedience unto Christ, shall remain among the Jews. And so Saint James teacheth us to expound those phrases, Act. 15.17. where that which Amos saith, that they (the Israelites) may possess the remnant of Edom, James rendereth, that the residue of men may seek after the Lord. The enemy, whom indeed, the Jews shall spoil, root out, and destroy, after they have groaned long under his hard yoke. and bondage, is Gog and Magog, that is to say, the Turk, Ezech. 38. and 39 with whom they shall have a marvelous conflict, as it may seem in their own country, Ezech. 39.2, 4. Dan. 11.44, 45. and over whom they shall obtain a noble victory (God from heaven miraculously fighting for them, Ezech. 38.18, 19, &c. Zach. 14.3, 4, 5.) at, or near Jerusalem, Joel 3.2. Ezech. 39.16. This enemy is not always represented by one and the same name: but sometimes he is called Moab, Edom, Rabbah, Ashur, Javan: haply because those that inhabit the seat of these people shall join hands with the Turk, and fall in the same destruction. Sometimes he is called Leviathan, from his quality; sometimes Gog and Magog, from his country; sometimes the king of the North, from his territory. But by all these names, one and the same enemy is understood: which marvelously cleareth the place in Ezekiel, chap. 38.17. where the Lord by his Prophet speaketh to Gog in this wise; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in ancient time by my servants the Prophets of Israel, which prophesied in these days and years. He cannot mean Himself, nor Daniel, which was but his contemporary, much less Zacharias that came after: but he meaneth, the ancient Prophets long before, who spake of the same person, though not by the same name.

and ye shall know that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me ] You shall subscribe to the truth of these promises, which now you can very hardly be brought to believe: when God shall have fulfilled with his hand that which he had spoken with his mouth, as Solomon's phrase is, 1 King. 8.15.

Verse 10. Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I come ] After a long absence (as it may seem) and great expectation, I come, not to lodge for a night, but to dwell and make mine abode in the midst of thee; partly in my new-built temple, but principally in the Temple of my body, John. 2.21. For the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, Joh. 1.14. Lo here's habitatie Dei cum carne, God dwelling with men, which the Magicians held impossible, Dan. 2.11. And for this the Church here, though at a great under, is commanded to sing and shout, notwithstanding her present pressures. This might seem to her an unseasonable discourse; which, saith Siracides, is as music in mourning. But when is physic more seasonable, then in time of sickness? And when had the Saints more need of cheering up, then when they are pressed down with heaviest crosses? And what greater comfort to a good soul then Christ Jesus our joy? Christus tecythus habet in malu: his comforts are such as the world can neither give, nor take away: such as no good thing can match; no evil thing overmatch.

Verse 11. And many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day &c. ] See the Note on ver. 9. And further observe: that albeit the thorough coming in of the Gentiles, for all Nations with one consent to receive Christ, be put off till the Jews famous conversion: yet that nothing hindereth, but that this and such like places that speak of the same may well serve to warrant the first inceptions of their calling. And so doth St. James cite them Act. 15.16, 17. out of Amos 9.11, 12. and Paul Rom. 9.25, 26. out of Hos. 1.10.

and I will dwell in the midst of thee ] See the Note on ver. 10.

and thou shalt know &c. ] See the Note on ver. 9.

Verse 12. And the Lord shall inherit Judah his portion ] Or his enclosure, his several, divided from the rest of the world by a wonderful separation, as the Hebrew word signifieth Exod. 33.16. And though there were some interruption in showing favor for a time: yet was there no imercision, and utter breach of covenant: nor is to this time, as the Apostle showeth Rom. 11.28, 29. About the time when the Turkish tyranny shall have lasted 350. years (saith my former Author out of Dan. 7.25. and 12.7, 11. Rev. 9.15.) the Jews shall repair toward their own country Isaiah 11.15, 16. and 51.10, 11. Ier. 3.18. Hos. 1.11. where they shall have a great conflict with the Turk Ezech. 38. and be in great distress for a time Dan. 12.1. but at length prevail, to the utter ruin of the Grand Signior himself, and the overthrow of his Army; perhaps not far from the sea of Gennezaret, otherwise called the lake of Tiberias Ezek. 39.11. After which they shall dwell in their own country Ier. 3.18. and 23.8. Ezech. 37.21, 22. Am. 9.14, 15. They shall inhabit all the parts of the land as before Obad 15.19, 20. Ier. 31.38, 39, 40. Isaiah 27.12. and 65.10. The land shall be more fertile then ever it was Ezech. 35. Hos. 2 21, 22. Joel 3.18. Am. 9.13. Zach. 14.10. The country more populous then before Isaiah 49.19, 20, 21. Ezech. 34.31. and 36.37, 38. There shall be no separation of the ten tribes from the other two: but all make one entire kingdom Ezech. 37.22, 24. Hos. 1.11. and a most flourishing Commonwealth Dan. 7.27. together with a Church most glorious, both for outward beauty Zech. 14.6, 7. Isaiah 60.20. and 62.1, 2, 3. and inward purity in doctrine Ezech. 37.23. Zacb. 13.2, 3. in discipline, all profane purged out Joel. 3.17. Zach. 14.8. abundance of spiritual graces Isaiah 25.6. &c. safety Zach. 10.12. and 14.11. prosperity Esa. 25.8. and 51.13. and stability Isaiah 26.1. and 33.16. Ier. 30.20. &c. perpetuity Isaiah 60.21. Joel. 3.20.

Verse 13. Be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord ] Heb. Hus, St. Peace and be still, as our Savior once said to the raging Sea Mar. 4.39. whereupon the wind ceased (which before had blowed and blustered till it was weary again, as the Greek word there importeth) and there was a great calm, all was suddenly husht, and silent. the enemies of the Church are no less brutish and boisterous then the fierce winds and waves Psal. 107.25, 26, 27. But God who sets a bound to the mighty waters which they may not pass Psal. 104.9. he also resraineth the remainder of man's wrath Psal. 76.10. If he do but (as the Roman Tribune was wont to do) interpose his Veto. If he do but say (st.) Be silent O all flesh, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 plot not, prate not, practice not against my people, who dare quatch in his presence, or gainest and his commands? Who art thou O man that chattest against God? saith Paul. Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without wisdom? saith God to Job: how now? Let all flesh be silent: Let God be justified, and every mouth stopped. Talk no more so exceeding proudly, let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. He will keep the feet of his Saints, and the wicked (whether they will or no) shall be silent in darkness: for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces: out of heaven shall he thunder upon them (saith holy Hannah. ) And then they shall be glad to be quiet, and to save themselves as they can: like as the worms, when it thunders, wriggle into the comers of the earth; and as Caligula (that bold miscreant that dared his Jove to a duel) when it thundered, covered his eyes with his cap, running under the bed, or any bench-hole.

O all flesh ] frail and foolish, weak and worthless men, who may not compare their wisdom, or oppose their strength to God's: before whom they can no more stand, then a glass-bottle can before a Cannon-shot. They should therefore do well to meddle with their match; and not contend with him that is Mightier then they. The Church is called Jehovah shammah, or the Lord is there Ezek. 48.35. and although she be but a Virgin, yet she hath a thrice-puissant Champion, even the Holy One of Israel.

who is now also already raised up ] Or arroused awaked as a man out of sleep Psal. 44.23. or as a giant that shouteth by reason of wine Psal. 78.65.

out of his holy habitation ] That is, out of Heaven Deut. 26.15. where he hath bathed his sword Isa. 34.5. and bent his bow and made it ready Psal. 1.12. Or out of his Temple, which was likewise God's habitation 1 Sam. 2.20. and thence God would help his people, as they once said to David at Mahanaim 2 Sam. 18.3. Therefore now it is better that thou help us, or cause us to be helped, out of the city: Remarkable is that of the Psalmist, In Salem is God's Tahernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword and the battle. Selah. There? where? In the Tabernacle, in the Assemblies of God's Saints. By all flesh, here may also be meant the unbelieving Jews, who are enjoined silence and submission, they are styled here, as the Levites styled the people saying, Hold your peace: dispute not, doubt not, distrust not God's promises, seem they never so improbable, or impossible to be effected: hearken not to the murmurings of your own misgiving hearts, but silence your reason, exalt your faith &c.

