Commentary on the Minor Prophets
Vers. 7. But they like, men ] Heb. like Adam, that Arch-Reb • l, that old 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , after the similitude of whose transgression these men had sinned, Rom. 5.14. and so deserved, in like sort to be punished, by being cast out of their country, as he was out of paradise. Thus some sense it: as if the prophet would here reduce these covenant-breakers, to that first transgressor Adam in whom they all were; as the whole country is in a Parliament-man, and as Levi was in Abraham's loins, and paid tithes in him, Heb. 7.9. Others take Adam for an Appellative, and give a reason for it out of the text, because it is Keadam, and not Kahadam, with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 emphatical. And of these some again read it thus, Illi tanquam hominis transg •• ssi sunt foedus, they transgressed the covenant, as if it had been a man's covenant: they made no more of breaking it, then as if they had had to do with dust and ashes like themselves, with their fellow-creatures, and not with the great God: and might therefore deal by their covenants, as monkeyes do by their collars, which they fit on for their masters pleasure, and slip off again for their own. Others read it, as we do; They like men have transgressed, &c. sorry men fickle and falshearted men, such as David pointed at, when he said, All men are liars, and Paul, 2 Cor. 3.3. Are ye not carnal, and walk as men, that is, as profane men, alients from the common-wealth of Israel? Singular things are expected from God's peculiar, Mat. 5.47. as to be eminent in good works, Tit 3.14. to get above others, as Saul was above the people by head and shoulders; to get to the very top of godliness, as the Apostles phrase importeth, Isaiah. 5.15. to keep God's covenant as the apple of the eye, as Solomon saith, Prov. 7.2. that little man in the eye, that cannot be touched but he will be distempered. This the world counts preciseness, and makes nothing of transgressing, of leaping over the hedge of any commandment, so they may shun a piece of foul way. Lo, this is the manner of most men, yea, of all men by nature; they make no bones of transgressing the laws, of changing the ordinance, of breaking the everlasting covenant, Isaiah. 24.5. And this when they do, they work de suo & secundum hominem; for Homo est inversus Decalogus, the natural man stands acrosse to the law of God, to the whole Decalogue: the two tables whereof are called the tables of the covenant, Deut. 9.9, 11. Neither is this any excusing or extenuation of their sin, that they do but their kind, they do it as men. It is an aggravation rather, q. d. They not only transgress my covenant, but they do it naturally, and out of the vileness of their proper inclinations: like as the devil, when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh, de suo of his own, Joh. 8.44. he can do no otherwise. It is as impossible for those that are carnal and walk as men to keep covenant with God, as for a toad to spit cordials. If at any time they make an overture of doing it, if they make an essay, it is but as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that goeth away, as verse. 5. with which this verse cohereth; the 6. verse coming in. as it were by a parenthesis.
There have they dealt treacherously against me, ] There? where? in the very point of the covenant, which by their sacrifices and burnt-offerings they so solemnly professed and engaged to observe: lo, therein have they prevaricated, and then at the same time have they falsified, as the same word is used, Psal. 14.5. I have been near in their mouth, but far from their reins, Jer. 9.2. In words they profess to know me, but in works they deny me, being abominable and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate, Tit. 1.16. Or there, that is, (as the Chaldee Paraphrast senseth it,) In that good land which I have given them, even in Gilead, as in the next words. They live in my good land, but not by my good laws: yea, they have filled it (as the cursed Canaanites did before them, Ezra. 9.11.) from one end to another with their uncleanness, which therefore longs for a vomit to cast them out: There have they dealt treacherously, as the adulteress doth, who forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. The sins of such as break covenant with God are sins of a double die; they are wickedness with a witness, because they do wickedly against the covenant, Dan. 11.32. these treacherous dealers deal treacherously, yea, these treacherous dealers deal very treacherously, Isaiah. 24.16. And this they have done against Me, who have stooped so low, as to strike a covenant with them; and such a covenant, 2 Sam. 23.5. and have never failed or falsified. See Deut. 29.24, 25.
Vers. 8. Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, ] Another Poeniropolis; such a city there was in Greece, and so called by king Philip, for the naughtiness of the Inhabitants. This Gilead was one of those ten cities of refuge beyond Jordaen, given to the Priests for a possession, Josh. 21.36, &c. and probably the chief city, which therefore bare the name of the whole country, as Athens was called the Greece of Greece. The inhabitants thereof (though Levites) were the worst of men, workers of iniquity, such as did wickedly with both hands, earnestly wearying themselves in the Devils drudgery; and then sitting down to rest them in the chair of pestilence. There is not a worse creature upon earth, or so fit for hell, as a profane Priest, a debauched Minister, Mat. 5.13. Corruptio optimi pessima, as the sweetest wine makes the sourest vinegar, as the finest flesh is resolved into the vilest earth; and as the whitest ivory burnt, becomes the blackest coal: Who would have looked for so much wickedness at Gilead, at Shiloh, at Anathoth, at Jerusalem where the Priests and Scribes bare sway, and did dominari in suggestis? And yet that once faithful city was become an harlot: it was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in it, but now murderers, In our Savours time it was Prophetarum macellum, the slaughterhouse house of the Saints; as now Rome is, and once London was in bloody Bonners days: whom a certain good woman once told in a letter, that he was deservedly called the common cut-throat, and general flaughter-slave to all the Bishops of England. At his death he boasted (as Stokesley had done before him) how many heretics he had burned: seven hundred saints in four or five years space those bloody and deceitful men sent to heaven, in fiery chariots. There are none so cruel to the lives of men as wicked Clergy.
Gilead was polluted with blood, ] not only with the blood of souls, (by their default drowned in perdition and destruction) but of bodies too, destroyed by their hands or means. The Priests of these times may seem, by what is said of them in the next verse, to have been men of their hands, the sworn sword-men of the devil, such as was Timothy Herulus Bishop of Alexandria, Anno 467. Pope Innocent who threw Peters keys into the river Tiber, and took up Paul's sword, as he called it, and that Philip Bishop of Beau-vieu in France, taken in a skirmish by our Richard the first, who sent his armor to the Pope with these words engraved on it, Vide num filii tui tunica sit, vel non, See whether this be the coat of thy son, or of a son of Mars. These, and their like in their several generations, were non Pastores sed Impostores, non Doctors sed Seductores, non Episcopy sed Aposcopi, as an Ancient hath it: And indeed, the Church hath ever been so pestered with lewd and lazy Ministers (those dehonestamenta Cleri ) that Chrysostom thought there were scarce any of that order in his time, that could be saved: Jerome saith, that the paucity of such as were good, had made them very precious. And Campian cries out, not altogether without cause (Malice may be a good informer though an ill Judge) Ministris eorum nihil vilius; Now this is here instanced as an odious transgression of the covenant, when such as made such a show of sacrifice to God, should exercise so little mercy to men: when such as should be Teachers, were turned Tyrants and bloodsuckers.
Verse 9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, ] This verse hath much of the former in it, saith an Interpreter. The sum of it is, saith Wigandus, to show, that all the forementioned wickednesses were committed, instinctu doctorum, by the instinct of their Priests, who were now turned Tories or Mosse-troopers. Jerome asked his Jew-doctor the meaning of this text, and received this answer: that at the time of the Passover and the Pentecost, the people used to come to Jerusalem; and as they were going in their journey, these Priests would stand in the way and slay them. Others think, that these corrupt priests took into their city of refuge divers thieves and murderers; who not having whereupon otherwise to subsist, turned hiwaymen, (as they call them) and returning again into the city, divided the spoil with the Priests, who had their share: and are therefore called companions of robbers, and are said to murder in the way by consent, or with one shoulder, or as Simeon and Levi did at Shechem q. d. Sichemicc crastily and cruelly (for so many ways these words are rendered) & all this they did of malice forethought, of prepensed mischief, called here committing lewdness. Even as they thought in their hearts, so they acted, saith King David. They executed the counsel of the wicked, saith the Chaldee Paraphrast. They machinated mischief, and then practiced what they had plotted with a deliberate will, and as it were with an high hand. Look now upon the Popish Monks, saith Tarnonius, and compare them with these Priests whom Hosea reproveth. And Luther saith, that they had a proverb in Germany, that there was nothing so bad, which the Monks could think of, but they would dare to do it.
Vers. 10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel, ] Now a very den of thieves, as verse. 9. a Panthion of all sorts of idols, a chamber of imagery, an Egyptian Temple, gay and goodly without, but within an ox or calf, with women weeping for Tammuz, Ezek. 8.12.14. that is, for Osyris King of Egypt, whose image (under the shape of an ox) his wife Isis had advanced to be idolatrously there adored. This kind of abomination Jeroboam had learned in Egypt (whither he fled from Solomon his master) and brought into the house of Israel. And whereas those Idolaters said, The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth, Ezek. 8.12. I have seen it, saith God, and been sore troubled at it, and even affrighted; so as a man is quando horripilatur, when his hairs stand an end; as when the devil appeareth to him like an hairy Satyr. See Lev. 17.7. with the Note. Certain it is, that God hateth sin (but especially Idolatry, that abominable thing, as he calleth it, Jer. 44 4.) worse then he hateth the devil himself: for he hateth the devil for sins sake, and not sin for the devils sake. Idolatry must needs be so much the more odious to him, because therein the devil sets up himself in the place of God; and requires men (as once he did Christ himself) to fall down and worship him. See Deut. 32.17. 1 Cor. 10.20. Rev. 9.20. So he dealeth by the poor Indians at this day, compelling them to worship him with bodily worship, and tormenting them, if they do not, worse (if worse may be) then the cruel Spaniards; who suppose they show the wretches favor, when they do not, for their pleasure, whip them with cords, and day by day drop their naked bodies with burning bacon The Hebrew word here used, hath some letters more then ordinary in it, to increase the signification, and to show what a very horrible thing Idolatry is. It is spurca pollutio, as Jer. 23.14. and worse. See Jer. 2.11, 12. and 18.13. and know that God doth not use to aggravate things beyond truth, as men do, witness Nebuchadnezzar, Dan. 3.14. Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? Or, is it of set purpose? so Buxtorf rendereth it. Is it for the nonce, to provoke me? Or Nunquid desolatio? so Arias Moutanus: As if he should say, What? you, to oppose the command of a king? If this be suffered, what desolation must needs follow? But this is not God's way: he lays no more words upon a thing, then the matter amounteth to if he call Idolatry, filth, fornication, abomination, an horrible thing, such as a man would start, or stand agast at, we may be sure it is so. The Septuagint here, render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , things to be trembled at, or shreeked at. In Barbary 'tis death for the Xeriffs wife, when she seeth a man, though but thorough a casement, not suddenly to shriek out. God is a jealous God, and allows not his to look toward an Idol. If they do, he will soon see it, and visit for it. I have seen, &c.
There is the whoredom of Ephraim, ] Thus God looketh upon it as filthiness, and nastinesse, which the people beheld as fineness and neatness. And the same do all (that have the mind of God, and senses exercised to discern betwixt good and evil) judge of all the Popish pomp and palterment, wherewith they bewitch the deluded vulgar, as the serpent Scytale doth the fleeing passenger, whom when she cannot overtake, yet with her beautiful colors she doth so astonish and amaze him, that he hath no power to pass away, till stung to death.
Verse 11. Also O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, ] This is a very difficult Text: and much vexed by Interpreters. Et hic nisi Lyra lyrasset, nos omnes delirassemus. Lyra sets this sense upon the Text, and I accord him: Though thou Judah, art also to be carried captive: yet God hath set, or provided for thee, an harvest in thine own land, when I shall have returned the captivity of my people, viz. under the conduct of Zerubbabel, by the Decree of Cyrus. Here then is a promise of a joyful harvest to Judah, who is not to be punished with like severity as Israel, Chap. 1.7. and for the change of person, when I returned, for he shall have returned. See Isaiah 29.19. Ier. 31.23. Zeph. 3. ult. Psal. 14. ult. Simul Judae captivitas & reditus praedicitur significanter admodum, saith Jerome here; Both the captivity and return of Judah is here very significantly foretold. It is a very good Note that One giveth here, sc. that God in his chastisements ever showeth himself mindful of his Covenant: after a long barrenness, he setteth for his people a plentiful harvest, and turneth again their captivity, after that for a time he hath tried them. His mercy also and faithfulness herein appeareth, that he mingleth promises with threatenings: and whiles he utterly destroyeth the kingdom of the ten Tribes, he preserveth the Common-wealth of Judah, wherein the Messias was to come, and whereof there was not (by the ancient prophesies) to be a dissolution, till Shiloh came. Hence it is, that promises of the restauration of Judah are ever intermingled, lest any should doubt of the manifestation of the Messiah, in the fullness of time.
CHAP. VII.
Verse 1. WHen I would have healed Israel, &c. ] Whereas Israel, hearing of an happy harvest promised to Judah, Chap. 6.11. and themselves excluded, might complain of hard dealing: God shows them here, that Crudelem medicum intemperans aeger facit, the fault was merely in themselves. God came with his healing medicines to have cured them, but they hated to be healed, and like mad-men, railed and raged against the Physician, spilled the potions, would none of those slibber-sauses, as they accounted them: yea (as if on purpose to cross God.) then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickednesses (malitia multiplex) of Samaria, ] Of so perverse a spirit were they: and therefore (in Solomon's judgment, Prov. 12.8.) worthy to have been despised and let alone to perish in their corruptions. In Hippocrates his time, the Physicians were bound by oath, to leave such under their wounds to perish by them, as were unruly, and would not be ordered. We would have healed Babylon, (saith the Church) but she would not be healed: forsake her therefore, saith God, Jer. 51.9. Let them alone, saith Christ, Matth. 15.14. That, that will die, let it die: A fearful sentence. Let them swelter and pine away in their iniquities, Levite. 26.39. In their silthinesse is lewdness, their disease is complicate, it is the leprosy in the head, it breaketh forth in their forehead, and my people love to have it so: but what will they do in the end thereof? Ephraim here discovereth a headstrong willfulness that was uncounsellable, uncureable. He runs away after conviction, with the bit between his teeth, as it were: he runs, I say, upon the rock. Am. 6.12. where he first breaketh his hoofs, and then his neck. Some grow desperately sinful, like those Italian Senators, that despairing of their lives, (when upon submission they had been promised their lives, yet) being conscious of their villainy, made a curious banquet; and at the end thereof every man drank up his glass of poison, and killed himself. So men feeling such horrible hard hearts, and privy to such notorious sins, they cast away souls and all for lust; and perish woefully, because they lived desperately, and so securely. It is a fearful sign of reprobation, when God's means and medicines do men no good, but hurt rather: when Physic which should remove the disease, doth cooperate with it, then death comes with the more pain and speed. The stronger the conviction of sin is, the deeper will be the wrath against it, if it be not by repentance avoided.
for they commit falsehood, ] They do not the truth, 1 Joh. 1.6. but deal falsely, Ier. 6.13. everyone of them, from the Prophet, even to the Priest: they work a deceitful work, Prov. 11.18. their bellies prepare deceit, Job 15.35. they have an art in lying, in stitching one lie to another, as the word signifieth, Psal. 119.69. Idolatry is a real lie, as she in the book of Martyrs answered the Doctor, that asked her, Dost thou believe that the body of Christ is in the Sacrament of the Altar really and substantially? I believe said she, that so to hold, is a real lie, and a substantial lie. These Idolaters having played false with God, and treacherously dealt with him, what wonder though they lie, deceive, rob, spoil, both within doors and without, in private negotiations, and public transactions? but especially forge lies against those that withstood their superstitious vanities, and prey upon their goods; as Heb. 10.34. Sublata pietate tollitur fides, is a truth irrefragable. Take away piety, and fidelity is gone: as we see in that unrighteous Judge, Luke 18.2. and as Abraham concluded of the men of Gerar, Gen. 20.11. and lastly, as Constantine Chlorus, the father of Constantine the Great, experimented in his own Counselors, and Courtiers: whence that famous Maxim of his, recorded by Eusebius: He cannot be faithful to me, who is unfaithful to God; religion being the ground of all true fidelity and loyalty.
