Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. THE burden of the word of the Lord] That is, a declaration of his mind and counsel for Israel's comfort, and his enemies confusion. To the Israel of God it is onus sine onere, such a burden as the wings are to the bird, a burdenlesse burden. To the enemies, a burdensome stone, verse 3. heavier then the sand of the sea, Job 6.3.

For Israel ] Not, against Israel, though Calvin so taketh it: and by Israel understandeth the ten tribes, and those other captives that, loath to leave those houses they had built, and those gardens they had planted in Babylon, Ier. 29.5. neglected to return to Jerusalem for fear of the Samaritans and other ill neighbors, whole ruin is therefore here foretold by three excellent similitudes, after a stately preamble, drawn 1. From the power of God, whereby he stretcheth forth the heavens, that huge expanse, as a curtain, or as a molten looking-glass. 2. From the wisdom of God, in laying the foundation of the earth, and hanging it, by Geometry, as we say, in the midst of heaven, like Archimedes his pigeon, equally poized with its own weight.

3. From the goodness of God, who formeth the spirit of man within him ] who hath made us these souls, Isaiah 57.16. which he doth daily create and infuse into men's bodies; yea and that alone, without any help of their parents: hence he is called the Father of spirits, Heb. 12.9. and the spirit of a dying man is said to return to God that gave it, Eccles. 12.7. This last text convinced Augustine (who held sometime, with Origen, that the soul as well as the body was begotten by the parents) far more then the peremptory rashness of Vincentius Victor: who censured boldly the Fathers unresolvednesse, (when he doubted concerning the original of a rational soul) and vaunted that he would prove by demonstration, that souls are created de novo, by God. Aristotle (Natures chief Secretary) was much puzzled about this point of the soul: which indeed cannot fully be conceived of, nor defined by man. Only this we can say, that the soul as it comes from God, so it is like him; viz. One immaterial, immortal, understanding Spirit: distinguished into three Powers, which all make up one Spirit.

Verse 2. Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling ] Or, slumber, or poison. A Metaphor taken from a cup of generous wine, but empoisoned; so that those that drink of it, do presently tremble, grow giddy, sleepy, sick as heart can hold. Poison in wine works more furiously. Thou hast made us to drink the wine of giddiness, saith the Church, Psal. 60.3. In the hand of the Lord is a cup, and the wine is red, it is full mixed, &c. The Prophet here seems to allude to Jer. 25.15. Isaiah 29.8. Jer. 31.7. Ovid saith of the river Gallus, that whoso, drinketh of it runneth mad immediately. Jerome telleth of a Lake near Naples, whereinto if a dog be thrown he presently dieth. The like is reported by Josephus of the Lake Asphaltites. Jerusalem shall be a murthering morsel to those that swallow it. His meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him. He hath swallowed down her spoil, and he shall vomit it up again: God shall rake it out of his belly: He shall have as little joy of his tid-bits, of his sweet draughts, as Jonathan had of his honey: whereof he had no sooner tasted, but his head was forfeited. Pliny speaketh of a kind of honey that poisoneth: because it is sucked out of poisonous flowers. Our Chronicler telleth us, that at Alvelana three miles from Lisbon, many of our English soldiers under the Earl of Essex perished, by eating of honey, purposely left in the houses, and spiced with poison. The enemies of the Church make a dangerous adventure, they are even ambitious of destruction: they run to meet their bane, as did those Philistines at Mizpah, 1 Sam. 7. And had they but so much wit as Pilate's wife in a dream, they would take heed of having anything to do with those just men, of eating up God's people as they eat bread, Psal. 14.4. of bowsing in the bowles of the Sanctuary with Baltasar, who fell thereupon into a trembling, so that his loins were loosed, and his knees knocked one against another.

when they shall be in the siege ] And so about to do their last and worst against the Church. The people of Rome was saepe praelio victus, nunquam bello, saith Florus: they lost many battles, but were never overcome in a set war: at the last, at the long-run, as they say, they crushed all their enemies: so doth the Church. See Psal. 129. throughout: and the story of the Maccabees.

Verse 3. I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone ] Such a stone as that wherewith the woman brake Abimelech his brainpan, at the tower of Thebez, Judge. 9.53. He had slain all his brethren upon one stone, verse 5. he receives therefore his deaths-wound by a stone: and that by the hand of a woman, which was his greatest grief. The like death befell Pyrrhus, king of Epirotes, slain at the siege of Argos, with a tyle thrown by a woman from the wall. So was Earl Simon Mountfort, that bloody persecutor of the Albigenses in Irance. A woman discharged an engine at him, from the walls of Toulouse, and by a stone parted his head from his shoulders. The virgin daughter of Zion shall do as much as all this comes to for her besiegers: though all the people of the earth be gathered together against her. For why? she hath a strong champion; that, in maintaining her quarrel, will dash them to pieces, and grind them to powder, Luke 20.18. They are no more able to stand before him, then a glass-bottle before a cannon-shot. Hence her confidence, her laughing and shaking her head by way of derision at her stoutest enemies, Isaiah 37.22. She knows that all that burden themselves with her shall be cut in pieces. Haman's wife could tell so much. If Mordecai (said she) be of the seed of the Jews, before whom thou hast begun to fall, thou shalt not prevail against him, but shalt surely fall before him. A Jew may-fall before a Fersian, and get up and prevail. But if a Persian, or whosoever of the Gentiles begin to sall before a Jew, he can neither stay, nor rise. There is an invisible hand of omnipotency that strikes in for his own: and confounds their opposites. That little stone cut out without hands, (Christ's human nature is called a tabernacle not made with hands, not of this building, Heb. 9.11. that is, not by an ordinary course of generation) smiteth the four mighty Monarchies, and crumbleth them to crattle, Dan. 2.34. Jerome upon this text (and after him other Interpreters, both Ancient and Modern) tell us that the Holy Ghost here alludeth to a certain exercise, or game, used much among the Jews, namely to take up a great round stone for the trial of a man's strength; lifting it up from the ground, sometimes to the knees, sometimes to their navels, sometimes to their breasts, and sometimes as high as their heads, or above their heads. At which sport many times they did grievously hurt themselves, or at least scarify and make cuts in their flesh. See Levite. 21.5. where the same word is used. The Churches enemies shall strive, and try who shall do her most hurt: but the stoutest of them all shall be fooled and foiled in the end. The irrepairable ruin of Rome is graphically described and even set forth to the eye ( Rev. 18.21.) by a notable gradation. An Angel, a mighty Angel taketh a stone, a great stone, which he not only casteth, but thrusteth into the bottom of the sea, whence it cannot be boyed up. This Angel might well be Luther, (with his Book de captivitate Babylonica: confer Jer. 51.63.) whom God strangely preserved from the rage of Rome and Hell: like as he did from that deadly danger by the fall of a stone, whereof Mr. Fox writeth thus.

Verse 4. I will smite every horse with astonishment ] Great is the strength of the horse and the rage of his rider: Jehu marched furiously; Bajazet the great Turk, of his fierce and furious riding, was surnamed Gilderun or Lightening; But God can make the Egyptians to appear men, and not God's, and their horses flesh, and not spirit: When the Lord shall but stretch out his hand. (and that's no hard matter of motion) both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they shall all fail together Isaiah 31.3. See Psal. 76.5, 6. An horse is a vain thing for safety, though a warlike creature full of terror; but safety or victory is of the Lord Pro. 21.31. In nothing be terrified, saith the Apostle Philip. 1.28. The Greek word is a metaphor from horses when they tremble and are sore affrighted: as it fell out in the Philistines army, when the Angels made a bustle among the mulbery-trees 2 Sam. 5.24. in the Syrians army, when the Angels likewise made an hurry-noise in the air, of chariots, of horses, and of a great host 2 King. 7.6. in the army of Sennacherib, when at God's sole rebuke both the chariot and horse were cast into a dead sleep Psal. 76.6. Lastly in the German wars against Zizka and the Hussites in Bohemia: where God smote every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; such a panic terror seized upon the enemies of the truth, though they came in with three potent armies at once, that they sled before ever they looked the enemy in the face. How this Prophesy was literally fulfilled to the Maccabees, see 2 Mac. 10.30.

and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah ] who before seemed to wink, or to be asleep. Now will I awake, saith the Lord, Now will I arise, now will I lift up myself, for the relief and rescue of my poor people: and that because they called them outcasts, saying, This is Zion whom no man looketh after Ier. 30.17.

Verse 5. And the Governors of Judah ] The Dukes of Chiefetaines: meaning the Maccabes, who ware not any kingly crown, but were only Governors, Rulers, Commanders in chief, such as went before others: like as in the Alphabet Aleph is the first letter: So,

shall say in their hearts ] i. e. shall say heartily, from the root of the heart, and not from the roof of the mouth only. Profession of the truth and prayer (for so some make this verse to be) are not a labor of the lips, but a travel of the heart. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet, as that which comes from the depth of the breast. As in instrument-music, the deeper and hollower the belly of the Lute or Vial is, the pleasanter is the sound; the sleeter, the more grating and ha • sh in our ears.

the inhabitants of Iorusalem shall be my strength ] Though now there be few found in it: yet it shall be much repeopled and fortified: so that, under God, it shall be a fortress to the whole country; and the Governor shall so take it to be, Or thus.

there is strength to me and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the Lord of Hosts their God. ] Every governor shall say so for his own particular. (And this seems to me to be the better reading) The Maccabes did so as appeared by their posy (whereof before) their prayers, and their singular success, as appears by their history, and by Josephus. Deo confisi, nunquàm confusi, They that trust in God shall never be confounded. Our fathers trusted in thee, and they were delivered. O trust ye in the Lord forever: for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. Look not down on the rushing and roaring streams, lest ye grow giddy: but look up to the heavens from whence comes your help, and fasten by faith on God's power and promises. Faith unseined breeds hope unfaileable, such as never miscarrieth. O trust in him at all times ye people &c. Psal. 62. for with God is wisdom and strength Job. 12.13. Plutarch saith of the Scythians that they have neither wine nor music: but they have God's. Say that the Saints have neither power, nor policy as their enemies, yet they have all in God who is more then all.

Verse 6. In that day will I make the governors &c. ] This is the third similitude, whereof the scripture is full: according to that, I will open my mouth in parables &c. These are of excellent use to adorn and explain: and yet they are evermore inferior to the matter in hand. They are borrowed from things well known, and easy to be conceived: as here from an harth of fire among wood; Now we can all tell how great a matter (or wood) a little fire kindleth I am. 3.5. As when Nero, for his pleasures sake set Rome on fire, among other stately buildings that were quickly burnt down, the Circus or race-yard was one: being about half a mile in length, of an ovall form with rouse of seats one above another, capable of at least an hundred and fifty thousand spectators, without uncivil shoulderings. As the fire burneth a wood: and as the flame setteth the mountains on fire: So persecute them with thy tempest: and make them afraid with thy storm, saith the Church Psal. 83.14, 15. Thus they prayed, and thus it is here promised: and was accordingly performed in those first wars of the Maccabees: as appeareth in the first book of their story, and in Josephus. Diodate and others understand this text of the Apostles and Evangelists, who should fill the world with wars and dissensions by preaching the Gospel Luke 12.49. whereby the enemies should be ruinated, and the church reestablished Obad. 18. thorough the spirit of judgment and of burning Isaiah 4.4. To which purpose Chrysostom saith, that Peter was a man made of fire walking amongst stubble. Basil was compared to a pillar of fire. John the Baptist is by our savior said to be a burning and a shining lamp. And Elijah (in whose spirit the Baptist came) was a man of that transcendent zeal, that to heighten the expression thereof, some have legended of him, that when he drew his mothers breasts, he was seen to suck in fire.

and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place ] sc. where she was built at first, and not in another near place, as Tyrus was; and Rome is at this day quite off her old seven hills: so that a man may look for Rome in Rome. And Jerusalem that now is hath mount Calvary in the very midst of it (which was anciently without the city) and not one hundred families of Jews are therein to be found. That they shall one day cast out therehence Gog and Magog, inhabit it in the old place, and have excellent strength and valor ministered by God to them, all equally for their common defense, none lifting up themselves above another, but all alike ascribing the glory unto God, is concluded by some (and those not inconsiderable) Divines out of this and the following verses.

Verse 7. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first ] Or as at first, sc. when they came out of Egypt, and had no strong holds to take to for their defense. Lord, (saith Moses, ) thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations Psal. 90.1. He was so of old, and ever will be: the faith whereof made the fathers well content to dwell in tents Heb. 11.13. and those holy Rechabites Ier. 35.7, 8. till Nebuchadnezzar came up into the land ver. 11. But here God promiseth to deliver those Jews that dwelt in the open fields, without the city; and then afterwards to deliver Jerusalem itself from the rage of the Antiochi; and so he did (1 Maccab. ) in a wonderful manner: they were helped indeed with a little help Dan. 11.34. to take away boasting; as it followeth.

that the glory of the house of David &c. ] that is, the glorious house of David, and the glorious inhabitants of Jerusalem, by an Hypallage. Non est gloriosior populus sub coelo, quam Judaicus. There is not a more vainglorious people under heaven then the Jews are saith Alsted. They were so of old John. 8.33. Mat. 3.9. Spaniards are said to be impudent braggers: and extremely proud in the lowest ebb of fortune; so are the Jews. But God will teach them better things, and make him that glorieth glory in the Lord 1 Cor. 1.31.