CHAP. III.

Verse 1. ANd he shown me Jehoshuah the High Priest ] In a vision doubtless; and that for this end, that both the Prophet, and by him the people also, might be advertised, that they wrestled not against flesh and blood, men like themselves, but against spiritual wickednesses, or wicked spirits, who did act them and agitate them against the Church; ride them and spur them to do mischief: as he did that bloody Farnesius one of the Popes Champions, who coming with an army into Germany, swore that he would ride his horse up to the spurs in the blood of Protestants. It was the devil that stirred up the spirit of Tatnai, Shether-Boznai, Sanballat &c. to hinder the good work now in hand: like as he did Eckius, Cajetan, Cochlaus, Catharinus and many other great scholars (besides the two kings of England and Hungary) to write against the Reformation begun by Luther, and Charles the fifth with all the strength of the Empire to withstand and hinder it. But all in vain. Here he bends his acculation chiefly against the chief Priest: but thorough his sides, he strikes at the welfare of the whole Church. Ministers are the main object of his malice; a special spite he bears to such: singling them out and sifting them to the bran, as he desired to do Peter: stirring up unreasonable and wicked men against them, as he dealt by Paul when he fought with beasts at Ephesus, with breathing devils where ever he came, being in deaths often. When the viper hung upon his hand Act. 28. the devil doubtless thought to have dispatched him: but he was deceived. So he is ever, when he attempts as an Accuser of the Brethren: he is sure to be non-suited, and his plea to be cast out of the court by our Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous, who appears for us (as he did here for Jehoshua ) to put away sin. Heb. 9.24, 26. and to take away the iniquities of their most holy things.

standing before the Angel of the Lord ] i. e. before Christ, his best friend, and doing his office as an High Priest. Such is Satan's malice and impudency (saith an Interpreter here) to hurt and hinder us most in our best employments: and to accuse the Saints even to their best Friend Christ Jesus. He knows well, that as Samson's strength lay in his hair, so doth a Christians strength lie in his holy performonces, perfumed and presented by Christ. Hence his restlessness in seeking to set a difference, and to breed bate. Hence also, as the fowls seised upon Abraham's sacrifice, and as the Pythonisse interrupted Paul and his company when they were praying and well-doing Act. 16.16, 17. so deals he still by God's best servants: and that sometimes so, that if after duty, they should put that question to their own heart, as God did to Satan, Unde venis? whence comest thou? it would return Satan's answer, •• om compassing the earth.

and Satan ] That Adversary the devil, as St. Peter. calleth him: the Accuser of the brethren Rev. 12.9. that trots betwixt heaven and earth as a teaser, and makes a trade of it. Once this name Satan is applied to an holy Angel going forth as an adversary to wicked Balaam, Satan's spelman as One calleth him.

standing at his right hand ] why there? Because, say some, the Accusation was as true as vehement: and so Satan had the upper hand. For Joshua was clothed with filthy garments verse 3. and there was cause enough why his own clothes should abhor him, as Job hath it chap. 9.31. what his particular sin objected to him by Satan, was, is hard to say. Some will have it to be one thing, some another. It is plain by Ezra 10.18. the some of his sons and allies had taken strange wives which he might have hindered; but that himself had taken a harlot to wite, as Justin Martyr affirmeth, is no way likely. I should sooner believe with Thedoret and Sanchez, that the sins here alleged by Satan against Joshua and laid to his charge were, not so much his own personal sins, as the sins of the whole people: quodammodo enim totus populus est in sacerdote, & in sacerdote peccat: for the whole people is, after a sort, in the Priest &c.

to resist him ] Heb. To Satan yet against him, to do his kind, by frustrating his prayers and intercessions for the people, by laying his and their sins in his dish, and by laying claim to them for his. Carried on still by like hellish hatred of God and his people, he sins that sin against the holy Ghost, every moment: As Pliny speaks of the scorpion, that there is not one minute wherein it doth not put forth the sting. Our comfort is, that 1. We have an Advocate with the Father &c. and he is the propitiation for our sins, the Patron as well as Judge of his Saints. 2. that as Satan stands at our right hand to molest us in holy duties, so do the holy Angels stand there to withstand him Luke 1.11. whence it was that the Curtains of the Tabernacle were wrought full of Cherubims within and without. 3. That if we resist the devil, steadfast in the faith, and strong in the Lord, he will fly from us, I am. 4.7. For this old serpent, having his head already bruised and crushed by Christ, cannot so easily thrust in his mortal sting, unless we dally with him: and so lay open ourselves unto him. He shall in vain strike fire, if we deny tinder. He may knock at the door, but if we answer him not at the window he cannot get in.

Verse 2. And the Lord said unto Satan ] The Lord Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Who then shall condemn us? who shall lay ought to our cha • ge? who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Satan may attempt it, but can never effect it. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, sc. unto death: but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself ( sc. in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Ind 21.) and that Wicked one or that Troubler of the Saints, toucheth him not, viz. with a deadly touch, so as to poison him and undo him. Christus nobiscum, state. The Prince of Persia cannot stand before Michael the King of Saints.

the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan, even the Lord ] Christ argueth not the case with Satan, but cuts him off short with a vehement check and reproof; turns him over to his father to give him his due, Inhonestum enim est (saith Cyrysostom ) honestam matronam cum meretrice litigare, It is not fit for a matron to scold with a strumpet. Admit the accusation wi •• true, yet it was maliciously and unreasonably urged. Doeg spoke nothing but truth against David and Abimalech; yet he heareth; What shall be given upto thee? or, what shall be done unto thee, thou salse tongue? Sharp arrows of the mighty, that pierce deep, wound, deadly; with coals of Juniper, that shall burn fierce in respect of thyself, and sweet, in regard of others; for men are wondrous well pleased when such ill members are punished.

even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem ] He chose her for his loves: and now loves her for his choice. He loveth her and washeth her with his blood, that he may present her to himself holy and without blemish. Eph. 5.26, 27. The Persian maids were first purified and perfumed, before Ah • suerus made his choice Esth. 2 Not so here: A fountain of free grace is opened for sin and for uncleanness to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem Zach. 13.1. And Uranople, or the new Jerusalem hath its foundation garnished with all manner of precious stones, Reu. 21. Now the foundation of God standeth sure, so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. Satan must know that God hath chosen Jerusalem, and will not cast away his people which he foreknew.

is not this a brand plucked out of the fire ] Titio ex igne ereptus? newly snatched out of the Babylonish furnace: where they have long lain among the pots, where they have been not only sullied, but scorched and half-burnt: should they then be cruelly cast again into the flames, which they have strangely scaped like as the barbarous Persecutours ran Polycarp through the bowels with a sword, when the beasts would not devour him, nor the fire burn him. Or as the bloody Papists in Queen Mary's days, cast the woman of Garneseys babe again into the fire, that sprang and sprawled out of his mothers womb, as she was in burning. This was clean contrary to that Apostolical precept, Of some have compassion, pulling them out of the fire. And far short of Nebuchadnezzar's practices, who taking the three worthies out of the burning fiery furnace promoted them to great honor and offices.