Verse 2. And they consider not in their hearts, ] Heb. They say not in their hearts: that is, they set not down themselves with this consideration, they commune not with their consciences upon this most needful, but much neglected matter. A good man's work lieth much within doors: he loves to be dealing with himself, and working good and wholesome considerations upon his own affections. He is never less alone, then when he is alone: for still he hath God and himself to talk to.
that I remember all their wickedness, ] i. e. Record and register them, as in a book, with a pen of iron, and point of a Diamond, Ier. 17.1. that I seal them up in a bag, Job 14.17. as the Clark of Assizes seals up Indictments, and at the Assizes brings his bag, and produceth them. Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed-up among my treasures? Deut. 32.34. So little reason is there, that wicked men should please themselves in hope of impunity. And yet they do, Psal. 94.7. they strive to persuade themselves, that the Lord doth not see, neither doth the God of Jacob remember: They hide God from themselves, and then think they have hid themselves from Him. Herein they are alike foolish as the Struthiocamelus, a bird as big as a Camel, and taller then a man: When this Bustard would hide her self, she thrusts her head into a thicket, as conceiving that nobody seeth her, because she seeth nobody; and so becomes a prey to the hunter. Caveatur carnalis securitas. Let us walk evermore in the sense of God's presence, unless we had rather be carnally secured, then soundly comforted.
now their own doings have beset them about. ] Their studied wickedness, their contrived iniquities, so Luther expounds the word doings: for wicked men are great students, and break many a nights sleep in pernicious ploddings, Prov. 4.16. But as the Blackbird is taken by birdlime made of his own excrements, so is the wicked beset by his own devices; as by so many serjeants set on by God. Some think (and not without probable reason) that the Prophet in this phrase of besetting them about, alludeth to the future siege of Samaria: wherein these sinners against their own souls were so straitly beset by the enemy, that they could not flee, or stir, without danger. And this he saith shall befall them. Now, that is, shortly, and sooner then they think for: Indeed how should it be otherwise, when as their doings are b •• ore my face? ] Eregione & velut adversa ac detestata, Over-anent and in full view, as a continual eye-sore to me, Psal. 57.5. & 90.8. so that though I could or would forget them, yet they will not suffer me to do so: such is their impudency, and importunacy for vengeance. Lyra makes it a metaphor, from a thief taken in the act, with his back burden of stolen goods; and as it were beset with them, and so brought before the Judge. His own iniquities shall take the wicked, saith Solomon, Prov. 5.22. For how can he escape the multitude of his sins within him, and the variety of God's heavy judgments without him, &c?
Verse 3. They make the king glad with their wickedness, ] A sad syncratismus surely of king and people, exhilarating themselves and each other in wickedness. Their kings were well apaid of the people's compliances with their unlawful Edicts: and the people no less well-pleased to gratify and flatter their kings, as the Romans did Tiberius and other Tyrants, who therefore said of them, that they were servum pecus, servile souls, & homines ad servitutem parati, men made for slaves. Tyrants care not how wicked their subjects are: for then they know they will swallow down any command though never so impious, without scrupling, or conscience-making. They like to have such about them, as will down with anything, digest iron for a need, with the Estrich; and say as that wretched man said (when one complained he could not do such a thing for his conscience)
And the princes with their lies ] with calumnies and false accusations, wherewith they load God's innocent servants, and that against their own consciences. Thus Doeg dealt by David; the Priests and Prophets by Jeremiah; the Persian courtiers by Daniel and his companions; Amaziah by Amoz, Haman by the whole nation of the Jews, Tertullus by Paul, the Heathen Idolaters by the primitive Christians; which caused those many Apologies made for them by Tertullian, Athenagoras, and others. If a Ruler hearken to lies (and that's a common fault among them, as David tells Saul, 1 Sam. 24.9. all his servants will be wicked: he shall have his Aiones and Nigones that will say as he says, and fit his humor to an hair; he shall have plenty of such as will slander the Saints, and cast an odium upon the conscientious. I once saw (saith Melancthon ) an old coin, on the one side whereof was Zopyrus, on the other Zoilus; he adds, fuit imago aulae, comitantur calumniae been merentes, It was a picture of Princes courts, where are store of such, as, by flattery, daub white upon black, and, by calumny, sprinkle black upon white.
Vers. 4. They are all adulterers, ] Adulterio calescunt, so Pagnine, scalded in their base lusts as those, Rom. 1.27. all (for the most part) were such: but especially the Courtiers, and clawback-Informers, as verse. 3. God, in his just judgment, giving them up to those vile affections or passions of dishonor, and punishing their impieties with impurities: as He did also in those Heathens, Rom. 1.24.
as an oven heated by the baker ] An apt similitude setting forth the intense heat of filthy lust, ( better marry then burn, 1 Cor. 7.9.) and of long continuance as the heat of an oven; yea, of Nebuchadnezzar's oven, yea, of hell itself, whence it was enkindled, and where it shall be perpetually punished. The holy Angels at the last day will be most active against such, to bring them to condign punishment, 2 Pet. 2.10. (But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Note the word chiefly, and consider the example of the Sodomites) and God most severe against them, Heb. 13.4. How much they have lived deliciously, and drenched themselves in fleshly delights, so much torments and sorrow shall they have proportionably, Rev. 18.7. As their hearts have ben as an hot oven or furnace, so they shall be bound up in bundles, and cast into a furnace of fire (where shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth, Mat. 13.42.
Vers. 5. In the day of our King, ] Our good king, on whom they so doted, that they forgot God and his sincerer service. Quaecunque á regibus dicuntur aut fiunt, Gallis minifice solet placere, It is reported of the French by their own Chronicle • , that they are wonderful well pleased with whatsoever is said or done by their king: so that they affect to speak like him, to be arrayed like him, & to imitate him in everything. Their song is Mihi placet quicquid Regi placet. But is not this to idolize the creature? and have not many (otherwise well-minded men) amongst us been by this means miscarried to their cost in our late combustions? This day of their king was either his Birth-day (so Pagnine rendereth it here) or his Coronation-day (so the Chaldee Paraphrast carrieth it) which also is the Birth-day of a king as he is king, Sam. 13.1. unless haply he have the happiness to be crowned (not in his cradle only, as Europus king of Macedony and the late king James were, but) in his mothers womb, as Misdatus king of Persia was, the crown being set upon his mothers great belly before he was born. Now in this solemn day of the king, (when they should have been better busied) The princes have made him sick, or, the princes were sick, they drank themselves sick, drowning their bodies and souls (as Richard the third did his brother Clarence ) in a Butt of Malmesey. How many importunate and impudent drinkers are there, that by drinking other men's health, destroy their own? See Master Prinnes Healths-sickness, and accord him that said,
with bottles of wine ] Or, with heat through wine, as Isaiah. 5.11. and so Jarchi expoundeth it. The same word signifieth the poison of a Serpent, Psal. 58.4. which inflameth and killeth: confer Prov. 23.32. and think of that cup of fire and brimstone, Psal. 11.6. to be one day turned down the wide gullets of intemperate drinkers; which will be much worse to them then was that ladle-full of boiling lead, which the Turkish Bashaw caused to be poured down the throat of a drunken wretch, without giving him any respite for the recovery of his lost wits.
he stretched out his hand with scorners ] He that is the king, forgetting his kingly dignity, authority and gravity, (for there is a decorum to be observed in every calling, but by great ones especially) stretched out his hand, as a companion and copesmate, as an hail-fellow-well-met, (as they say) prostituting his regal authority to every scoundrel that would pledge him; or at least, giving them his hand to kiss, which Job saith God will not do, Chap. 8.20.
with scorners ] Those worst of men, Psal. 1.1. those Pests, as the Septuagint here render it, those incorrigible persons as they translate the word, Prov. 20.1. where also it is fitly said, that wine is a mocker, because it maketh men mockers. Hence that of David, with hypocritical mockers at feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth, Psal. 35.16. And that holy jealousy of Job for his children, lest (while they were feasting and merry-making) they should curse God, or mock at men. Tales enim evadunt qui strenue helluantur. It is ordinary with such as are full gorged with good cheer, and thoroughly heated with wine, to set their mouths against heaven, and to license their tongues to walk through the earth, Psal. 73.9. they have a flout to fling, and a fools bolt to shoot at their betters by many degrees: yea, though they be kings that do it, (as here) if they stretch out their hands with scorners, and jear at the power and profession of Godliness, they are no better then base fellows, as great Antiochus is called, Dan. 11.21. and as Kimchi upon this text noteth from his Father, that those that at the beginning of the feast or compotation were here called Princes, are afterwards when they fell to quaffing and flowting called (in contempt) scoffers & scorners. Polanus & others by stretching out the hand understand, ad aequales haustus potare, &c. a drinking share and share like with every base companion, till drunk; they became despicable. Nempe vbi, neque men's, neque pes suumfacit officium. The Greeks when they meet at feasts or banquets, drink small draughts at first, which by degrees they increase, till they come to the height of intemperancy. Hence Graecari, and as merry as a Greek. How much better those Spartans, of whom the Poet,
Vers. 6. For they have made ready their hearts like an oven. ] As an oven red hot is ready to bake whatsoever is cast into it, so are wicked men's hearts, heated from hell, prepared for any evil purpose or practice that the devil shall suggest: but especially to lie in wait for blood, and to hunt every man his brother with a net, Mic. 7.2. David complains of some that lay in wait for his soul, Psal. 59.3. that satanically hated him, Psal. 38.20. and 7.13. and 109.4, 6, 20, 29. that sought his soul to destroy it, not his life only but his soul too; as that monster of Milan did, that made his adversary first forswear Christ, (in hope of life) and then stabbing him to the heart said, Now go thy ways soul and body to the devil: and as the Papists dealt by John Hus, and Jerome of Prague, to whom they denied a confessor, which he required after the manner of those times, to fit him for heaven; and for John Hus, after they had burnt him, how despitefully did they beat his heart (which was left untouched by the fire) with their staves: Besides, that the Bishops when they put the tripple crown of paper (painted with ugly devils on it) on his head, they said, Now we commit thy soul to the devil. Did not these men's hearts burn like an oven with hellish rage and cruelty?
their baker sleepeth all the night, ] Concoquens illa, scilicet corda, so Vatablus; He that concocteth or worketh their hearts, that is the devil (as some interpret it) or evil-concupiscence, as others, Tota nocte protrahitur furor eorum, so the Chaldee; their rage is deferred or drawn out to the length all night long, till in the morning, i. e. at a convenient season it break out and bestirs itself. A metaphor from a baker, who casting fire into the oven with good store of lasting fuel, lets it burn all night and sleeps securely; as knowing that he shall find it through hot in the morning. Those scorners in the former verse, by being over-familiar with their drunken king, come not only to slight him for his base behaviours, but also to conspire against him, and to plot his death; wherein their heart is the oven, ambition the fire, treason the flame of that fire, Satan that old manslayer the baker; who, though he make as if he slept all night, yet by morning he hath set his agents the traitors awork (either by secret treacheries or open seditions) to do as in the next verse, and as is to be seen, 2 Kin. 15.
Vers. 7. They are all hot as an oven, ] That none might post it off to others, all are accused of this mad desire to do mischief; as all the Sodomites full and whole, young and old, came cluttering about Lots house, Gen. 19.4.
and have devoured their Judges; all their Kings are fallen, &c.] Scil. being slain with the sword of those that succeeded them in the throne, as may be read, 2 Kin. 15.8, 9, &c. and as it was in the Roman State, where all or most of the Caesars, till Constantine, died unnatural deaths. Neither was it much better here in England, during the difference between the two houses of York and Lancaster; wherein were slain fourscore Princes of the blood-royal, This is the fruit of sin, Prov. 28.2. For the transgression of a land many are the Princes thereof: either many at once (as once here in the heptarchy) or many ejecting and succeeding one another, to the great calamity and utter undoing of the people by their new Lord's, new Laws.
there is none among them that calleth unto me, ] though in so great a confusion, and under so heavy calamities: a strange stupor, that there should be none to set to his shoulder to shore up the falling State. None there were (to speak of) in a considerable number of praying people to stand in the gap, and to divert the divine displeasure. Their sins cried loud for vengeance, their blood-guiltiness especially. But had there been but a few voices more of praying Saints, their prayers had haply out-cried them. A few birds of song are shriller then many crocitating birds of prey: stir up yourselves therefore, ye that are God's remembrancers, to take hold of him, and give him no rest. Lie night and day at the gate of his grace, knocking thereat by the hand of faith, and praying for the peace of our Jerusalem. If England's fears were greater, thy prayers might preserve it, Jer. 5.1. as if our hopes were greater, thy sin and security might undo it, Eccles. 9.18.
Vers. 9. Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people, ] viz. In confederacies, marriages, manners, superstitions. They were conformed to those nations from whom God had separated them with a wonderful separation, Exod. 33.16. and put them up by themselves from all the world in the promised land, as it were in an Island, Isaiah. 20.6. And this they had done not once but often, as the conjugation importeth; and that willfully without any necessity: yea, and that constantly, and of custom, or desperate obstinacy, (Heb. he will mingle himself ) so that there was little difference to be discerned betwixt Ephraim the professed people of God, and profane heathens. Hence that, Amos. 9.7. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel, saith the Lord? Hence Saul is called Cush, or an Ethiopian for his black and ill conditions, Psal. 7. title, as the Chaldee interpreteth it. Cast we may be upon bad company, but we must not mingle with them. The rivers of Peru, after they have run into the mam sea, yea, some write twenty or thirty miles, they keep themselves unmixed with the salt water: so that a very great way within the sea, men may take up as fresh water as if they were near the land. At Belgradi in Hungary, where the Danuby and Sava (two great rivers) meet, their waters mingle no more then water and oil; not that either flote above other, but join unmixed: so that near the middle of the river I have gone in a boat, (saith mine Author) and tasted of the Danow as clear and pure as a well. Then putting mine hand not an inch further, I have taken of the Sava as troubled as a streetchannel, tasting the gravel in my teeth. Thus they run sixty miles together, and for a days journey I have been an eye-witness of it. To come nearer home, the river Dee in Merionith-shire running thorough Pimbli-meeri remains entire, and mingleth not her streams with the water of the lake. Let not Ephraim mix himself among the people, but cry with David, Gather not my soul with sinners, Psal. 26.9. and verse. 5. I have hated the congregation of evil-doers, and will not sit with the wicked.
Ephraim is a cake not turned, ] And so but half-baked, or dow-baked; neque crudus, neque coctus, neither hot nor cold, as Laodicea, Rev. 3.15. halting between two, as 1 Kin. 18.21. Mongrels, as those 2 King. 17.33. Zeph. 1.5. Barnacles that are neither fish nor flesh: Amphibians that will conform to the world, and yet seem to be for the Lord. But he likes no such retainers, no such holy-day-servants; he requireth to be served truly that there be no halting: and totally, that there be no halving: he cannot away with dow-baked duties. Men must be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, they must be zealous of good works, if they look to be accepted. The effectual fervent prayer, or the thorough-wrought prayer of a righteous man availeth much. A cake that is half-baked, half burnt pleaseth not the palate: no more do customary, formal bedulling performances please the Lord. It is Gualthers note upon this text; as a cake, saith he, that is raw on the one side and scorched on the other is cast away; so Hypocrites that are hot in their superstitions, but cold in their devotions are rejected of God;
Vers. 9. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not, ] Strange stupidity, such as was that of Sampson, who had lost his hair, and therewith his strength, and wist not of it. These strangers were the Kings of Syria, but especially of Assyria. See 2 King. 13.7. & Chap. 14. with 15.19, 30. & 17.6. Shalmaneser, as a deep gulf swallowed them up whole. Now that they should not know how these strangers had devoured their strength, that is their wealth, and warlike power, this was very strange. The Chaldee Paraphrast helps us to the meaning of it: Non novit formidare à facie mea. He knew it not, that is, He knew not how to fear before me, to tremble at my judgments, and to flee to my mercies: this he knew not, that is, he cared not to do, as the old world knew not till the flood came, though fairly forewarned, Matt. 24.39. and as the Greeks would not know that the Turks had invaded their Empire, till they were got into the very bowels of it. So was it with Ephraim. A spirit of pride and of slumber had so surprised and seized him, that he took no knowledge of the enemies and evils that were upon him. Thus the spiritual sleeper stirs not with Saul, though the water-pot and spear be taken from his bolster. Like the foolish hen, which loseth her chickens one by one, by the devouring kite; when one, or two, or three, are snatched away she still continues to pick up what lies before her. It is our wisest way to observe, and improve God's dealings with us, to be sensible of his strokes, and to return to him that smote us, and can as soon heal us, if we come to him for cure, Lev. 26.40. yea, gray-hairs are here and there upon him, ] Heb. sprinkled, sparsi, non spissi. He began but to decline and decay, as a man doth when he grows toward fifty. And as gray hairs come the sooner through cares and griefs, (Histories tell us of a young man, who being for some capital offense condemned to die, grew gray in one nights-space, and was therefore pitied and spared) and are fore-runners and fore-warners of death. So the many and grievous miseries inflicted upon this people, foreshowed their utter destruction to be even at next door by. And this the rather, because they knew it not, (as before) but (as it is said of the Flemings) that the elder they grow, the foolisher they are. Cleanthes was wont sometimes to chide himself: Ariston wondering thereat, asked him, whom chidest thou? Cleanthes laughed and answered. I chide an old fellow, qui canos quidem habet, sed mentem non habet, who hath gray hairs indeed, but wants understanding, and prudence worthy of them. It was Chrysippus (I trow) that offered to the world that sour distribution and choice, Aut mentem, aut restim comparandam; Either get wit worthy of your years, or go out of the world by an halter. That of Eleazar is very remarkable, who would not do anything which migh seem to be evil, because he would not spot his white head. Gray hairs should be a strong argument to move men to live blamelessely (because old age is a crown, when found in the way of righteousness, as it is said of Abraham, that he went to his grave with a good gray head ) and gray hairs in a State, that is, lesser and lighter judgments, should make men prepare to meet and prevent God: because, as in an house, stillicidia praecedunt ruinam, and as in a man, gray hairs fore-signify death, so do these, desolation; if course be not timely taken.