Verse 8. In that day shall the Lord defend &c. ] Prosequitur eandem sententiam saith Calvin. He proceeds in the former argument, to assure the feeble Jews (as Sanballat that proud haughty scorner called them Neh. 4.2.) of safety and protection. God will bless the righteous: with favor will he compass them as with a shield. Now there is no coming at the body but thorough the shield, if well handled; no coming at the Saints, but through God's own sides, as I may say. He beareth his people as on Eagles wings Exod. 19.4. Deut. 32.11. Now the Eagle carries her young upon her wings (and not between her talons as other birds do) so that they cannot be shot, but thorough the body of the old one. Oh the dignity and safety of a Saint! Well might Moses sing, Happy art thou O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people! saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thine excellency: and thine enemies shall be found 〈◊〉 unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Let all that would be safe indeed, as in a tower of brass, or town of war, labor to be found written among the living in Jerusalem Isa. 4.3. to be of the Church of the first-born which are enrolled in heaven Heb. 12.23. like as in Jerusalem were records kept of the names of all the citizens Psal. 48.3. Get under God's wing, and nothing can annoy thee. As if he be angry, where shall a man shelter? Brasse and iron can fence him against a bullet or a sword: but if he be to be cast into a furnace of fire, it would help to torment him: if into a pit of water, to sink him. Now our God is a consuming sire Heb. 12.29. and his breath a stream of brimstone Isa. 30.33. To run from him to other refuge, is but for a man to run his head into a barrel of gunpowder, for a shelter against the force of a fire kindled over him.

and he that is feeble among them ] So that he cannot stand but stagger (as the word importeth) as did Miles Cobelite a Christian soldier sore wounded, so that he reeled like a drunken man and fell down diverse times, for want of strength. This man drawing nigh to Amurath the third king of Turks, as he was viewing the dead bodies after a bloody fight, making as if he would have craved his life of him. suddenly stabbed him in the bottom of his belly with a short dagger which he had under his soldiers coat; of which wound that great king and conqueror presently died.

shall be as David ] who was a mighty man of valor (as Hushai told Absalom and bid him beware 2 Sam. 17.8.) and had such a band of worthies about him, as were not to be matched 2 Sam. 23.8. These had a house by themselves to dwell and exercise feats of arms: as Lyra gathereth out of Neh. 3.16. where mention is made of the house of the mighty. The Maccabes (slighted as abjects) did greater exploits and got greater victories then David had done: and the condition of this poor people was to be shortly after ( sc. under the preaching of Christ's gospel) far better and happier then ever it had been under the rich and flourishing kingdom of David: for then they should be able to say, God's grace is sufficient for me: his strength is made perfect in my weakness. I will glory in mine infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me: for when I am weak, then I am strong. I can do all things, suffer all things thorough Christ that strengtheneth me. The weak shall say I am strong Joel 3.10 And indeed how can they be otherwise, that have a mighty strong God Isaiah 9.6. a strong word, the Lord's own arm, the power of God to salvation Rom. 1.16. Act. 20.32. a strong spirit 2 Tim. 1.7. strong consolations Heb. 6.18. strong armor both offensive and defensive Eph. 6.18. and the name of the Lord as a strongtower whereunto the righteous run and are safe, and where waiting upon the Lord they renew their strength, they mount up with wings as Eagles, or rather as Angels.

for the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them ] i. e. As Christ the Angel of God's presence, and that went before the people in the wilderness. Such were those of the blood-royal, and that succeeded David in the government: but especially such were the Apostles, Christ's Mighties, who should be endued with so many graces in majesty, Authority, Strength, and truth, that men should receive them ( Cornelius like) as so many Angels of God, yea even as Christ Jesus Gal. 4.14.

Verse 9. I will seek to destroy ] I will make inquisition and diligent scrutiny: I will draw them out of their lurking-places to execution: as Sa • l went to seek David upon the rocks of the wild-goats; those high, steep and craggy rocks, which could not but be very tedious both to himself, and to his soldiers to march in: But he was set upon it, and would leave no place unsearched. See his charge to the Ziphites to take knowledge of all the lurking-holes where he hid himself, and to bring him word that he might seek him thorough all the thousands of Judah 1 Sam. 23.23. The Lord need not do so, to find out his enemies; for in him they live, move and subsist Col. 1.17. they are everunder his view, and within his reach. He sitteth upon the circle of the earth Is. 40.22. and can easily shake them out of it, as by a canvasse. Yea, he sits in the height of heaven, and wherein they deal proudly, he is above them Exod. 18.11. disclosing their cabinet-counsels, as he did Benhadad's; and blasting their designs.

to destroy all nations God stands not upon multitudes; he takes not the tenth man, but destroys all nations, be they never so many of them that come against Jerusalem, that oppose or affront his people, either with their virulent tongues or violent hands. When a rabble of rebels shall set themselves against the Lord, and against his Christ, his mystical Christ the Church, he will utterly destroy them; the word signifieth he will destroy them ut nihil reliquum maneat, that there shall be no remainder of them. Woe therefore to the Churches enemies; for their destruction ever goes with the saints salvation Philip. 1.28, 29. Isaiah 8 9. Prov. 11.8. God's jealousy Zach. 1.14. and justice 2 Thess. 1.6. will effect it surely, severely, suddely.

Verse 10. And I will pour upon the house of David ] Pour as by whole pailefuls; God is no penny-father; no small gifts sall from so great a hand; he gives liberally I am. 1.15. and is rich to all that call upon his name Rom. 10.12. abundant in kindness Exod. 34.6. plenteous in mercy Psal. 103.8. the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ hath over-abounded, hath overflowed all the banks 1 Tim. 1.14. indeed it hath neither bank nor bottom. Oh pray for that bliss-full sight Eph. 1.18. and 3.18, 19. that Spirit of wisdom and revelation.

of grace and of supplications ] Or deprecations of that utter destruction that shall befall other nations. God will save his people, but so as by prayer Psal. 32.6. 2 Chron. 7.14. Zach. 13.9. he will grace his own ordinance, draw many suitours, and derive many praises to himself. See Ezek. 36.37. Psal. 50.15. and 116.2. Some render it a spirit of grace and of lamentations, sc. before the Lord, when they felt the nails, where with they had pierced Christ, pricking their own hearts Act. 2.37. punctually pricking and piercing them.

and they shall look upon the whom they have pierced ] Dacaru, whom they have d • ggered or digged, as Psal. 22.16. him they shall look upon and lament, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , their eye shall affect their heart; for the eye is the instrument both of sight and of sorrow; and what the eye never sees the heart never rues. The Sun looketh upon the earth, draweth up vapors thence, and distilleth them down again: so doth the Sun of the understanding; which till it be convinced, the heart cannot be compuncted. Sight of sin must precede sorrow for sin. The The prodigal came to himself, ere he repented of his loose practices, men must bethink themselves, or bring back to their hearts (as the Hebrew hath it 1 King. 8.47.) ere they will say, We have sinned and dealt perversely, we have committed wickedness. See Ier. 8.6. Psal. 38.18. An infant in the womb cries not because he sees not; but as soon as it comes into the light, he sets up his note. Get therefore your eyes anointed with eye-salve, with this spirit of grace and supplications: so shall you soon see (saith Mr. Bradford martyr) your face foul arrayed, and so shameful, saucy, mangy, pocky, and scabbed, that you cannot but be sorry at the contemplation thereof. It is the spirit that convinceth the world of sin; neither can the waters till his wind bloweth Psal. 147.18. A sigh is not breathed out for sin, till the spirit imbreach the same into us.

and they shall mourn for him ] Or, for it, viz. for their crucifying the Lord of glory in their forefathers, and having a great hand in it themselves; since their and our sins were thorns and nails that pierced him, the lance that let out his heartblood &c. We bound him with cords; we beat him with rods; buffeted him with fists, reviled him with our mouths, nodded at him with our heads, &c. We were the chief actours and principal causes, that set awork Judas, Pilate &c. Oh stand a while with the devout women, and see him bleeding, groaning, dying, by the wounds that we gave him; and mourn affectionately over him as here.

they shall mourn ] with such outward pomp and rites as are used at fune ralls; as wringing the hands, beating the breasts, shaking the head, and the like external gestures and expressions of heaviness.

and shall be in bitterness ] by inwardness of extreme grief; as when David's heart was leavened with it Psal. 73.21. it was soured with goodly sorrow, and sowced in the tears of true repentance. So Peter went forth and wept bitterly Mat. 26.15. waters of Marah flowed from Mary Magdalens eyes, which were as a fountain for Christ's feet: here sorrow was deep and down-right, producing repentance never to be repented of. The sorrow we conceive for an unkindness offered to Christ must not be slight and sudden, but sad and soaking: like that of the Israelites met at Mizpah, when they drew water before the Lord 1 Sam. 7.6. whereunto the Prophet Jeremy seemeth to allude, when he seriously wisheth that his head were waters &c. Ier. 9.1. and David with his rivers of tears Psa. 119.136. His heart was soft and soluble: now softness of heart discovers sin; as the blots run abroad, and seem biggest in wet paper: and as when the Cockatrice egg is crushed, it breaks forth into a viper Isa. 59.5. Now to make and keep the heart soft and tender, the consideration of Christ's dolorous passion must needs be of singular use and efficacy: as the sight of C • sars bloody robes brought forth, greatly affected the people of Rome, and edged them to revenge. The hardest heart soundly soaked in the blood of Christ (the true scape-goat) cannot but relent and repent for such a horrid villainy.

as one mourneth for his only son—for his first born ] sc. with a funeral-sorrow: such as was that of the Sunamite, and of the widow of Naim, of Rachel, who refused to be comforted &c. There is an Ocean of love in a fathers heart: as we see in Jacob toward Joseph, in David towards Absolam, in the father of the Prodigal &c. Christ was God's only son in respect of his divine nature: he was also the firstborn amongst many brethren. And yet God so loved the world &c. So? how? So as I cannot tell how: for this is a Sic without a Sicut: Even so should our sorrow be, for having a wicked hand in his dolorous death. The Prophet here seems to be at a stand as it were, whence to borrow comparisons to shadow it out by. Great is the grief of children for their deceased parents, as of Joseph for Jacob Gen. 50.1. he fell upon his fathers face, as willing to have wept him alive again if possible. So our Edward the first returning from the wars in Palestine, rested himself in Sicily: where the death of his son and heir coming first to his ear, and afterwards of the king his father, he much more sorrowed his fathers departure, then his sons: whereat King Charles of Sicily greatly marvelled, and demanding the reason, had of him this answer: The loss of sons is but light, because they are multiplied every day: but the death of parents is irremediable, because they can never be had again. Thus He, Howbeit, love rather descendeth then ascendeth, and Abraham could better part with his father Terah, then with his son, his only son Isaac whom he loved Gen. 22.2. Before he had him, Lord God, said Abraham, what wilt thou give me so long as I gee childless. His mouth was so out of taste with the sense of his want, that he could relish no comfort. But now to be bereft of him, and that in such a manner, as he might conceive by that probatory precept Gen. 22.2. this must needs go to the very heart of him, for though he had put on grace, yet he had not put off nature. Both Jacob and Jacob's father (as Junius understandeth that passage Gen. 37, 35.) wept savourly for Joseph, and would go down into the grave unto their sen mourning. True it is, that the loss of some wife may be greater then the loss of some son, ( Abraham came from his own tent to Sarah 's tent to mourn for her Gen. 22.2. and she was the first that we read of in scripture mourned for) but the Prophet here speaketh of the mourning of husband and wife together: and they can lose no greater outward blessing, then their first-born, if an only-one especially.

Verse 11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem ] Magnificabitur luctus (so the Hebrew hath it) their mourning shall be greatened, their heaviness heightened, they shall rise in their repentance above all that is ordinary. The Casuifts and Schoolmen affirm sorrow for sin to be the greatest of all sorrows. 1. In conatu: the whole soul seems to send springs into it, out of every faculty. 2. In extensione: It is a spring which in this life more or less is continually dropping; neither would God have the wounds of godly sorrow to be so closed up at all, as not to bleed afresh upon every good occasion. 3. In appreciatione: the true penitentiary doth ever judge that a good God offended, a Savior crucified, should be the prime cause of greatest grief. 4. In intensione: for intension of displicence in the will; there being no other things with which, or for which the will is more displeased with its self, then for sinning against God. There is more cause of grief, say they, for sinning, then for the death of Christ: because therein was aliquid placens, but sin is simpliciter displicens. But is it not godly mourning, may some say, unless it be so great? I answer, that other mourning may make more noise, like a dashing shoure of rain, or a land-flood that by a small shallow channel comes down from an hill. When a man mourns for his only son, or the like, this comes from God as a judgment; it comes down hill as it were, hath nature to work with it, and nothing to hinder it: but this mourning and melting over Christ, is as a stream that goeth up hill, and through many reeds and flagges, as a Reverend man expresseth it.

as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon ] Where good Josiah was slain, and where the people saw (to their unspeakable grief, and heart-break) family, Church and Common-wealth plucked up by the roots, in the loss of that one man, who was the very breath of all their nostrils, as Jeremiah sadly acknowledgeth in his Lamentations, composed on that very occasion, and when he died, all their prosperity here died with him; and themselves were no better then living Ghosts, walking sepulchers of themselves: a being they had, but not a life: those that before seemed to touch heaven with their finger, fell down to the earth, as if they had been planet-struck, as Budaeus speaketh of the French courtiers at the death of Louis the twelfth. When Augustus died, orbis ruinam timueramus, saith Paterculus, we thought all had been lost, and that the world would have fallen about our ears. When our Edward the sixth (that second Josiah ) was taken away, Cardan sung this sorrowful Epicedion;

Verse 12, 13, 14, And the land shall mourn ] Not the generality of the Jews (unless it be at their last general conversion, that resurrection from the dead, as it is called Rom. 11.15.) but the elect according to grace, who are here called the land, because more esteemed by God then all the other Jews besides: for he reckoneth of men by their righteousness, as he did of Lot at Sodom.