Verse 3. Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments ] The tottered rags of the old Adam, the nasty filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness that yet remained in him (though in part regenerate) and intermingled with his best works. Sin is the Devils excrement: it defiles the soul worse then any jakes can do the body (as the Hebrew word here signifieth, and as our Savior shows Mar. 7.20. or then the Sanies of a plague-sore doth a garment. Hence that of the Church, We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And that of Job, If I wash myself with snow water, and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch, and mine own clothes shall make me to be abhorred, Job. 9.30.31. this is the same in effect with that of Paul, I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby • ustified: but he that judgeth me is the Lord: who when he coms to turn up the bottom of the bag, as the steward did Ben • amins, he will manifest the hidden things of darkness, find out our thefts that we dreamt not of, open all fardles on that great fair-day, the day of judgment. As in the meanwhile, should Lord but break open that filthy sink of sin that is in the very best of us, we should not only be loathsome to God Zach. 11.8. and to good men Prov. 29.27. but even to our own selves also, as Job was ( hap. 42.6. Judas was not able to abide is own stench Mat. 27.4, 5. Yea and some holy men (as Mr. Lever, for one) when they have desired to see their utmost uncleanness, their corruptions in the most ugly colors, God hath heard them. But yet his hand therewith was so heavy upon them, that they went always mourning to their graves; and thought it fitter to leave it to God's wisdom to give them a sight of their sins, and to mingle the the potion of sorrow, then to be their own choosers. See that excellent text Job 15.14, 15, 16. And then stand aloof with the Leper and say, I am unclean, I am unclean: yet, Lord, if thou wilt thou canst make me clean.

and stood before the Angel ] His filthy garments notwithstanding: Though we cannot say our hearts are pure, and our performances perfect: yer if we wallow not in sin, allow it not, if with the daughters of Zion, we look upon our former neatness as nastinesse, and fineness as filthiness, if we be in any measure purged from the love and liking of sin by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burnning Isai. 4.4. Christ will neither abhor our presence, nor reject our services. Aaron was to bear the iniquity of the holy offerings Exod. 28.38. Christ is this Aaron &c. And though there be an inequality of expressions in duty quoad nos in us; yet there is a constancy of intercession by Christ propter nos, for us.

Verse 4. And he answered and spake to those that stood before him ] i. e. to the Angels that waited upon him. Est autem hoc humanitùs dictum saith Junius. This is ••• ken after the manner of men: for properly men are washed, justified and sanctified by the Merit and Spirit of Christ alone. 1 Cor. 6.11. But the Lord Christ speaketh thus to the created Angels his Ministers; to show that He who only hath power to for give sins, doth yet therein employ the holy ministry for an instrument. See 2 Cor. 9.18. and Job 33.33, 24.

take away the filthy garments Those symbols of his sinfulness, (see the Note on verse 3. so his sins were pardoned in heaven. But because it is small comfort to a condemned person to have a pardon granted him, unless he know it, and be assured of it: therefore it followeth.

and unto him he said behold ] By whatthou hast seen in the Angels stripping of thee.

I have caused thine iniquities to pass from thee ] Transtuli peccatum as he once said to David, I have taken away thy sin, I have tranferred it upon myself: speaking to my Father for thee, as once Paul did to Philemon for his son Onesimus, if he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, put that on mine account, I will repay it. This is the greatest happiness that can befall a man in this world Psal. 32.1, 2, and could not but be a singular comfort to these poor Jews, priest and people amidst their manifold afflictions. A man that hath got his pardon is not troubled though he lose his glove, or hankercheife, nor though it should prove a rainy day. Being • ustified by faith we glory in tribulation Rom. 5.1.3. Feri domino, eri: nam a peccatis absolutus sum, saith Luther: Strike Lord, strike, while thou wilt: my sins are pardoned. I thank thee, O Lord (said Another in his great extremity) for all my pain: and I beseech thee, if thou think good, to add to it an hundred-fold. But behold a further honor; as mercies seldom come single.

and I will clothe thee with change of raiment ] i. e. I will change thy rags into robes, thy stained clouts into clean clothing. Thou shalt be arrayed with the righteousness of the saints Rev. 19.8. that twofold righteousness, imputed and imparted: that of justification, and this other of sanctification: that as an undercoat, this as an upper: that clean and pure, this white and bright: both must be had from Christ, who is made unto us of God not only wisdom, but righteousness, sanctification, and redemption 1 Cor, 1.30. 2 Cor. 5.19. Surely as our apparel is not bred of us, neither grows out of our bodies: so neither doth this change of raiment in the Text. But the blessed Lamb of God clotheth us with his own fleece, which is long enough and large enough to cover all our defects and deformities, and to set us forth to the admiration of Angels. As he taketh upon him our sins, so he putteth upon us his righteousness. This is a blessed exchange indeed, a sure pledge of our peace with him, and with God by him. We read in our own Chronicles, that Edmund furnamed Ironside (in whom England was lost) and Knute the first Danish King, after many encounters and equal fights, at length embraced a present agreement: which was made by parting England between them two, and confirmed by oath and Sacrament, putting on each others apparel and Arms, as a ceremony to express the Atonement of their minds, as if they had made transaction of their persons each to other; Knute became Edmund, and Edmund, Knute. Even such an exchange I may say of apparel is betwixt Christ and the pardoned sinner &c. Christ puts upon his Church his own comliness, decks his spouse with his own jewels, as Isaac did Rebecca: clothe her with needle-work, and makes her more glorious within then Esther ever was in all her beauty and bravery: rejoiceth over her, as the bridegroom over his bride, yea is ravished in his love to her, with one of her eyes lifted up to him in prayer or meditation, with one chain of her neck, that chain of his own graces in her Cant. 4.

Verse 5. And I said, let them set a fair mitre upon his head ] Who said this? The Prophet, grounding his speech on the last gracious words of the Angel, taketh the boldness to enterpose this his request for the bestowing of the priestly ornaments upon Joshua, and accordingly it is done. This the prophet knew would be a comfort to the whole people, and a confirmation to Joshua's faith, for the pardon of his sins: like as it was to Peter and the rest of the Apostles, that Christ after his resurrection restored them to their office, after they had all shamefully forsaken him.

let them set a fair mitre upon his head ] Not a diadem, as the old Translation hath it (that's for a kings head) much less a triple crown with the word Mystery (Babylon's motto Rev. 17.5.) engraven in it, as Brocard and many other eye-witnesses affirm of the Popes crown but a Mitre or tiar. It hath its name from compassing about, because it environed the High-priests head. It had a holy crown with it Exod. 29.6. signifying the Deity and dignity of Christ. It had also upon the fore-front of it a plate of pure gold with this caelature, Holiness to the Lord. Hence it was not lawful for the High priest, (say the Jews) to put off his mitre to whomsoever he met, were he never so great a man: lest the name and glory of God (whose person he sustained) should seem to submit to any living: With this Mysterious mitre upon his head, with other priestly Ornaments and vestments it was, that Alexander the greatmet the High-priest Iaddus (Nephew and successor to Ichoshuah in the text) as he was ma • ching against Jerusalem with hostile intent: and adoring that God whose name was seen written on the golden plate of his Mitre, he entered the city peaceably, offered sacrifice in the Temple, as the Priests directed him, and having seen there the prophesy of Daniel concerning himself, he granted the Jews many immunities and privileges, and so departed. Permenion, one of his favorites, asked him the reason of his friendly dealing with the Jews, who by denying him help and tribute had highly displeased him: He answered, that while he was yet in Macedonia, and but thinking of the conquest of Asia, a certain man appeared unto him in the habit of that High-priest encouraging him to set upon the work, and assuring him of good success therein.

and the Angel of the Lord ] that is Christ, the Master of these Ceremenies, the effect of this Levitical office.