Verse 10. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, ] Sept. the ignominy, or impudency of Israel: q. d. They think to brave it out in a stout and stomachfull way. Low they are, but not lowly; humbled, but not humble. God thrust him downward, as it were with a thump on the back: but he stood stouting it out with him; and so discovered a great deal of arrogancy and folly. Plectimur, may such say, nec tamen flectimur: Corripimur sed non corrigimur; We have been stricken, but not sick; beaten, but not sensible, &c. the drunkards ditty, Prov. 23.35. When for all this, for all that God can do to tame them, and turn them again, they will on in their wicked ways, and not accept of the punishment of their iniquities: not confess and forsake their sins, that they may have mercy: not seek him, that is, come unto him by faith, Heb. 11.6. and subject themselves unto him by true obedience, 2 Chron. 7.14. this is such a piece of pride as testifieth to men's faces, that they deserve to be destroyed: this is wickedness with a witness: this is fastus adco enormis atque notorious, saith Pareus, such horrible and notorious insolency, as is not to be endured. God complains of Israel for this with a sigh, Ah sinful nation, &c. and resolves upon revenge, verse 24. See more of this in the Note on Chap. 5.5. Of turning to God. See Zech. 1.3. and of seeking God, see Hos. 5.15.
Verse 11. Ephraim also is like a silly dove, ] that may be drawn any way for want of wit (so the word signifieth) easily persuaded, enticed, deceived. The Septuagint render it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , insensata, witless, or wanting an heart, as the next words explain it; the heart being put for the understanding, as Jer. 5, 21. and oft in the Proverbs. Lo such a thing is Ephraim; and yet he holds himself wondrous wise, in calling to Egypt, and going to Assyria for help. Which was as wisely done, as if sheep should commit themselves to the Wolf for safeguard. The Egyptians were their ancient oppressors: the Assyrians should be shortly their executioners. Betwixt these two, as betwixt two millstones, they had been, and were to be ground to powder, as it were: and yet to these, they were ready to run for refuge. This was indeed to be like a silly dove, which flies from the claws of the Hawk into the net of the fowler, who will soon make a breakfast of them: or that waits till the fowler be gone, that she may fall upon the bait, never fearing the snare that is laid for her. See 2 King. 17.4. A serpents eye in a doves head is a singular ornament. Be ye wise as serpents, innocent as doves. The serpent, when charmed, stoppeth his ears, by applying one to the earth, and covering the other with his tail. The dove is too credulous and perswasible, dulce canente fistulâ. She is also dull, and defends not her young ones, as other creatures do. She will sit quiet in her columbary, and see her nest destroyed, her young ones taken away, and killed before her eyes, and never offer to rescue or revenge; which the hen and other fowls seem in some sort to do. Lo such was Ephraim's stupidity. The Philistines were upon him, the enemies spoiled and made a prey of him, yet he knew it not, as it is verse 9. he was not affected with it, nor driven to God by it: but either sat still, as the spoiled dove doth in her nest, or upon her dove-coat, delighted in the beauty of her feathers, priding herself in the clapping of her wings: or else ran a wrong way for refuge: flew to king Jareb, to human helps, to carnal confederates, which never were true to those that trusted them. See chap. 5.13. with the Note. Where you shall see that from the Assyrian they had pro praesidio ludibrium: as likewise those Christians had that called in the Turk, or the like to help them. True it is that religion without policy is too simple to be safe: but it is no less true, that policy without religion is too subtle to be good. As the dove without the serpent is easily caught: so the serpent without the dove stings deadly. Let that be held and remembered, that there is no wisdom, nor understanding, nor counsel against the Lord, Prov. 21.30. and that he takes it very ill, when we decline him, and knock at the creatures door for help, Ier. 2.13. shifting and sharking in every by-corner for comfort. This is the devils policy to draw men from God the Rock of ages, (as Joshua did the men of Ai out of their city, and as Bristow counselleth his fellows, the Popes Janizares, to draw the Lutherans out of their strong-hold of the Scriptures, into the open field of Councils and Fathers) that he may do what he will with them, and destroy them. For he knows, that be our hopes never so high, our helps from the creature never so likely, yet if God deny his concurrence, and influence, the arm of flesh (as Jereboam's ) shrinks up presently; and the strongest sinew of it cracks, and becomes unuseful.
Verse 12. When they go, ] Yea, flee (as the dove doth very swiftly, pleasing herself in the clapping of her wings, and cutting of the air) they cannot flee so high, but I shall easily reach them, Obad. 3.4. for in the thing wherein they deal proudly, I am above them, Exod. 18.11. I can over-top them, melt their waxen wings, and bring them down with a vengeance. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise that they are vain, 1 Cor. 3.19, 20. So saith the Apostle out of the Psalmist; but with this difference. The Psalmist saith, the thoughts of men, the Apostle, the thoughts of the wise, meaning the worlds wizards, the choicest and most picked men, the greatest politicians, the most nimble and Mercuriall wits, quorum praecordia ex meliore luto finxit Titan. These God will take, saith Paul: he will lay hold upon them, as they are running away, (so the word signifieth) as brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, 2 Pet. 2.12. or as fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare: so are the sons of men snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon them, Eccles. 9.12.
I will spread my net upon them, ] as a skillful fowler. By net, understand captivity, and other miseries, compared to a net, Ezek. 12.13. & 17.20. & 19.8. Lam. 1.13. Psal. 9.16. wherein being once caught, the more they struggle, the faster they stick: the more they seek to extricate themselves, the more they are entangled: snares are round about them, and sudden fear surpriseth them, Job 22.10. the steps of their strength shall be straitened: and their own counsels shall bring them down, Job 18.7.
I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven, ] Though they may think themselves extra jactum, out of gun-shot, I will cause them to descend, as the Hebrew word signifieth: and though lifted up to heaven, as Capernaum, and nested in the clouds; yea among the stars, as Edom, Obad. 4. yet shall they be brought down to the nethermost hell. God will meet with them in their out-strayes, casting his net over them: or bring them down with his bow, whilst (with the foolish bird) they are gazing at the bolt: he hath ways enough to hamper such as go out of his way: to be for a gin, and for a snare unto them, Isaiah 8.14. to shoot at them with an arrow, suddenly shall they be wounded, Psal. 64.7. How are they brought into desolation in a moment? they are utterly consumed with terror, Psal. 73.19.
I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard. ] Or, I will bind them (as a bird is bound in a net that she cannot stir forth) and, by binding, nurture them: as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, by tawing and tearing them with thorns and briars of the wilderness. The hypocrites in heart, heap up wrath: thy cry not when God bindeth them, Job 36.13. God expects men should cry peccavi, when they are bound as Paul was, to be beaten with rods; and not be silent in darkness, 1. Sam. 2.9. or, not make moan when he hath them under hand. Hear ye the rod, and who hath appointed it. Ye must now do so, that would not hear the word sounding in thei Congregations.
I will chastise them as their Congregation hath heard. ] Crebro & clare, I have plainly and plentifully told them my mind: and foretold them by my Prophets, what would be the issue of their evil practices. Sed surdo fabulam, They would not hear Moses and the Prophets. See 2 King. 17.13. 2 Chron. 24.18.19. They thought that my words were but wind, and that all my threats were but in terrorem, to fright them a little, and not in good-earnest. Therefore they shall find that the just Lord is in the midst of them, he will not do iniquity: every morning doth he bring his judgment to light, he faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame, feareth no colors, trembleth not at God's word though it come never so close to his conscience, though it even dash him in the mouth as it were, and make him spit blood. See Ier. 7.13.
Verse 13. Woe unto them, for they have fled from me: ] As Cain (the devils Patriarch) did when he went out from the presence of the Lord, in his fathers family, into the land of Nod, Gen. 4.16. being himself a Nad, that is, a runagate, verse 12. of the same root, that is here made use of in the Text. Now as that land took name of Cain, and his woeful state therein, so is every land and place a Nod to Apostates: and St. Jude throws a Woe after them, Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, Jude 11. that is, they have wickedly departed from God, and his blessing, and gotten into the worlds warm sun: yea, they not only go from God, but flee from him in hurry-hast, as from an enemy; a metaphor from birds flying amain, Prov. 27.8. As a bird that wandreth from her nest, (where God took order for her security, Deut. 22.6, 7.) so is a man that wandereth from his place (how much more from his God, that Infinite good? ) exposed to misery and mischief, to ruth and ruin. Woe to such, yea double woe: Woe and alas: destruction to such, and devastation, as the word signifieth. Perdition and destruction, as the Apostle phraseth it, 1 Tim. 6.9. whereby is meant, remediless misery, mischief without measure, torments without end, and past imagination. This truth must be told, how ever it be taken; that wicked men may not perish without warning. Toothlesse truths, and silken words, would better please people who are most of them sick of a Noli me tangere, and cry out against these fierce Preachers, that come with their Woe unto them, Destruction unto them, &c. This is the way, say they, to drive men into utter despair. We answer; First, if it should be so, yet that is not the proper effect of the Word so dispensed; but to a bate the pleasure that reprobates take in sin, and to restrain them from outrage: that they despair, it proceeds merely from their own corruption and guiltiness. They reply, that it comes rather from the severity of the Teachers, who set themselves to preach damnation, and utter terrible things. Secondly, therefore we answer; that the mad world (ever beside itself in point of salvation) is herein very much mistaken. Let them give us an instance of any one that was ever driven to despair by the sincere preaching of the word: and yet for one bitter word given by us, the Prophets gave ten. This whole Prophecy of Hosea is much more Comminatory then Consolatory. God himself comes here with Woe unto them, Destruction to them. Indeed by this pathetical exclamation, he declareth his affection toward them whom he threateneth: and how little delight he takes, either in their destruction, or in such denunciations thereof: And so must God's Ministers, &c.
Because they have transgressed against me: ] This is a new degree of their Apostasy from God. Wicked men and deceivers grow worse and worse, and add rebellion to sin. As a stone will fall down to come to its center, though it break itself in twenty pieces: so will Apostates, till they come to their own place with Judas: they cease not till they become altogether filthy, Psal. 53.3. as the dog at his vomit, or the sow in her slow, 2 Pet. 2.22. It fareth with such as in that case, Lev. 13.18, 19, 20. If a man had a bile healed, and it afterwards brak out, it proved the plague of leprosy.
Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me. ] All was done against God, whence the word me, is so often inculcated in this and the next verse. God is, as it were, a sufferer in all the sins of the sons of men: and this is no small aggravation of the evil of sin, that it strikes at God's face, lifts at his throne, makes to his dishonor Thou hast made me to serve with thy sins, and wearied me with thine iniquities, Isaiah 43.23. And to show this to be so, it was, that the offender was confined to the city of refuge, during the High-priests life; as being the chief God on earth. Good David was very sensible of this, and much humbled, when he said, Against thee, thee only have I sinned, Psal. 51.14. The trespass was against Uriah, but the transgression against God, so gracious a God; and there lay the pinch of his grief: viz. the unkindness that was in his sin. Therefore also Moses, in his swan-like-song, sets on this humbling consideration, Deut. 32.6. Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy Father? and wilt thou kick against his naked bowels? hast nowhere else to hit him but there? Again, Is not he thy Redeemer, that hath bought thee, and brought thee out of the iron furnace, where thou labouredst in the very fire, and wast wearied out with unsufferable servitude? More, hath he not made thee, and dost thou rebel against thy Maker, thy Master? Or, hath he not made thee, that is, exalted thee: in which sense, he is said to have made Moses and Aaron, 1 Sam. 12.6. that is, to have advanced them to that honor in his Church: and so we say, Such an one is made forever. Lastly, hath he not established thee, that thou mightest abide in his grace, and remain immovable? And dost thou yet evil requite him, &c. To render good for evil, is Divine; good for good, is human; evil for evil, is brutish; but evil for good, is devilish. See how grievously God taketh it here. Though I have redeemed them, viz. out of the hands of their enemies in general, (See an ample proof hereof, Nehem. 9. and the whole book of Judges throughout) and in special, as a late particular mercy to Ephraim, I have delivered and prospered them in their wars, under Jeroboam the son of Joash, 2 King. 14.27. and therefore they should have given me their good word at least, and spoken good of my Name: yet They have spoken lies against me. ] Ascribing the glory of their deliverances to their Idols, or arrogating it to themselves, or fathering their false worship upon me as the Author, or at least, Abbettour thereof, by my present prospering of them. See Ier. 7.10.
Verse 14. And they have not cried unto me with their heart, ] Hitherto hath been said what they had done: now what they had not done. Omissions are sins as well as commissions. Not serving of God, not sacrificing is condemned, Mal. 3.18. Eccles. 9.2. Not robbing only, but the not relieving of the poor, was the rich man's ruin. Omission of diet breeds diseases, and makes work for hell, or for the Physician of our souls. It is the character of a graceless man, that he calleth not upon God: And we have too many of that profane Earl of Westmorelands mind, who said, that he needed not to pray at all, for he had Tenants enow to pray for him. Some wicked pray (so as it is: indeed they Cant, or Charme, rather then pray, Isaiah 26.16 they poured forth a charm when they chastening was upon them) but they pray not with their heart. Their hearts are exercised with covetousness, 2 Pet. 2.14. and inhabited by the devil, Acts 5.3. Simon Magus his heart was not right with the Lord, Acts 8.21. How could it be, when it was in the gall of bitterness, and bond of perdition, 23. as every unregenerate heart is? Hence though God be near in their mouths, yet he is far from their reins, Jer. 12.2. and though they honor him a little with their lips, yet their heart is far from him, Matth. 15.8. A little artificial breath they can give God; and that's all. The breath that comes from life is warm, (as that from the body) whereas artificial breath is cold, as that from bellows. The deeper and hallower the belly of the Lute or Vial is, the pleasanter is the sound: the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears. The voice which is made in the mouth, is nothing so sweet as that which comes from the depth of the breast, Ephes. 6.6. Do the will of God from the heart: serve God in the spirit, Rom. 1.9. Lift up hands and hearts to God in the heavens, Lam. 3.41. Lip-labor is but lost-labor, yea it is sin, Prov. 15.8. Displeasing service is double dishonor; as dissembled sanctity is double iniquity. These men cried, vociferabantur, voice stentorea sonum edebant. They did set up their note, yea they howled upon their beds, ] whereupon they had cast themselves, being sick, not of wantonness, as once Ahab was, but of want: which made them howl as dogs do, when tied up from their meat and hunger-bit: but were no more regarded then a dog that howleth, or then the Cuckow in June. For why? They howled indeed to some tune, (as they say) the Hebrew word hath a letter more then ordinary, to note as much. It was the Heathen fashion to cry hideously to their gods: as also the Indians do at this day. So did these, because kept short, and held to strait allowance. It is said of the Ravens of Arabia, that when they are hungry, they screech horribly. And a Parrot when he is beaten, utters an hoarse and harsh voice. The songs of the Temple shall be howlings in that day, Amos 8.3. Their sacrifices as the cutting off a dogs neck, which is not done without much howling and yelling.