every family apart ] To show the soundness of their sorrow, the sincerity by the secrecy: for Ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet. He grieves with a witness, that grieves without a witness. There is a worldly sorrow that hardeneth the heart: and indisposeth it for repentance; as did that of Nabal. There is also an hellish sorrow, a desperate grief for sin, poenitentia Iscariotica, as was that of Judas. There is no birth without travel: but some children die in the birth: are killed with the pains of the labor. Lastly, there is a sorrow according to God, whereby we weep kindly after God, inquiring the way to Zion, with our faces set thitherward, and renewing our covenant Jer. 50.4, 5. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, saith David Psal. 51.4. Lo, there lay this pinch of his grief, that he had offended so good a God. It was the Myrrh and its scent, that Christ had dropped on the bars of the door, that waked the drowsy Spouse, and made her bowels fret Cant. 5. This made her first weep in secret, and then seek out after him, whom her soul loved. She first went to inquire of the Lord, as Rebecca did Gen. 25.22. and then she hears from him those sweet words Cant. 2.14. Oh my dove! that art in the clefts of the rocks, that hast wrought thyself a burrough a receptacle of rest in the Rock of ages, in the secret places of the stars, whither thou art retired as for security so for secrecy, to mourn as a dove, and to pray for pardon. Shew me thy face, which now appeareth most orientally beautiful, because most instampt with sorrow for sin: Let me hear thy voice, which never sounds so melodiously, as when thy heart is broken most penitentially: for sweet is thy voice, and thy countenance comely.

and their wives apart ] Sarah had her peculiar tent Ge. 24.65. wherein she dwelt Ge. 18.6. & died Ge. 23.2. Rebecca likewise had her retiring-room, whither she went to inquire of the Lord Ge. 25.22. Rachel & Leah had their several tents, apart from Jacob's Ge. 31.33. Miriam and her women do apart by themselves praise God for deliverance Exo. 15.20. I and my maidens will fast likewise, saith Esther. In a time of solemn humiliation, let the bride-groom go forth of his chamber, and the bride out of her closet, Joel 2.16. See 1 Cor. 7.5. Amongst both Jews, Greeks, and Romans, the women were separated from the men, in public acts and assemblies; in times of common calamity especially, as may be gathered out of Plutarch, Athenaeus, Virgil, Livy. Stratae passim Matres crinibus Templa verrentes, veniam irarum coelestium exposcant, saith He; The men by themselves, and the women by themselves, sought to appease the angry God's. Here they are severed, to show that they wept not for company, sed sponte & proprio affectu; as Calvin hath it, but of their own accord, and out of pure affection; they freely lamented not so much for Christ's dolorous death, as for that themselves had a chief hand in it, and were the principal causes of it. The best kind of humiliation is to love and weep, as that woman did Luk. 7. who made her eyes a fountain to wash Christ's feet in, and had his side opened for a fountain to wash her soul in, as it is Chap. 13.1.

all the families that remain ] Out of every family of this people, God will have some converts. A thing so incredible, that to persuade it, the Prophet may here seem to some profane person to use more words then needeth.

CHAP. XIII.

Verse 1. IN that day there shall be a fountain opened ] Nunc fructum poenitentiae adiungit, saith Calvin here. This is the fruit of their repentance. No sooner mourn they over Christ, but they are received to mercy. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord: and (or ever I can do it) thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin; that is, both the sting and stain of it, the guilt and the filth, the crime and the curse. Repent and your sins shall be blotted out, saith Peter to those nefarious Kill-Christ's Act. 3.9. God will cross the black lines of your sins, with the red lines of his sons blood, 1 John. 1.6. A fountain shall be opened: not a cistern, but a spring: a pool better then that of Siloam which is by interpretation Sent John 9.7. and so a type of Christ, who loved us, and washed us from our sins with his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God, and his father: to him be glory and dominion forever and ever, Amen. To seal up this matchless mercy to us, he sent first by the hand of his forerunner, and baptized those that repented for the remission of sins, Mat. 3.2. Act. 2.38. And afterwards he set wide open this blessed fountain, this laver of regeneration, and renewing of the holy Ghost Tit. 3.5. Saying by his Ministers to every believer, as once to Paul, Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins calling on the name of the Lord. Act. 22.16. whereunto salvation is promised Rom. 10.13. Joel 2.22. Baptism also is said to save us 1 Pet. 3.21. sc. sacramentally, for it sealeth up salvation to the believer Mar. 16.16. and is of perpetual and permanent use to him, for that purpose, his whole life throughout, ut scaturigo semper ebulliens, as a fountain bubbling up to eternal life. Here then the Sacrament of Baptism is prophesied of and promised. And hence, haply the Baptism of John is said to have been from heaven Mat. 21.25. All the Levitical purifications pointed to this Kings-Bath of Christ's meritorious blood, this ever-flowing & overflowing fountain: for the grace of our Lord Jesus hath abounded to flowing over (as S. Paul's expression is) with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Neither can it ever be dried up, as was the river Cherith, the brooks of Tema &c. but is an inexhausted fountain, a fresh-running spring, for all that have but a mind to make toward it. Tam recens mihi nunc Christus est, ac si hac horâ fudisset sanguinem, saith Luther; Christ is still as fresh and sovereign to me, as if this very hour he had shed his blood. He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; and shall be so to the end thereof. Cruci haeremus, sanguinem sugimus, & intra ipsa Redemptoris nostri vulnera figimus linguam, saith Cyprian of the Lord's Supper; i. e. We cleave to the cross at this holy ordinance: we suck Christ's blood, we thrust our tongues into the very wounds of our Redeemer, and are hereby purged from all pollutions of flesh and spirit.

to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem ] i. e. To all sorts and sexes of penitents, be they noble or ignoble, strong Christians or weak (see Zach. 12.8.) none shall be secluded from this fountain, thus opened or exposed to all, not sealed and shut up, as that Cant. 4.12. God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness is accepted of him.

for sin and for uncleanness ] i. e For all sorts of sins, though they be such, as in their desert do separate us from communion with God, and company of men. (See Levite. 12. and 15.) render us worthy to be excommunicated, proscribed, and banished out of the world, as pists and botches of human society by a common consent of nations: as the obstinate Jews are at this day for their inexpiable guilt in crucifying Christ. The vulgar here hath it, Ad ablutionem peccatoris & menstru • •• , For washing clean the sinner, and the menstruous woman: alluding (as doth also the Chaldee) to the waters of expiation made of the ashes of a red cow Num. 19.11, 17. See the Note there: and importing the purging both of he sinners and she-sinners: Or, as some will have it, both of Actual and Original sin. Lo this is the virtue of Christ's merit and spirit, 1 Cor. 6.10, 11. far beyond that of Abanah & Pharphar, of Jordan and Siloam, which yet are said not only to wash and scour, but also to heal and cure. The Saracenes naturally stink like goats: but by washing themselves and their children in the pool of Siloam, they become sweeter. The Turks make use of it to sharpen their eye-sight. At Cyzicum there is a well called Cupids well, the water whereof is said to quench the fire of lust. This is better yet then those Bathes of Rome: concerning which Seneca no less wittily then truly complained, Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt qui lavant: Or those wanton Bathes of upper-Badin in Helvetia, much frequented, yet not so much for health, as filthy pleasure. They that are in Christ, have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24. they are not only washed from their wickedness Jer. 4.14 but bereft of their swinish natures, ne tanquam sus ad volutabrum &c, 2 Pet. 2.22.

Verse 2. I will cut off the names of the idols ] Heb. of the fray-bugs (as they are likewise called 1 Sam. 31.9. 1 Chro. 10.9. Psal. 115.4. in contempt, as Priapus in Horace — furum qnium{que} Maxim formido— ) Or grievous idols, as Psal. 16.4. because they tormented the minds of the superstitious, and put them to great pains to no purpose; as is to be seen in Popish Pilgrims, who though used hardly, and lose much of their estates, and other comforts, yet satisfy themselves in this, I have that I came for, viz. the sight of a dumb idol, as Calvin noteth on that place Seek ye my face. Now of these mawmets and monuments of idolatry, these Balaam's blocks, the Lord here promiseth to rid the land, as he did under the Maccabees. And as in the Primitive Church he did by the Christian Emperors, styled therefore by the superstitious Iconomachi, and Iconaclastae: and of late by the renowned Reformers, as at Geneva, Bern, Basil (where they were burnt all together on an Ash-wednesday of God's own making) and here in England by the command of King Edward the sixth: who the self same day obtained a signal victory at Muscleborough-field.

and they shall no more be remembered ] Unless it be with shame and detestation, as Ezech. 16.61. Psal. 16.4. Hos. 14.8. Ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? He shall pollute the idols which he once perfumed, and say unto them, Get you hence, Isaiah 30.22. I was an obstinate Papist (saith Latimer of himself) as any was in England, and a gross Idolater &c. But after that he came to a sight of his error, he so far forth abhorred idols, that being brought forth after he was condemned to die to see a procession, he ran as fast as his old bones would carry him to one Spensers shop near Karfax in Oxford, and would not once look toward it.

and also I will cause the Prophets ] So they will needs be called and counted: when as they are no better then unclean spirits (see the Geneva-Note here) or at least are acted and set on work by that unclean spirit the Devil, (See Mat. 12.43. Mar. 1.26. John 8.44. Rev. 16.13. with the Notes) indeed they are false Prophets Mat 7.15. false teachers, who privily bring in damnable heresies 2 Pet. 2.1. vanae orationis, cui nulla veritatis vel virtutis ratio subest, sunt artifices stulte loquaces & garruli, saith Montanus, they are loud & lewd liars, inspired by that unclean spirit the father of lies, ut impurati impurent alios & seducant seducti, that being themselves defiled and seduced, they may defile and seduce others. For by corrupt teachers Satan catcheth men: as a cunning fisher by one fish catcheth another, that he may feed upon both.

and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land ] This connection is worthy to be noted, saith reverend Calvin here: because it shows us the source of all errors, viz. the letting loose the reins to perverse teachers. I confess, saith He, we are apt enough of ourselves to run after falsities, such is the corruption of our natures. Sed interea ubi grassatur licentia quidvis docendi, necesse est corrumpi totam pietatem, & sic misceri omnia ut nihil differat lux à tenebris, &c. But where in matters of Religion, every man may think that he lists, and utter what he thinks, and defend what he utters, and publish what he defends, and gather disciples to what he publisheth, this libertas prophetandi, this liberty, or licentiousness rather of prophesying (alas poor England! ) must needs bane the Church, and bring in confusion. God therefore here gives us to know, that a Church cannot stand, unless false teachers be forbidden to turn the truth into a lie, and to prate at their pleasure against the word of God: and this, saith He, is diligently to be noted. Videmus enim ut hodie nebulones quidam, &c. For we see how at this day, certain vile persons take it up for a principle, that the Church is not free, unless every man may be suffered to preach, or broach what he pleaseth: and that it is greatest cruelty to punish an heretic, and not to give him leave to blaspheme the truth. But the Prophet here showeth, that the Church of God cannot be kept in pure state, nor stand entire and safe, unless the rashness and impudency of such be restrained, as dare pervert sound and sincere doctrine. Thus He.

Verse 3. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy ] Here the Prophet showeth how God will effect the former promise. He will first give unto his people a spirit of judgment, and then a spirit of burning, as Isaiah 4.4. so that they shall be able to discern both good and evil, and not be led away with the error of the wicked, to fall from their own steadfastness. they shall also be adeo percici zelo, so carried on by a zeal of God's glory, and so blessedly blown up, as I may so say, in his cause, that they shall fall upon their dearest relations in this case, and labor to bring their own children to condign punishment, according to the Law of God in that behalf provided, Deut. 13.8, 9. Neither let any object here, that this is Old Testament: we find no such thing in the Gospel. For the Prophet here speaketh of the times of the Gospel ( chap. 12.10.) and of the kingdom of Christ. Sequitur ergo, saith Mr. Calvin here well and worthily, non modo legem illam fuisse Judaeis positam, quemadmedum nugantur fanatici hemines, qui vellent hodie sibi permitti orbis turbandi licentiam: sed extenditur ad nos etiam eadem lex. It followeth therefore, that that Law Deut. 13.9. was not made for the Jews only (as some brain-sick people conceit it, who would fain get leave to trouble the world with their fopperies) but the same law extendeth itself even to us. For if at this day thieves, and witches, and adulterers, &c. are held worthy of punishment: how much more are heretics, seducers, blasphemers, who poison men's souls, rob God of his glory, confound the whole order of the Church, &c. See Rom 13.4. 1 Pet. 2.13, 14. and hold to that old Rule, Non distinguendum, ubi scriptura non distinguit, Men must not distinguish, where the scripture doth not.

that his father ] In whose heart there is naturally an Ocean of love to his own child, as we see in David toward Absalom, in old Andronicus the Greek Emperor, in our William the Conqueror, and Maud his wife toward their unnatural son Robert Curtuoise, whom she maintained out of her own coffers, in his quarrel for Normandy: which the king her husband knew, and took as a cause rather of displeasure then of hatred; as proceeding from motherly indulgence for advancing their son.

that begat him ] This is twice here repeated for honors sake to these zealots; who forgot all natural and carnal respects for the vindication of God's glory, and his sincere service. See Mat. 10.37. with the Note there.

thou shalt not live ] sc. to do more mischief, and to draw more souls to the devil, Non Catilinae te genui sed patriae, said Aulus Fulvius, when he slew his, own son taken in Catalines conspiracy: I begat thee not for Catiline, but for thy country. More to be commended a great deal then Philip that bloody king of Spain, who said openly, that he had rather have no subjects, then Lutheran subjects; that he would not leave a Lutheran in his dominions; that if he thought his shirt smelt of that heresy, he would tear it from his own back: And out of a blind zeal he suffered his eldest son Charles to be murdered by the cruel Inquisition, because he seemed to favor our profession. For which noble exploit, that mouth of blasphemy, the Pope, gave him this commendation, Non pepercit filio suo, sed dedit pro nobis. He spared not his own son but gave hm up for us. O horrible.

for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord ] Lies in hypocrisy, doctrines of devils, depths of Satan, that artificer of lies, and father of them, Joh. 8.44. which yet he would fain father, and fasten upon the God of Amen, or of truth, as he is called, Psal. 31.5. like as varlets beget bastards, and lay them at honest men's doors to be kept; Thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord. This is to substitute the devil in the place of God, or to transform God, so as that he should nothing differ from the devil. No wonder therefore, though he that break the least commandment, and teach men so, be called least in the kingdom of heaven: especially if he pretend God's authority for it, as the false Prophets of old, and the Swenckfeldien heretics alate entitle themselves, The Confessors of the glory of Christ. For this is the highest indignity, or rather contumely, that can be put upon God: It is a more detestable evil, then to kill an innocent man; yea to commit parricide, or treason. Imo quaecunque poterunt numerare scelera non pervenient od hoc crimen, saith Calvin upon the text. Let Sectaries and Seducers look to it, those harmless, hornlesse creatures, as they would be accounted.

shall thrust him thorough when he prophesieth ] As Phineas did that stinking couple, in the flagrancie of their lust, Num. 25.8. and as Levi, in like case, consecrated himself to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother, Exod. 32.29. He said unto his father and mother (when God's glory required it) I have not seen him, neither did he acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children, Deut. 33.9. All natural relations and self-respects should be drowned in the glory of God, and the good of our own and other men's souls. They should be even swallowed up thereby, as the fuel is by the fire, and as the sorcerers serpents were by Moses serpent, or the fat kine by the lean.

Verse 4. The Prophets shall be ashamed everyone of his vision ] Of their Midianitish dreams, which they had first dreamed, and then told it for gospel to their fond neighbors. They shall be so clearly convinced, that they shall blush and bleed to think how they have been besotted, how many souls they have murdered, how oft they have even stradled over hell-mouth, and yet have been preserved, 2 Thess. 2.10, 12. See the Note. This makes them shame, and shent themselves in the presence of God and his people, saying, O my God, I am ashamed, and blush to lift up my face to thee my God: for our imquities are increased over our head, and our guilt is grown up to the heavens. This was fulfilled in those Scribes and Pharisees that afterwards became believers, and said with Saint Paul, Beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Luther revolted from the Popish religion which he had held and maintained, taking it for an honor to be called Apostate by them; that is, as he interpreted it, One that had fallen off from the devil. Bugenhagius when he first read Luther's book de captivitate Babylonica, pronounced it to be the most pestilent piece that ever was published. But afterwards, when he had better considered, he grew ashamed of that rash censure, and protested that Luther only was in the right; and all that held not the same that he did, were utterly deceived. Latimer was of the like mind after that he had once heard Bilneys confession. Vergerius after he had read Luther's books with purpose to confute them. Denckius, and Hetserus, two great Anabaptists in Germany, retracted their former false doctrines, and repented of their licentious and abominable practices. the former of them, being converted by Occolampadius, grew ashamed of his pretended visions, and died piously at Basil. The later was beheaded at Constance for his multiplied adulteries: which first he sought to defend by Scripture, but afterwards died very penitently, confesting his former filthiness, giving glory to God, and taking shame to himself. These two were learned men, well skilled in the Hebrew: and had joined their forces, in translating the Prophets into the Dutch tongue. But, oh how few such as these, and of that sort of people shall a man meet with now-adays? Copp indeed that Arch-Ranter, Venereus ill furcifer, & Cleri dehonestamentum, is said to have newly set forth his Recantation, which I have not yet seen, and therefore cannot tell what to say to it. Only I wish he deal not as Bernard Rotman that first Anabaptist, and Islebius Agricola that first Antinomian did in Germany: who both of them having condemned their own errors, and recanted them in a public Auditory, printing their revocation: yet afterwards they relapsed into the same errors, and stoutly stood to them, when Luther was dead, and more Liberty was afforded. So hard a thing it is to get poison out, when once swallowed down; and having once said yea to the devil, though but in a little, to say him nay again, when a man pleaseth: such a man especially quem puduit non fuisse impudentem, who hath gloried in his shame, and taken pleasure in his unrighteousness: qui noluit solita peccare, as Seneca saith of some in his time, that is, none of the ordinary sort of sinners, but hath sought to out-sin others, as unhappy boys strive who shall go furthest in the dirt.

I will not say but such, by the almighty power of God, may be reclaimed, and made to see that there is no fruit to be had of those errors and enormities whereof they are now ashamed, since the end of those things (in the desert of them) is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, they will have very great cause to be thankful to God for the cure: since Jealousy, Frenzy, and Heresy, are held hardly curable, the leprosy in the head concludes a man utterly unclean, and excludes him the camp: Heresy is by the Apostle compared to a precipice vortex or whirl-pool, that first turns a man round, and then sucks him in: And by others to the Sirens banks covered with dead men's bones, to Goodwin's sands that swallow up all ships that come near them, or to the Harlots house whence few or none return alive Pro. 7.26, 27.

Verse 5. But he shall say, I am no Prophet ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 I am no Monk, no Clerk, I am not book-learned was the ignorant man's, plea in Chrysostom's time, and so it is still to this day; though it serves not his turn. But here the like speech is taken up for a better purpose. Hoc et enim principium est resipiscentiae, saith Calvin here. Here begins their repentance, viz. in a free acknowledgement of their ignorance and utter unfi • nesse for the office they had usurped.

I am no prophet ] (as for self respects that my belly might be filled, and my back fitted, I sinfully took upon me to be one) but I am an husbandman: and can better hold the plow then handle a text, feed and follow a flock of sheep, then feed the flock of God (that have golden fleeces, precious souls) taking the oversight thereof, not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind.

for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth ] q.d. Shephardy and husbandry I have been ever trained up to, and can better therefore skill of then of Preaching, which is certainly Ars artium & scientia scientiarum, the Art of Arts, the science of sciences as One said. Whereunto Melancthon. addeth that it is the misery of miseries. And of the same mind was his Colleague Luther, when he said, An householders pains is great, a Magistrates greater, but a Ministers greatest of all: and afterward added, that if it were lawful for him to leave his calling, he could with more ease and pleasure dig for his living, or do any other hard labor, then undergo a Pastoral charge. The mystery thereof is not an idle-man's occupation, an easy trade, as some fondly conceit. The sweat of the brow is nothing to that of the brain: besides dangers on every hand for the works sake, and armies of cares that give neither rest nor respite, but are ready to overwhelm a man. This made Luther affirm that a Minister labors more in a day many times then a husbandman doth in a month. Let no man therefore, in taking up the ministry, dream of a delicacy: Neither let slow-bellies either invade it, or hold it (as popish asses and some impudent Alastores now-adays do) to pick a living out of it. It was an honest complaint of a Popish writer, we, saith He, handle the scripture tantum ut nos pascat & vestiat, only that it may feed us and clothe us. And Cardinal Cajetan not without cause cries out, that those amongst them that should have been the salt of the earth had lost their savor: and were good for little else, but looking after the rites and revenues of the Church. Now for such as these that serve not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies, that like body-lice live upon other men's sweat, or like rats and mice, do no more but devour victuals and run squeaking up and down; good is the counsel of the Apostle, Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labor, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth, Eph. 4.28. let him earn it before he eat it 2 Thess. 3.10. This is hard to persuade those Abby-lubbers that live at ease in cloisters, feeding on the fat and drinking of the sweet: and those Idol-shepherds that feed themselves and not the flock. O Monachi vestri stomachi. Erasmus truly told the Electour of Saxony, that Luther, by meddling with the Popes tripple crown, and with the Monks •• t paunches, had procured himself so great ill will amongst them. One of them brake out in a sermon into these angry words: If I had Luther here, I would tear out his throat with my teeth; and then make no doubt with the same bloody teeth to eat my maker at the Eucharist. How much better were it for such false prophets with quietness to work and eat their own bread 2 Thess. 3.14. then to drink the blood of other men with their lives (as David spake in another case) yea with their souls which perish by their insufficiency and gastrimargy? Sed venter non habet aures. But the belly hath no ears. Ease flayeth the foolish. Non minus difficulter à deliciis abstrahimur, quam canis ab uncto corio: Among other scaudals and lets of the Jews conversion this is not the least, that they must quit their Goods to the Christians? And the reason is, for that in baptism they renounce the devil, and all his works, part whereof (say the Papists amongst whom they live) are the Jews goods; being gotten either of themselves or of their Ancestors by usury. Now this is such cold comfort to men of their metal, that they have little mind to turn Christian. And as little doubtless have such as with these in the text, have got their living by lying: and through covetousness with feigned words made merchandise or prize of men's precious souls, to return to the hard labor of husbandry or any other lawful but painful employment. Yet this was done both in Wicklifes days by many Friars that fell to him, and embraced his opinions: and in the reformation by Luther; many Monks and Nuns betook themselves to honest trades; renouncing their Popish vows and orders; yea Scultetus reporteth that at Aushborough in Germany, by the powerful preaching of Dr. John Speiser Ann. 1523. some harlots forlooke the public stews, and married to honest men, lived chastely, and were great pains-takers.

Verse 6. And One shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? ] Jerome here supposeth the false Prophet crucified for his false doctrine, and thereupon thus questioned. This is better then that of the Popish Interpreters, who will needs have it to be meant of Christ, and of his wounds on the cross, as a deceiver of the people. Lucian the Atheist villainously termeth him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the crucified Cozener. But the Text is clear, that the person here spoken to, and returning an anser, is the false-Prophet, now a true Convert; as appeareth by his fruits which he bears quick and thick: being like Aaron's rod soon changed from a withered stick, into a flourishing tree. Ashamed he is at heart of his former falsities: and as in heart, so in habit he is altered: for he will no longer wear a rough garment (the garb of Prophets in those days) to deceive, as the Cappuchines and other orders of Friars (or rather Liars) at this day. He abrenounceth and abjureth quasi conceptis verbis his former profession of a Prophet or chief speaker amongst others.

I am no Prophet ] But a plain husbandman, or a shepherd: that's all I can truly pretend to. And lastly, in this verse, having passed thorough the churches discipline as a seducer, he shall do, as Joshua advised Achan, Give glory to the Lord my son, and confess thy sin: he shall approve of the Churches severity used for his correction, though he should go maimed or marked for it, to his dying day. In point of seducement (saith Mr. Cotton, descanting upon this text) if a man upon conviction shall see the wickedness of his way, and humble his soul before God, and give satisfaction to the Church and State, where he shall be convinced; on such conviction and repentance we find liberty to pardon, but yet stigmatize him. Thus He. But what reason had the Convocation held at Oxford to set a brand of ignominy upon the cheeks of those outlandish Divines that came to assist them, because they pleased them not in the point of Priests marriage, which they defended? Or Bishop Laud for his Stigmata Laudis on renowned Mr. Prinne, for his constancy to the truth? How much better his predecessors, Stephen Langton (who crucified that Pseudo-Christ, who shown marks of wounds in his hands, feet and sides, Anno 1206.) And Odo Severus (who burnt King Edwins Concubine (whom he most doted on) in the forehead with a hot iron, and banished her into Ireland, Anno 934, &c.)

Verse 7. Awake O Sword against my Shepherd ] A powerful expression, containing a commission given out to the sword by way of Apostrophe.

Awake ] or, up, as the Septuagint: up and about, thou that hast long lain locked up in the scabbard. Thus the sword is of God's sending; it is bathed in heaven, Isa. 34.5. Ezek. 14.17. Jer. 47.6, 7.] It is he that awakes it, and sets it on work: he commands it, Am. 9.4. and ordereth it, Jer. 50.25. Let this patient us under it, as it did Job, Chap. 1.15, 17, 21. Among Philosophies, the most noted sect for patience was that of the Stoics, who ascribed all to destiny.

O sword ] Framea, which seems to come of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 (the Septuagint's word here) by putting 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Gl • die, which comes à claae from destruction: like as the Hebrew word Chereb, from desolating and laying wast. Hence the sword is said to contemn the rod, Ezek. 21.10, 13. that is all lighter and lesser judgments, which are but its forerunners, and whereof it seems to say, What does this silly rod do here? Will not-men stoop? Let me come: I will make them either bend or break; either yield, or I will have their blood.

against my shepherd ] i.e. saith Calvin, against Magistrates and Ministers, God's undershepheards and Associates in feeding the flock, Laborers together with him, 1 Cor. 3.9. But because Christ is the great shepherd, Heb. 13.20. and the good shepherd, John 10.11. Optimus maximus, that is, God's fellow-mate, and yet, suspending his glory, became a man, to seek him out a flock in the wilderness: and afterwards laid down his life for his sheep, John 10.11. underwent the deadly dint of God's devouring sword put into the hands of those men of God's hand, Psal. 17.13. who put him to many a little death all his life long, and at length to that cursed and cruel death of the cross: at which time the Shepherd was smitten and the sheep scattered, as this Text is most fitly applied, Matth. 26.31. therefore I understand it thiefly of Christ, the chief Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, who was wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities, &c. And this not by chance, or malice of his enemies only (though they laid upon him without mercy, nailing him to the tree in the hands and feet, which in all men are the most sensible parts of the body (as being fullest of nerves and sinews) but in him much more as being of the sinest temperature and most exquisite sense) but by the determinate counsel of God, as St. Peter shows those Kill-Christ's, Acts 2.23. and according to the Scriptures, that went before of him, and foretold all his passion, even to the casting of the dice upon his clothes, Psal. 22. and Isai. 53 by the reading of which lively description of Christ's sufferings in that Chapter, Johannes Isaac a Jew confesseth that he was converted to the faith of Christ. He is called God's Shepherd, because God anointed and appointed him to that Office, putting a charge into his hands, John 10. and 17. that he might tend them and tender them, and at length return them up again to his heavenly Father, without loss of any one. He is also called the Man by an excellency, that matchless man the chief of ten thousand: as his mother is called hagnalma that famous Virgin, whom all generations are bound to call blessed. He is Man-God both in one: and is therefore also called God's-fellow or Mate, as being Consubstantial to the Father according to the Godhead, and very near akinne to him according to the Man-hood, by reason of the hypostatical union of both natures into one person, the Man Christ Jesus.

Smite the shepherd ] that that blessed Fountcin of his Blood (mentioned verse 1.) may be opened, and the flock of God washed, and healed, and satiated, as the people were, when the Rock was smitten and so set abroach: and as when God clave a hollow place in the jaw-bone of the Ass, so that there came water thereout, Sampson drank and was revived: And as when the Alabaster-box of ointment was broke, all the house was filled with a sweet savor.

And the sheep shall be scattered ] scattered and scattered; shifting for themselves, and leaving Christ to the mercy of his enemies, who seized upon him, as so many Carrion Kites upon a silly Dove. Thomas (who once said come, let us go die with him ) disappeares and is lost: Peter follows aloof off, but better he had heen farther off. John (if at least it were he) flies away stark naked for hast: Judas comes nearer to him, but to betray him with a kiss. But is this thy kindness to thy friend? Christ had indented with the enemy aforehand for their security, Joh. 18.8. so that they needed not have retreated so disorderly, and scattered as they did. But the fear of man bringeth a snare. Howbeit man's badness cannot break off the course of Christ's goodness. For though they thus unworthily forsake him, and leave him at the worst (as they say) yet I will turn my hand, saith he, upon the little ones, i.e. I will recollect my dispersed flock (how little soever either for number, or respect in the world) and bring back my banished. So soon doth it repent the good Lord concerning his servants. He remembereth not iniquity forever, saith the Prophet, because mercy pleaseth him: and again, He remembereth us in our low estates: for his mercy endureth forever. He looked back upon Peter when his mouth was now big swoln with oaths and execrations, and set him a weeping bitterly. He called for Thomas after his resurrection, and confirmed his weak faith by a wonderful condescension. He sealed up his love to them all again, restoring them to their ministerial employment: and not so much as once upbraiding them with their base dereliction, but only with their unbelief. Lyra and others sense the Text thus: I will turn my hand upon the little ones, that is, I will so smite the Shepherd Christ, that not only the sheep shall be scattered, but the little lambs also, even the least and lowest Christians shall have their share of sufferings, shall feel the weight of my hand, shall pledge the Lord Christ in that cup of afflictions that I have put into his hand; shall be conformed to the Image of God's Son, as his co-sufferers, that he may be the first born among many brethren, Rom. 8.29. And this was fulfilled in the persecutions that followed soon after our Savior's death. Ecclesia haeres crucis, saith Luther: and Persecutio ect Evangelij genius, saith Calvin. Persecution is the black Angel that dogs the Church, the red horse that • ollows the white at the heels. All the comfort is, that God's holy hand hath a special stroke in all those afflictions that are laid upon his faithful people, I will turn mine hand, &c.

Verse 8. Two parts therein shall be cut off and die ] q.d. they shall, they shall, how strange or incredible soever this sad tidings seem to you: it shall be even so, take my word for it. Behold the severity of God, Rom. 11.22. In the Greek it is the Resection or Cutting off, as a Surgeon cutteth off proud and dead flesh. The Just Lord is in the midst thereof: he will not do iniquity, &c. Zeph. 3.5. Fiat justitia, ruat coelum may seem to be his Motto. In point of justice he stands not upon multitudes, Psal. 9.17. It is all one to him whether against a Nation or against a man only, Job 34.29. National sins bring national plagues: heinous sins, heavy punishments. In the universal deluge God swept away all: as if he had blotted out that part of his title, The Lord, the Lord, gracious, merciful, &c. and had taken up that of Attilas, Orbis flagellum, The worlds scourge, Sodom's sins were multiplied above measure: therefore God took them away as he saw good, Ezek. 16.49, 50 and hath thrown them out, as St. Jude speaketh, for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Herodotus a Heathen Historian saith the very same of the destruction of Troy, viz. that the ruins and rubbish thereof are set forth for an example of that noted Rule, that God greatly punisheth great offenses, and that heinous sins bring hideous plagues. Here we have two parts of three cut off in the land of Judea: as it fell out at the last destruction thereof by the Romans: at which time more then a million of men perished, see Matth. 24.21. with the Note. And what think we shall become of Babylon the great? Her sins reach up to heaven, whereunto they are even glued and fastened as the word signifies, Rev. 18.5. therefore she shall be brought down to hell with Capernaum (for flagitium & flagellum sicu • acus & filum ) therefore shall her plagues come in one day (to confute their fond conceit of an eternal Empire) death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be utterly overthrown with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her, full able to effect it, seem it to Babels brats never so improbable, or impossible. It was never besieged since it became Papal, but it was taken: whereas before, it was held invincible. Sin that lieth at the bottom, will easily undermine and overturn the walis, though never so strong built: as the voice from heaven told Phocas the Murderer. The blood of that innocent Lamb of God lies heavy upon the whole Nation of the Jews to this day. Their last devastation and present dismal dispersion is such, as that one of their own Rabines concludes from thence, that their Mesliah must needs be come: and they must needs suffer so much for killing him.

but the third shall be left therein ] A holy remnant kept for a reserve. Good husbands cast not all their corn into the oven, but keep some for seed. But yet in it shall be a tenth, saith another Prophet: there shall be 'two or three berries in the top of a trce, four or five in the outmost branches. God's Elect are so very few, that the world shall wonder; Isaiah 8.18. and even hoot to see Christ's flock so very little, little, as our Savior speaks, Luke 12.22. as Israel stood like two little flocks of kids, when the Syrians filled the country. There were but a few names in Sardis: and many bad in the best Churches: as at Philippi, Chap. 3.18. Christ wondered at one good Nath. nacl, as rara avis in terris: and when he comes; shall he find faith? How many (think you) shall be saved in this City? saith ( Chrysostom in his fourth sermon to the people at Antioch. It will be a hard speech to you, but I will speak it: Though there be so many thousands, yet there cannot be sound an hundred, that shall be saved. And I doubt of them too, &c. And again in his third Sermon upon the Acts, he breaks out into this speech, Non arbitror inter sacerdores, multos esse qui sàlvi siant, I do not think that there are many, no not among the Ministry, that can be saved, since many are called, but few are chosen: like as all the people were called together by Samuel, but Saul only was chosen king. Only the called according to purpose are elected, and shall be glorified, Rom. 8.28, 29. Christ at last day will do as Joshua did to find out who had stolen the Babylonish garment: there were many brought together, and all to find out one. So, all shall then appear: out of them a small number deducted, that have heard of Christ. Out of them, those that have professed him, and out of them, those that have professed him, in sincerity, and these will be Mithe mispar, a small few indeed. Hence they are called pearls, which are but few to the number of pibbles: Jewels which are but little to the lumber: strangers that are nothing so many as home-dwellers: sons of God, and of the blood royal; and of such there are but a few to common subjects. Rari quippe boui, saith the Poet. And Pauci sunt qui Philosophantur saith UIpian the Lawyer; &c.

Verse 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire ] Few they were, but not faultless: they must therefore thorough the fire, that there they may leave their dregs and dross behind them. For Quod ignis cst auro, lima ferro, ventilabrum truico, lixivium pa • no, sal carni, hoc tribulatio est viro usto, saith Corn. a Lapide upon this Text: that is, what the fire is to the gold, the file to iron, the fan to wheat, the sope to clothes, the salt to flesh, that is tribulation sanctified to a righteous man. God is said to have his fire in Zion, and his surnace in Jerusalem, Isaiah 31.9. to carry his thorough fire and thorough water, Psal. 66.12, from above to send fire into their bones, Lam. 1.13. to put them to the fiery trial, 1 Pet. 4.12. yea he himself is a Refiners fire unto them, and Fullers sope, Mal. 3.2. (see the Note there.) He knows them to be right gold, which will endure the seventh fire (Alchymy gold will not so) and therefore he puts them toit: that the trial of their faith being much more precious then that of gold that perisheth, though tried in the fire, may be found to praise, and honor, and glory, 1 Pet. 1.7. himself, mean-while, goeth with them into the fire and pulleth them out as a brand, Zech. 3. Non sic impij, not so the ungodly. True it is, the trial of their works also shall be by fire, 1 Cor. 3.13. and they shall give an account one day with all the world on a light flame about their ears, 2 Pet. 3.12. Then shall they find, that the law they are judged by is a fiery law, the tribunal is of fire, Ezek. 1.27. the Judge a consuming fire, Heb. 12.28. his attendants Seraphims, that is, flaming creatures, Heb. 1.7. his pleading with sinners in fire of flame, 2 Thess. 1.7. the place of punishment a lakeof fire fed with a river of brimstone, Isa. 30.33. a formidable fire it is, fed with tormenting temper, and kindled by God's own breath instead of bellows. Bellarmine is of opinion, that one glimpse of this fearful fire were enough to make a man not only turn Christian and sober, but Anchoret and Monk, and to live after the strictest order that can be. Pope Clement the fifth, upon the death of a Nephew of his and one of his Catamites, sent his Chaplain to a Conjurer, to inquire how it fared with him in the other world. The Conjurer shown him to the Chaplain lying in a bed of fire in hell; This news so affected the wretched Pope, that he never held up his head, but ( Nabal -like) died within a few days after it. But oh what a dreadful shriek gave his guilty soul, to see itself launching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead, and to think that it must swim naked therein forever.

and will refine them, as silver is resined ] This is all the hurt he doth them by the fire; he hides pride from them, Job 33.19, &c. and divides betwixt the sin which he hates, and the son whom he loves. For by this the iniquity of Jacob shall be purged: and this is all the fruit, the taking away of their sin: which they may very well spare, and never hurt themselves. Surely, as one poison is antidotary to another: so is affliction to sin: when sanctified, it is no more penal, but medicinal; not a curse, but a cure. As oil of scorpions is good against the biting of scorpions. As the wine wherein a viper hath been drowned cureth a leprosy. As the juice of hemlock (a deadly plant) heals hot corroding ulcers, and asswageth the inflammation of the eyes: Or, as Rhubarb, though full of choler, doth mightily purge choler. Moses neglected to circumcise his child (as we do our hearts, it is such a bloody work) till God met him and would have killed him. David could never see the benesit of affliction, till God by those sharp waters had cleared up his eye-sight. Geheza's leprosy cured him: his white forehead made him have a whiter soul. Surely, as the fining-pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, so is affliction to the soul. Corrections of instruction, are the way of life, Pro. 6.23. But he that refuseth correction despiseth his own soul, Pro. 15 32. Winds and thunder clear the air (whereof they are the beesoms, saith Ruperius ) so do crosses the soul. • f the outward man decay, the inward is thereby renewed: and the winter of the one, is the spring of the other. As the viper when he is lashed, casteth up his poison: so doth the good soul when afflicted, purge itself from all filth of flesh and spirit, striving to perfect holiness in the fear of God. These Jews after they had been in the Babylonish furnace for idolatry, hated and feared that sin as much as the burnt child dreads the fire. They would die any death rather then admit an idol. Josephus tells how stoutly they opposed Pilate, and Petronius, that would would have set up Caesars statue in their Temples, offering their throats to the swords of the soldiers, rather then they would endure that idol in God's house. What God is now doing with them, and for them, in this long time of their sad desolation and dispersion, who can tell? There are that think, that after much purging and proving, as here, God will gather a Church of them to himself: according to that which followeth; They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them, I will say, it is my people, &c. And that upon their profession of Christ, shall come the sorest time of affliction that ever was, chap. 14.1, 2. when Gog and Magog with all his troops, and armies shall compass the beloved city, Rev. 20.8, 9. But the Jews shall get a glorious Conquest: for God himself from heaven will miraculously fight for them, verse 3, 4, 5. together with all the holy Angels, the ministers of his judgments, verse 5. Sure it is, that the Turks fear some such thing as this: and therefore they cannot abide that any Jew amongst them should turn Christian. In the year 1528. a certain Jew dwelling in Constantinople became a good Christian, and was baptized: which the Turks understanding were vehemently exasperated against him for it; fearing lest his conversion should prove prejudicial to their Mahometan religion, and therefore they apprehended and cruelly murdered him.

and try them as gold is tried ] viz. that when I have tried them, they may come forth as gold, Job 33.10. Hence God's people fall into manifold temptations, Jam. 1.2. they fall, they go not into them step by step, but are precipitated, plunged into them: and not into one of them, or a few, but into manifold temptations, or trials: yea fiery trials, so afflictions are called, because thereby God proves what is in his people, Deut. 8.16. Rev. 2.10. Not to better his own knowledge of them neither; for he knows all things, and is intimo nostro intimior nobis, Job. 2.25. Act. 1.24. Heb. 4.12. Artificers perfectly know the nature and properties of their own works, and shall not God see, Psal. 94.9, 10. But tentat ut sciat, hoc est, ut scire nos fac • at, he trieth us. 1. That he may make discoveries of himself unto us, especially of his power and goodness: and so get him a name, as Isaiah 63.11, 12, 13. 2 Cor. 12.9. Elias would have water poured upon the sacrifices, yea the Altar covered therewith, that God's power might the more appear, in consuming it with fire from heaven, and the people thereupon might cry, Jehovah he is God, Jehovah he is God: think the same here. 2. That he may make discoveries of us to ourselves, and to others; who are apt to misjudge and undervalue us: as not only Satan did, Job chap. 1.9. but even Elihu, also (though otherwise a good man, and the best of his friends) chap. 34.36. But when they see our holy carriage under the cross, they can say of us as that Centurion did of our Savior, Luke 23. Verily this was the Son of God: and as one Culocerius in the Church-history, when he saw the piety and constancy of the Martyrs, he cried out, Vere magnus est Deus Christïanorum, The Christians God is a great God indeed. But as by afflictions we are made known to others, so to ourselves much more. We are apt either to over-value, or else to under-value ourselves, till put to the trial: as is to be seen in the history of Saunders and Pendleton. Hard weather tries what health; wind and storms what sap: withered leaves soon fall off. Rotten boughs with heavy weights quickly break. Woodden vessels, set empty to the fire, soon break and leak; not so vessels of gold and silver. The best divination what men are is at the parting-way, as Ezek. 21.21. When the fire comes to green wood, it will appear what's within: when the pond is empty, what's in the bottom. It is not known what corn will yield, till it come to the flail: nor what grapes, till it come to the press. Grace is like the stone Chrysolampis, quem lux celat prodit obscurum, which shine brightest in the dark. The skill of a Pilot is unknown but in a tempest: the valor of a Captain, but in a battle: the faithfulness of a wife, but in an assault. The wicked tried are found to be but reprobate silver: or at best, but Alchymy-gold, that endureth not the seventh fire. They are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Crocodiles, Chameleons, Bats, Spunges, &c. They murmur when tried, as Psal. 78.40, 41. Or curse, as Micah's mother, Judge. 17. Or fret, and howl upward, as Wolves when hunge-rbit, Isaiah 8.21. Or faint in the day of affliction, as Saul, who lay upon the ground like a beast, 1 Sam. 28.20. Or Nabal, who lay in his bed like a block. Or desert God and his cause, as those Renegado's, Dan. 11.32. and those in the Palatinate, who fell to Popery as fast as leaves fall off the trees in Autumn. Many titular Christians amongst us, were, in times of peace, but as wolves in a cage, but as lions tamed by art: they wanted nothing but liberty and opportunity to show their wolvish and worrying natures, which now these late shedding and discriminating times have sufficiently discovered. Have all these workers of iniquity no knowledge, who eat up God's people as they eat bread, and call not upon God? They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them. No time for hearing of prayers and obtaining of suits like that of affliction. Those are mollissima fandi Tempora, the time of affliction is the very time of supplication: then our hearts are largest, then God's ear is openest. Then the saints may have anything for asking, Psal. 50.15. and 91.15. Thus Lot had Zoar at his request, Deut. 29.23. Paul had all the souls in the ship given him, Act. 27. Jacob greatly fearing to be bereft of his Benjamin prayed, God give you bowels of mercy before the man, Gen. 43.14. He prayed it, and he had it, ver. 30. For Joseph made hast: for his bowels did yern upon his brother, &c. God reserves his best comforts for the worst times: as the feast-maker kept his best wine till the last, John. 2. as the mother brings forth her conserves and cordials, when the child sis at sickest, Israel was never so royally provided for, as in the wilderness. I will bring her into the wilderness and speak to her heart, Hos. 2.13. As a bone once broken is stronger after setting: and as lovers are never greater friends then after a falling out: so is it betwixt God and his people. Affliction exciteth devotion,-as the bellows doth the fire, and excited devotion prevaileth much, I am. 5.16.

I will say, It is my people and they shall say, The Lord is my God ] by a gracious compliance they shall with highest estimations, most vigorous affections and utmost endeavors bestow themselves upon that God that hath so far owned and honored them as tost rike a covenant with them: the fruits whereof are sure mercies, compassions that fail not, all the blessings of this and a better life. A covenant is the collection of many promises; as a constellation is the collection of many stars: and though it be (in sum) but one promise, I will be thy God, yet it is such an one as comprehends all: and is therefore fifteen times, at least, mentioned in scripture. It is the substance of the Covenant of grace, saith Junius: the soul of it, saith Pareus: the head or top of it, saith Musculus: Deus meus & omnia, saith Luther, God is mine, all's therefore mine. But then, as God must be our All-sufficient, so we must be his Altogether: and when he cries out, Who is on my side, who? One shall say I am the Lord's: and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob: and another shall subscribe with his hand to the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel Isaiah 44.5. O it is ablessed sign that God hath chosen us first 1 John. 4.19. when we choose God as Psal. 73.25. sincerely avouching him for our God. Sincerity (or Evangelical perfection) is the only absolute condition of the Covenant of grace Gen. 17.1. God and the Saints have ever judged of men by this: Judge me, O Lord, according to mine integrity, saith David, The promises are made to it Psal. 119.1. Mat. 5.8. God's eye is upon it as in David the man after God's own heart. He blesseth the little that such have, as in Nathanael, Cornelius, the Eunuch. He passeth by their infirmities, as in Asa 1 King. 15.14. and accepteth their services nevertheless. as 2 Chron. 30.19, 20.

CHAP. XIV.

Verse 1. BEhold the day of the Lord cometh ] Jerusalem had her day, and knew it not Luke 19.42. (Jerusalem was not Jerusalem: the vision of peace, saw not the things that belonged to her peace ) God therefore will have his day of vengeance, as she had of visitation. He hath his season, his harvest for judgment Mat. 13.30. and when wickedness is ripe in the field, he will suffer it to grow no longer, lest it shed and spread: but cuts it up by a just and seasonable vengeance. These Jews were by their own confession the children of them which had killed the Prophets: and, by killing the Lord Christ with wicked hands, they had filled up the measure of their fathers Mat. 23.31, 32. what could therefore the Lord do less to a nation so incorrigibly flagitious, then bring wrath upon them to the utmost 1 Thess. 2.16? then send forth his armies and destroy those murderers, and burn up their cities? When God did this execution here mentioned, is hard to say: Whether by Antiochus Epiphanes (or rather Epimanes, as some truly called him, for that being exceedingly mad against the Jews, he persecuted the Church of God and wasted it ) Or by the Roman spoilers at that last devastation under the command of Titus. Or by Cosroes the Persian, and Homar the Arabian, who successively harased and rased Jerusalem, rifling the houses, ravishing the women, killing whom they pleased, and making the rest pay dear for the very heads they wore: which servitude lasted till Godfrey of Bullin set them at liberty: so the Gloss here senseth it. Or lastly by Gog and Magog, that is, by the great Turk (for Magog is the Scythian nation from whom came the Turks, Lord's of Meshec and Tubal, that is, of Cappadocia and Iberia where they first began to reign) as is before hinted; I take not upon me to determine. The most understand it of the last overthrow of the Romans. The Spirit might have an eye to the Antichristian persecutions of the Orthodox Professors of the Romish Edomites.

and the spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee ] Freely and fearelesly, none rising up to make them afraid, the vanquished shall be so disabled and dispirited. Thus the silly doves are glad to save themselves by flight, not fight; sometimes they sit in their deve-coats, and see their nests destroyed, and young ones killed, not daring once to rescue or revenge.

Verse 2. For I will gather all nations ] The Romans that styled and held themselves Lord's of all nations, and who had levied a mighty army out of all nations to fight against Jerusalem. See Joseph. lib. 3. belli Iud. chap. 1. and 3. Or Gog and Magog with all his armies and aslociates Ezek. 37.4, 5, 6. shall compass the beloved city Rev. 20.8, 9. See Verse 1. with the Note. Would any man take the Churches picture? then let him, saith Luther, paint a silly poor maid sitting in a wood or wilderness, and compassed about with hungry lions, wolves, boares and bears &c. and in the midst of a great many surious men assaulting her every moment: Let him give her say I, that of Martial for her Motto.

and the city shall be taken ] Non tamen ad exitium, sed ad exercitium. I have forsaken mine house: I have lest mine heritage (saith the Lord Ier. 12.7.) I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hand of her enemies. At which times there is usually, as at Athens when taken by Sylla 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a bloody butchery.

and the houses risled ] As at the sack of Constantinople by the Turks: where the soldiers are said to have divided money among themselves by whole hat-fuls: and were therewith so enriched, that 'tis a proverb amongst them at this day, if any grow suddenly rich, to say, he hath been at the sacking of Constantinople. The Emperor had in vain many times with tears requested to have borrowed money of his covetous subjects, to have been employed in the defense of the city; but they would still swear that they had it not: as men grown poor for want of trade. Which in few days after, their enemies found in such abundance, that they wondered at their wealth, and derided their folly, that possessing so much they would bestow so little in the defense of themselves and their country.

and the women ravished ] These are the common calamities of war: in the in the lawless violence whereof those three commandments, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal: as they are ranked together in the law, so they are usually violated together, Hence Isa. 13.16. Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. The Irish rebels bound the husband to the bed-post, whiles they abused his wife before his face. In the time of K. Edward the third, the French soldiers at Winchelsey in Sussex took their lustful turns upon a beautiful woman in the Church, and at the time of divine service, until they had turned her out of the world, as a learned man phraseth it.

and half of the city shall go forth into captivity ] An evil, an only evil, threatened Deut. 28. and sulfilled to the utmost upon this nation, so shamelessly, so lawlesly wicked, as can hardly be peered or paralleled. I have noted before, that this their last captivity and dispersion is such, as that one of their own Rabbin's concludeth from thence, that their Messiah must needs be come, and they must needs suffer so much for killing him. They use to say that there is still an ounce of the golden calf in all their public calamities. There is another thing lieth more heavily upon them to this day, were they but sensible of it. Let us be sending up, and sighing out for them that of the Psalmist, O that the salvation of Israel were come out of Zion! when the Lord bringeth back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Psa. 14.7.

and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city ] A remnant shall be reserved as it were for royal use: whether a third part as chap. 13.8. or an half, as here, 'tis not much material: in numeris non est anxie laborandum, saith Calvin here; for the direct number, it is neither here nor there as we say. God shall reserve unto himself a set and select number. He who comforteth those that are cast down, speaketh this to his, for encouragement. The Church may be shaken, not shivered: persecuted, but not forsaken: cast down, but not destroyed 2 Cor. 4.9.

Verse 3. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations ] Some read it, Among those nations: He shall be the Archistrategus, the Commander in chief of those Armies, which he hath brought together against Jerusalem, to revenge upon her the quarrel of his Covenant. But I like the other way better: because it is purposely spoken for the comfort of Saints in evil times. When therefore there is dignus vindice nodus, & periculum par animo Alexandri, as he was wont to say, when it is time for God to arise, that his enemies may be scattered, and those that hate him, fly before him; he will arise and have mercy upon Zion; he will awake as in the days of old: he will come forth from his holy place to the relcue of his praying people. There brake he the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle, Selab. There he appeared more glorious and excellent then the mountains of prey. There he did, and there he will: for this is a common and currant Scripture-medium. God shall fight against those nations, the very rod of his wrath: which after he hath worn to the stump, he will cast it into the fire. The wicked are called God's sword Psal. 17.13. But it will fall out with them, as with that sword which Hector gave Ajax; which so long as he used against his enemies, served for help and defense: but after he began to abuse it to the hurt of hurtlesse beasts, it turned into his own bowels.

as when he fought in the day of battle ] with his own bare hand as it were, Isaiah 52.10. and in a miraculous manner, as he did for Israel at the red sea, for Joshua, Jehoshaphat, Hezekiah &c. and as he shall do at that last great battle against Antichrist and his Adherents Rev. 20.8, 9, 10. which is here (haply) pointed at. Let the Lord but arise only and his enemies shall be scattered: but if he once take hold of shield and buckler, (for defense) he draw out the spear and sword (those weapons of offense) and appear as a man of war Exod. 15.3. or as a Lord and Victour of wars (so the Chaldee there hath it) he will charge thorough and thorough, he will burn them together Isaiah 27.4. and in the same place 2 Sam. 23.7.

Verse 4. And his fcet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives ] that is, he shall so put forth his power for defense of his people, as if he did visibly appear amongst them, and beheld the fight from the top of a mountain: like as Zerxes used to pitch his tent on high, and stand looking on his army when in fight, to encourage them, and to send out orders. From this Mount it was, that God departed after many former removes, from Jerusalem Ezech. 11.23. And what wonder, when as Har Hamischa the mount of Unction was become Har Hamaschith the mount of Corruption 2 King. 23.13? the bold lews having let up their Idol in this mount Olivet, even in the sight of the Lord: so that he never looked out of the Sanctuary, but he beheld that vile hill of abominations. From this mount it was that our Lord Christ ascended into heaven, Act. 1.11. There he was apprehended by the Jews: there therefore it is prophesied that he shall stand against them by the Romans, say some, out of Josep. de Bello Jud. lib. 6. cap. 3. And that when these things should come to pasle the Jews might know that their utter destruction was near at hand. So God shown unto the Ninevites on what side their city should be taken: and what at that time should be the power and the attempts of the enemy against them, Nah. 2. and 3. and yet neither of these repented for all this. Others (more probably) hold that here is promised such a powerful presence of God for the relief of his people, as shall far exceed the glory that appeared at the promulgation of the law, when the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs: so terrible also was the sight, that Moscs said, I exceedingly fear and quake. I also see and tremble at the resemblance (said an holy man) betwixt that giving of the law, and the requiring of it at the last day. In the one Mount Sinai only was on a flame: all the world shall be so in the other. To the One, Moses (that climbed up that hill, and alone saw it) says, God came with ten thousand of his Saints. In the other, thousand thousands shall minister to him, and ten thousand thousands shall stand before him. Hereunto some refer that obscure passage in the next verse, The Lord my God shall come, and all the Saints with thee: and that at the day of judgment Christ shall descend with all his Angels into mount Olivet, which hangs over the valley of Jehoshaphar, that there he may plead with all nations, for his people, and for his heritage Isracl, whom they have scattered, and parted their land Joel. 3.2. Further they say, that mount Olivet shall then be shaken with a very great earthquake: so that it shall cleave in the midst, and leave a very great valley: it shall enlarge the valley of Jehoshaphat, that it may be able to receive those that are there to be judged by Christ. Thus Lessius, Sa, à Costa, à Lapide, who also citeth for his purpose Clemens Romanus lib. 7. Constit. Ap. cap. 33. speaking thus, Mons ipse Oliveti gloriae venientis cedet & in quaetuor partes dissectus longissime diffugiel, ut tribunali judicis theatrum totius orbis assistat. i. e. Mount Olivet shall give place to the glory of Christ when he cometh; and being clest into four parts, it shall fly far afonder, to the end that the theater of the whole world may stand before the tribunal of the Judge. Thus He. and surely the following verses, 6, 7, 8, &c. seem to favor this interpretation, and to have relation to the last Day. But in Prophesies not yet fulfilled (as this may be one) it is better and more sure to expect and stay for the explication by the event, then to give it without any certain ground.

Verse 5. And ye shall slee to the valley of the mount ains ] Or, ye shall flee the valley of the mountains, sc. of mount Olivet, made by God ( verse 4.) by whom the Romans were set awork to garrison Mount Olivet against the Jews: and, by digging down a great part of it, to fill up the brook Cedron or the town-ditch, and to bring a wall (wherewith they compassed about the whole city) thorough the midst of this mount: whereby the city was greatly pressed, and much annoyed. This Mountain ye shall flee (as many of you as are Azal; that is separated: confer Exod. 24.11. Isaiah 4 • .4.) and repair to Pella, a place of rest provided for you. Not without some perturbation of spirit (though causeless) as in common calamities it falleth out; and the like shall befall the very Elect also at the last day, till they have recollected themselves, till they remember that now their redemption draweth nigh.

And ye shall flec ] sc. with utmost hast and fright j death being that terrible of terribles, as the Philosopher calleth it, Natures slaughterman, Hells Purveyour, &c.

like as ye fled from before the earthquake ] which might be as sad and as sudden as that at Pleures in Rhetia, Anno 1618. Aug. 25. the whole town was overcovered with with a mountain, which with its most swift motion oppressed 1500. people.

in the days of Uzzaah king of Judah ] Whether this earthquake fell out just at that instant time when Uzzaah offered incense, and was therefore smitten with leprosy (as the lewish Doctors affirm) i have not to say. But of the horror of it (besides Am. 1.1. Joscphus relateth, that a mountain towards the West cleft in sunder and removed from its proper place the space of four furlongs, or half a mile: and farther it had proceeded, had not a great mountain towards the East stayed its course. Camden reporteth the like hereunto to have fallen out in Heresord hire, Anno 1571. Cal. Martij 12. about six of the clock in the evening, a great hill lifted up it self with a huge noise, and ascending into an higer place, carried along with it trees, flocks of cattle, sheep-coats, walked about from Saturday night till Monday noon, overturned a certain Chapel that stood in its way, &c. This kind of earthquake Philosophers call Brasmatia.

and the Lord my God shall come ] q. d. Let scoffers doubt and deride, saying, where is the promise of his coming? My God will effect with his hand what he hath spoken with his mouth, he will, he will, Habac. 2.3. There is an Emphasis in the word My (q.d. The God whose I am, yea 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 wholly his, as Aristotle saith of a servant) and another in the following Apostrophe.

and all the saints with thee ] The Prophet in an holy indignation at his hearers obstinacy and untractablenesse, turns him thus to God: like as doth old Jacob, Gen. 49.18. and our blessed Savior tired out with the people's perverseness, Mat. 11.25, 26. See the Note on both places.

Verse 6. And it shall come to pass in that day ] that is, saith Diod uc, after the destruction of Antichrist shall the son of God come in, who shall bring the Church into its glory: where, without any vicissitude or variation of day and night, of calamity and prosperity, of knowledge and ignorance, it shall enjoy eternal light by the sight of God, Isai. 16.19, 20. Rev. 21.23. and 22.5. Thus he. Betwixt this fall of Antichrist and the Consummation of all, some place the full and final restauration of the Jews, and make this a description of that glorious Church they shall then erect. There shall be no darkness, but perpetual light. It shall not be saith our Prophet here, sometime clear, sometimes misty, (variable and uncertain weather, now fair, now foul) but one day, not of day and night: for in the evening when night is wont to come it shall be light: as if he should say, it shall be always day and no night 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a nightlesse day, a morning without clouds, a clear shining after rain, as David in another case, 2 Sam. 22.4. and as • vith the Hyperborians the whole half year is said to be but one continuate day; so that they sow and reap in a day.

Verse 7. Which shall be known to the Lord ] And that should suffice us, without further curious enquiries, de re nobis & toti mundo abscondita, concerning the set times and the seasons which the Father hath put in his own power, Act. 1.7. The Muscovites use to say in a dark point, in a difficult question, God and our great Duke know all this; And in other talk, all we enjoy health, and life, & all from our great Duke: therefore let us leave all to him. hold not we much more to God? Time hath already confuted those learned men, who from Dan. 12.11. pitched their calculation for the Jews restauration upon the year 1650. Those that shall live a few years longer shall see what will become of their confidence? who have undertaken to prove out of Daniel and the Revelation, that the Prophetical numbers come to an end with the year of our Lord 1655. because then the seventh Trumpet shall sound; and then the six thousand years from the Creation of the world do expire as they compute.

Verse 8. Living waters shall go out from Jerusalem ] i.e. Abundance of spiritual graces frequently in scripture compared to waters, for their cooling, cleansing, quick ning property, Isai. 44.3. Ezek; 36.25. and 47.1. John 7.38.. And of these waters without all doubt, our baptism ordained of God is a figure and sacrament. Living waters they are called: that is running as a Spring, not standing as a pool. The godly esteem of life by that stirring they find in their souls, Isa. 38.15, 16. In all these things is the life of my spirit: else they lament as over a dead soul. "O live, live (saith a Reverend man) live quickly, live much, live long. Many live more in a day then others in a year: for life consisteth in action: and so much every man liveth, as he acteth graciously. Up therefore and be doing something of worth: whereof ye may testify that ye have lived. And for this, get a principle of life, the spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus, and then, if ye live in the Spirit, y •• hall also walk in the spirit, Gal. 5.25. and not fulfill the lusts of the siesh, verse 16. The waters of the sea, though by their natural course they follow the center, yet by obedience to the Moon they are subject to her motion; and so turn, and return, ebb and flow, and are kept in continual motion, to keep them from corruption: so those that are spiritual, though naturally they are carried downward, and the best that of themselves they can do is but dead work: Yet so far as they are spiritualized, heavenlized, they are acting for God, and all their deeds are wrought in him, John 3.21. It is their great care to wear out, not rust out: to burn out, not to be blown out: yea to flame out, not to smother out: to serve out their generation, as David did not to idle it out: to live their utmost, and not (as Job. 27.15. with 23.) to be buried, before half dead.

in summer and winter shall it be ] such is the perennity and perpetuity of true grace: it ever flows— more perennis aquae. As it is not like the River Araris of which Caesar saith, that it cannot with eyes be discerned whether it flow forward or backward (so slow and still is its motion:) so neither is it like the brook Cherith, that dried up before the Prophet, because there had been no rain in the Land: or like the River Novanus in Lombardy which (saith Pliny ) at every Midsomer solstice swelleth and runneth over the banks; but at mid-winter, is clean dry. But as the waters of the Sanctuary, Ezek. 47.4, &c. And as the poople of Siloam, which served all Jerusalem, and was for every use to the citizens: or Hezakiah's watercourses, 2 Kin. 20.20. Neh. 3.15, 16. whereunto some think that the Prophet here alludeth. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow Rivers of living waters. But this he spake (saith the Evangelist) of the sp • rit which they that believe on him should receive, John 7.38, 39.

Verse 9. And the Lord shall be King over all the carth ] At the sounding of the seventh Angel, the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ: and he shall reign forever and ever, Rev. 11.15, 17. Cosmographers tell us, that if we divide all the known world into thirty parts, the Heathens part is as nineteen of this thirty: the Mohammedans as six, the Christians as five only. And of those that profess the name of Christ, three parts at least of those five are possessed by Idolatrous Papists; who say they believe in one only true God, but indeed set up many He-saints and She-saints, whom they adore with divine worship: and therein are no better then Pagans. Hence they are called Gentiles, Rev. 11.2. and are said to worship Devils, R • v. 9.20 with 1 Cor. 10.20. Cardinal Bombus saith of their Saint Franci • , that he was in numcrum Deorum ab • Ecclesia Rom. relatus. At Ruremund in Gelderland, a play was acted by the Jesuits, Anno Dom. 1622. under the title of the Apotheosis of St. Ignatius the founder of that Order. In the year 610. Boniface the fourth ordained the feast of All-saints, after that he had obtained of the Emperor the Idol-temple at Rome called the Pantheon; wherein he placed the Virgin Mary in the room of Cybcle the Mother of the Heathen God's. Now the time is yet to come (and oh that it were come!) that, all false worship laid aside and abandoned, the fullness of the Gentiles shall be brought in: and from the Jews (as some gather from this Text compared with others) shall the Gospel go out to all Nations of the world, Isaiah. 2.3. who with one consent shall submit themselves to Christ. Ashur and Egypt, all those large and vast Countries, the whole tract of the East and of the South shall embrace the faith of Christ and be converted, Isa. 19.23, 24, 25. and 27.12, 13. Mich. 7.11, 12. Psal. 68 31. and 72.9, 10, 11. Rev. 21.14. O dieculam illam! Neither need we think it incredible: God can hiss for them and fetch them in 'suddenly: he can cause a Nation to conceive and bring forth in one day, Isaiah 66.8, 9. A Text that Cardinal Poole in a letter to Pope Julius the third abused: by applying it to the bringing in of Popery again so universally and suddenly in Queen Mary's days.

shall there be one Lord ] Be the God's of the Heathen good-fellows saith One, the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. Be it that to Pagans and Papagans there are God's many and Lord's many: to us there is but one God, and but one Mediator betwixt God and man, the man Christ Jesus. As for all others, say we of them, as that Heathen once did, Comemno minutos istos Deos modo Jovem propitium habeam, I care not for those petty-deities, so long as Jehovah favoreth me. Hear O Israel (saith Moses, Deut. 6.4.) Jehovah thy God, Jehovah is one. The Hebrew word there used for One hath Daleth the last letter (which also stands in number for • our) extraordinary great in the Original: to signify say the Jew-Doctors, that this one God shall be worshipped in the four corners of the earth.

and his Name one ] that is, One way of worship; all Superstitions being abolished, see Mich. 4.5. Or, his Name, that is, his glory as Psal. 8.1. his transcendent excellency shall be supereminent: He shall have a name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow. Thus the word Name is used both in Divine and Human Authors, Gen. 6.14. Men of Name, that is, of Renown: so Numb. 1.16. and 16.2. Acts 1.15. the number of Names, that is, of the chiestaines that were fit to act in the Election. Contrary whereunto is men without name, Job 30.8. men written in the earth, Jer. 17.30. shrouded in the sheet of shame, and whose happiness it is to be forgotten in the City, Eccles. 8.10. So the Poets call Eminent and famous men Nomina, as Ovid doth Augustus:

And speaking of some famous person he saith

Vers. 10. All the land shall be turned as a plain. ] Or, shall be compassed about as a plain, ut aquore plano, so the Tigurine translation. Godshal enlarge the bounds of his Church; he shall lay all level, that people may come in amain from all parts. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough-ways smooth, Luk. 3.5. The wilderness, and the folitary place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose: It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it; the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God, Esa. 35.1, 2. The Prophet here showeth that all the land shall be inhabited from one end unto another; From Geba the North-confine, to Rimmon, the South- • order, Josh. 15.32, 57. And from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first (or old) gate, Neh. 3.6. which stood Westward, unto the corner gate (See 2 Chron. 26.9. & 25.23.) or the gate that looketh Eastward. The limits of the Church shall be greatly enlarged; the rough and rugged mountains being made as the smooth and pleasant champions. The faithful shall pass from Geba to Rimmon, from the mountains of Myrrh and hills of Frankincense, to the Pomegranates (for so Rimmon signifieth, and from the plenty of that fruit there, this place seemeth to have taken its name) that is, from Humiliation and Supplication for pardon and power against corruption, to Love and good Works, looking up, and pressing hard toward the high prize proposed unto them; as the many grains within the case of the Pomegranate do point, and as it were all look up together unto the crown or circle that is without, upon the head of it. To the kings wine-presses ] which were on the West-side, where the so rmer two half-compasses did meet to make up a whole compass. Certain it is, that Jerusalem was a very large and spacious city, comprehending thirty furlongs at least, say those that have written of it. There was in it the upper and the nether town, whence it is called, Iie-rushalaiim in the dual. There was afterwards the old town and the new, called Boretha, or Caenopolis. But Ezech. 40.41, 42. &c. God showeth the Prophet a new Temple bigger then all the old Jerusalem put all together: and a new Jerusalem bigger then all the land of Canaan; by these very dimensions showing, that these things cannot be understood but spiritually. And the new Jerusalem in the Revelation as it lieth four square, looking every way to the four corners of the earth (like as Constantinople doth, which is theresore said to be a city fatally founded to command) so the measure of it is twelve thousand furlongs: which (according to some) make no less then 1500 miles.

Vers. 11. And men shall dwell in it. ] Heb. They shall dwell in it, sc. Multitudes of men. The new Jerusalem, the Church gathered by the preaching of the Gospel shall not be thinly inhabited, as the wilderness of Judea was: it shall not lie waste for want of people, as divers parts of Turkey do. It shall not need to call in the country, as in Nehemiah's days, to replenish it: but it shall be full thrust as an hive is with bees, where they hang out on heaps through want of room within or as Jerusalem was wont to be at the three solemn feasts; or lastly, as the Temple was at those feasts where the people were so crowded, that they were glad to stand and pray, for kneel or bow they could not. See Isaiah 51.3. Jer. 31 38, 39, 40. Obad. 19.20. And there shall be no more utter destruction. ] Heb. Cherem, which the vulgar Interpreter rendereth, Anathema; There shall be no more curse, no execrable or accursed thing; no casting out by excommunication; no cause to do so. (See the same, Rev. 22.3. No Canaanite in the Lord's house, as verse 21. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no stranger pass thorough her anymore, Joel 3.17. such shall be her sanctity. Others expound it of her safety and security (as in the following words, Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited. See the like, Jer. 23.6. & 33.16. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, Jehovah tsidkenu, The Lord our righteousness. A stately name indeed, and that which carries safety in the front of it. In Ezekiel the Church is called, I • hovah Shamma, The Lord is there: and the Psalmist gives the notation, and this note upon it, God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. But the Lord our righteousness is a more August name. It is Christ's own name: and imports that Christ will save his people from their sins (which would lay them naked to the wrath of God, and rage of enemies) he will redeem Israel from all his iniquities, and then he need not fear what man can do unto him. It was said of Achilles, that he was Styge armatus: But every child of the Church is, Coelo, Christo, Deo armatus: he hath the peace of God within him, and the power of God without him; and therefore cannot but be safe as in a tower of brass, or town of war. Ps. 90.1.

Verse 12. And this shall be the plague where with the Lord will smite, &c] The precedent promises that were so great and glorious, the Prophet doth now farther enlarge, and illustrate in the following verses: and first the conquest of the enemies, verse 12, 13, 14, 15. Next, the profession of Christ among all nations of the world, verse 16, 17, 18, 19. And lastly, the sanctity of the Church, verse 20, 21. The conquest of the enemies is set forth, First by God's strange judgments upon them, verse 12. Secondly, By the means, both they shall dispatch one another; and Judah shall fight bravely against them, verse 13, & 14. Thirdly, their wealth and substance shall become a prey, verse 14. Fourthly, their horses of service, and all the beasts they bring with them shall be as strangely plagued as the men themselves, verse 15. That have fought against Jerusalem. ] God will go forth and fight against them, verse 2 so that they shall wish they had never meddled. Haec erit plaga qua plagabit. God hath a mighty hand, I am. 4.9. and it is a fearful thing to fall into it, Heb. 10.31. for, who knoweth the power of his wrath? Psal. 90.11. One stroke of this hard and heavy hand, broke the angels backs, and cast them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment, 2 Pet. 2. • 4. Job felt but his little finger, as it were, and yet cries out for help, Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me, Job 19.21. It had but lightly tonched him, and yet he was hardly able to endure it. Oh the bloody wails that God's hand hath left upon the backs of his best children! Woe then to his enemies when he comes forth to fight against them. Their flesh shall consume away, whiles they stand upon their feet. ] They shall pine away in their iniquities, Levite. 26.30. their beauty shall consume away like a moth. Psal. 39.11. they shall melt as wax before the sun, or as the fat of lambs before the fire. God if he be not unto them as a lion to tear the kell of their hearts in sunder, yet he will be as a moth, and as a worm, insensibly to consume them, Hos. 5.12, 14. If he break not their teeth in their mouths by smiting them upon the cheek-bone, yet he will make them to melt away as waters which run continually; as a snail which melteth, and as the untimely birth of a woman that never seeth the sun, Psa. 58.6, 7, 8. God hath secret ways to wast his enemies, and to bring them on their knees when they are best under-set. He can trip up their heels when they are standing upon their feet, and lay them low enough in the slimy valley where are many already like them, and more shall come after them, Job 21.31, 32. God hath a Marasmus, an evil messenger for a malicious persecutor; as he had for Antiochus Epiphanes; for both the Herod's; for Maximinus the Tyrant; for Philip the second of Spain, Charles the ninth of France, Queen Mary of England, Steven Gardener, Arch-Bishop Arundel, Nestorius, Arius, and other odious Heretics, and enemies of the Church: amongst whom à Lapide the Jesuit reckons here Calvin, and saith, That like another Hered, he died a lowsie lothsom death: and for his authority thinks it enough to say, uti refert Bolsecus in ejus vita. But it must be understood, that the lives of Calvin and Beza were spitefully written by this Bolsecus their sworn enemy, that twice banished and thrice runagate Friar (liar I might have said) and Physician: for those names his often changes and hard chances have given him. This man being requested by the popish side (and its likely hired by them) to write thus, is in all their writings alleged as Canonical. And their eyes shall consume away in their holes. ] Physicians tell us of two thousand diseases that annoy man's body, two hundred whereof affect the eyes: All these are part of God's hosts, which are as much at God's command as the Centurions servants and soldiers were at his, when he said but, Go, or come, and they did accordingly. He can make men's eyes drop and cease, not without any intermission, as Lam. 3.49. till they melt out, as the Hebrew here hath it; even the very same word as before. he can smite men with sudden blindness (as he did the sinful Sodomites, that had eyes full of adultery ) such as tormented their eyes, as if they had been pricked with thorns, as the Hebrew word signifieth, Gen. 19.11. Failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind, is threatened as a judgment, Deut. 28.65. yea thou shalt be mad for the fight of thine eyes, which thou shalt see is another piece of the curse, verse 34. See 1 Sam. 2.33. And their tongue shall consume away in their mouth. ] As did the tongue of Nestorius the Heresiarch eaten out of his mouth with worms: Tho. Arundel, and Steven Gardener, two bloody persecutors, died of a like disease. Diodate understands all this to be a description of hell-torments. Their flesh shall consume, yet never be consumed; for they still stand upon their feet, or subsist, that they may still suffer; having no end, that their pain may be endless. Their eyes shall consume, &c, that is, saith he, though they be alive and can see, yet shall they be deprived of light in infernal darkness: having neither eyes nor understanding, but only to see and judge of their extreme misery. Their tongue shall consume away, &c. as did the rich gluttons, Luke 16.24. M. Calvin observeth here, that all is delivered in the singular number; his flesh shall consume; his eyes shall melt; his tongue, &c. (for so runs the Original) to note that every of Jerusalem's enemies shall taste of God's wrath; though some of them may haply hold themselves out of the reach of his rod. And, Secondly, that God can as easily destroy them all, as if he had to do but with one fingle man.

Verse 13. A great tumult from the Lord shall be among them. ] He shall fright them as he did the Philistines by a sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, 2 Sam. 5.24. and the Syrians by a hurry noise in the air, causing a Pannick terror, 2 King. 7.6. Therefore some render it, Erit strepitus vel fragor Domini magnus in eis, ut 1 Sam. 7.10. with 1 Sam. 2.10. Or, he shall exasperate and embitter them one against another; as he did Abimelech, and the men of Shechem, by sending an evil spirit between them, Judge. 9.23. that is by letting loose Satan upon them, that old man-slayer, that kindle-coal and make-bate of the world: and this in a way of just revenge for their treacherous conspiracy against the house of Gideon. Thus God first divided, and then destroyed the Midianites by setting every ones sword against his fellow, Judge. 7.23. So he dealt by the Philistines, 1 Sam. 14.15, 20. So the Kings of Syria and Egypt that succeeded Alexander, and were enemies to the Jews, destroyed one another: So did the Primitive Persecutors, the Turk and the Persian, the Spaniard and the French. In the year 1526. Charles the fifth Emperor of Germany, set at liberty his prisoner Francis King of France, upon this condition (among others) that they should join their forces and do their utmost to suppress and root out the Lutheran Heresy; that is, the truth of the Gospel, out of both their Dominions. But soon after they fell at variance amongst themselves, (the Pope blowing the bellows) whereby the Church had her Halcyons, sic canes lingunt ulcera Lazari.

shall take the hand of his neighbor ] as those yonkers of Helcath-hazzurim did, that sheathed their swords in their fellows bowels, 2 Sam. 2.16.

Verse 14. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem ] Shall fight like a lion, and do great exploits for his country; as Judas Maccabeus did: as Hunniades, that Maul of the Turks, and Skanderbeg, who killed 800. Turks with his own hand, and fought so earnestly sometimes, that the very blood burst out at his lips. So did Zisea, and the rest of Christ's worthy warriors: who by faith, (and yet by force of arms too) waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens, subdued kingdoms, fought the Lord's battles, Heb. 11.32, 34. They saw by faith, what is on the other side of the shore of this mortality: and that put mettle into them. The valor of the Gauls was admired by the Romans: it proceeded from that instruction they had from their Druids, of the immortality of the soul. The Swedes upon the same ground shown incredible courage in the late German wars: running into apparent danger, like flies into the candle (saith One) as if they had not seen it. Faith fears no colors. What brave spirits hath God raised up amongst us alate, fighting as it were in blood to the knees for Religion and liberty, resolved either to vanquish or die, as the Black Prince; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , with that Lacedaemonian, either to live with the Gospel, or to die for it? And how valiant the restored Jews shall once be upon their enemies the Turks, who now hold their country till their iniquities be full, who can tell? Sure it is that Israel after their victory over Gog, shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God, Ezek. 39.10. And then perhaps it is, that the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together (as a prize or booty) gold, and silver, and apparel in great abundance ] Look how Abraham stripped the four kings of their plunder, Gen. 14.16. Gideon, the Midianites, Judge, 8. David, the Amalekites, 1 Sam. 30.18. Jehoshaphat, the Ammonites, (they were three days in gathering the spoil it was so much, 2 Chron. 20.25.) so it may fall out one day with their posterity. The Jew Doctors, as they have a saying, that whatsoever befell unto the Fathers is a figne unto the children: so of Abraham's victory over the four kings, they write, that it befell unto him, to teach that four kingdoms (those kingdoms spoken of in Daniel ) should stand up to rule over the world: and that in the end his children should rule over them, and they should all fall by their hand, and they should bring again all their captives, and all their substance.

Verse 15. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel ] All the beasts of service, made use of by the enemy, shall consume in like sort, as their masters. First, for a punishment to their owners, who must needs suffer loss thereby. Hence Saul was so sedulous in seeking the lost asses. Secondly, to show how God is displeased with, and will severely punish all that are instrumental to the Churches calamities, or serviceable to their sin. The serpent is cursed, cut shorter by the feet, and made to wriggle upon his belly, yea confined to the dust for his diet. So God curseth and abhorreth all instruments of idolatry, Isaiah 30.22. Num. 31.22, 23. Deut. 7.25. The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: the very visible heavens, because defiled with man's sin, are to be purged by the fire of the last day.

Verse 16. Everyone that is left of all the nations ] i.e. that hath escaped the plague, verse 12. and is beaten into a better mind: as those Huns, that, vanquished by the Christians, concluded that Christ was the true God, and became his subjects. God had promised before to subvert the Churches enemies, but here to convert them, which is far better. And it shall appear to be so (as conversion cannot be hid; you cannot turn a bell, but it will make a sound: and report its own motion. See Gal. 1.23.)

for they shall even go up ] sc. to the Temple, which stood upon mount Moriah:

to worship the king the Lord of Hosts ]. to send a lamb (or an homage penny) to the Lord of the whole earth.

and to keep the feast of Tabernacles ] In a due manner, which had not been rightly done (a marvelous thing) all along during the reign of David, Solomon, and all those succeeding Reformers, till about these times; as appears Neb. 8.16, 17, 19. The sense of this text is, that the converted Gentiles shall join with the Jews, in the sincere service of God according to his will, and not according to their own brains and fancies: that they shall worship him with the same rites, in the same places and assemblies which they do: that Jehovah may be one, and his name one amongst them, as verse 9. that there may be no more Jew, and Gentile, Barbarian or Scythian, bond or free, but Christ may be all, and in all. That those two sticks being joined into one, Ezek. 37.16. all Israel may be saved, Rom. 11.26. and raised as from the dead, verse 15. the Gentiles also may have their part in the same resurrection. All this is here set forth in such terms, and under such types as were then most in request: as of going up to the Temple, keeping the feast of Tabernacles, &c. All which expressions are parabolical, symbolical, and enigmaticall: framed to the capacity of the Jews, much addicted to these legal rites and shadows, then in use, but now done away, Col. 2.17. Heb. 10.1. whatever the Jews conclude from this text for their continuance under Messias his kingdom. Christians have their feasts or holy-days too, 1 Cor. 5.8. yea their feast of Tabernacles in a mystieall sense, 1 Pet. 2.11. Heb. 11.1, 9.

Verse 17. Even upon them shall be no rain ] i. e. Nullam misericordiam assequentur, saith Theodoret: They shall get no good at God's hand. Judea was sumen totius orbis, as One saith, a very fat and fertile country: but yet so, as that her fruitfulness depended much upon seasonable showers, the former and latter rain: and the Prophet seemeth here to allude to that of Moses, Deut. 11.10, &c, If God did not hear the heaven, and the heaven the earth, the earth could not hear the corn, wine, and oil, nor those hear Jezreel, Hos. 2.19. Judea was not like that country in Pliny, ubi siccitas dat lutum, imbres pulverem, where drought made dirt, rain made dust: but if the heaven were iron over them, the earth would soon be brass under them, and not yield her increase, (See Psal. 65.9. Isaiah 30.23.) and then where would they be quickly? since Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est, life would be lost, if not maintained by daily food. Rain is in Scripture put 1. Properly, for water coming out of the clouds, Deut. 11.11, Prov. 16.15. nourishing the herbs and trees. 2. Metaphorically for Christ, his Gospel, and his graces, wherewith the souls of men are made fruitful in good works, Isaiah 45.8. Deut. 32.2. Hos. 6.3. The want of rain is on the contrary made here, and Rev. 11.5. a sign of a curse. It waiteth not for the sons of men, Mic. 5.7. but it accomplisheth what God appointeth, Isaiah 55.10, 11. Why it falleth here, and now, we know not, and wonder.

Vers. 18. And if the family of Egypt ] So called from one Aiguptos, a King there. In the Hebrew it is called, (mostly) Mizraim, from one of that name, Gen. 10.6. sometimes, for its power and pride, it is called, Rahab, Psal. 87.4. and 89.11. Isaiah 51.9. The family of Egypt is here put for the whole Nation (see the like Amos 3.1.) because, after the confusion of tongues especially, Nations took their original and denomination from the head of some family; as did the Egyptians from Mizraim, Chams second son.

go not up, and come not ] But they did receive the Christian religion with the first: had Christian schools, Doctors, and Professors, after that Saint Mark had there planted a Church at Alexandria, now called Scanaeroon. This was fore-prophecred, Isaiah 19.21. The Lord shall be known to Egypt, &c And the Lord shall smite Egypt, he shall smite and heal it; &c. he shall cause them to pass under the rod, and to b •• g them into the bond of the covenant, as it is Ezek 20.37

th •• have no rain ] Others read it thus, It shall not rain upon them. For they also needed rain in some measure, as well as other nations. See Psal. 105.32. though not so much, by reason of the overslowings of the river 〈◊〉 : which if it arise to a just height, sc. of fifteen or sixteen cubits, as Pliny • ells us, it 〈◊〉 the land very fruitful: so that they do but throw in the seed, and have • our 〈◊〉 harvests in less then four months. Indeed where the Nile arrives not, 〈◊〉 nothing, they say, in Egypt, but a whitish fand, bearing no grass, but two • tile weeds, colled Su • it and Gazul: which, burnt to ashes, and conveyed to Venice, make the finest thrystall-glasses. The Chal • ee • enders it, Non cres • et ejus N • ns. God loves to confute men in their confidences, to dry up their Nilusses, (See Ezck. ••• , 9. Isa •