Verse 6. And the Angel of the Lord protested ] Either with an oath or some deep asseveration, or both; as 1 Sam. 25.26. As the Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth &c. The former is an oath, the latter an asseveration or obtestation only, conjoined with that oath. Among the Heathens Ex animi seu sententia was instead of an oath: And rather then swear or say more, in a matter of no great moment, Chinius the Pythagorean would undergo a mulct of three talents. Others render it Testified, or called witness upon his words, the Angels and the prophet there present, for the more assurance. Thus, though Christ's word be sufficient (for he is Amen, the faithful and true witness ) yet for his servants better settlement, he hath bound his promises to them with an oath, and taken heaven and earth to witness; which is dignatio stupenda, a wonderful Condescension.

Verse 7. If thou wilt walk in my ways, and keep my charge ] That is, if thou wilt walk in all the Commandments (moral) and ordinances (Levitical) blameless as holy. Zacharias did, and so approve thyself righteous before God, by taking heed to thyself first, and then to all thy flock, which is thy charge, the Holy Ghosts depositum, and the purchase of Christ's own blood. God linesse is the high-way to happiness: the good old way that hath been ever beaten by all those saints, that now find rest to their souls. The very first steps in this way are Repentance from dead works, and Faith toward God in Christ Jesus. By these, men return to God from whom they have departed: are brought near to him, and set in the way of his steps Psal. 85.13. We are his workmanship (saith the Apostle) created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Eph. 2.10. not without good advice, and due direction. Eph. 5.15. Walk circumspectly, walk by rule and by line, Gal. 6.16. Lift not up one foot till you find sure footing for the other, as those Psal. 35.6. Christians, (and especially Ministers) are funambulones, saith Tertullian: if they tread but one step awry, they are gone, and may draw many with them.

then thou shalt judge mine house, and shalt also keep my courts ] i. e. Thou shalt rule in my Temple, and wait at mine altar. The Pope and his Prelates catch at the former, but let go the later: where Christ saith Feed my sheep, Bellarmine saith, the meaning is, Rule like a king; Baronius, Take to thyself the supreme government of the Church. But a preaching Bishop is a just wonder among them, a Vir portenti, as those priests in the next verse are called.

and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by ] i.e. Among the Seraphims (as the Chaldee here interprets it,) thou shalt walk arm in arm (as it were) with Angels Mat. 22.30. Heb. 12.22. He seems to allude to the walks and Galleries that were about the Temple. Heaven is the reward of walking in the way that is called Holy: the end of men's faith, the salvation of their souls. Christ tells us that in his Fathers house are many mansions for us, Joh. 14.2. (such as have far better gardens, and Galleries then Mahomet fondly promiseth his swordmen in his fools-paradise) And it is a part of his joy, that we shall one day be where he is, attended with innumerable Angels, John 17.24. who will be glad of our company. How much better cause have we then that Heathen to cry out, O praeclarum diem, cum ad illud animorum concilium coetumque preficiscar: & cum ex hac turba & colluvione discedam, &c. O what a brave and bright day will that be, when we shall go to that Congregation-house of blessed spirits: and walk no longer in the way of this world, which is (like the land of Chabul ) dirty and dangerous, like the vale of Siddim, slimy, and slippery, full of lime-pits, and pitfalls, snares and stumbling-blocks, laid by Satan to maim, or mischieve us! O happy they that walk humbly with God, who keepeth the feet of his Saints, and hath charged his Angels to bear them up in their hands, lest they dash their feet against a stone! This whiles they are here: and when they go hence, to convey them thorough the air (whereof the devil is the prince) as thorough the enemies country, into the heavenly habitations: and there to entertain and welcome them with sweetest varieties, felicities, eternities, sitter to be believed then possible to be expressed.

Verse 8. Hear now, O Joshua the high Priest ] Hear a sermon of Christ, the Fountain of all this mercy bestowed upon thee, and yet further promised unto thee. Hear for thyself, hear for thy whole Society. Thou and thy fellows, thy fellow-friends, the rest of the priests, thy fellows in service, though inferior in Office (for there was a subordination of priests, both before the Temple, Num 3. and 1 Chron. 23.4, 5. and under the Temple, 2 Chron. 35.8, 9.) Types also of Christ, and partakers of the benefit, 1 Tim. 6.2.

for they are men wondered at ] Erant omnibus probrosi, saith Calvin, They departed from evil, and thereby made themselves a prey, Isaiah 59.15. they were for signs and for wonders in Israel, Isaiah 8.18. hissed and hooted at, Psal. 71.7. as those that affected to be singular, and seraphicall, They think it strange, saith Saint Peter to his holy converts, that you run not with them to the same excess of riot: speaking evil of you, as if you were no better then mad-men, Isaiah 59.15. robbed of your right minds as the word signifieth. It is a French proverb, He that would have his neighbors dog hanged, gives out that he is mad. The primitive persecutors used to put Christians into bears and dogs skins, or ugly creatures, and then bait them: so graceless persons put the saints of God into ugly conceits, look upon them as strange creatures, and then speak and act against them. In our wretched days (as the Turks count all fools to be saints, so) people account all saints to be fools; and the more zealous among them monsters and miscreants. As for Athanasius, and Marcellus who have impiously blasphemed against God, and have lived as wicked miscreants, and are thereupon cast out of the Church, and condemned, we cannot receive them to the honor of Episcopacy, said those fourscore Bishops in the mock-Synod of Sardis. And Bede testifieth of the ancient Britons immediately before their destruction by the Saxons, that they were come to that height of wickedness, as to cast reproach upon the professors of religion, as upon the worst of men. Doth not Saint Paul say as much, 1 Cor. 4.9. We are made a theater, or are set upon the stage for a laughing-stock unto the world, and to Angels, and to men, &c?

For behold, I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH. ] The same that grew out of the root of Jesse, when that goodly family was sunk • o low, as from David the King, to Joseph the Carpenter. See Isaiah 4.2. and 11.1. and 45.8. and 53.1. Ier. 33.15. where the Chaldee for Branch rendereth it Messiah, as here also he doth: And some have observed that themagh, a Branch, is by transposition of letters, the same with Masciach, Messias: Samech and tsade, being near akin; and of the same sound almost. A servant Christ is called by reason of his Mediatorship, taking upon him the form of a servant; yea, of a faulty servant that was to be beaten: yea, that being cruelly beaten was brought forth to the people with an Ecce homo, Behold the man. Behold, saith God here, I will bring forth my servant the Branch: bring him forth, out of the bosom of his Father, out of the womb of his Mother, out of the types of the Law, &c.

Verse 9. For behold the stone, &c.] Another title given to Christ, who is the foundation and chief corner-stone of his Church; and another Behold, prefixed as a starry Note, or as a hand pointing to a remarkable matter. All the Prophets pointed to Christ, who is therefore called, the Branch, the Stone, &c. that in these creatures (everywhere obvious) as in so many optic glasses, we may see him, and be put in continual remembrance of him; It being as necessary to remember Christ, as to breathe, saith a Father. See Psal. 118.22. Isaiah 28.16. 1 Pet. 2.6, 7, 8.

that I have laid, and that I will engrave ] The Church is God's building, and we are his workmanship, this artificial manufacture, created in Christ Jesus unto good works: there being not so much of the glory of God in all his works of creation and providence, as in one gracious action that a Christian performeth. As for the glorious work of our redemption by Christ, it was a plot of God's own contriving, a fabric of God's own erecting: it was the Lord's own doing, and it is justly marvelous in our eyes.

Upon one stone shall be seven eyes ] That is, Christ shall draw all eyes and hearts to him: as the stones of the Temple did the Disciples eyes, Mat. 24.2. and Mar. 13.1. Master, say they to Christ, see what manner of stones, and what buildings are here. Thus some sense it. I should rather by these seven eyes understand the Spirit in his several operations upon Christ, as Isaiah 11.2. for he received not the Spirit by measure, as others; but had as much of it as a creature could possibly have. See the Note on Rev. 1.4. where the holy Ghost, for his manifold good gifts and perfect givings, is called The seven Spirits; like as he is also styled the seven golden pipes, Zech. 4.2, 3. There are that by these seven eyes upon one stone, understand the Providence and Wisdom of Christ in the Government of his Church. He is indeed, as One saith 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , All-Eye, Sic spectat universos quasi singulos: sic singulos quasi solos; like a well-drawn picture he eyeth all. Christ as he is a living, so he is also a looking stone: he looketh at the miseries and matters of his Church, and saith as once, I have seen, I have seen the afflictions of my people in Egypt, &c.