They assemble themselves, ] sc. To make public supplication in their Idoltemples; called beds before, (as some conceive) because as corporal fornication is committed in beds, so is spiritual in those places of superstition. Here therefore they met; not ad ruminandum, (as the vulgar Latin) to feed as beasts, nor to cut and lance themselves as Baals priests did, (as the Septuagint) and the Heathens in great afflictions, Deut. 14.1. But to howl for wheat, for provender, for provant: as now the Papists do in their sacra Ambarvalia: and as of old the Pagans did in time of extreme famine, or other public calamity. But as the grasshopper hops not much above the earth: and as vapors exhaled and drawn up by the Sun, do soon fall down again: so do drossy and earthy hearts in prayers, they seldom rise above corn and wine in their desires. Si ventri been, si lateri, as Epicurus in Horace. If the belly may be filled, the back fitted, their own turns served, it's enough to them, whose belly is their God, and who mind earthly things only. Which when they have once got, then they rebel against me, ] they consume it upon their lust, James 4.2. and so fight against God with his own weapons, as Jehu did against Jehoram with his own men; they abuse their store to his dishonor, like cornfed cattle they kick against their master; or as the young Mulet, that when she hath sucked her fill kicks her damme: or as the wild-asse, that snuffes up the wind, and cannot be taken. Or secondly, they rebel after they have assembled themselves, and made a show of no small devotion: when once the duty is over, they go to their old courses again, and undo all their prayers, as Jerem. 5.3. as if now they had prayed, they had purchased a license to live as they list. Whereas duties should mightily engage us against sin; and deliverances command obedience.
Verse 15. Though I have bound, and strengthened their arms, ] Quum ego erudivi, So Pagnine, Polanus, and others: when I taught them, or chastened them, as verse 12. and strengthened their arms: there is no and in the Original; it is an Asyndeton; to show that God had done both for them, together and at once: he had acted the part both of an Instructour, and of a Surgeon; (like as Rev. 3.18. he takes upon him the person both of a rich merchant, and a skillful Physician) he had done all that could be done to do them good; teaching their hands to war, and their fingers to fight, Psal. 144.1. binding up their broken arms (See Ezek. 30.24.) and strengthening their feeble sinews, their hands that hung down, Heb. 12.12. After I have scourged them, I have re-established them; but what thanks for my labor? what Minerval or pay for my pains? The worlds wages; such as Hercules paid the Schoolmaster Linus, whom he knocked on the head: or as Agricola's scholars in Germany killed their master with their pen-knives; or as Physicians and Surgeons are many times paid by their penurious patients, of whom the Poet wittily,
yet do they imagine mischief against me, ] All goes against God (See the note on verse. 13.) Here they imagine mischief against him, as before they spake lies against him, verse. 13. and acted rebellion against him, verse. 14. Thus they spake and did evil things as they could, Jer. 3.5. and the reason of all was, they imagined mischief, cogitabant quasi coagitabant, they were men of wicked devices, Prov. 12.2. wholly made up of sinful projects and purposes: they plotted and plowed mischief, and that against God himself (which is horrible,) David thought much that his enemies should machinate mischief against him, though but dust and ashes; and threateneth them sore for so doing, Psal. 62.3. How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? Ye shall be slain all of you; as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence: he meaneth, ye shall be surely and suddenly ruined. What then will become of those Zamzummims that imagine mischief against the Lord? and such a Lord as hath bound and strengthened their arms, that had been broken by the enemies, and sought their good every way, puniendo, muniendo, malis & bonis afficiendo, &c. If they had slipped into some small offense against him, of infirmity and at unawares, it had been nothing so grievous: but to busy their brains, and bend their wits and studies scientes, volentes, & deliberato consilio to plot and practice mischief, or (as the Septuagint render it) mischiefs against God, (for every transgression and disobedience is contrary to his most pure Nature, and sacred Law, and shall therefore receive a just recompense of reward, Heb. 2.2.) so gracious a God, this is detestable ingratitude. This is, as if those in the Gospel should have railed against Christ, for raising them from the dead: it is like the matchless mischievousness of that monster Michael Balbus, who that night that his Prince pardoned and released him; gat out and slew him. Omne peccatum est deicidium, for although wicked men cannot reach God, yet they reach at him; shooting up their darts against heaven, (as the Thracians did once in a storm) and saying in effect as Caligula did to his Jupiter, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ! either kill me, or I will kill thee.
Vers. 16. They return but not to the most High, ] Gnal for Gnelion by contraction: as Jah for Jehovah, so afterwards, Chap. 11.7. and 2 Sam. 23.1. Return they do, or seem to do at least (for it is their hypocrisy that is here described) but not to the most High: to whom then? to idols, or human helps, or anything rather, and sooner, then to God. Jehu went far in the work of Reformation, and made a great flaunt at first, as if he would have done as much that way, as ever Josiah did: But he and his people came not up to the height, turned not to the most High God, honored him not as a just and jealous God, that can endure no corrivals. They gave the half-turn, but returned not with all their hearts, Joel. 2.12. they turned from west to north, but not from west to east, to the full counterpoint, setting their faces toward God, and having their backs towards their sins. They had haply a kind of velleity, some short-winded wishes and wamblings, as I may so say, but it boiled not up to the full height of a resolution for God; they made believe they would cast away their transgressions, but it was but as the mother makes her child believe, that she will cast him to the puttock or into the water; when as she holds him fast enough, and means him no hurt at all. These faint essays of returning are not worthy of the most High; he delighteth not to be dallied with, but requireth the best of the best; and that we serve him like himself, that is, after a godly so • t, or worthy of God, as Saint John phraseth it, 3 John. 6. Thus if we do, we shall be drawn up to him, and have cause to rejoice in our sublimity, or, in that we are exalted, I am. 1.9. For indeed the most High stoopeth to the true convert (who considering his distance repents and abhors himself in dust and ashes) he dwelleth in the highest heavens and lowest hearts, Esa. 57.17.
They are like a deceitful bow ] a rotten bow (though otherwise fair) when an arrow is drawn to the head, breaks and deceives the archer. Or thus, when a man shoots with a deceitful bow, though he level his eye and his arrow directly to the mark, and thinks with himself to hit it; yet indeed the arrow, by reason of his deceitful bow goes a clean contrary way; yea, and sometimes reflects upon the archer himself; semblably these false Israelites dealt with God. Their hearts were as the bow, their purposes and promises to return as arrows; the mark they aimed at conversion; to the which, they, in their afflictions looked with so accurate and intent an eye, as though they would repent indeed; but their hearts deceived them as being unsound: hence they started aside like a deceitful bow, Psal. 78.57. and the arrows of their fair promises and pretences vanished in the air, as smoke. Some take the words in another sense, as if punishment and disappointment were here threatened: but I best like the former. Let us look to the secret warpings of our hearts, and, seeing we are God's bow, Zach. 9.13. let us not be deceitful, &c.
Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue, ] and the people with them; for princes fall not alone, as we have seen in our late wars, wherein Lord's and Losels fell together not a few at Newbury -fight especially 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the sword devoureth one as well as the other, 2 Sam. 11.25. God hangs up the heads of the people as it were in gibbets, Num. 25.4. their greatness cannot bear them out, nor their life-guards defend them, for the detestation of their tongue (so some read this text) for the hatred that God beareth to them for their blasphemies and great swelling words of vanity, uttered against him, his people, and his ordinances. With our tongue, say they, we will prevail, our lips are our own: who is Lord over us? Lo this and worse is the rage of their tongue: as his, that said he would not leave one Lutheran in his dominions: another, that he would ride his horse up to the saddle in the blood of the Lutherans: a third, that he would send them all to dine with the devil, &c. God will cut off the spirit of such outrageous Princes. They shall fall by the sword, they shall be a portion for foxes, Psal. 63.10. and a derision to the Egyptians.
this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt, ] their confederates in whom they trusted; and upon whose help bearing themselves over-bold, they had spoken loftily, setting their mouths against heaven, and their tongues walked thorough the earth, Ps. 73.9. Lo, these should not only fail them but jear them; not only not succor them, but scorn them; as the Monarch of Morocco did our King John, that sent to him for help in the Barons wars. He grew into such dislike of our king (saith the story) that ever after he abhorred the mention of him. Neither met he with better entertainment from the Pope, to whom he basely submitted and surrendered his kingdom. It is better to trust in the Lord, then to put confidence in Princes. For, Deo confisi nunquam confusi, they that trust in the Lord shall never be ashamed.
CHAP. VIII.
Vers. 1. SEt the trumpet to thy mouth, ] Heb. The trumpet to thy palate. A hasty expression, an abrupt and imperfect speech, common with such as are moved with passions, of anger, grief or fear, as Chap. 5.8. after thee O Benjamin. God, though not subject to such perturbations, I am. 1.17. yet here and elsewhere utters himself in this sort; to set forth the nearness of the people's danger by the enemies approach: and the necessity of their return to him by true repentance, for the diversion of his displeasure. Break off thy sins by righteousness, saith the Prophet to Nebuchadnezzar; be abrupt in the work, cut the cartropes of vamty, if it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility, Dan. 4.27. Take the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs: get sin remitted, and punishment shall be removed. In this sermon of the Prophet (which is much sharper then the former, and may seem to be one of the last, because God is so absolute in threatening, as if he meant to be resolute in punishing) there is (as one saith) peccatorum & poenarum 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 an heaping together of sins and punishments of many sorts: and the prophet is commanded to give sudden warning of the enemy at hand, which is elegantly set forth by a military hypotyposis or lively representation; as if it were now a doing. The trumpet to thy mouth, that is, set up thy note, and proclaim with a loud and clear voice, as Isaiah. 58.1. cry in the throat (so the Chaldee hath it here) spare not, that none may say he was not warned: lift up thy voice like a trumpet, that all may hear and fear, Am. 3.6. as people use to do when an ala m is sounded, or the bells are rung backward. See chap. 5.8. There they had been before alarmed, here reminded in brief: for the prophet is as it were, monosyllabus, as one in haste; he uttereth amputatas sententias & verba ante expectatum cadentia, as Seneca somewhere hath it, broken sentences, concise, but pithy periods.
he shall come as an Egle against the house of the Lord, ] He, that is, the Assyrian; not Nebuchadnezzar, though the like is said of him, Ezech. 17.3.7. Much less the Romans (as Lyra interpreteth this text of the last destruction of Jerusalem, because the Eagle was their Ensign) but Pul, Tiglath-Pileser, and Salmanaser, who came against the ten Tribes as an Eagle, to waste, spoil, and carry captive speedily, impetuously, irresistibly: as Ierem. 4.19. The Eagle is the strongest and swiftest of birds, and feareth no obstacle, either from other fowl, or wind, or thunderbolt, as Pliny affirmeth. Nebuchadnezzar is not only compared to an Eagle (as before is noted) but to a Lion with Eagles-wings, Dan. 7.4. that is, with invincible armies, that march with incredible swiftness. And all this was long since forethreatned, Deut. 28.49. The Lord shall bring a Nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the Eagle flieth: to which Text the Prophet here seemeth to allude; as indeed all the Prophets do but comment upon Moses, and draw out that Arras, which was folded together by him before.
against the house of the Lord, ] that is, the house of Israel, called God's house, Numb. 12.7. Heb. 3.5. and God's land, Hos. 9.3.15. and their Common-wealth is by Josephus called a Theocratic. And although they were now become Apostates, yet they gloried no less then before, to be of the stock of Abraham, and of the family of faith: like as the Turks call themselves at this day, Musulmans, that is, the true and right believers; especially after they are circumcised, which is not done till they be past ten years of age; following the example of Ishmael, whom they imitate, and honor as their Progenitour: alleging that Abraham loved him, and not Isaac, and that it was Ishmael whom Abraham would have sacrificed.
because they have transgressed my Covenant, and trespassed ] Sin is the mother of misery: and the great Makebate betwixt God and his creature. It moves him when we ask bread and fish to feed us (as verse 2.) to answer us with a stone to bruise us, or a serpent to bite us. The sin of this people was the more heinous, because they were covenanters, and confederate with God. It was his covenant that was in their flesh, Gen. 17.13. and he had betrothed them to himself, and betrusted them with his Oracles. but they like men, transgressed the covenant, and dealt treacherously against him, Chap. 6.7. (See the Note there.) they performed not the stipulation of a good conscience toward God.
they trespassed against his law. ] As if it had not been holy, and just, and good, precious, perfect, and profitable; grounded upon so much good reason, that if God had not commanded it, yet it had been best for us to have practiced it, Isaiah 48.17. I am the Lord that teacheth thee to profit, &c O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! &c. q. d. It is for thy profit and not for mine own, that I have given thee a law to live by. But they have trespassed, or praevaricated: and this, out of pride and malice, as the word signifieth; and as before he had oft convinced them of many particulars, and more will do: therefore are they justly punished.
Verse 2. Israel shall cry unto me, ] It is their course and custom to do so: they will needs do it though I take no delight in it. Hypocrisy is impudent, as chap. 5.6. and Ier. 3.4, 5. No nay, but it will despite God with seeming honor; and present him with a ludibrious devotion. Israel, though revolted and degenerated into Jezreel, chap. 1. shall cry, yea cry aloud, vociferabuntur, cry till they are hoarse, as criers do: and unto me, but not with their heart, chap. 7.14. It is but clamor sine side fatuus, an empty ring, that God regards not. For, not everyone that saith unto him, Lord, Lord, &c Mat. 7.21. Many lean upon the Lord and say, Is not the Lord amongst us? none evil can come unto us, Mic. 3.11. who yet shall hear, Discedite, Avaunt ye workers of iniquity: I know you not. Woe then to all profligate professors, carnal Gospellers: their prayers shall not profit them, neither shall they be a button the better for their loud cries to the most High, ( Pro. 1.28. and odious fawnings,
My God, we know thee. ] When their hearts are far from him. Of such pretenders to him and his truth, it is that the Apostle speaketh, Tit. 1.16. They profess that they know God, (which yet God denies, Hos. 4.1. & 5.4.) but in works they deny him: being abominable, and disobedient, and to every good work reprobate. To come and call God Father, the guide of our youth, and then to fall to sin, this is to do as evil as we can: We cannot easily do worse, Jer. 3.4, 5. To cry, The Temple of the Lord, The Temple of the Lord: and then to steal, murder, and commit adultery, &c. this is painted hypocrisy, Ier. 7.4, 9. when men shall take sanctuary, and think to save themselves from danger by a form of godliness (as the Jews fable that Og king of Bashan escaped in the flood by riding astride upon the Ark) when they are perfect strangers to the power of it, this is to hasten and heap up wrath, Job 36.13. Religion, as it is the best armor, so the worst cloak: and will serve hypocrites as the disguise Ahab put on, and perished. Castalio maketh this last clause to be the speech of the blessed Trinity, We know thee O Israel: q. d. Though thou collogue and cry, My God: yet we know thine hypocrisy and the naughtiness of thy heart. But the former sense is better, though the placing of the word Israel in the end of the verse, seem to favor this: for thus it runs in the Hebrew, To me thy shall cry, My God, we know thee, Israel.
Verse 3. Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, ] Heb. The Good: as first, the good God, who is good original, universal, All-sufficient, and satisfactory, proportionable and fitting to our soul. He both is good, and doth good. Psal 119.68. and that both naturally, abundantly, freely, and constantly. Good thou art, O Lord, and ready to forgive, saith David, Psal. 86.5. And the Good Lord be mircifull, &c. saith Hezekiah in his prayer for the people. To speak properly, there is none good but God, saith our Savior, Matt. 19.17. but Israel cast him, or rather kicked him off (procul à se rejecit) as the word signifieth: So do all gross hypocrites: they are rank Atheists, practical Atheists though professionall Christians. Secondly, they reject Christ as a Sovereign, though they could be content to have him, as a Savior: they send messages after him, saying, We will not have this man to rule over us: they will not submit to the laws of his kingdom, nor receive him in all his offices, and efficacies: they are Christless creatures, as without God, so without Christ in the world. Thirdly, hypocrites reject the good Spirit of God, (as David calleth him, Psal. 143.10.) the fruit whereof is in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth, Ephes. 5.9. When God striveth with them by his good Spirit (as Neh. 9.20.) they, by yielding to Satan's suggestions, grieve that holy Spirit, and by grieving resist him, and by resisting quench him, and by quenching maliciously oppose him, and offer despite unto him; and so cast themselves into the punishing hands of the living God, Heb. 10.29, 31. Lastly, they cast off the good Word, and true Worship of God: those right judgments, true laws, good statutes, and Commandments, Neh. 9.13. they put the promises from them, and judge themselves unworthy of everlasting life, Acts 13.46. they hate instruction, and cast God's words behind them, Psal. 50.17. In a word, be hath left off to be wise, and to do good: he setteth himself in a way that is not good: hec abhorreth not evil, Psal. 36.3, 4. The words may be read thus, The good (God) hath rejected Israel; the enemy shall pursue him: according to that in the Psalm, God hath forsaken him, persecute and take him, for there is none to deliver him, Psal. 71.11. Sure it is, that the Lord is with us, while we are with him: and if we seek him, he will be found of us. But if we forsake him, he will forsake us. And if he forsake us, woe be to us, chap. 9.12. we are in danger to be caught up by every paltry enemy, as young Lapwings are to be snatched up by every buzzard. If Israel cast away the thing that is good, what marvel if evil hunt him to overthrow him, Psal. 140.11. and if he find himself in all evil in the midst of the Congregation, and the assembly, Prov. 5.14. Hence Cain's fear, when cast out by God; and Saul's complaint, that the Philistines were upon him, and God had forsaken him.