Behold, I will engrave the graving thereof ] Hae coelaturae dona & stigmata Christirepraesentant, saith A Lapide. These gravings represent the gifts and wounds of Christ, in allusion to the polished corners of the Temple. Coelum dictum est quod coelatum, id est signatum sideribus, saith Varro. Heaven hath its name in Latin from its being enameled and bespangled with glistering stars, as with curious workmanship, or costly furniture. Of the third heaven, the habitation of Saints and Angels, God is said to be by a specialty the builder and maker, or (as the Greek hath it) the cunning Artificer, and public Architect. A great deal of skill and workmanship he laid out upon it: but nothing so much as upon the Human nature of Christ, wherein, as in a Temple, dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that is, personally, by virtue of the Hypostatical Union. For the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory (the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth, full, full to the very brim, full with a double fullness. Vasis & Fontis, of the Vessel, and of the Fountain. Hence, He was fairer (much fairer, double fairer (as the Original importeth) then the sons of men, sc. with the beauty of wisdom and holiness: grace was poured into his lips, God had anointed him with the oil of gladness above his fellows, Psal. 45.2, 7. The Priests in the Law were consecrated first with oil, compounded and confected of diverse precious spices: so was Christ with gifts and graces of the Spirit, Act. 10.38. and 4.27, Isaiah 61.1. not by measure, as we are, Ephes. 4.7. but without measure, as much as a finite nature was capable of: particularly, he was furnished and polished with wisdom, as a Prophet, against our ignorance; with holiness, as a Priest, against our guilt; and with power, as a King, against our corruptions: These and all other endowments, he had well heaped, pressed down, and running over, poured into his bosom. Next, as the Priests under the Law were also consecrated with blood, so was the Lord Christ with his own blood, when his Father engraved him with graving; or, as the Hebrew hath it here, opened him with opening in his bloody passion, baptized him in his own blood, stewed him in his own broth, as it were; when in a cold winters-night he sweat great clods of blood; which thorough clothes and all fell to the very ground. When after this they digged his hands and his feet, Psal. 22.16. and made his heart melt in the midst of his bowels, verse 14. Wounded he was in the head, to cure our vile imaginations: In the hands, to expiate our evil actions: in the heart, and feet, for our base affections, and unworthy walkings. Tormented he was for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, tanquam pulcherrima corporis caelatura, and by his stripes or bloody wails, we were healed. Adam signifieth Man, red-earth, or Bloody. Christ was Man in his Incarnation, and bloody all over in his passion.

and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day ] I will remove, i. e. remit and pardon, the iniquity, both guilt and punishment. Of that land, i. e. Of the Church, that pleasant land, more dear to God then all the earth besides. In one day, i. e. together and at once, suddenly and in an instant. See Isaiah 66.8.

Verse 10. In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call, &c. ] i. e. Ye shall have peace, Regionis & Religions. of country and of conscience. Christus auferet iniquitatem, afferet pacem. Christ, as he saveth his people from their sins; so from the hands of them that hate them. When this Prince of peace was born, in the days of Augustus, Universa gentium erat aut pax, aut pactio: there was a general either peace, or truce among all Nations. And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into the land—thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, &c. Mic. 5.5, 6. But behold a better thing: This Shiloh, this Tranquillator, Pacificator, by removing iniquity, createth peace of conscience: like as after Jonah was cast over-board, the sea became calm. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, Isaiah 9.7. Where Christ ruleth there is peace, peace, Isaiah 26.3. that is, perfect, sheer, pure peace, with God, ourselves, and others: and the more Christ's government increaseth in the soul, the more is peace renewed, continued, multiplied. Great peace have all they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them, saith David. And thou hast been a strength to the poor, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, &c. ( Isaiah 25.4.) better then that of the broad-leaved Vine, and fig-tree, very cooling and comfortable in those hot countries. See this in righteous Noah: who being justified by faith, had peace with God, and therefore was medijs tranquillus in undis. How securely doth he ride out that uproar of heaven, earth, and waters! He hears the pouring down of rain above his head, the shrieking of men, the bellowing of beasts on both sides him, the raging and threats of the waves under him. He saw the miserable shifts of distressed unbelievers, & in the mean time sits quietly in his dry cabbin, not feeling, nor fearing evil. How happy a thing is pardon of sin, and peace with God! what a quiet safety, what an heavenly calm doth it lodge in the soul! what earnest pantings, and strong affections to the salvation of others. Ye shall call, &c.

CHAP. IIII.

Verse 1. ANd the Angel that talked with me ] See the Note on chap. 1. ver. 9. came again ] After some absence, as it may seem: and a new vision or revelation received from God to be imparted to the Prophet.

and waked me as a man that is wakened &c. ] It fared with the Prophet (notwithstanding the former visions) as with a drowsy person: who though awakened and set to work, is ready to fall asleep at it. So Peter, James, and John, (those pillars as they are called Gal. 2.) fell asleep at their very prayers Mat. 26.40. such dull metal are the best men made of: and so weak is the flesh, be the spirit never so willing; so ill-disposed is our most noble and immortal part the soul, to supernal and supernatural employments. Meditation and prayer are the creatures of the holy Ghost Jude 20. and that we may not run out into extravagancies, or put up yawning petitions, we must watch and pray Mat. 26.41. yea watch while we are praying, meditating &c. against corruption within (the sin that doth so easily beset us Heb. 12.1.) and temptations without, whether from the world (the things whereof are so near us and so natural to us) or from the devil who is ever busiest with the best (as flies are with sweet-meats) and with the best part of their best performances, as in the end of their prayers, when the heart should close up itself with most comfort.

Verse 2. What seest thou? ] The sight was already in sight; but the Prophet had not seen it, or noted it, if the Angel had not stir'd him up to it. If the Lord give us not sight as well as light, if he enlighten not both Organ and Object too, if he shine not into our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of himself in the face of Jesus Christ; seeing we shall see, but not perceive; with Hagar, we shall not be able to discern the fountain that is just before us.

I have looked ] Carefully viewed the sight. It is expected ut acti agamus: that having a talent of grace we trade with it, that our will, which at first conversion was merely passive should be afterward active: that we which once were darkness, but now are light in the Lord, should walk as children of light Eph. 5.9.

behold a candlestick ] that is the Church, as Rev. 1.20.

all of Gold ] pure gold as the Candlestick in the Tabernacle Exod. 25.31. which is therefore called the pure Candlestick Lev. 24.4. Exod. 31.8. noting out the Churches purity in doctrine and manners. Chrysostom that golden Preacher testifieth of some Saints in his time, that they were puriores coelo, purer then the visible heaven. Her Nazarites were purer then the driven snow, whiter them milk, ruddier then rubies, their polishing was of Sapphire &c. Lam. 4.7.

with a bowle ] Heb. gullah an oil-glass, or oil-cruse; a hollow round vessel quod pariter Latin recte gulam appellas saith a Lapide; which you may not unfitly call a gullet or throat: for as the throat receiveth the food and transmitteth it to the stomach: so did this vessel receive the oil to be transmitted to the lamps. It figured Christ in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell Col. 1.19. for the Churches use John. 1.16. and 3.34.

and his seven lamps thereon ] signifying the manifold graces and diversity of gifts in the Church by the same spirit of Christ 1 Cor. 12.4, 6. For of his fullness we all receive grace for grace Job. 1.16.

and seven pipes to the seven lamps ] Heb. seven and seven, that is, seven I say seven, by the figure Anadiplosis saith Sanctius. This is a better gloss then that of those that say the Hebrew text is corrupted; as having two sevens for one. These seven pipes you must imagine to be in the bottom of the bowle, to distribute the oil to each lamp; the grace of Jesus Christ to each Christian, that he may shine as a lamp or luminary in the world, holding forth the word of life, as the hand doth the torch, or the watch-tower the light, and so the haven to weatherbeaten Mariners.

Verse 3. And two Olive-trees by it ] The two chief branches whereof through the two golden pipes empty the golden oil out of themselves ver. 12. that is, the spirit of grace infuseth all precious graces (much more precious then gold that perisheth, though it be tried in the fire) into the Church. Hence grace is called the fruits of the Spirit, Gal. 5.22. yea Spirit 25. Danaus his Note here is, though from these two olive trees there was continual oil poured into that burning candlestick that it should never dry up or be put out, yet are not these olives said to be pressed by any man, which notwithstanding amongst us, must needs after an ordinary manner be done, that the oil may flow or run from them. Neither is this oil said to flow, nor with toil and labor to be carried from one part or place into another, that there may be always oil for the candlestick: but there stand these olive trees growing, and dropping down oil into the Bowle, and this of themselves, without the help or service of any men or oil-mills: to show, saith Another Interpreter, that God's grace only is sufficient for his Church, to repair and maintain the same without all other means, against all opposition of man: and this is the Scope of this vision.

Verse 4. What are these, my Lord ] Or, Sir; which English word comes from Cyrus, the Persian word for a Lord or great Prince, as H. Stephanus will have it: Others fetch it from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 authority, or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a Lord, and so the word Adoni in the text is usually rendered. Others think our word Sir comes from the French Sieur, whence Monsieur my Lord: as the word Lord from the old Saxon Laford which cometh of Laef to sustain: like as the Hebrew Adonai from Eden a foundation or pillar, that sustaineth the whole building. It is written sometimes with Camets or long A in the end, and then it is proper to God (as having the vowels of Jehovah) and is given to him 134. times in the Old Testament. Sometimes it is written with Bathach or short A, and then it is applied to the creatures, as here to the Angel: Hinc Hispanorum Don, saith Drusius.

what are these ] The Prophet had been before warned by the Angel to behold and heed the vision. This he had done, and yet was to seek of the sense and meaning of it: as a man may look on a trade and never see the mystery of it: or look on the hand-dial, and never understand the curious clock-work within. None can understand the mystery of Christ, but such as have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2.7, 11, 16. such as are spiritually rational, and rationally spiritual: such as are taught of God, and conducted by his spirit into all truth John. 16.13. No understanding of God's riddles, but by plowing with his heifer, as I may say. This the Prophet here knew: and therefore applies himself to the Angel for information: so did Daniel chap. 8.15. see chap. 9.22.

Verse 5. Knowest thou not what these be? ] Thus preparation is made to the ensuing interpretation of the vision by this dialogue; that we might give better heed to that manifold wisdom of God made known to and by the Church: wherein the very Angels themselves are great students, and daily proficience. Docent proficiendo, & docendo proficiunt. The best of men know not so much as they might have known. Are ye also ignorant of these things? (saith our Savior to the twelve) are ye also without understanding? Mat. 15.16. what? know you not &c. seven several times in one chapter 1 Cor. 6. And how doth the Apostle shent and shame his Hebrews for their du • nesse and doltishnesse Heb. 5.12. It was expected, it seems, by the Angel here, that Zacharias a Master in Israel should have known more then he did, of the meaning of this candlestick, by Moses his ancient candlestick. For the godly of those times did not believe those rites and ceremonies of the law did of themselves please God, or that they were dumb shows and insignificant Heb. 9. But they acknowledged them to be figures: the truth and signification whereof was to be sought in Christ. The ceremonial law was indeed their Gospel.

and I said, No my Lord ] An ingenious confession of his ignorance: and this was far better then to plead for it (as many now-adays) or to pretend more skill then he had: that he might at least seem to be somebody. Ignorantiam meam non ignoro, saith Origen. Though I know little else, yet this I know, that it is but little that I know. And not only in innumerable other things am I ignorant, saith Austin; but even in the very Scriptures also, my chief study, multo plura nescio quam scio, I am to seek of many more things then I understand. Surely, saith Agur, I am more brutish then any man, and yet he had commerce with Ithiel and Ucal ver. 1. and have not the understanding of a man, sc. of a man in Christ. I neither learned wisdom (though taught it) nor have the knowledge of the holy, that is of the Angels, as Dan. 4.13, 17. and 8.13. Zacharias here saw himself far short of the holy angel that • alked with him; and therefore desireth to be taught by him.

Verse 6. This is the Word of the Lord ] that is, this Hieroglyphique contains the mind of God in it. This is the interpretation of the vision, neither so concise, nor obscure, ut Oedipo sit opus (as a Lapide after Ribera here saith) that it can hardly be understood. For who seeth not by the opposition here made between human help and divine, that in building and beautifying his Church with safety and salvation God will make bare his own holy arm; and do the work alone, or by the weakest means against the strongest resistance? Thus then have we (saith an Interpreter) in three words the scope of this whole vision. That as the making and maintaining of this Candlestick and his Lamps, was without the art and cunning of man by means supernatural; so God's spirit without and above all human helps, should suffice for the reedification and preservation of the material Temple, and true Church.

unto Zerubbabel ] The Tirshata or chief magistrate Ezra 2.63. called also (as it is thought Shesbazzar, Ezra 1.8. He was a type of Christ: to whom also God the Father here speaketh concerning his church to be gathered by the preaching of the Gospel.

not by might, nor by strength, ] as Mahomet in the East, and the Spaniard in the Indies: but by the power of his spirit that great Wonder-worker, whereby the people fall under him Psal. 45.5. and strong holds are cast down before him 2 Cor. 10.4. as once the walls of Jericho. Thus he unwalled all the children of Seth Num. 24.17. viz. by the foolishness of preaching: and thus hestill rideth upon his white horses, his Ministers, conquering and to conquer. Rev. 6.2. Britaniorum inaccessa Romanis loca Christo subdita sunt. The Romans could never subdue this Nation: but Christ could. The Germans and other Western people embraced the Christian religion in the year 772. when the Mahomitan impiety wasted the East. God's spirit is irresistible, compared to the wind John, to a mighty rushing wind Act. 2. that bears all before it, therefore called a spirit of power 2 Tim. 1.7. of counsel and of might Isaiah 11.2. and therefore here fitly opposed to an army, and to the arm of flesh, to all human power and policy whatsoever, though the gates of hell come to their help.