Verse 4. They have set up kings, but not by me, &c. ] The Septuagint and vulgar Latin render it, They have reigned to themselves: like as St. Paul telleth the haughty Corinthians, who, carried aloft by their waxen wings, domineered and despised others, ye have reigned as kings without us, &c. 1 Cor. 4.8. But our reading is according to the Original: and so they are charged with a double defection: the one Civil, from the house of David, they have set up kings, &c. the other Ecclesiastical, from the sincere service of God, they had made them idols. For the first, it was not their fault to set up kings; but to do it without God, without his license, and approbation. They took counsel, but not of God: they covered with a covering, but not of his spirit, that they might add sin to sin, Isaiah 30.1. They went headlong to work, in setting up Jeroboam the son of Nebat. For although the thing were done by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, as was likewise Christ's crucifixion, Acts 2.23. (See 1 King. 11.31, 17. and Chap. 12.15, 24.) yet because the people were led by their own pride and ambition to choose a new king, without either asking God's consent, or eyeing his decree, they did it rashly, and seditiously; neithey aimed they at anything else, but at the easing of their burdens, and drawing to themselves the wealth of the kingdom. As for Jeroboam, it is before noted, that although he had it cleared to him, that God's will was he should be king over the ten Tribes, yet because it was a will of God's decree, not of his command, as of a duty to be done by him; and because he did not as David, who when he had the promise of the kingdom, (yea was anointed king) yet invaded not the kingdom, but waited till he was lawfully exalted thereunto by God: therefore passeth he for an usurper. And the people are here worthily reprehended, since whatsoever is not of faith is sin: and it is obedience when men obey a Divine precept; but not ever, when they follow a Divine instinct.
they have made princes, &c. ] Some render it, They have removed Princes, (as if in the word Hasiru Sin were put for Samech ) they have taken liberty to make and unmake Princes at their pleasure: as the Roman Army did Emperors: and as that potent Earl of Warwick, in Henry the sixths time, who is said to have carried a king in his pocket. But because the former reading is confirmed by the Chaldee Paraphrase, and the sense is agreeable to what went before: neither read we of any kings of Israel deposed by the people, we retain it as the better.
Of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, ] Of the guts and garbage of the earth had they made them terricula, fray-bugs, or molestations: terrorem enim & tristitiam duntaxat afferunt suis cultoribus, for they cause terror and heaviness only to those that worship them. Their sorrow shall be multiplied that hasten after another God, Psal. 16.4. The Greek Churches, for instance, so set upon Image-worship; and therefore now subjected to the Turkish tyranny: a type whereof were these ten Tribes carried captive by the Assyrian, without any return. Idols are called griefs, or sorrows, saith Peter Martyr, because they torment the mind; and trouble the conscience; neither can they quiet or pacify it: so that Idolaters must needs be always in doubt and despair, as Papists are, whose whole religion is a doctrine of desperation. Their penances and pilgrimages to such or such an Idol, might still their consciences for a while: but this was a truce rather then a peace: a palliate cure, which would not hold long; a corrupting of the sergeant, but not compounding with the Creditor.
that they may be cut off. ] Not their silver and gold, the matter of their idols, as some sense it; but the whole nation, Princes and people together. Idolatry is a God-provoking, and a land-desolating sin, as in this Prophecy. Often it is not so much the enemies sword as the sin of idolatry that destroyeth cities and kingdoms, through the justice and jealousy of Almighty God.
Verse. 5. Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off, ] That is, it can do thee no stead, nor deliver thee from the destroyer. Be not afraid of such mawmets (saith Jeremy) for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good, chap. 10.5. they can neither hurt, nor help: for an idol is nothing in the world, 1 Cor. 8.4. nothing but a mere fiction: it hath no god-head, or power divine in itself, as the following words show, that there is none other God but one. How then can help be reasonably expected from it? Israel had cast off the thing that is good, for calf-worship, ver. 3. therefore is he worthily cast off by his calf, called here Samaria's calf, or calves, because that was the chief City, the Palace of the King, and is therefore put for the whole Province: and their idols called a calf, by way of contempt, as the brazen-serpent is called Nehushtan, or a piece of brass when once it was Idolized. See how Rabshakeh insults over those Heathen-deities, 2 King. 18.33, 34, 35. and blasphemously applieth it to the God of Israel, who never casteth off his faithful servants: but is with them in trouble, to deliver them, and honor them, Psal. 91.15. Surely the Lord will not cast off his faithful people, neither will he forsake his inheritance, Psal. 94.14. Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, Job 8.20. But though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies, Lam. 3.31, 32. some reads it thus, Thy calf, O Samaria, hath been carried away into a far country, namely into Assyria: as the idols of the nations which were overcome, were carried away captive in triumph by the Conquerors. See Hos. 10.6.
Mine anger is kindled against them, ] God is said to be angry against idolaters, because he doth that which an angry man useth to do, viz. 1. chide, 2. fight; see the second commandment in the sanction of it, and tremble at God's displeasure, which when once kindled, and comes into his face, or, nostrils (as here) it burneth to the lowest hell, consumeth the earth with her increase and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains, Deut. 32.22. It is ill angering him that is the Ancient of days, and a consuming fire. The Jews use to say to this day, that there is no punishment befalleth them, in which there is not an ounce of Aaron's golden calf.
How long will it be ere they attain to innocence? ] Quousque non poterunt innocentiam? a forcible ellipsis: as if God were so vexed, that he could not fully utter himself, nor at all speak to Samaria as he had begun, but turn his discourse to others, saying, How long will they not be cleansed? or, not abide innocence? By which powerful expression three things are intimated. First, that these Israelites were refractary and desperate: not only unclean, but enemies to innocence, such as could not abide it: they were inveterate, and incurable, their diseases ingrained, and not easily stirred by any potion. Secondly, that God is most patient, who though he thinks over-long of the time that men continue in their evil courses, and therefore cries, Quousque, How long, &c. and when will it once be? yet bears with their evil manners, and inviteth them to better. Thirdly, that he will at length break off his patience, and proceed to punishment, since there is no other remedy, 2 Chron. 34.16. Prov. 29.1.
Verse 6. For from Israel was it also, ] There is an Emphasis in Also, and it is as if the Prophet should say, This calf of Samaria is no less from Israel, and came out of his shop or device, then that of old set up by them in the wilderness. Israel then brought a calf out of Egypt, Jeroboam brought two; and Israel hath received them, and are much taken with them: so that they cannot attain to innocence, (as it is in the former verse ) so far they are engaged, and so fast joined to idols, that they cannot get off: there is so much of Self in it: it was the barn of their own brain; and hence so over-admired, so clasped and hugged, with the Ape, &c. or rather, as Cleopatra hugged her Vipers that sucked her blood, and took away her life; so did they their own inventions, though fairly warned of the danger, verse 3, 4, 5. Lo this was Israel, that acted thus madly. Israel that was wont to laugh at, or pity other Nations for their Idolomany, for worshipping the works of their own hands, for going a whoring after their own inventions, for changing the glory of the incorruptible God, into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things: As in Lap-land, the people worship that all day for a god, whatsoever they see first in the morning. Now that a calf-worship should be found in Israel, and not only so, but found out by Israel; who was herein worse then Egypt: for that the Egyptians worshipped a living Ox of God's making; but Israel, a dead calf of their own making: such sots they were grown, and so thwart to the very principles of reason.
the workman made it, ] who confessedly is no God, therefore it is not God, ] for no man can give that divinity to another, which himself hath not. Nay it is certain that God himself by his infinite power cannot make anything to be a God to us. He cannot do this I say: like as he cannot lie, he cannot die, he cannot deny himself, &c. so he cannot raise a created excellency to that height, as to be a God to us. How vile then is the Voluptuary, that maketh his belly his god? the Mammonist, that maketh his gold his god? the Ambitionist, that maketh his honor his god? How abominable the Mass-monger, that maketh his god, and eateth him when he hath done? This made Averroes the Mahometan cry out; Quoniam Christiani Deum suum manducant, sit anima mea cum Philosophis, that is, Forasmuch as Christians do eat their God, let my soul be rather with the souls of the Philosophers. Those Pseudo-Christians the Papists, stick not to call the consecrated Host, their God and Lord: and Harding (that sottish Apostate, for he was once a zealous Preacher against Popery, and wished that he had a voice as loud as the bells of Oseney, to cry it down) in his disputation against Jewel, is not ashamed to defend it. And yet we all know that that Host or Sacrament, as they call it, of the Altar, is the work of the Baker, therefore it is no God, neither Lord nor God. (whatsoever our Lord God the Pope say to the contrary) Which yet further appeareth, in that (as the calf of Samaria here) it may be broken in pieces, or to shivers, (which word of ours seemeth to come from the Hebrew shebharim here used) yea ground to powder, as was the molten calf in the wilderness, whereto the Prophet may well here allude. Is not their breaden-god broken by the Priest into three bits? Is it not chawed with his teeth? May it not be gnawed by mice, become meat for worms, &c? Murescit, putrescit, & corrumpitur: all which things the Papists themselves confess may befall their god, which is therefore no god, or nomine tantum & non numine deus, a nominal god only. And the like we may say of images, and relics (such as is at Genua, the tail of that Ass, whereon Christ rode into Jerusalem) these and other monuments of idolatry may, nay they ought to be broken, burnt, and utterly abolished, Exod. 34.13. Deut. 7.5. Ezek. 20.7. as (blessed be God) they are lately amongst us, by our Worthies in Parliament: to whom perhaps, for that and the like good services, we attributed but too much, we even idolized them: and the king of Sweden (that bright Northern-star) a little before his decease, being in discourse with Dr. Fabricius his Chaplain, he told him, that he thought God would ere long take him away, because the people did so overvalue and defy him.
Verse 7. For they have sown the wind, and shall neap the whirl-wind: ] To sow the wind is to labor in vain, as Eccles. 5.16. to labor for the wind, and Prov. 11.29. to possess the wind, to feed on the wind, Hos. 12.1. and to be eaten up of the wind, Jer. 22.22. The Greeks express the same by hunting after, and husbanding the wind. The wind we know maketh a mighty bustle, as if it were some great business, solid and stable: but presently it blows over, and comes to nothing. Or if it get, as seed, into the bosom of the earth, either it breeds an earth-quake, or at least ariseth in a whirl-wind, which blows dust into the eyes, and once at least buried a considerable Army in the Lybian sands. Solomon saith, He that soweth iniquity, shall reap vanity, Pro. 22.8. But our Prophet here, saith more: He that soweth the wiude of iniquity, shall reap the terrible tempest of inconceivable misery. By the blast of God he shall perish, and by the breath of his nostrils he shall be consumed, Job 4.8, 9. As the beginnings of Idolatry, hypocrisy, vain-glory, carnal policy, &c. are empty and unhappy, (it is but the sowing of blasted corn, as the Septuagint here hath it, seed corrupted by the wind ) so the end thereof is very sad and dismal. The word here rendered, the whirl-wind, hath a syllable in it more then ordinary, to note (saith Tremellius ) the fearfulness of the divine vengeance, that will befall the forementioned: and especially at death, when they are entering upon eternity. Oh what a dreadful shriek gives the guilty soul at death, to see itself launching into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead, and must swim naked in it forever: not having the least cold blast of that wind it sowed all its life long to cool it; but rather to add to its torment! Then will God speak to such, as once he did to Job out of a whirl-wind, but after another manner; Go to now ye formalists, false-worshippers, triflers, troublers of Israel: ye that have been mere mutes, and ciphers, nullities in the world, superfluities in the earth, or worse then all this: Go to now, I say, weep and howl for the miseries that are come upon you. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton: ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter. But now, an end is come, is come; an evil, an only evil, without mixture of mercy, sorrow without succor, mischief without measure, torments, without hope of ever either mending or ending, are the portion of your cup: the dregs of that cup of mine must you now drink off, that hath eternity to the bottom. O lamentable! Oh did but men forethink what would be the end of sin, they durst not but be innocent. Oh let that terrible tempest at death be timely thought on and prevented, Job 27.20, 21, &c. Terrors take hold of him as wa • ers: a tempest stealeth him away in the night. The East-wind carrieth him away, and he departeth, and as a storm hurleth him out of his place. For God shall cast upon him and not spare: he would fain flee out of his hand, &c.
It hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: ] Nihil habet fertilitatis firmitatisque, as Ruffinus expoundeth it; It hath no firmness or fruitfulness: the wind of wickedness that thou hast sown, the blasted corn that thou hast committed to the earth, will yield thee nothing but loss, and disappointment. A blade there may be, but not a stalk: or if a stalk, yet not a bud: or if a bud, yet it shall be nipped in the bud: it shall yield no meal, but only dust and chaff: or if it come to the meal, yet strangers shall swallow it up, so that you shall be never the better for it: but after that ye have sown the wind of iniquity, ye shall reap the whirl-wind of misery, maledictionem omnimodam, curses of all kinds, which God hath hanged at the heels of your idolatry, a pernicious evil, (whatever those superstitious shecsinners brag'd to the contrary, Ier. 44.17.) Or if they flourish for a season, and have hopes of a large crop: yet God will curse their blessings, and frustrate their fair hopes, Psal. 37.2. as he dealt by that rich wretch mentioned by Mr. Boroughes, in his Comment on the second Chapter of this Prophesy, pag. 379. I had certain information, saith he, from a Reverend Minister, that in his own Town there was a worldling, who had a great crop of corn. A good honest neighbor of his walking by his corn said, Neighbor, you have a very fine crop of corn, if God bless it: yea, saith he, I will have a good crop: speaking contemptuously. And before he could come to get it into the barn, it was blasted, that the corn of the whole crop was not worth six pence.
Verse 8. Israel is swallowed up, ] Not their meal only, as verse 7. but themselves also are devoured by those workers of iniquity, that eat up God's people as they eat bread, Psal. 14.4. Persecutours are men-eaters, more cruel then those American Cannibals, that devour men piece-meal: they make but a breakfast of God's people, as Sennacherib meant to do of Jerusalem; and the Powder-papists of England. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, when men rose up against us, Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us. But blessed be God, who hath not given us as a prey to their teeth, Psal. 124.2, 3, 6. Let us keep us out of the claws and clutches of that old man-slayer, who night and day walketh about (in a circular motion) that he may take us at advantage, seeking whom he may swallow down his wide gullet, which he hath even made red with the blood of souls, and is therefore haply, called the great red-Dragon, Rev. 12.3. that hath seven heads to plot, and ten horns to push men into the sin of idolatry, and thereby into hell. So long as Israel was holiness to the Lord, and the first-fruits of his increase, all that devoured him found that they offended: for evil came upon them, Ier. 2.3. they could no more digest him, then the Whale did Jonah: a cup of trembling, or of poison he was to all the people round about, Zech. 12.2. See the Note there. But, when he offended in Baal, he died: when he chose new gods, then was war in the gates: when they made leagues with idolaters, then were they even swallowed up by them: as were likewise the Greek and Latin Churches, by the Eastern and Western Antichrist, those crooked Leviathans, those dragons in the sea, as the Egyptian, and Assyrian are called, Isaiah 27.1.
now shall they be among the Gentiles, ] whose favor and friendship they have basely sought, and dearly bought. It was threatened in the former Chapter, verse 16. that they should be a derision in the land of Egypt. See the Note. To have Egyptians deride us, and that for sin, is an heavy judgment. So here, to be disdained and vilified by such, as an old broken vessel, fit for none but unclean uses.
as a vessel wherein is no pleasure. ] No delight or complacency; vas despectum, reijculum, abjectum, a vessel that is for the carrying up and down of excrements; so shall Israel be employed by Gentiles, in base and contemptible offices: as they were by the Babylonians, Jer. 51.34. yea Jehoiakim himself (though a King) was no better used, Ier. 22.18. and Moab, that haughty nation, Ier. 48.38. In which sense, Mo • b shall be my washpot, saith David, Psal. 60.10. that is, brought into most abject slavery; as your scullions or scavengers: they shall lie among the pots, Psal. 68.13. not only to make pots, for the king of Babylon's use, (as those servile souls, the base brood of their degenerated forefathers, 1 Chron. 4.23.) but also to hold pots, or empty pots and vessels of dishonor; that they might know a difference betwixt God's service (which is all clean and fair work, fit for a vessel of honor, an elect vessel, elect and precious, sanctified and fit for the masters use ) and the service of their enemies, base and beastly; such as is beneath the excellency of an ingenuous man: such as the Turks at this day put the Jews to; and the Spaniards the poor Indians.
Verse 9. For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild asse alone by himself, ] This was that that most moved the Lord to denounce and determine hard and heavy things against Israel, they had suspicious thoughts of God, as if he either could not, or would not do for them, and help them out, as the Assyrian (though an enemy) would. This prank of theirs, God uttereth here with as great indignation, and dislike, as old Jacob did his son Reub • ns incest, when he said, He went up to my couch. The Lord is as jealous of his glory as any man can be of his wife: neither will he give it to another, Isaiah 42.8. he admits not of any corrival in heaven or earth, as Potiphar's wife was his own peculiar. Now God is no way more glorified by us, then when we put our trust in his love and faithfulness, and expect from him safety here, and salvation hereafter. For in so doing, we set him up for our king, Judge. 9.15. and put the crown royal upon his head, Cant. 3.11. As in doing otherwise, we turn his glory into shame, loving vanity, seeking after leasing. Hence that angry expostulation, Ier. 2.36. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? How dost think to mend thyself, by running to the creature; as if there were no God in Israel? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria: Yea thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head (after the manner of mourners, 2 Sam. 13.19.) for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them.
a wild asse alone by himself: ] Foolish and fierce above measure, untameable and intractable: loving to be alone, and so becomes a prey to the lion, as saith Siracides, chap. 13. verse 21. Pliny speaketh much of the wild asse, and his properties: and Interpreters on this Text, bring many reasons why Israel is compared to him. Israel is as stupid, and as mad as the wild asse, saith Lyra. He is all for himself, saith Junius: he casteth off God's yoke, saith Tremellius: he is a contemptible creature, saith Kimchi: he walks where he lists, as masterless, saith the Chaldee: he seeketh water in the wilderness, but hardly findeth it, so doth Israel help of the cruel enemies, and hath it not, saith Oecolampadius: he taketh a great deal of pains for his belly, saith Mercer: he cannot be tamed and made serviceable, saith Gesner. He is left alone by God to be carried captive by the Assyrian, saith Ribera. The Scripture describeth the nature of this creature in many places, Gen. 16.12. Job 6.5. & 11.12. & 24.5. & 39.8. Psal. 104.11. Isaiah 32.14. Ier. 2.23. & 14.6. Dan. 5.21.
Ephraim hath hired lovers. ] This is the second similitude, taken from a most libidinous harlot. See the like baseness in Judah, Ezek. 16.33. They were so mad upon their idols, and creature-confidences, that they were at no small charge for them: they lavished money out of the bag: and laid on, as if they should never see an end of their wealth. They sent great gifts and sums of money to the Assyrians and Egyptians; and leaned upon them as their champions: they hired loves, as the Hebrew here hath it. But love as it cannot well be counterfeited, (a man may paint fire, but he cannot paint heat) so it cannot at all be hired or purchased. Those that go about it shall find loathing for love, and be scorned of those mercenaries, which are seldom either satisfied, or sure.
Verse 10. Yea, though they have hired among the nations, ] The uncircumcised; strangers to the promises, and aliens from the common-wealth of Israel: that they should so far distrust God, and debase themselves, as to seek help of such; this went near to the heart of God, and was very grievous. They brought up an evil report upon God's house-keeping, charged him with unfaithfulness to his people, whom he now seemed to leave in the lurch, to shift for themselves in their straits; and hardened his enemies in their wicked, but yet more prosperous condition. Felix scelus virtus vocatur. How would these Heathens hug themselves in the conceit that Israel should do thus, who was God's portion, Deut. 32.9. the dearly beloved of his soul, Jer. 12.7. of whom it was anciently sund, and commonly said among the Heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them, Psal. 126.2. 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 liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high-places, Deut. 33.29. Whosoever was free of the city of Rome, might not accept of any freedom in another city: for that they counted a dishonor to Rome. And will not God take it in ill part from his covenanters, to seek or make after correspondency with his enemies, and safety by them? The help of the wicked, Ecclesiae sunt tandem perniciosa & semper perfidiosa, are the best perfidious, and at length pernicious to the Church.
now will I gather them, ] This the Chaldee, and the Vulgar make to be a promise of bringing back their captivity; when indeed it is a commination of carrying them into captivity. I will gather them, ] that is, either the enemies against Israel; or else Israel, for the enemies; ut eos acervatim perdam, that I may lay them heaps upon heaps, and gather them, as dead corps slain in battle are gathered together for burial. Or, I will gather them, to the end that I may disperse them. And they shall sorrow a little, ] And but a little now, for the burden of the king of princes. ] for the taxes and tributes exacted from them by the king of Assyria, (whose Nobles were Princes, 2 King. 18.24. Isaiah 10.) See 2 King. 15.19, 29. But all this is but a little: it is but the beginning of sorrows; it is but small drops fore-running the great storm; or as a crack fore-running the fall of the house. They shall sorrow much more hereafter, when carried captive, and made a scorn to the scum of the people. See Deut. 32.42. Some read the whole verse, Yea, because they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them together: (for they have begun a little) because of the burden of the king of Princes. And they thus paraphrase it: Well may they bribe and hire, but this will be the end: The Israelites themselves shall fall by heaps; the nations whom they hire shall come so tumbling in upon them (as Isaiah told Ahaz, Isaiah 8.) Do you not see it pretily well begun already? Look upon the late example that is yet now fresh and bleeding before your eyes: so you will the better believe my threatening in that which is to come: I mean, the sacking and carrying away of the Tribes beyond Jordan, by Pul and Tiglath-Pileser. If you ask me the reason, why God should be so angry with you? It is because you are so foolish, or so wicked rather, to send presents and tributes to the king of Ashur (who in the pride and vanity of his heart nameth himself the King of Princes, the mighty and most potent King) with the pilling, polling, and burdening of your Subjects.
Verse 11. Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, ] Because he hath multiplied altars against God's express command, Lev. 17.3, &c. Deut. 12.5, &c. Josh. 22.22. Jer. 11.13. and that, to sin: as if it were on purpose to cross and provoke the Lord to anger, by their superstitions and will-worship, and to despite him with seeming honors (for displeasing service is double dishonor) therefore he shall have enough of it, ere I have done with it. He shall be given up to a reprobate sense: that going on from one sin to another, he may fill up his measure, till wrath come upon him to the utmost.
Verse 12. I have written to him the great things of my Law, ] Magnalia legis; there are also minutula legis, Mat. 5.22. both must be looked to: for though the Civilian say of his Law, De minutis non curat lex, the law takes no notice of small faults: yet it holds not true of the Law of God, which is spiritual, and must be kept as the apple of the eye, Prov. 7.2. and observed in every point and part, nay in every punctilio and particle thereof. But to come to the words; Ephraim could not plead ignorance of God's mind, for their many altars, and superstitions: Deus enim jure quaerat & queratur, for God might very well say and complain, as Prov. 22.20. Have not I written for thee excellent things in counsels and knowledge? and in the verse next afore, I have made known (my mind) this day to thee, even to thee. So here, I have written, sc. by my Pen-men and Secretaries, to him chiefly, and for his better direction in my service, that, he might walk therein by rule, and not at random, (See Deut. 4.8. Psal. 147.29.) the great things, or excellent documents (the multiplicity or multiformity, saith the Chaldee) of my Law, or of my doctrine sapientiall, Prov. 13.14. which taketh in the Gospel too, that Law of Christ, Gal. 6.2.
But they were counted as a strange thing. ] As not pertaining to them, as that wherein they were little or nothing concerned, as the narration of foreign affairs. Whereas men should read and regard the holy Scriptures, as they do the Statutes of the Land: holding themselves as much concerned and intended as any other: threatening themselves in every threat, binding themselves in every precept, blessing themselves in every promise, mingling the whole Word with faith in their hearts, and resolving upon the obedience of faith; as knowing that these are verba vivenda non legenda, words to be lived, not read only: and that they should indwell in us familiarly, and yet richly, Col. 3.16. and we should be as inwardly acquainted with them, as any man is with his sister, or nearest allies, Prov. 7.4. All this the rather; First because God is the Author of the holy Scriptures, both matter and words are his, 2 Pet. 2.21. he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets which have been since the world began: and he guided their hands in writing the Bible. How dare Papists then say, that they wrote it injussi without command from God. Secondly, because God hath written his Law for us, for our behoof and benefit, Rom. 4.23. and 15.4. The Scripture is God's Epistle to us, saith Gregory. It is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths, saith David. Not a light that I see at a distance, a great way off; but a light held to my feet, that I may see my way in this land of Chabul, this dirty and dark world: and not lift up one foot, till I descry and find sure footting for another, as those Psal. 34.6. Thirdly, because he hath written for us, the honorabilia legis, honorable and precious things, such as a man would fetch from China or the uttermost part of the habitable world upon his bare feet, rather then be without. David prefers it before gold and silver, Psal. 19.11. Solomon before pearls and rubies, Prov. 3.15. Moses before all the learning of other Nations, Deut. 4.6. The Scripture is the souls food, saith Athansius: the souls physic, saith Chrysostom: the invariable rule of truth, saith Irenaeus. It is saith Another, the Aphorisms of Christ, the Library of the Holy Ghost, the divine Pandects, the Wisdom of the Cross, the Cubit of the Sanctuary, the Firmament of Faith, the Touchstone of Error, &c. What reason then had Darbishire (Bishops Boners kinsman and Chaplain) to say to Mr. Hawkes the Martyr, that he was too curious: for he would have nothing but his little pretty-God's-book? And is it not sufficient for my salvation? said Hawkes: yes, said he, but not for your instruction. God send me the salvation (said Hawkes ) and you the instruction. That the Scripture is full and sufficient for both instruction and salvation, see 2 Time. 3.16, 17. and my Treatise called the True Treasure. Has igi • ur nocturnâ versate manu, versate diurnâ, Psal. 1.2. Let there not, by infrequency or disuse, grow an alienation or strangeness betwixt us and the holy Scriptures: but be ready in them, and have them, as Saul had his pitcher and spear at his bolster: as David had his chosen stones at hand in his scrip, &c. Luther wisheth all his own books burnt; because I fear, saith he, they hinder men from reading the Bible, that book of books; in comparison whereof all the books in the world are but wast-paper. After which, I tremble, saith he, to think of the former age, wherein many Divines spent so much time in reading Aristotle and Averroes, and so little in reading the Book of God. Melancthon saith that he heard some preach upon Texts taken out of Aristotle's Ethics. Carolostadius was eight years Doctor when he began to read the Scriptures: and yet at the taking of his degree, being asked whether he had read the Decalogue, negitabat se hujusmodi librum in Bibliotheca sua habuisse unquam: he denied that he had ever had, or heard of any Book so called: such a perfect stranger was he to the great things of God's Law. And if the learned Doctors be thus bard and ignorant, what may we think of the poor misled and muzzled multitude, that lie fast locked up in the Popes dark dungeon, and are flatly forbidden to meddle with the Scriptures, lest they should be infected with heresy, or possessed with a devil, as some (say they) have been by that means?
Verse. 13. They sacrifice flesh in the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; ] q. d. They would seem not to have rejected the great things of my Law, nor to be such strangers thereunto; since they were much in sacrificing according to the Law. But their hypocrisy is most hateful: In that First, they offer (with Cain ) Non personam, sed opus personae, as Luther saith; not themselves, but their bare sacrifices, Isaiah 66.3. which is but as a brainlesse head, and soul-less body: it is but flesh, as it is here called in contempt, and scorn. See the like, Jer. 7.21. Hos. 9.4. And think the same of all external services; si careant animâ suâ, id est rect â in Deum fide, & erectâ in illum mente, if not performed in faith and obedience. Secondly, They pretended to serve God, when indeed they only served their own bellies, as those, Rom, 16.18. sought their own ends, Phil. 2.21. catered for the flesh, Rom. 13.14. insigne donum quo afficior (as Luther Paraphraseth the text) carnem offertis quam vos ipsi voratis, i. e. A goodly gift it is that you give me, viz. the flesh of your peace-offerings which yourselves may feast with: and you therefore multiply sacrifices that you may gorge yourselves with good cheer. Now one egg is not more like to another, then these old flesh-mongers were to the Popish flesh-flies at this day. It was an honest complaint of one of them; We, saith he, handle the Scripture, tantùm ut nos pascat & vestiat, only that it may feed us, and clothe us. And it is evident to all the world, that their Masses, pilgrimages, festivals vowed presents and memorials, &c. are only to pamper their paunches: which made them so angry with Erasmus, and Luther, for meddling.
but the Lord accepteth them not, ] How should he (say) when there was nothing but flesh, nothing but self in them. See the like, Jer. 4.10. Am. 5.22. Isaiah 1.10. where God telleth them, that their sacrifices were grievous and offensive to all his several senses, nay to his very soul too. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord, Prov. 15.8. yea though he bring it with never so good an intent, Pro. 21.27. how much more if he bring ex rapina holocaustum, a sacrifice of what he hath got by rapine and robbery? and so the Chaldee carrieth the sense of the former words: the sacrifices of mine offerings, quae collecta sunt ex inj • ria, saith He, which were gathered and gotten by wrong-dealing: how then should the Lord accept them?
now will he remember their iniquity, ] Even while they are sacrificing: let them not think to blind his eyes with the smoke of their offerings, to stop his mouth with their rich gifts, and donaries: to bribe him into a connivency: to expiate and set off their sins with their sacrifices: for God will remember them, and punish them. Yea, now will he do it, in the time of their holy duties: he will come upon them then in his wrath, as Pilate came upon the Galileans, and mingled their blood with their sacrifices. Sure it is that sin (brought into God's holy presence) petitions against the sinner, as Esther did against Haman, at the banquet of wine: picks out the time of prayer and other duties to accuse and call for vengeance. Take we heed, lest while we are confessing our sins, (which yet we close with, and will not forsake) and judging ourselves worthy to be destroyed, God say not, Out of thine own mouth will I condemn thee, thou graceless person, that hast so much impudence as to bring thy Cozbi into my presence, then; when all the people (as on a fast-day) are weeping before the door of the Tabernacle. God will be sanctified of all that draw nigh unto him: one way or other he will be sanctified, either in them, or on them. Of such he saith, as Solomon once did of Adonijah, If he show himself a worthy man, there shall not an hair of his head fall to the earth: but if wickedness shall be found in him, he shall die. If any defile the Temple of God, him shall God destory.
they shall return to Egypt. ] They had a mind to run thither for refuge: they sent also to So king of Egypt for that purpose, 2 King. 17.4. Instead of making their peace with God, they betook themselves to base shifts; and sought help of the creature. This is the guise of graceless men, when distressed. But they shall soon have enough of Egypt, chap. 9.3, 6. Their strength (or their Egypt ) had been to have sitten still, in expectation of help from heaven, Isaiah: 30.7. and to have considered that the last and greatest curse denounced against their disobedience, was, And the Lord shall bring thee into Egypt, &c.
Verse 14. For Israel hath forgotten his maker, ] Not more his Factour, then his Benefactour, as 1 Sam. 12.6. the Lord made Moses, and Aaron, i. e. he advanced them to that honor in his Church. So our Savior is said to have made twelve, when he ordained them to the Apostleship, Mar. 3.14. And the Apostle saith of Israel, that God exalted the people, when they dwelt as strangers in the land of Egypt, Acts 13.17. sc. to the privilege of his peculiar people, the possession of the promised land, the custody of his Oracles, and services, &c. besides the many benefits and deliverances wrought for them. All which they are said to have forgotten. 1. Because they laid them not to heart, see Isaiah 57.11. they saw not God in them: 2. Because their lives were not answerable: they walked not worthy of such a God: but said (in effect) We are delivered to do all these abominations, Jer. 7.10. God challengeth remembrance, and well he may, Eccles. 12.1. for he hath created us for his glory, Isaiah 43.7. he hath formed us, yea he hath made us, (as it followeth there, and all that we might remember him ) the word (made) is used for a degree of grace after creation. Those that are his workmanship, his attificiall facture created in Christ Jesus (who is the beginning of this creation of God, Rev. 3.14.) unto good works, Ephes. 2.10. if ever they should forget God, (which is the character of a wicked man, Psal. 50.22.) if they should forsake God that made them, and lightly esteem the Rock of their salvation; as Solomon did the Lord that had appeared unto him twice; if they should not prefer him above their chief joy, or make him ascent above the head of their joy (as the Hebrew hath it, Psal. 137.6.) and set him over all, as Pharaoh did Joseph (causing Sun moon, and stars to do obeisance to him) I mean all their natural, moral, temporal, and spiritual abilities to be subject and serviceable to him, he would have an unanswerable action against them, and both heaven and earth would have cause to blush at their disingenuity, and unthankfulness. Let it ever be remembered, that of all things God cannot abide to be forgotten.
and buildeth temples; ] To God, no doubt; and yet because they worshipped him not in his own way, they are said to have forgotten him: So do Papists in all their structures, vowed presents, and memories (as they call them.) In king Stevens time here, notwithstanding all the miseries of war, there were more Abbeys built, then in an hundred years before. But who required those things at their hands? Christus opera nostra non tam actibus quam finibus pensat. Now the end why those Temples and Monasteries were built, appears in stories to be pro remission & redemptione peccatorum, pro remedio & liberatione animae: pro amore coelestis patriae: in honorem gloriosae Virginis, in eleemosynam animae, &c. for remission of sins, redemption of souls, honor of the Virgin Mary, and other superstitious ends and uses.
and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: ] As thinking thereby to fence themselves against God's wrath, to mott themselves up against his fire, that had burnt up the ten tribes, and threatened them. Strong cities and munitions may be lawfully built; but then their foundations must not be laid upon fire-works. If sin be at the bottom (as the voice from heaven is said to have told Phocas ) though they build as high as heaven, it will not do. Babylon's thick walls and large provisions could not secure her from the enemy: Samaria held out for two or three years, but was surprised at last by the Assyrian: so was Jerusalem by the Babylonians, and then by the Romans, Isaiah. 22.8, 9, 10, &c. great fault is found with this people for their war-like preparations with neglects of God, verse. 11. and of deep and down-right humiliation, verse. 12, 13, 14. The name of the Lord is the strongest tower, Prov. 18.10. But cursed is he that maketh flesh his arm, that trusteth in men though never so great, or means though never so likely, Jer. 17.5. those were never true to those that trusted them. The Jebusites were beaten out of their fort, though they presumed it impregnable. The men of Shechem were fired out, Judge. 9.49. so shall Judah be: for,
I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof, ] The enemy did this, but not without the Lord; who cannot b • ook it that men should thrust in palaces and strong-holds: and as Luthyer well observeth, in this whole chapter is fully set forth whence it is, that strong Palaces and flourishing kingdoms come to naught; it is because men believe not in God, but trust to their own strength, Deut. 28.52. they fortify themselves against an enemy, but do not parifie God; displeasure; who is himself a devouring fire, and can quickly quash all our forces, and confute our confidences.
CHAP. IX.
Vers. 1. REjoyce not, O Israel, for joy as other people, ] Not as good people, for they have reason to rejoice, and are called to it in both Testaments: joy is the just man's portion, but thou art naught all over, thou hast gone a whoring from thy God; who will shortly meet thee as a bear robbed of her whelps, or as the jealous hu band doth his adulteress, Again, not as other bad people, for they may revel (rejoice indeed they cannot) and be merry, after a sort: rejoice they may in the face, as the Apostle phraseth it, and from the teeth outward: some kind of frothy and flashy mirth they may have (and let them make them merry with it, 'tis all they are like to have) but so mayest not thou; because thou hast had warning sufficient, and hast known thy masters will, but not done it: yea, thou hast done that abominable thing that other nations never yet did, Jer. 2.11.12. thou hast changed thy God for those that are no gods; thou hast forsaken the fountain, and run to the cistern, &c. which is such a prodigious wickedness, as the very heavens are astonished at, and are horribly afraid, yea, desolate; mourning, and as it were melting at this horrid act. Shall the heavens mourn, and wilt thou rejoice? yea, fetch a frisk, or dance a galliard for joy, as the word signifies: what if other nations do so, when they have got the better of their enemies, or gathered in their harvest, Es. 9.4. or otherwise have all things go well with them? yet revolted Israel had no such cause, unless they were upon better terms with God. Say that this were the time when Joash beat Benhadad thrice over, and recovered the cities of Israel, 2 Kin. 13.15. Or say it was, when he took Amaziah, and brought all the spoil of Jerusalem to Samaria, Chap. 14.13. or else when Pekah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, and carried captive two hundred thousand, with much spoil: these were times of great mirth and Jollity, 'tis confessed. But, are there not with you even with you sins against the Lord your God (as the prophet Oded there bespeaks them) and should not those sins be bewailed? Besides, are they not your brethren whom you have slaughtered and captivated? and can you have any joy of such a conquest, of civil wars that are — nullos habitura triumphos, that are such a misery as all words (how wide soever) want compass to express? Hear what the prophe • t mos (who was Hosea's contemporary) saith to this, Ye which rejoice in a thing of naught, (so he calleth their victories present prosperity, pomp and pride) which say, have we not taken to us horns by our own strength? Behold, I will raise up against you a nation, O house of Israel, that shall tame you, and take you a link lower (as they say) so that your laughter shall be turned into mourning, and your joy into heaviness. There is ever a snare (or a cord ) in the sin of the wicked, viz. to strangle their joy with; but the righteous sing and rejoice, Prov. 29.6.
For thou hast gone a whoring from thy God. ] That's a foul business, and may well damp thy joy. Sins are the snuffes that dim our candlestick, the leaven that soureth our pass overs, the Sanies of a plague-sore that threateneth our very life. And, whereas the sins of others are but rebellions against God, the sins of his professed people are treacheries: they go a whoring from their God, desuper Deo suo, velomisso Deo suo, from under their God, or laying aside their God; casting him, as it were, into a by-corner. Hence those pathetical compaints in Jeremy, Chap. 18.13. Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things? the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing; filthiness in a stews is nothing so odious as filthiness in a Virgin. And again, Chap. 32.30. The children of Israel, and the children of Judah have only done evil from their youth. God takes evil so heinously from them, as if they had never done him any good service all their days; or as if they were the only sinners upon earth: they were so much worse, because they ought to have been better then other nations. Now God expects our sorrows should be proportionable to our sins; Rejoice not therefore, but (by a Liptote ) weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you.
Thou hast loved a reward (or a harlots hire ) upon every corn-floor, ] i. e. Thou hast prostituted thyself to a loose Idolatry; like to a common whore that goeth a whoring up and down the threshing floors. Hence Boaz his fear lest it should be noised that Ruth had lain at his feet, and that a woman came into the floor, Ruth. 3.14. Or else he meaneth (saith Diodate ) some particular kind of idolatry used in the time of harvest and threshing; as if they would have acknowledged their increase to come by their idols goodness. Such was that of the Metapontines, of whom Strabo storieth, that when they had had a good harvest, and were grown rich thereby, they dedicated to Apollo at Delphi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 an harvest of gold. See more of this Chap. 2. with the Notes.
Verse. 2. The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, ] Culpam poena premit comes, Punishment attendeth sin at the heels. They had abused their plenty, and ascribed it to their idols: therefore shall they be cut short either in their store, as Hag. 3.6.10. and 2.16. or in their strength, as Hos. 4.10. and 8.7. (See Chap. 2.8.9. with the Notes.) One way or other their hopes shall be frustrated, the creature shall lie to them, and not answer their expectation.
The new wine shall fail in her, ] Mustum mentietur ei, see the like phrase, Hab. 3.17. Es. 58.11. Job. 41.6. they shall come to the corn-floors and wine-presses, as men come to a lottery with heads full of hopes; but depart disappointed, with their hearts full of blanks. As they have lied to God (idolatry is nothing else but a large lie,) and dealt deceitfully with him in the covenant: so shall all things lie to them, and not answer their hopes. Look how a certain Prince paid a false traitor (who for a sum of money had betrayed his country to him) in false coin; so shall it fare with such as falsify with God: he will blast their hopes, and curse their blessings, cut them short in the height of their expectancies, strike them in the things that their hearts are most set upon, the new wine shall lie to them, and so set them a howling, Joel. 1.5.
Vers. 3. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land, ] Because they would not live by the Lord's laws; they shall therefore be turned out of his house (so this land was called Chap. 9.3.) as rebellious children, that are a disturbance and a disgrace to their fathers family: they shall hold no longer, as tenants of him the chief Landlord, because so backward to send a lamb (as rent or an homage penny) to the ruler of the land, Isaiah. 16.1. they were tenants at will, and held upon condition of obedience, Levite. 18.26. it was divided amongst them by lot: Joshua divided it amongst them, and left none to himself. The people gave him a portion, and he was content with it; though it were but a mean one in the barren mountains, as Jerome noteth. He had the promise that God would never leave him no • forsake him: and he well knew, that if he trusted in the Lord, and did good, he should dwell in the land and be verily fed, Psal. 37.3. He and Caleb were of another spirit, and fulfilled after God; therefore they only of all that generation entered the promised land, the Lord's land: which because Moses might not do, it was a great grief to him. These Idolaters here are threatened to be cashiered and cast out of this good land, and to have their pleasant land laid desolate, to be spewed out, as the Canaanites had been before them, Levite. 18.28. and so consequently to be deprived of God's favor, help, and protection; and altogether dispriviledged, yea, disinherited. This was an heavy judgment to them, and must be a warning to us, that yet live in the bosom of the Church, and under the joyful sound; that we forfeit not our present enjoyments, that we sin not away our precious privileges, as the seven Churches and others have done. Alterius perditio tua sit cautio. We stand upon our good behavior, as they did; See Deut. 30.19.20.
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, ] which they ought to have been sensible of as a punishment long since threatened, Deut. 28. ult. (see Hos. 8.13. with the Note) though now, of their own accord, they returned to it, for fear of the Assyrian (whom by their false-dealing they had justly incensed) yet that should not shelter them, but God's hand would find them out, and fetch them thence into captivity. Oft they had been warned not to go down to Egypt for help; and they must needs be hard bestead that fled thither. True it is, that the Egyptians are renowned in histories for a thankful people, and the Israelites are charged not to abhor an Egyptian, because they were once strangers in his land, and had tasted of his courtesies. But withal, they could not but know how hardly the Egyptians had dealt with their forefathers, and how treacherously also with them; and that they ought not de jure, to have returned thither upon any terms. Sed Deus quem destruit dementat, and although here they were resolved for Egypt, yet Chap. 11.5. God resolveth otherwise; and voluntas Dei necessitas rei, his will shall stand, when all's done.
And they shall eat unclean things in Assyria, ] Things forbidden by the law, as swine's-flesh, &c they shall be forced to eat or starve: they must not look for liberty of conscience in Assyria, nor have that favor to make a difference of meat as Daniel had, Chap. 1. but as Ezekiel baked his barley-cakes with man's-dung: Even so said the Lord, shall the children of Israel eat their defiled bread among the heathen, whither I will drive them. So haughty they were grown, that their fathers house could not hold them; therefore they shall be giad of husks with hogs, (as that prodigal) they shall eat as the heathens, since they would needs act as the heathens. They thought it was hard with them in their own land, when the floors and the winepress would not feed them, verse. 2. But now it is far worse, when forced by hard hunger, they are glad of any meat, be it clean or unclean: neither have they anymore mind to be so merry with other nations, as verse. 1. or cause so to be: their stomachs craving and themselves (with Drusus in Tacitus ) ready to eat the stuffings of their bed; or (with the Jews in the last siege of Jerusalem ) not only to feed upon dogs, rats, cats, &c. but the leather of their shoes, girdles, targets, bridles, yea, ox-dung was a precious dish unto them, and the shreddings of pot-herbs cast out and trodden underfoot, &c.
Vers. 4. They shall not offer wine-offerings unto the Lord, ] Non libabunt, multo minus litabunt, they shall not have wherewith to offer sacrifice, when they are in their banishment, Chap. 3.4. much less to serve God with cheerfulness, to exhilarate his heart with their wine-offerings, Judge. 9.13. to cheer up themselves with the wine and oil-offerings, Num. 15.5. which were symbols, and signs of the Merit and Spirit of Christ (for the Ceremonial Law was their Gospel, it was Christ in figure ) and the deprivation of them threatened the deprivation of grace and glory. Now therefore, since such a sad condition, and such sinking of spirits abided this people, what reason had they to rejoice with joy as others.
Neither shall they be pleasing to him, ] Heb. they shall not be sweet or mingled; for as sweet and sour maketh the best sauce, so the mixture of things of divers qualities maketh the sweetest confections, and most pleasing to the palate: but so shall not be these men's wine-offerings to God, if any they should present; but sour and savourlesse. He is now resolved to take another course with them, to glorify himself in their calamity, and to give unto them another while the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath, Rev. 16.19. that is, to delight as much in their misery, as a man would do in drinking off a bowle of generous wine.
Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners, ] i. e. as funeral-feasts (whereof read Jer. 16.7, 8. Ezech. 24.17.) made ad levandum luctum, eaten in heaviness by those that were polluted by the dead, and therefore altogether unfit for sacrifice; since God loveth a cheerful service, and will not have any of his come off heavily. See Levite. 10.19. Deut. 13.7. and 26.14. Mal. 2.13. where those unkind husbands are blamed, for causing their wives, when they should have been cheerful in God's service, to cover the Lord's altar with tears, with weeping and with crying out, so that he regarded not the offering anymore. So Ezr. 9.5. that holy man, though till then he sat astonied at the sins of the people, yet he arose from his heaviness at the evening sacrifice; for he knew, that even sorrow for sin might be a sinful sorrow, if unseasonable and sullen: for it sours a man's spirit, and makes his services unacceptable to God.
For their bread, for their soul shall not come into the house of the Lord, ] Their bread, That is, their meat-offering or other sacrifices, (see Mal. 1.7. with the note) for their soul, that is, for themselves (soul is oft put for the whole person) shall not come, rightly and in due manner unto divine acceptation, into the house of the Lord, it should not have come into the Temple while it stood, and the Levitical service was orderly performed: how much less shall it be accepted now in a strange land, being the bread of mourners. Others by the bread for their souls understand their natural and necessary sustenance. He speaks, say they, of that meat-offering, Levite. 2.5. appointed for a spiritual use, yet called here the bread for their life or livelihood, because God esteemed it no other then common meat. Tarnouius by the house of the Lord here understandeth the Church, as Chap. 8.1. and 9.5. and 2 Tim. 2.20. The door of this house, saith he, is Christ, Joh. 10.9. and door-keeper the holy spirit, ibid. verse. 3. the foundation and corner-stone Christ, Eph. 2.20. the wall is God, Zach. 2.9. the stewards the ministers, those of the household the Saints, &c.
What will ye do in the solemn day, &c. ] q. d. How will ye do to laugh and leap then, as ye do now? verse. 1. How will you be able to support yourselves, to keep your hearts from dying within you? when you call to mind and consider your former solemnities and festivities, which now (alas!) in your captivity you are utterly deprived of? Time was when you went with the multitude to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept holy-day, Psal. 42.4. with dancing, eating, drinking and joy, Deut. 16.14, 15. Judge. 21.19.10. But now the scene is altered; your singing is turned into sighing, your mirth into mourning, your joy into heaviness; and you must needs hold yourselves so much the more miserable, that you have been happy. The Epicures indeed held that a man might be cheerful against the most exquisite torments. 1. In consideration of his honesty and integrity, 2. In consideration of those pleasures and delights that formerly he had enjoyed; and now cheered up himself with the remembrance of. This last is a very slight and sorry comfort indeed. The former hath much in it; for a good man keeps every day, holy day, said Diogenes: and can be merry without music, saith another Philosopher. He hath a merry heart, or good conscience, which is a continual feast; and is bound to rejoice evermore, 1 Thes. 5.16. and to keep the feast in all countries, 1 Cor. 5.8. the Calender of his whole life is crowned with continual festivals; and he is the happiest man, and may be the merriest if he but understand his own happiness. But this (alas) was not the case of these woeful caytives and captives. They had sinned away all their comforts; and what with the sad remembrance of their former enjoyments, and with the sense of their present servitude, they had little mind to keep holy-day. Hence this passionate exclamation, what will ye do, &c? God had threatened before, Chap. 2.11. to take away their feast-days, new-moons, sabbaths and solemnities; but they heeded him not, tanquam monstra marina Dei verba surda aure praeterierunt: therefore now God fulfilleth what he • ad forethreatned, and calleth, as in a solemn day, his terrors round about them, what they were wont to do in their solemn days and festivals, may be seen, Num. 10.10. what we do or should do at least, upon our Lord's day-sabbaths, (the delight of every good soul) we need not be told. Let us take heed, lest by profane violating or careless observing that holy rest, with all its solemnities, we deprive not ourselves (as these Israclites did) of such a precious privilege: God gave us a good warning, in that the first blow given the German Churches was upon the Sabbath-day; which is there so ill sanctified, that if it should be named according to their deserving of it, Doemoniacus potius quam Dominicus, saith Alsted, it should be called not the Lordsday, but the Priests-day rather. It is very remarkable, that upon that day was Prague lost, and with it all opportunity of hearing, singing, public praying, communicating on that high and honorable day, Isaiah. 58.13.
Vers. 8. For lo they are gone, because of destruction, ] They are gone either into Egypt for refuge, or into the state of the dead, they are gone out of the world. They shall perish by destructiou, so some render it. When God had said in the former verse what will ye do, they should have fallen down before him and said, What wilt thou have us to do, Lord? we know not what at all to do, but our eyes are toward thee. This had been right, and thus they might have disarmed God's indignation: but they had other carnal shifts, and thought they could tell well enough what to do, and whither to go: whereupon they were so fully bent, that the prophet here reports them gone already. For lo they are gone, and got to Egypt; as divers of them did doubtless during the siege, and after the sack of Samaria, when they were forced to shift for themselves as they could: but did they so escape by iniquity? in thine anger cast down the people, O God, saith David, and it is not more a prayer then a prophesy, Psal. 56.7. and this people had the proof of it.
Egypt shall gather them, ] either for punishment, or for burial, as Ezech. 29.5. Jer. 8.2. so that they fled but out of the smoke into the fire; and in running from death they ran to it: as the Historian saith of those poor Scots at Muscleborough field, who running for their lives, so strained themselves in their race, that they fell down breathless and dead.
Memphis shall bury them, ] Lest they should please themselves with vain hopes of return to their country, he shows that that shall never be; but they shall lay their bones in a strange land. Memphis (anciently called Noph, Isaiah. 19.13. or, (as some will) No, Nahum. 3.8. at this day Grand Caire, famous for the Pyramids and the kings sepulchers) Memphis, I say, a principal city of Egypt shall be a Kibrothhattaavah to you, a place of sepulchers; especially then, when Nebuchadnezzar, sent by God (who giveth him Egypt as his pay for his pains at Tyre ) shall come and smite that land, and deliver such as are for death to death, and such as are for the sword to the sword, &c. Jer. 43.11.
The pleasant places for their selves, nettles shall possess them, ] Heb. shall possess them as their inheritance; so that the Israelites nor their heirs shall ever repossesse these pleasant places for their silver, i. e. where they either laid up their silver (their repositories or counting houses) or where they laid out their silver, either in costly buildings and sumptuous furniture, or else in idols and statues placed therein to their no small charge & delight. These shall be ruined and over-run with nettles, thorns and thistles, a token of horrible desolation, Esa. 32.13. and 34.13. Note hence, that as God spareth a place for a few good men found therein, (as he would have done Sodom, which is now a place of nettles and salt • pits, Zeph. 2.9.) so a fruitful land bringeth he into barrenness, (or saltness ) for the wickedness of them that dwell therein, Psal. 107.34. witness Judea that land of desire, Ezek. 1. ult. that garden of Eden, Joel. 2.3. that glorious land, Dan. 11.16. yea, glory of all lands, Ezek. 20.15. now woefully waste and desolate: so is Grecia, formerly so farmous for arms and arts: so are some parts of Germany, and so may England soon be (without the greater mercy of God, by a miracle of whose mercy, and by a prop of whose extraordinary patience we have hitherto subsisted) I say, England, whose valleys now are like Eden, whose hills are as Lebanon, whose springs are as Pisgah, whose rivers are as Jordan, whose walls is the Ocean, and whose defense is the Lord Jehovah.
Vers. 7. The days of visitation are come, ] A visitation that is like to prove a vexation; for every transgression and disobedience, that is, Omission and commission, shall receive a just recompense of reward from the God of Recompences (so he is called Jer. 51.56.) whose eyes behold, his eye-lids try the children of men, Psal 11.4. the former points out his knowledge, the latter his judgment, or his critical descant in his visitation or inquisition, the days whereof are set, Stat suae cuique dies, and Israel's days are come, are come, it is repeated for more assurance, as Babylon is fallen, is fallen, certo, cito, penitus: and as Ezek. 7.5, 6, 7. the Prophet tells them, The end is come, is come, is come; and so some ten or twelve times, that he might beat it into them, and awaken them them out of the snare of the devil. The wicked's happiness will take its end surely and swiftly: but its hard persuading them so: And the Jews, as they were ever noted for obstinate, and overweening, so to this day they are light, aerial, and Satanical, apt to work themselves into the fools paradise of a sublime dotage. But they shall know it to be so as I have said, by w ••• ll experience, that Mistress of fools.
Israel shall know it, ] sc. to his sorrow, he shall pay for his learning, buy his wit, open his eyes (as the mole doth) when death is upon him, roar and look upward, Isaiah 8.21. as the hog doth when the knife is at his throat. O Lord (saith the same Prophet, Chap. 26.11.) when thy hand is lifted up (and thy hand is a mighty hand, Jam. 4.10. it falls heavy) they will not see, they wink willfully, or seek staws to put out their eyes withal, as Bernard hath it: but they shall see, will they nill they, and be ashamed of their former oscitancy, or rather obstinacy, when that hand of God which was lifted up in threatening, shall fall down in punishing, and the fire of thine enemies shall dev • ur them: How much more at that last and great visitation, that terrible day of Retribution, when they shall answer for all, with flames about their ears. Tunc sentient magno suo malo, then shall they feel to their eternal woe, the truth of all the threatenings, which till then they heard, and read, as a man doth an Almanac-prognostications of wind or foul-weather, which he thinks may come to pass, and it may be not: And give nothing so much credit to them, as the Prior of S. Bartholomew's in London did to an idle and addle-headed Astrologer, when he went and built him an house at Harrow on the hill to secure himself from a supposed flood, that that Astrologer foretold.
The Prophet is a fool, &c. ] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a naughty man; the Hebrew word here is evil, and signifieth a rash and unadvised fellow, that is headstrong and headlong: such were their false prophets that promised peace when war was at their gates, and made all fair weather before them, when the tempest of God's wrath was even bursting out upon them; such a tempest as should neve • be blown over. These should now appear to be fools, or rather Impostours, that had brought the credulous people into a fools paradise.
the spiritual man is mad, ] Heb. the man of the spirit, or ventosus, the windy man, that uttereth vain and empty conceits, humani cerebelli Minervas, the brats of his own brain, light, aery Nothings, the disease of this age, full of flashes and figments, idle speculations of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth. These pretend altogether to the spirit, and would be thought the only spiritual men; as the Swenkfeldians (whom for their ill savor, Luther called Stenckfeldians ) who bewitched many with those glorious words (which were ever in their mouths) of Illumination, Revelation, the inward and spiritual man, &c. and entitled themselves, the Confessors of the glory of Christ. So the Entusiasts and Anabaptists, what boast make they of the spirit: professing that they will deliver nothing but what they have immediately revealed to them from heaven. Muncer (their ringleader) wrote a base book against Luther (which he dedicateth to king Jesus ) wherein Lutherum flagellat quod Enthusiasmorum spiritu careat & nil nist carnalin sapiat, he falls foul upon Luther, as wanting the spirit of revelation, and one that savoreth nothing but carnal things? All his followers look upon Luther as more pestiferous then the Pope: and for Calvin they say, (and I have heard it) that it had been happy for the Church if he had never been born. It was their practice of old (as Leo Judae observed in his epistle before Bullingers book against the Catabaptists) and is still, to discourage and disparage Christ's faithful Ministers all they can, as carnal, and not relishing the things of the spirit: the right offspring they are of those ancient Heretics called Messalanii (the same with the Euchites, and Enthusiasts ) who in the year of Christ 371. professed to be wholly made up of the spirit: gave themselves much to sleep: and called their dreams and wild phantasies, prophesies and revelations.
for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred. ] Heb. the great Satanical hatred, that thou hast born against God and thy neighbor; but especially God's faithful prophets, whom thou heartily hatedst for their plain dealing; as Ahab did Michaiah, because he never spake good to him. It is very probable that Michaiah was that disguised Prophet who brought Ahab the fearful message of displeasure and death, for dismissing Benhadad; for the which he was ever since fast in prison, deep in disgrace. Lo this is the worlds wages. Truth breeds hatred, great hatred, as the text hath it, devilish hatred, and this is through the multitude of men's iniquities, the overflow of sins, which wretched men hold so dear to themselves, that they cannot but rage against those that declaim against them, and proclaim hellfire against their hateful practices: they cannot stand still to have their eyes picked out; how should they? say. Now for such, what wonder is it if God in justice give them up to the efficacy of error that they may believe a lie, since they would not receive the love of the truth, 2 Thess. 2.11? ut infatuati seducantur, & seductijudicentur, that being infatuated they may be seduced, and being seduced, perish? what wonder also if he deliver them up, as to strong delusions, so to vile affections, and abominable actions, that they may receive in themselves that recompense of their error that is meet, Kom. 1.27? What marvel, if men that will not endure sound doctrine be left to seducers? if those that have itching ears meet with clawing Preachers? if such as turn away their ears from the truth, be turned to fables and fopperies? It is for the multitude of men's iniquities, and especially for their great hatred to the truth, that the Church is so pestered with Impostours (2 Pet. 2.1, 2.) who bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them. Do not our modern seducers so amongst us, when (among other portentous opinions held by them) they stick not to affirm, that Christ is a carnal or fleshly thing: That those that are grown Christians may go to God immediately without a Christ: that Christ did not rise again, &c. Others contemn him by the notion of the man dying at Jerusalem — O horrible! Time was when the Popes were so notoriously naught, as to speak thus basely of Christ; to deny, or at least doubt of the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, &c. and then a poor Popeling cried out, that the sins of that Synagogue were so great, as that it deserved not to be ruled by any other then Reprobates. Certain it is, that God plagues contempt of the truth (that great Gospel-sin) with an inundation of errors and enormities.
Verse 8. The watch-man of Ephraim was with my God, ] i. e. The false prophets above mentioned, pretend themselves to be with God, and for him; speak, look, and act as if they came out of God's bosom, or were so many Angels newly dropt from heaven: take upon them glorious titles to that purpose, as Watch-men, Prophets, spiritual-men, &c. These titles proved snares to many that inquired not narrowly into them: and especially because they preached placentia, soothed men up in their sins, sowed pillows under their elbows, daub'd with untempered mortar, &c. Hence silly people lent both their ears to them (as birds do to the lure, or whistle of the fowler) and were soon ensnared.
the prophet is as a snare of a fowler, &c. ] Seducers have their pithonologie, their art to persuade before they teach, as the Valentinians had: they are cunning and insinuate as Zanchi testifieth of Laelius Socinus, that, by propounding questions, he sought to ensnare him, semper interrogans quasi cuperet doceri, laboring to drop into him certain dangerous principles of the Samosatenian heresy. This sly trick they have learned of that old manslayer the devil, who by these Emissaries of his catcheth simple people, as the fowler doth the bird, by casting baits: or as the fisher, by one fish catcheth another, that he may feed upon both.
And hatred in the house of his God. ] Satanical hatred (as in the former verse ) which these wicked watch-men do stir up against the true Prophets, and faithful servants of God. Diodate carrieth it thus, These wicked watch-men are the chief occasion of God's hatred, and of the rejection of his people, who are as it were his family. Luther, Wigandus, and others set this sense upon the whole verse. (taking the former part to be spoken of the good watch-men) Those ancient watch-men of Ephraim were joined with my God, and wholly for him: but those at this day are a snare; &c. and if there be any yet left of the former stock, they have left off to do good, and are become hateful, as Psal. 36.2, 3. their iniquity is found to be hateful. There are that render the words by way of exclamation thus, Orem odiosam & abominandam in domo Dei! Oh hideous and hateful! oh how hath the devil bestirred him, to stir up such Seducers, to do so much mischief among God's people! There are that interpret these two Verses, not of false Prophets, but of the true, who were looked upon as fools and mad men, by the mad world; ever beside itself in point of salvation, &c. It is not for naught that Rivet saith, Hi due versus satis sunt intricati. these two verses are very intricate. And of this eight verse Luther saith, that the brevity thereof hath caused obscurity. Drusius also saith, Locus iste difficilior est quam vulgus existimat; This text is harder, then most men imagine.
Verse 9. They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: ] The people are as bad as possible, shamelessly, lawlesly wicked: nothing better then those sons of Belial the men of Gibeah, that were sunk to sins bottom: totally transformed into sins image, extremely flagitious, so that a worse people could hardly be found upon the face of the earth. As it was given in answer to a godly man who desired to know of God, why Phocas was set up for Emperor? because there could not be a worse man found, and that the sins of Christians required it. Lipsius maketh mention of one Tubulus (about Tullius time) who was so desperately wicked, ut ejus nomen non hominis sed vitij esse videretur, that his name seemed to be the name not of a man, but of wickedness itself. Lo such were these men of Gibeah, Judge. 19. nothing behind Sodomites in sin: as Samaria now was nothing behind them, and is therefore fitly coupled with her sister Sodom, Ezek. 16.46. The reason of all which is here given, their wicked watch-men: according to that, Isaiah 3.12. qui te ducunt, seducunt. They which lead thee, cause thee to err: and again, Isaiah 9.16. The leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed. It is thought that the Gibeah here mentioned, and to which this verse relateth, was the same which Josh. 21.17. is called Gebah; which was a city given to the Priests, who being lords and owners of the Town, were (probably) the ring-leaders of the rest in that matchless villainy; and so were of the number of those worst of sinners, who knowing the judgment of God (that they which commit such things are worthy of death) not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.
Now will he remember their iniquities, and visit their sins. ] Now that they had filled up the measure of their fathers sins, Matth. 23.32. nay sought to outsinne them, Et puduit non esse impudentes (as Austin saith somewhere) God would forbear them no longer. Let this b • hoted, by such as being told of their vile and vicious practices, plead that they do but as their forefathers did. Certainly if the times be as ill as they were heretofore, they are even for that cause much the worse; and God will the sooner remember and visit, pay wicked men for the new and the old. See chap. 8.13.
Verse 10. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, ] Where anything is good and sweet, because in a barren and solitary place. Hence they are said to have sucked honey out of the rock, Deut. 32.13. that is, water as sweet as honey, because in such necessity. The Vine and Fig-tree are of so great account, as that Jotham in his parable brings in the trees, offering the sovereign power to them, Judge. 9.10, 12. To these two noble and useful trees, and to their most seasonable and comfortable fruit doth the Lord here compare Israel: to grapes in the wilderness, and to the first-ripe figs, quae delicatis in summo sunt precio, which are counted great dainties. Our Savior came with great desire to the fig-tree. Matth. 21.19. his soul desired the first ripe fruits: and though they had not been full ripe, he could have been glad of them, even of the first-fruits of the fig tree, at her first-time, as it is here, in primordio ejus, of those untimely fruits which the fig-tree casteth when shaken of a mighty wind, Rev. 6.12. By this expression then is set forth God's dear and free love to Israel, when he found him in a desert land, in the wast howling wilderness: he compassed him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye, Deut. 32.10. All this and more he did for them, ex m • ro motu, out of pure and unexcited love, according to his own heart, according to the good pleasure of his will, he loved them because he loved them, Deut. 7.7, 8. and 10.14. in the wilderness especially, where they grieved him forty years together, and tempted him ten times, Num. 14.22. But God had said of Israel, He is my son, even my first-born, Exod. 4.22. and so, higher then the kings of the earth, Psal. 89.27. He had chosen him for his love, and now loved him for his choice. This son of his he called out of Egypt, to keep a feast to the Lord in the wilderness, Exod. 5.1. that is to serve him,