not by might nor by strength &c. ] These two words some take to be Synonymas; Mercor saith that the former signifieth stout and noble acts: the later importeth power and faculty of doing those acts; and is the same that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 in Greek. By the Spirit of God we are to understand his power, providence, and Grace 2 Thes. 2.8. Is. 11.4. &c. whereby he helpeth his people with a little help Dan. 11.34. that throug weaker means, they may see his greater strength. Thus he helped David against Goliath, and the Israelites against the Philistines often: but especially then, when unarmed they marched with their slings, and plow-staves, and hooks, and forks, and other instruments of their husbandry, against a mighty and well-furnished enemy, and returned laden both with arms and victory. Sometimes again, God helpeth his without any visible help, as when he destroyed Sennacherib's army by an Angel, swept away Sisera 's army by the river Kison, and the Saracens and Persians by the river Euphrates, in the days of Theodosius, (smitten with a Panick terror, they ran headlong into the river, and were drowned, to the number of an hundred thousand) for whom also the winds sought in that famous battle against Maximus; as both winds and waves did for us against the invincible navy. The Church alone deserveth to be styled invincible, that hath the Lord of Hosts to be her Champion, who hath armies above, and armies beneath (as the Rabbin's well observe) 2. general troops, as his horse and foot, ready pressed; Legions of Angels, Millions of other creatures. the curtains of the Tabernacle embroidered with Cherubims signified the service and protection of the Church by the Angels. Let the Pope be the Sun, and the Emperor the Moon (as the Canonists style them) yet the Sun must not smite the Church by day, nor the Moon by night: but the stars in their courses must fight against Sisera, and both the Popes bull, and the Emperors thunderbolt tend exceedingly to the furtherance of the Reformation begun by Luther. Whereupon Scultetus makes this observation, Ecce tibi adimpletum Psalmicum illud Psal. 54.3. Behold that of the Psalmist made good. He shall send from heaven and save us from the reproach of him that would swallow us up. Selah. God shall send forth his mercy and his truth. He shall: but when will he, may some say? First when his people in distress cry aloud, I came for thy word Dan. 10.12. He will come, but he will have his people's prayers lead him. Secondly, when his enemies blaspheme and insult, saying, Where is now their God? When Rabshakeh (a Renegado Jew, as the Rabbins report him) shall jear at Hezekiah's prayers as an empty business, an airy Nothing, as words of the lips only; whereas counsel and strength are for the war (thus some read that text Isaiah 36.5.) Thirdly when the the Church is at lowest, and all seems lost and desperate: when the enemy is above fear, and the Church below hope; when she is talking of her grave, like Israel at the red sea: then is God's season to set in; it is his glory to help at a dead lift, to begin where we have given over, to relieve those that are forsaken of their hopes, to come when we can scarce find faith upon the earth: God sees when the mercy will be in season. When his people are low enough, and the enemy high enough, then usually appears the Churches morning-star: then Christ came leaping and skipping over the mountains of Bether, all impediments that might seem to hinder, (as sins of his people, oppositions of his enemies) and make the Churches mountain to be exalted above all mountains, molehills in comparison of her.

Verse 7. Who art thou O great mountain? ] So the enemies seemed to themselves, set aloft, and overtopping the low and poor estate of those feeble Jews, as they called them Neh. 4.2. But the Virgin daughter of Zion despiseth them here, and laugheth them to scorn: she shaketh her head at them, and saith, whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed &c? It is good for thee to meddle with thy match, and not to exalt thyself against the holy One of Israel, who is more gloririous and excellent then those mountains of prey. The stout-hearted are spoiled, they have slept their sleep (such as Sisera did) and none of the men of might have found their hands when once they fell into the punishing hands of the living God. He will soon level these lofty mountains.

they shall become a plain A champiagne that before seemed unpossible, inaccessible. Christ's enemies shall be in that place that is fittest for them, the lowest; that is, the footstool of Christ: when the Church, as it is the highest in God's love and favor, so shall it be highest in itself Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est: alioqui totus desperassem, writes Miconius to Calvm upon the view of the Churchs enemies. Glad I am that Christ reigns: for else I had been utterly hopeless. O pray, pray saith another Saint: for the Pope of Rome, and his Conventicle of Trent are hatching strange businesses. The comfort is that he that sitteth in heaven seeth them: the Lord above hath them in derision. For in the thing wherein they deal proudly, God is above them: and his will shall stand when they shall dung the earth with their dead carcasses. Sciat Celsitudo Tua &c. Let your Highness know (saith Luther in a letter to the Duke of Saxony) that things are otherwise ordered in heaven then they are at Ausborough: where the Emperor Charles the fi • t had madea decree to root out the Reformed religion out of Germany. But soon after, the Turk broke into Hungary, and the borders of Germany: so that Caesar had somewhat else to do then to persecute the Protestants. So the primitive persecutors fondly inscribed upon the public pillars Deleto Christianorum nomine &c. that they had blotted out the name of Christ and his religion from under heaven: but this they could never effect with all the power of the whole Empire. They found and complained that the Church might be shaken and not shivered: concuti non excuti as 2 Cor. 4.8, 9. Faecundi sunt Martyrum cineres, the very ashes of the Martyrs were fruitful, and their blood prolifical. The Church conquers even when she is conquered: as Christ overcame as well by patience as by power. The people of Rome (saith One) saepe praelio victus, nun juam bello, they lost many battles, but were never overcome in a set war: at the long run they crushed all their enemies. Bellarmine somewhat boasteth the like of the Church of Rome, that she was never worsted in any set battle by the Protestants. But if he had lived till these late years, he would have known it otherwise: And indeed he could not be ignorant of that famouss Bellum Hussiticum as they called it in Germany, and the many fields fought and won by the Huguenots in France &c. And if at any time the Church lose the day, Victa tamen vincet. Christ hath his stratagems as Joshua had at Ai: he seems sometimes to retire, that he may return with greater advantage. Certain it is, he will thresh the mountains and beat them small before his Zerubbabel's: he will make the hills as chaff, Isaiah 41.15.

and he shall bring forth the head-stone thereof with shoutings saying, Grace, Grace, unto it ] i. e. He shall hold out to lay the very last stone of this new building with joy, and with general acclamations and well-wishes. There was a promise for it long before Isaiah 44.28. This Zerubbabel was not ignorant of: as neither of that which followeth Chap. 45.1, 2. that, for the effecting of that promise, God would go before him to make the crooked place straight, to break in pieces the gates of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron, i.e. to take away all rubs and impediments. There it the like promise in the New Testament, and it may be a singular encouragement to those that go on to build the tower of Godliness, to prepare a tabernacle intheir hearts for the holy One of Israel, that he may dwell in them and walk in them &c. the gates of hell shall never prevail against them, since Christ, as another Sampson, hath flung them off their hinges, hath destroyed the Devils works, and laid the topstone of his spiritual temple with shouting saying, Grace, grace, unto it. The meaning is, saith an interpreter, that the Angels, the faithful, and all creatures, rejoicing at Christ's kingdom established in the world, shall desire God the Father to heap all manner of blessing and happiness upon it: See Psal. 118.26. Or, they shall acknowledge and preach, that the Father hath laid up in him all the treasures of his grace and gifts of his spirit. It is the observation of another Reverend man, preaching upon this text, that when we preach of human wisdom and foresight, we should fall down and cry (as we are here taught) Grace, Grace, unto it, we are not to cry up Zerubbabel, Zerubbabel, any man or means whatever: but to exalt the free grace of God the work of which alone it is and hath been. Zerubbabel should bring forth the head-stone (as master-builders used to do the first and last stone) and the people should magnify God's mere free grace: and acknowledge that he was marvelous in their eyes. Thus that learned Preacher: who also by the lighted Candlestick here, understandeth full perfecting, and finishing of the Temple, and restoring the worship of God within it unto its full perfection of beauty and brightness. By the two Olive-trees. Zerubb abel with the elders and Joshua High-priest with the other priests that sat before him, as Chap. 3.8. wite Ezra. 6.14. confer Psal. 52.8. These are said to empty golden oil, that is, their estates and pains for the finishing of costly work: and likewise because it was done in fincerity of heart, therefore it is called golden or pure cyl. Further, these eminent ranks and sorts of persons that should give their affistance to this work are called sons of oil verse 15. As being fruit full and affording plenty of it. Thus Isaiah 5 1. a fruitful hill and fertile soil, is in the Original (as here) called a son of oil &c.

Verse 8. Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, ] This is a conformation of the former comfort, and a feal of the former promise; all which was but little enough by reason of the people's distrust and iufidelity. Against which the prophet here produceth his warrant, God's own word: q. d. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation. This is a pillar and ground of truth. See the Note od 1 Tim. 3.15.

Verse 9. The hands of • erubbabel have laid the soundation of this house: his hands &c. ] Here the scope of this stately vision i • plainly held forth, and without a parable. What the scripture speaketh darkly in one place, it speaks plainly in another. The Rabbins have a saying, that there is a mountain of sense hanging upon every Apcx of the word of God. They have also another saying, Nulla • st ob • ctio in lege, quae non haber solutionem in latere, i. e. There is not any doubt in the law, but may be resolved out of the law. Zorobal • cl is both founder and finisher of the Temple (those that will have it not to be finished till about the sixth year of Darius Nothus, make him to be very long-lived: and tell us that God granteth to one a longer life then ordinary, because he hath something to be done by them.) The distrustful Jews began to despise those small beginnings of a building: and to despair of ever seeing it perfected, by reason of those mountains of opposition they met with, and thought they should never dig down or get over. The work shall the done saith God, and Zerubbabel, how unlikely soever, shall do it. Believe the Prophets, and ye shall prosper. It shall never be said of Zerubbabel, as of the foolish huilder This m • n began, but could not sinish: Or as an out-lander seeing Christchurch in Oxford, said of it, Egregium opus: Cardinalis iste instituit Collegium, & ab •• boit culmam. A pretty piece of Work! A college begun, and a kitchen finished. It was God that set Zerubbabel awork: and He doth not use do things to halves. He is Alpha and Omega, the Beginner and Ender, the Author and Finisher. Heb. 12.1. I am confident of this very thing, faith Paul, that he that hath begun a good work in you will perform it Psal. 1.6. And faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it 1 Thes. 5.24. And, the Lord will perfect that which concerneth me (saith David ) sorsake not the work of thine own hands, Psal. 138.8. Look upon the wounds of thine hands, and despite not the works of thine hands, said Queen Elizabeth. Thus if men pray in the holy Ghost, keep themselves in the love of God, and look for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ umo c • ernal life, they shall be built up in their most holy saith, where by Christ shall dwell in their hearts, as in his holy Temple.

and thou shth know ] Thou Zacharias shalt know, that the Lord of Hosts hath sent me ] His Angel as his Internuncio. See Luk. 1.19. Or thou Zerubbabel shalt know, that I Za • hary come not to thee of mine own mind, but on God's message, and am therefore to be believed. When Ehud told Egion he had a message from God, though he were an heathen and a fat unwieldy man, he stood up to receive it Judge. 3.20. though that message was a messenger of death, a ponyard in his bowels. Should not we hearken to the Father of spirits and live? should the Consolations of God be sinall with us? Job. 15.11. Should we instead of wrestling with God by prayer, (so putting his promises in suit) wrangle with him, by cavilling objections? l • se dixit among Pythagoras his scholars went currant: if their master said it, 'twas enough: And shall we that are taught of God not give the like credit to our Master in heaven? shall we not yield him the obedrence of faith?

Verse 10. Tor who hath d • spised the day of small things? ] Nay, who had not? The generality of the Jews were clearly guilty Ezra 3.13. and are therefore here justly reproved. As Naaman once looked on God's Jordan with Syrian eyes, and so sllghted the motion of washing therein: so these distrusiful Jews despised the small beginnings of this great work; and the little likelihood of ever bringing it to any good upshot. Is it not in your eyes as nothing- saith Hagg • e, ( hap. 2.3? They seemed only to grieve at it: but God construeth it for a downright contem pt: for he judgeth otherwise of our carnal affections then we ourselves, and will have us to know that his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are his ways our ways Isaiah 55.8. Out of meancst principles he many times raiseth matters of greatest moment: that his own immediate hand may the more appear. The kingdom of heaven was at first but as a grain of musta • d-seed Mat. 13.32. The stone cut out of the mountain without hands, as if it had dropt out, or been blown down thnece, became a mountain and filled the whole earth Dan. 1.34, 35. The cloud that rose as little as a man's hand, soon after muffled the whole heaven. God put little thoughts into the heart of Ahasuerus concerning Mordecai, but for great purposes. Who would ever have thought, that out of Abraham now as good as dead should have come the Messiah? or that out of the dry root of Jesse should come the Branch spoken of in the former Chapter? who would have imagined that going forth only with his bow Rev. 6.2. and arrows Psal. 45.5. the foolishness of preaching, he could conquer in three hundred years the whole Roman Empire? that by Hus a goose, and Luther a swan, such strange things should have been done in Bohemia and Germany? that by a scruple cast into Hen. the 8. his mind about his marriage with Katharine of Spain by the Trench Embassador (who came to consult with him of a marriage between the Lady Mary and the Duke of Orleans second son to the King of France) whether Mary were legitimate &c? the Pope should be cast off here, and reformation wrought by so weak and simple means, yea by casual and cross means? this saith one, is that miracle which we are in these times to look for.

For they shall rejoice ] Or, But they shall rejoice, or, Nay, they shall rejoice, nay they shall see, viz. that which they despaired of ever seeing, and were therefore much cast down about the perfection of the work, and its glorious accomplishment. And this shall be surely effected by God's powerful and watchful providence, called here those seven eyes of the Lord which run to and fro thorough the whole earth ] called elsewhere the seven spirits of God Rev. 5.6. and 1.4. and God's spirit here Verse 6. so guiding and managing all affairs and occurrences, that all the rays and beams of providence issuing from those eyes might be seen to meet in the accomplishment of this, as their ultimate aim, and scope. See the Note on Chap. 3.9.

Verse 11. Then answered I, and said unto him ] No mean measure of understanding would content the prophet: but he is still enquiring and encroaching upon the Angel, so doth Moses upon God, Exod. 33. He had not been long out of the Mount, but he is asking God to show him his glory: which when he had seen, yet he resteth not satisfied, but must have more. and yet more; So David, though deep-learned, is ever and anon at it, teach me thy statutes. Spiritual learning is infused by degrees: our hearts are as narrow-mouthed vessels, and God delights oft to hear of us. Whither I go thou canst not come now: but thou shalt afterwards. Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know: provided that ye beg and dig Prov. 2.3, 4, 5, and beat, as the foul doth the shell to get out the fish: and be discontentedly contented, till ye come to see as ye are seen, a spe ad speciem &c. What are these • w olives &c. And.

Verse 12. What be these two olive-branches, &c.] See the Notes on verse 3. and verse 7.

Verse 13. Knowest thou not what, &c.] See the Note on ver. 5.

Vers. 14. These are the two anointed ones ] Heb. sons of oil. See the Note on verse 7.

that stand by the Lord of the whole earth ] because by the candlestick and utensils of the Temple and Type of the Church, which is at Christ's right hand, Psal 45. as he at his Fathers right hand, Rom. 8. He is with all his to the end of the world: and it is a part of his joy that we shall be one day where he is. This Lord of the whole earth, sovereign over all: but takes delight only in such as (Esther like) he purifies and perfumes for royal use: and these he loveth so affectionately as never any Lord did his subjects, Zech. 3.17. He loves the gates of Zion more then all the dwellings of Jacoh, Psal. 87.2.

CHAP. V.

Verse 1. THen I turned me, and lifted up mine eyes ] i.e. I prepared me to the receiving of a new vision: nothing so comfortable as the former, but no less necessary; that the people, by sense of sin, and fear of wrath, might be taken off their wicked practices, redeem their own sorrows, and be accounted worthy to escape all those things that should (otherwise) come to pass, as verse 11. and to stand before the Son of man, at that dreadful day. This seemeth to be the mind of the Holy Ghost, in these two visions here recorded: which while some Interpreters attend not, in toto vaticinio neque coelum, neque terram attingunt, saith Calvin, they are utterly out.

and behold a flying roll ] Or, volume, as Psal. 40.10. or scroll of paper, or parchment, usually rolled up, like the web upon the pin, mi convolvuntur nostrae Mappae Geographicae, as our Mappes are rolled up, saith A Lapide: