Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. X.

Vers. 1. I Sracl is an empty vine, ] Heb. an emptying vine; losing her fruit, and so deceiving the owner. How can Israel but be empty of all good, of all fruits of the spirit, when he will not hearken unto God, nor dwell under the droppings of a powerful ministry? when he is cast off by God, who fills his people with the fruits of righteousness: and is not a wilderness a land of darkness unto them? Jer. 2.31. when his root is dried up, Chap. 9.1 •• and all his juice and strength runs out into leaves, so that is ( frondosa vitis (as the vulgar renders it) a leavy vine; such as are our profligate professors, and carnal gospellers, and such as was Saint James his solifidian, that empty fellow, as he calleth him, Chap. 2.20. when, lastly, the holy Spirit (those two golden pipes, Zach. 4.) empties not into his candlestick the golden oils of all precious graces, as from two blessed olive branches? The Vine and the olive (two of the best fruit-trees) grow best together, saith Melanchthon. If Israel's heart be divided from God, as verse. 2. and hath not his fruit found in him, as Chap. 14.8. what marvel if he prove (as Nahum. 3.10.) empty and void, and waste; and though (as verse 2.) the Lord turn away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and married their vine branches?

He beareth fruit to himself, ] As he beareth fruit in and from himself (like the ivy, which though it clasp about the oak, and sometimes kills it, yet brings forth all its berries, by virtue of its own root) so he beareth fruit for himself, or to himself. Profit, pleasure, and preferment is his Trinity: and corrupt self is all these in unity. He fasteth to himself, as those hypocrites, Zach. 7.5. he prays, hears, confers, giveth alms, &c. cut of sinful self-love. In all that he doth sibi soli velificatur, he seeks his own ends only; as the Eagle, when he flieth highest, hath his eye on his prey. In parabola ovis capras suas quaerit: like the fish in the Gospel, either he is dumb, or hath nothing but silver in his mouth, he is a notorious self-seeker, he bears fruit to himself: he sacrificeth to himself as Sejanus did. As Prometheus is fabled to have stolen fire from Jupiter; so the false Israelite would cozen God of heaven, if he could tell how. Spira confessed that he used prayer only, as a bridge to bring him to heaven; and therefore he despaired of acceptance, as well he might: for how should God relish such sorry hedge-fruits? how should he say of such clusters of Gomorrah, Destroy it not, for there is a blessing in it? The good soul, as she bears all her fruit in Christ, Ieh. 15.2. so she keeps all her fruit for him, Cant. 7.13. and cries out, Propter te Domine, propter te. As all his springs are in her, so all she has and is, is for him; and if she had more and better, she could beteem it him. Hence it is, that when he comes into his garden (upon her invitation) Cant. 4.16. to eat his pleasant fruits, he gathereth his myrrh with his spice, he eateth his honey with his honycomb, as it were crust and crumb together, Chap. 5.1. He takes in good part the better and worse-performed services; he passeth by failings in the manner, where the heart is upright, for the main: wicked men present also some kind of fruit, (as the oak bears some kind of apples and acorns, but they are not man's meat: swine indeed will haunch them up; so the devil likes well enough of these self-fruits ) but they make not to God's palate. Delicata res est Spiritus Dei, our oaken apples will not down with him. Self must be strained out, and God set up, that ye may be called Trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he alone may be glorified, Isaiah 61.3. being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God, Phil. 1.11.

according to the multitude of his fruit, he hath increased the altars, ] Juxta ubertatem, exuberant simulachris, saith the Vulgar elegantly; but yet short of the Original, where there is a dainty Agnomination, and a double Polyptôton. For the sense: the Prophet as he had accused Israel of emptiness, and selfishness, so he doth here of unthankfulness, in abusing God's plenty to the promoting of idolatry; as if God had hired them to be wicked. See the like before, chap. 2.8. with the Note: and consider how far against the ingenuity of a Christian it is, to be least for God, when he hath most from him: when his own turn is served, then to turn his back from the Author of all his good: to do as the Moon, that gettest furthest off the Sun, when she is fullest of his light.

according to the goodness of his land, ] Idolaters desire to be where there are good lands, fruitful fields: that they may lavish upon their Mawmets; that they may so beautify, or (as the Hebrew word here is) bonifie their images, as Jezebel did her head with tires and brave dresses, 2 King. 9.30. Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God, or, that endow another God, and give gifts to him, as that Text may be rendered, Psal. 16.4. What excessive cost the superstitious papists bestow upon their idols, or images, (which are one and the same, as we see here) and especially upon their • ady of Loretto, the Jesuit Tursellinus hath set forth to the world. And why they so much desire and endeavor to recover England (praying for it, as is to be seen written on the gates of their Colleges, Jesu, Jesu converte Angliam: fiat, fiat ) the reason is evident: it is a good land, and would easily yield them goodly images, stately altars, &c. England was wont to be called, the Popes asse, and his puteus inexhaustus, his pit of treasure, that could never be drawn dry: he was wont to say, that he could never want money, so long as he could hold a pen in his fingers, to write to England. He received here-hence yearly, above nine tun of gold. Now, according to what they received, they expended upon their images. What a shame is it then for true worshippers, that there is no proportion between their increases for God, and their increases from God: that those that are rich in this world, are not rich in good works: that they lay not by for pious and charitable uses, according as God hath blessed them, 1 Cor. 16.2. but that they should be the richer the harder: as children that have their mouths full, and both hands full, yet will part with none, but spill it rather. It is observed, of men that grow very far, that they have so much the less blood. And so the fatter many men are in their estates, the less blood, life, and spirits they have for God.

Verse 2. Their heart is divided, ] sc. From God; whose soul therefore is justly disjointed from them, Ier. 6.8. They professed to worship the true God, and yet they transferred the honor due to him alone upon dumb-idols: they halted between two, and would needs serve two Lord's: but God would none of that.

The double-minded man is not for his service: for he will be served truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving. Good therefore and worthy of all acceptation is the counsel of St. James to such, chap. 4.8. Cleanse your hands ye sinners: and purify your hearts ye double-minded, or ye cloven-hearted. Out with the corruption that cleaveth to your hearts: and then there will be a constancy and evenness in your minds, mouths, and manners: which is absolutely necessary to such as draw nigh to God in holy duties, and the contrary abominable, Isaiah 29.13.

Now shall they be found faulty, ] Sinners against their own souls, procurers of their own ruth, and ruin. And this they shall so clearly be convinced of (as afflicti • dat intellectum, smart makes wit) that they shall cry out with Josephs brethren, We are verily guilty, Gen. 42.21. and conscience awakened shall answer as Reuben in the next verse, Spake I not unto you saying, Do not sin: (O do not this abominable thing) and ye would not hear? Did not the Prophets foretell you what would be the fruit of your idolatries? did they not even slit up your hearts with the sacrificing knife of God's word, (sharper then any two-ed •• d sword) and lay all your evil thoughts naked and open, or dissected, quartered, and cleft in the back-bone (as the Apostles word signifieth, Heb. 4.13.) but ye would not then be convinced of all, and falling down upon your face worship God, as 1 Cor. 14.24, 25? Now you are found faulty, or guilty, and cry peccavi: or now you are, that is, shortly ye shall be wasted and desolated, as some render it: or now shall they die, (so the Vulgar) shall they perish: how should they do otherwise whose heart (that seat of life) is cut in twain, and whom the jealous and just God will cut in twain; tearing their souls from their bodies by death, Satan's slaughter-man, and appointing them their portion with hypocrites, Matth. 24.51.

He shall break down their altars. ] He, that is God, my God, chap. 9.17 for this Chapter is a continuation of that (though Gwalther make it the beginning of Hosea's seventh Sermon) He, that excellent He, that Aph-Hu, 2 King. 2.14. Even He, proved by five reasons to be one of God's Attributes, by Mr. Weemss in his Exposition of the Moral Law, Part. 1. pag. 162. Vide sis. Others render it thus: It shall break down their altars, Ipsum cor. It, that is, their Heart, (which indeed is the next Antecedent) and happy had it been for them, if their heart divided from their wickedness, had been active in breaking down their Altars in the Prophet Isaiah's sense, chap. 27.9. as a fruit of their true repentance: By this therefore, that is, by their affliction sanctified, shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit (and good fruit too) to take • ay his sin: When (in testimony of his sound repentance, and self-abhorrency for former idolatry) he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. But it appears not anywhere that Israel was so well-affected though grievously afflicted: that his divided heart prompted him to any such holy practice. Rather it brought ruin upon him, to the decolling of his altars, and spoiling of his images (which he so doted on, and delighted in) and so might well say to him, as Apollodorus the tyrants heart did, who dreamed one night that he was flea'd by the Scythians, and boiled in a caldron: and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle; It is I that have drawn thee to all this: thou mayest thank me for all.

Verse 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, ] sc. to do us good: he is no better to us now, then a king of clouts: he cannot protect us, or deliver us out of the hands of our enemies. If we cry unto him, as she did, Help O king; he must needs answer as there, If the Lord do not help thee, whence I help thee? Vain is the help of man now that God sets against us. Feared him we have not, and now help us he will not. Est ergo interrogatio negantium & desperantiuns, saith River. This is the question, not of penitentiaries (as Lyra thinketh) but of such as despair, and deny that help can be had, either from God, whom they have slighted, or from their king, who is over-matched; as Asa was by the Ethiopians, when he came forth against them, with an Army of five hundred thousand, but was encountered by an Army of a thousand thousand, the biggest, I think, that we read of in the book of God, 2 Chron. 14. and was therefore fain to cry, Help us O Lord our God, for we rest in thee: and in they Name, not in our own strength, we go against this multitude, ver. 11.

because we feared not the Lord, ] We trembled not at his word, as chap. 9.17. and now it hath taken hold of us, Zech. 1.6. See the Note. By our profaneness we have enraged God against us: by our creature-confidence, we have made him our enemy: and now, all too late, we acknowledge our implety, we bewail our folly: for what should a king do to us? what can he do for us? more then weep over us, as Xerxes did over his Army? cry Alas, Alas, that great city Babylon, &c. as those kings her paramours, Rev. 18.9, 10. wish they had never reigned as Adrian, &c. Once the cry of this people was, Nay, but we will have a king, and they had him: but no such great joy of him. After that again, they would have a king of their own choosing, Jeroboam I mean; and he proved a singular mischief to them, as did likewise all his Successors. They doted upon a king, and put their trust in Princes; but they soon found that in them there was no help, Psal. 146.3. that they could not rescue them out of the punishing hands of the king of kings, the living God.

Verse 4. They have spoken words, ] Bubbles of words, great swelling words (as 2 Pet. 2.18.) thereby thinking to bear down, and outface the Prophets, and the godly-party. They speak violent words, (as the Chaldee hath it) robustious words, as if they would yet carry it (though their king could not help them) by confederacies, and covenants, confirmed with oaths: holding that rule of the Priscilianists for Gospel (as they say.)

And that maxim of Machiavel, that Religion itself (in contracts and covenants) should not be cared for; but only the appearance, because the credit is an help, the use a cumber: but all these are but words, saith the Prophet, and those but wind: they shall do them no good, because without God.

Swearing falsely in making a covenant, ] A foul business, whether it be understood of covenanting with God (whereof before) or with the Assyrian, with whom they broke, to ingratiate with So king of Egypt, 2 King. 17. How God plagueth perjurers, &c. covenant-breakers, see Zach. 5.3. and Mal. 3.5. with the Notes. He will appoint the sword to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant, Lev. 26.25. as he did upon Jerusalem, not leaving there one stone upon another: upon those seven golden candlesticks, long since broken in pieces for their breach of covenant: upon Bohemiah, that seat of the first open and authorized Reformation, whatever will yet become of England, &c.

thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. ] Heb. Of my field, where I have plowed and made long furrows, fitted for good seed, wherein I looked for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry, Isaiah 5.7. This root of bitterness, these stalks of hemlock (that venomous weed, full of deadly poison) is bad anywhere, but worst of all, when found in God's field, noted for an habitation of justice, and mountain of holiness, Jer. 31.23. Where should a man look for justice, but where holiness is professed? since primo pracepto reliquorum omnium observantia praecipitur, the second Table of the Law is included in the first: yea the keeping of all the ten is enjoined in the first commandment? Of Rome it was anciently said, that all the neighbouring cities were the better for her example of singular care to do justice. It should be so said of the city of God: where when judgment is turned into wormwood, and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock, as Amos 6.12. Well it may grow till it be ripe in the field, but God will not suffer it to shed, to grow again, but cuts it up by a just and seasonable vengeance.

Verse 5. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear, ] sc. When God shall break the necks of their altars, and spoil their images, as verse 2. They feared not God, by their own confession verse 3. therefore they are full of base fears, whereof the true fear of God would have freed them, Matth. 10.28. He that feareth God needeth not fear any other thing, or person, Psal. 112.7. but can say with David, My feet, that is, mine affections, stand in an even place, that is, in an equable tenor: Impavidum ferient ruinae, I shall rest in the day of trouble, when he cometh up against the people, (saith holy Habakkuk. chap. 3.16.) I shall rejoice in the God of my salvation: when those that fear not God shall be at their wits end: yea they shall be mad for the sight of their eyes that they shall see, Deut. 28.34.

Because of the calves of Beth-aven, ] Calves in the feminine gender, She-calves, by way of contempt and derision, as Jerome noteth: as Isaiah 3.12. Women rule over them. The Jews at this day look upon women as a lower creation, and suffer them not to enter into the Synagogue. As among the Turks they never go to Church, neither is there any reckoning made of their religion. The Heathens had the like conceits and expressions: O Phrygiae, neque enim Phryges — 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. We cannot speak over-basely of idols: the Scriptures calleth them, excrements, Nothings, &c. Luther wonders that Jeroboam knowing how ill the people had sped with their golden. Calf in the wilderness, should yet dare to set up two at Dan and Bethel (both here called Bethaven, or houses of iniquity: ) and a man might as well wonder, that having as great a miracle wrought before him in the drying up of his hand, as St. Paul at his conversion, yet was he no whit wrought upon. But if God strike not the stroke, if the Spirit set not in with the means, all's to no purpose. Who would think that men should ever be so void of reason, as to trust in that which cannot save itself from the enemies hands? as these calves of Beth-aven, and as the Papists breaden-god, brought into the field by the rebels of North-folk, in King Edward the sixths days: neither was there lacking masses, crosses, banners, candlesticks, with holy-bread, and holy-water plenty, to defend them from devils and all adversary power: which in the end, neither could help their friends, nor save themselves from the hands of their enemiees: but eft-soons both the consecrated god, and all the trumpery about him, was taken in a cart, and there lay all in the dust; Leaving to them a notable lesson of better experience, saith Mr. Fox, who relateth it.

For the people thereof ] i. e. of the calf, to whom they had dedicated themselves; as the Moabites are called the people of Chemosh, Num. 21.29. and Turks, Mohammedans. For all people will walk everyone in the name of his God; and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God forever and ever, Mic. 4.5.

Do mourn over it, ] As those women wept for Tammuz, Ezech. 8.14. that is, for Osiris king of Egypt, whose image they had adored, as those Rev. 18. wailed over that old whore, when they saw her a broiling; as Idolatrous Micah cried after his gods, Judge. 18. and as the people of the East-Indies in the Isle Zeylon, having an apes tooth which they had consecrated, gotten from them, mourned, and offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it. Should not men then mourn after the sincere service of God, and hold it dear to their souls?

And the Priests thereof that rejoiced in it ] Heb. the Chemarims, or Chimney-chaplaines, that were all black and sooty with the smoke of the sacrifices, and were therefore called Chemarim or Camilli, as affecting a black habit sanctimoniae ergo; or having black brand-marks upon their bodies, in honor of their Idols, whereof these haply were the Hierophantae, or masters of the Ceremonies, and made a great gain thereof the ground of their joy: for it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , gain so called, because it delights the heart.

For the glory thereof. ] i. e. of the calf, the beauty and bravery of its worship, all is now utterly gone.

Vers. 6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria, &c. ] As no small part of the spoil, shall this Deafter be carried captive: being so far unable to save others, that he cannot save himself.

For a present to king Jareb, ] (See Chap. 3.13. in signum omnimodae victoriae. so Aeneas,

though in another sense; yet they must needs be poor despicable deities, that fall into the enemies hands. The Ark indeed fell into the Philistines hands: but the Ark was not God's, but only a sign of his presence, which God suffered so to be taken, for a punishment to his people, and for a plague to his enemies, whom he smote in the hinder parts, and so put them to a perpetual reproach, Psal. 78.66.

Ephraim shall receive shame ] because they hoped and harped upon better things, Job. 6.20. O pray, with David, that our hopes be not disappointed: that they make us not ashamed, as Paul speaketh; that they prove not as the spiders web, curiously framed but to catch flies only; or as the childes hope, who catcheth at the shadow on the wall which he thinks he holds fast, or at the butterfly, which if he catch, he hath no such great catch of.

And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsels ] of their impolitick plots and practices, in dividing themselves from David's house, and setting up unwarranted worships, calling in foreign helps, &c. Their own counsels have cast them down, Job. 18.7. because they were acted by false principles, and aimed at their own corrupt ends. They took counsel, but not of God; and covered with a covering, but not of his spirit, that they might add sin to sin, Isaiah. 30.1. They made not the Word the man of their counsel, as David did, Psal. 119.24. neither prayed they as he, Psal. 73.24. Guide me Lord with thy counsel, and so bring me to glory. In a word, they perished by their own counsels, Hos. 11.6. whereby they provoked God, and so were brought low, by their iniquity, Psal. 106.43. and then they were ashamed of their own counsel, they saw themselves befooled by their carnal reason, and by that which they call Reason of State, which indeed is treason, unless it be seasoned with Justice and Religion.

Vers. 7. As for Samaria, her king is cut off, as the feam upon the waters, ] An apt simile (whereof this prophet is full) Her king, (not her idols, as some sense it) though gotten into Samaria, a strong city, so well victualled and fortified, as to hold out a siege of three years continuance, yet shall be cut off, or silenced as Chap. 4.7. as the foam upon the waters, bulla evanida, more weak then water, whereof it ariseth, and whereby it is wherried away, and cannot resist: or, as a bubble blown up by every small wind, and as easily blown out again; it no sooner appears but it disappeares. Lo such are the greatest kings and kingdoms, when God taketh them in their wickedness. He cuts off the spirits of Princes, Psal. 76.12. he slips them off, (so the Hebrew is) as one would slip off a flower between ones fingers; or as one would slip off a bunch of grapes. The kingdoms of the earth are like foam upon the waters. 1. For their seeming brightness. 2. For their great eminence. 3. For their instability and inability to resist. 4. For their sudden fall, and disappearance. The Turkish Empire (which hath swallowed up so many glorious Empires and renowned kingdoms) laboreth with nothing more then the weightiness of itself: and shall shortly be cut off as foam, and live no otherwise then by fame, as others now do: though for the present, it be no whit inferior, in greatness, and strength to the greatest Monarchies that ever yet were upon the face of the earth; the Roman Empire only excepted.

Verse 8. The high places also of Aven, &c.] Sept. the Altars, ab Alto dicta. Of Aven, for Beth-aven, (whereof before) a place so hateful now, that God loathes at large to mention it: he even cuts off the head of it, as he had threatened to do by the Altars verse 2. So Jeconiah degenerating, is Coniah, &c.

the sin of Israel, ] that damning sin of idolatry here committed, that wickedness with a witness, which makes God abhor places as well as persons, and turns them into sin as it were. What is the transgression of Jacob? is it not Samaria? and what are the high places of Judah? are they not Jerusalem? Mich. 1.5.

shall be destroyed., ] Thus, man's sin brings destruction upon the creatures. It is as poison in a glass, that causeth the glass to be broken, and cast upon the dunghill. The vessels that held the sin-offering, if made of earth, they were to be broken; if of brass, or other metals, to be purged with fire: as one day the earth and visible heavens also shall be for the defilement that man's sin hath set upon them.

The thorn and the thistle shall come upon their altars, ] There shall be nil nisi solitudo in terris, aegritudo in animis, &c. See the Note on chap. 9. verse 6.

they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, ] This they shall say out of the sense and terror of God's just judgments driving them to desperation. — tellus prius ima dehiscat, &c. Aristides commendeth Themistocles for this, that he never was so perplexed by any evil occurrence, as to wish that the earth would swallow him up quick, or to pronounce the dead happy. Rivet well observeth here, that Judea, as it was full of hills and rocks, so they were wont to dig themselves therein caves and dens, wherein to hide in time of danger. To these David oft repaired, and so secured himself from Saul. And to these he alludeth when he calleth God his Rock, Psal. 18.2. and the Rock of his refuge, Psal. 94.22. And of these places of security Josephus writeth, describing the form of them. Now when they were in those holes of the hills, and were distressed by the enemy there, what wonder though they said to the mountains, fall upon us, cover us bury us alive, erush us to pieces, grind us to powder, rather then that we fall into the bloody fingers of these merciless monsters; who will put us haply to a lingering death, kill us peecemeal, as Tiberius did those he was angry with: and as the Cannibals of America, when they take a prisoner, feed upon him alive, and by degrees, to the unutterable aggravation of his horror and torment. Our Savior foretold his disciples, that at the last destruction of Jerusalem, men should cry out to the mountains on this manner: And so shall the Antichristian rout also do one day, Rev. 6.16. They that would not worship the Lamb, shall find him a Lion: those that would not cast away their transgressions, but faced the heavens, shall run into the rocks to hide them; those that would not aspire to eternity, shall despair of mercy; those that would not lift up their eyes to the everlasting mountains, from whence comes help, shall now in vain tire the deaf mountains, with hide us, help us. Now what can the mountains do more then give an echo to such help us; for they need help also: the wrath of God is upon the creature, &c.

Verse 9. O Israel thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah, ] Or, Prae diebus worse then in the days of Gibeah. What those days were, see chap. 9.9. and Judge. 19. when they were, is not so certain: but probably, before the time of the Judges, and soon after Joshuas death: for Jebus, or Jerusalem, was not yet taken, Judge. 19. with chap. 1. and Phineas was yet alive and ministered before the Lord, chap. 20.28. and was one of those Elders that out-lived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord, which he did for Israel, Judge. 2.7. so that these days of Gibeah, were very ancient: and Israel's sin the worse, because from those days: and yet more, because above, or beyond those days. God made use of your forefathers to punish that great sin: and yet you continue to be more vile and vicious then they were, that were so punished by your forefathers: Neither are ye at all warned by their harms: which is a just both presage and desert of your downfall. Alterius perditie tua sit eautio. Exemplo alterius qui sapit, ill sapit.

there they stood. ] Who stood? either the men of Gibeah stood stoutly to it: and slew in two several battles forty thousand. Or, there stood the men of Israel, and their battle did not overtake the children of iniquity: not so overtake them at first, but that they were twice beaten by them: All which notwithstanding, they stood it out, and prevailed at last: but so shall not you, since it is in my desire, and decree, verse 10. to order it otherwise, and utterly to destroy you at once. Non surget bîc asslictio.

Verse 10. It is in my desire that I should chastise them, ] That is, I am unchangeably resolved, and fully bent upon it, to carry them captive and enslave them to their enemies: wherein they shall find that they have to do with God, and not with man; and that it is I that bind them, though I make use of the Assyrians to that purpose. Luther renders it, Valde cupide eos castigabo, exceeding desirously will I chastise them. O the venomous nature of sin, that maketh the merciful God to desire and to delight in men's miseries: to take comfort in their punishments, Ezck. 5.13, 15. to laugh at their destruction, Prov. 1. And although he bear long with men's evil manners, yet he beareth them as a burden, whereof he desireth to be eased, Isaiah. 1.24. as a servitude whereof he desireth to be freed, Isaiah 43.24. as a pain, not inferior to that of a travelling woman: and albeit he bite in his pains, as it were, for a time, yet hear him what he saith, Isaiah 42.14. I have long time holden my peace, I have been still and refrained myself; now will I cry like a travailing woman: I will destroy and devour at once.

and the people shall be gathered against them, ] God can bring in his armies at his pleasure: for all creatures are at his beck and check. If he do but look out at the windows of heaven, and cry, Who is on my side? who? all creatures in heaven and earth will presently present their service: he never need want a weapon to chastise his rebels. If he but stamp with his foot (as that proud Roman said) he can have men enough. How ready are the Assyrians here, to be the rod in his hand?

When they shall bind themselves in their two furrows, ] i. e. I will bring their enemies upon them, and they shall yoke them like oxen that are yoked to plow: yea, they shall bring them into such servitude, that they shall make them do double work, plow in their two furrows, be they never so weary of doing one. The enemies shall not be moved to pity the poor Israelites, when tired with hard labor: but shall make them plow like beasts, giving them no rest till they have even wearied and worn them out. This is Polanus his interpretation: who further admonisheth us, as oft as we behold, or think upon the yoking of oxen for the plow, that we likewise bethink us of the miserable condition of such poor Christians, as are slaves to Turks, and Tartats, and other enemies, who bind them indeed in their two furrows. It is not so long since here amongst us, diverse of God's dear servants were driven from Ciceter and other places (taken by the enemy) naked and barefoot, (as the Egyptians were by the Assyrians, Isaiah 20.4.) thorough thick and thin to Oxford-Jail, &c. where by the cruelty of their keepers, many of them lost their precious lives, to the incredible grief of their dear relations. Neither can I here pass by Tillies cruelty at Magdeburgh in Germany: where after twenty thousand persons at least put to the sword, and the Town burned down, his soldiers committed all manner of ravages, all the country over: Ladies, Gentlewomen and others, like beasts, they yoked and coupled together, leading them into the woods to ravish them; and such as resisted, they stripped naked, whipt them, cropped their ears, and so sent them home again. The Irish cruelties unnameable, might here be instanced. O quam duram, O quam tristem serviunt illi servitutem! See Mr. Clerks relation. The words may be read, They shall bind them together.

Verse 11. And Ephraim is an heifer that is taught, ] sc. With the Ox-goad, which hath its name from teaching, Judge. 3.31. because therewith Oxen are taught to plow, saith R. David. Ephraim was a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, Jer. 31.18. but God brought her to it and taught her, though at first a backsliding heifer, chap. 4.16. (see the the Note there) taught her, as Gideon taught the men of Succoth, with briers and thorns of the wilderness, so that they paid dear for their learning, Judge. 8.16. But Ephraim, though taught it, loveth not plowing work, because hard and hungry. She loveth rather to tread out the corn, ] where she may dance and frisk in the loft straw without either yoke or muzzle, Deut. 25.4. As we thresh, so it was their manner to tread out their hard corn with the feet of beasts, or by them to draw Wains over it, and so get it out of the husk. Now this was fair and free work, and Ephraim delighted in it; the rather, because she might feed all the while at pleasure: whereas those heifers that plowed, wrought hard all day, and in all weathers, without any refreshment. It is an ill sign, when men must pick and choose their work: this they will do for God, but not that. A dispensatory conscience is a naughty conscience: neither doth he God's will but his own, that doth no more, or no other, then himself will. Such holy-day-servants, such retainers God careth not for. Everyone can swim in a warm Bath; and every bird will sing in a summers day. Judas will bear the cross, so he may bear the bag. And those carnal Capernaites follow Christ, whiles he feeds them: as children will say their prayers, so they may have their breakfast. But Abraham will forsake all to follow God, though he knew not whither: yea though God seemed to go cross-ways: as when he promised him a land slowing wich milk and honey, and yet as soon as he came there, he found famine, Gen. 12.1, 10. So when he promised him seed as the stars, yet kept him without child for twenty years after: and after that he must kill him too, Gen. 22. So Job will trust in a killing God: Jonah calls upon him out of the deep: David keeps his statutes, when God had in some degree forsaken him, Psal. 119.8. and behaved himself wisely in a perfect way, though God was not yet come unto him, Psal. 101.2. This is the trial of a Christian, to do difficult duties upon little or no encouragement; to wrestle as Jacob did, in the night, and alone, and when God was leaving him, and upon one leg, &c. This is work-man-like. The staff-rings were to continue upon the Ark: the Kohathites shoulders felt wherefore: and so long God helped them to carry it. But when they once fell to carting it for their own ease, as the Philistines had done, 1 Sam. 6.) God made a dismal breach upon them, 2 Sam. 6. and David was very sensible of it, when he came up the second time to fetch the Ark, 1 Chron. 15.12, 13.

but I passed over upon her fair neck, ] God will make her both bear and draw; though she were grown delicate and tender, with long prosperity; her good, and fair, and fat neck, not galled, or brawned with the yoke, which now she made dainty of; yet He would bring her to it: though he were by her untractablenesse forced to sit upon her neck, and make her more towardly to the yoke, as the manner of plowmen was in that case.

I will make Ephraim to ride, ] Or, as the Vulgar hath it, I will ride him and rule him, though he kick and lay about him never so much: though he champ upon the bridle, and stamp with his feet, &c. I will master him, and make him more serviceable, or at least, less insolent. See this fulfilled, Jer. 31.18, 19. where Ephraim is brought in seeing his need of mercy in the sense of misery.

Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods. ] Judah doth the worst of the work, and suffers more hardship in the ways of my worship, and is held under by Israel, as appeareth in the second book of Kings, chap. 10.16. &c. Jacob, that is, the ten Tribes, did only break the clods, or harrow, which is the lighter work; and should therefore have been done with more delight. But they love to take their ease, and only follow after their pleasure, and profit: and though taught to plow, yet like it not, because laborious: no though they have Judah for an example of better.

Verse 12. Sowe to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy: ] Righteousness is a sure seed, a precious grain, which those that sow (and every action of our life is a sowing) shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, and bring their sheaves with them, Psal. 126.6. Only they must not look to sow and reap all in one day; as one saith of the Hyperborean people far North, that they sow shortly after the Sun-rising with them, and reap before the Sun-set: that is, because the whole half year is one continual day with them. The Church is God's husbandry, 1 Cor. 3.9. the seed is the Word of God, Luke 8.11. Ministers are God's husband-men, harvestmen, Matth. 9.37, 38. the plough, Luke 9.62. plough-staff, Luke 13.8. axe, Mat. 3.10. are the Laws threatenings: the fruit-causing rain, are the promises of the Gospel, Isaiah 55.10, 11. faith that works by love, are the fruits: the last day, the harvest, Mat. 13.39, 40, 41. Then, at utmost, those that sow bountifully (or, in blessings, as the Greek hath it) shall reap bountifully, 2 Cor. 9.6. He that soweth seemeth to cast away his seed: but if he sow in locis irriguis, (as Eccles. 11. 1. Ezek. 34.26.) upon fat and fertile places, he knows he shall receive his own, with usury. In some parts of Egypt, where the river Nile overfloweth, they do but throw in their seed, and they have four rich harvests in less then four months. Oh sow bountifully the seeds of piety and charity into God's blessed bosom: and then be sure to reap plentiful mercy, in thy greatest necessity: reap in the month of mercy (as the Original here hath it) that is, according to the measure of divine mercy (see Levite. 27.16. Exod. 16.16.) proportionably to the infiniteness of God's mercy. Now the Scripture hath three notable words to express the fullness of God's mercy in Christ, to those that sow in righteousness, Ephes. 2.7. the abundant riches of his grace, that are cast in over and above, Rom. 5.20. The grace of God hath been more then exceeding: there's a second 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 1 Tim. 1.14. The grace of God was exceeding abundant. It had a pleonasme before: yea, but here's a superpleonasme; here's good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over shall God give into men's bosoms: Like as when a poor man asked Mr. Fox for an alms, he (finding him religious) gave him his horse: Or as Alexander gave one (that craved some small courtesy of him) a whole city. And when the poor man said, It was too much for him to receive: yea, but not for me to give, said he. So God giveth liberally and like himself, Jam. 1.5. He doth not shift off his suitors, as once a great Prince did a bold begging Philosopher. He asked a groat of him, and the king told him, it was too little for a king to give. He requested the king then to give him a talent: the king replied, It was too much for a beggar to crave. Certain it is, that God in his spiritual blessings and mercies to us is wont to regard not so much what is fit for his to ask or expect, as what standeth with his goodness, and greatness to bestow. If Israel had a hundred-fold increase of his seed, those that sow to themselves in righteousness, by doing and suffering God's will shall have much more: Even an hundred-fold here, and eternal life hereafter, Matth. 19.29. so great a gain is godliness: so sure a grain is righteousness: who would not then turn spiritual seeds-man?

break up your fallow ground, ] sc. of your hearts, that ye sow not among the thorns, Jee. 4.3. The breaking up of sinful hearts, is a singular means to prevent the breaking down of a sinful nation. Hence the Prophet, though almost out of hope of any good to be done, upon his desperate countrymen, resolves to try one more exhortation to them: and as in the morning he had sowed his seed, so in the evening he with-holdeth not his hand: for who can tell whether it may not prosper? and whether in the midst of threats, they might not suffer a word of exhortation, and whether it might not leave some impression, being delivered in few words? Sowe (therefore saith he) to yourselves in righteousness, &c. but first break up your fallow ground, ] Innovate vobis novale. Repent, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds; in spirit and speech, in minds and manners, in constitution and conversation, in the purpose of your hearts, and practice of your lives. Old things are past, let all things become new: turn up the turf, stock up, and stub up the roots and weeds; get into Christ, and become a new creature. Till this be done, men are in an undone condition, though they should spend their whole time in gathering up pearls and jewels.

for it is time to seek the Lord, ] High time, since your souls lie upon it. Plowmen, we know are careful to take their time: so are all others, wise enough in their generation. The wayfaring-man travelleth while it is light. The Seafaring-man takes his opportunity of wind and tide. The Smith smites whiles the iron is hot. The Lawyer takes his term-time to entertain Clients, dispatch suits. The men of Issachar were in great account with David, because they had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, 1 Chron. 12.32. so are they with God, that regard and use the seasons of grace; that seek the Lord while he may be found, and call upon him while he is near: that put in the plough, set upon the practice of repentance, after a shower, when the heart is best affected; after God by his Word and Spirit hath taught (so some render the Text) or rained righteousness upon them. Rain comes from heaven: so doth every good and perfect giving. Rain pours down plentifully, Psal. 68.9. thou didst send a plentiful rain on thine inheritance: so do the showers of righeousnesse on good hearts. Not a drop of rain falls in vain, or in a wrong place, but by a divine decree, Job 28.26. so here. Seek it in time, and we shall not fail of it. Only we must not set God a time when to come, but wait upon him, who waiteth to be gracious. Elijah sent seven times ere the rain came. Seek till God comes: Limit not the holy One of Israel. As he seldom comes at our time, so he never fails in his own. Hold out therefore faith and patience: for behold he cometh on the clouds, on the wings of the wind, and his reward is with him. To him that soweth righteousness, shall be a sure reward, Prov. 11.18.

Verse 13. Ye have plowed wickedness, ] The former exhortation was even spilled upon them: for they went on to plot and plough wickedness: they had their necks in the devils yoke, and promoted his kingdom with sides and shoulders: they let out the strength of their spirits for the furtherance of sin, and were at no small pains to go to hell. as being the devils hinds and horses to draw his plough, Prov. 21.4. Job 4.8. Even as I have seen, saith Eliphaz, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same. Ye have reaped iniquity, saith our Prophet, that is, dignum factis premium, the reward of your wickedness. And her iniquity is opposed to mercy in the former verse, as wickedness also is to righteousness: or wickedness may be taken for their Apostasy, Idolatry, and creature-confidence; and iniquity for the rest of their enormities, proceeding from those former: for these wicked ones are never out of action. Arant, serunt, occant, scelera, they plow, sow, and harrow mischi ••• so that would they but take the like pains for heaven that they do for hell, they could not (lightly) miss of it.

Ye have eaten the fruit of lies, ] That is, ye have been cozened, by your false Prophets, and State-politicians; whose fetch it is to formalize and enervate the power of truth, till at length they have left you an heartless and sapless religion. Ye have fed hungerly upon the murthering morsels of sin; and that's the reason that there is so much ill blood amongst you. Your bread is that panis meadacij Solomon speaks of, Prov. 20.17. full of grit and gravel, made up with saw-dust (as they served the Martyrs) and mixed with lime, as the treacherous Greeks dealt by the Western Christians, marching towards the Holy-land.

because thou didst trust in thy way, ] In thy Calf-worship. Way is oft put for religion: and every action men do, is a step either to heaven or to hell: he that walketh uprightly, walketh safely. These Idolaters were very confident of their way: so are our Papists, and other heretics; as David George, that pestilent Libertine, was fully persuaded, that the whole world would submit to him. And Campian, Coster, and other zealous Papists tell us to our heads, that our religion is error, ourselves heretics, our end destruction: that one heaven cannot hold us hereafte, one Church now, &c. Thus the way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that hearkeneth to counsel (as no confident fool will) is wise, Prov. 12.15.

and in the multitude of their mighty men. ] This made them ready to boast, as that young king of Hungary did, that though the sky should fall down upon them, yet they were men enow, and strong enough, with their pikes to bear it up. These Ephraimites liked their way of false worship the better, because backed by a strong Army. That way the mighty men go, that shall be trodden: this is a secret bias, a strong poise upon the spirits of most men, Rev. 13. when power and authority was put into Antichrists hands, the whole world wondered after him. But cursed be that man, that maketh flesh his arm, &c. I will not trust in my bow, my sword shall not save me, saith David. There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength, Psal. 33.16. See Psal. 146.3, 4, 5.

Verse 14. Therefore shall a tumult arise among the people, &c. ] Even among those mighty men, wherein ye trusted, shall there be seditious tumults, that shall soon bring all into a miserable confusion. Intestine commotions may undo a people, as a man may die of an inward bleeding.

When the multitude is in a rage, they are like to a tiled house that is on fire (saith One) there's no coming near the house, the tiles do so fly about your face: so it is in tumults, there's no coming near to talk to them, to convince them: but they are ready to fly presently upon you. In Kets sedition, Dr. Parker in his Sermon before the Rebels near Norwich, touched them for their missiving so near, that they went near to touch him for his life. The rude rage of the rebels was such, that some being disabled almost to hold up their weapons, would strive what they could to strike their enemies: others being thrust thorough the body with a spear, would run themselves further, to reach those that wounded them deadly. Yea boys were observed to be so desperately resolved, as to pull arrows out of their own flesh, and deliver them to be shot again by the archers on their side. There are none so insolent and cruel as the vilest of the people, when they are got together in a head. What havoc made the seditious in Jerusalem a little before the last destruction of it? the Guelfs and Gibellines in Italy? Wat Tyler and his complices here? That Rebell, held up by the many-headed multitude, dared to say, that all the Laws of England should come out of his mouth. The Hebrew word here used signifieth an inundation, or multitude of waters, which over-run their banks with violence and roaring. The people are a most dangerous and heady water, when once it is out: it is like a sweeping rain which leaveth no food, Prov. 28.3. The Septuagint render it, Destruction. Sal. Jarchi saith, it signifieth the voice of those that cry, Fugite, Fugite, Away, Away, the enemy is at hand, &c. Some say, to the same purpose, that it signifieth clamorem meticulosorum, the crying of those that are scared, as when there is Luctu, ubique pavor, & plurima morti imago. See Am. 2.2. Zeph. 1.15, &c.

and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled., ] Yea though they be munitions of rocks. Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the Eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the Lord, Jer. 49.16. And again, all thy strong-holds shall be like fig-trees, with the first ripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater, who shall devour them at a bit, Nah. 3.12.

as Shalman spoiled Betharbel ] Shalman signifieth peaceabley (saith an Interpreter) a man of a calm spirit: but he answered not his name: for he exercised greatest cruelty. There is not a more troublesome sea, then that which is called Mare pacificum. There is oft Aliud in Titulo, aliud in Pyxidc. Absalom signifieth the Fathers peace: but he proved otherwise then was hoped.

But this Salman is by the best Interpreters thought to be Shalmaneser king of Assyria in this Prophets time. Salman is vox truncata, a name cut off to the halves: a thing very ordinary in all the learned languages, as were easy to instance. See Isaiah 15.2. Bamoth for Bamoth-Baal, Josh. 19.35. Chamath for Chamath-Dor. Hesiod puts 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Ennius hath Fabric for Fabricius. This Shalmaneser (or as Luther will have it, some other great warrior called Salman, not elsewhere mentioned in Scripture, but not unknown to the ten tribes) did cruel execution, it seems, upon Betharbel, a city beyond Jordan, 1 Maccab. 9.2. like as Tamerlan (for a terror to the Greek Empire, much whereof he afterwards subdued) did at Sebastia; where he made a merciless slaughter of all sexes and sizes; whereby he held the whole East in such awe, as that he was commonly called, The wrath of God, and Terror of the world. There are that think this Arbel to be the same with that Arbela where Alexander defeated Darius, and won the Persian Monarchy. They make it a city or country of Assyria, beneath Arpad, and hinted at by Rabshakeh, 2 King. 18.34. Where are the gods of Hamath, and Arpad? sc. Shalmaneser hath utterly destroyed them. Arbel is by some interpreted, the city of Bel, where Belus or Baal was worshipped. By others, Beth-arbel is interpreted, The house of the insnaring god, the god of policy, or subtlety: It seemeth to them, that the people of this place had a god that they thought would ensnare and ensnarle all their enemies: but it proved much otherwise.

For, the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children. ] Dashed against the ground (so the word signifieth) against the walls, or pavement. See Gen. 32.11. Psal. 137.9. Isaiah 13.16. Such is the savage cruelty of war, when God lets it out. Such was the barbarous dealing of the French in the Parisian Massacre, such the Sicilian Vespers, and at Merindoll; where the paps of many women were cut off, which gave suck to their children; which looking for suck at their mothers breasts being dead before, died also for hunger. Was not this to kill the mother with the children? which God forbade by a symboll of taking the dam with the young, Deut. 22.6. and again of killing the ewe and the lamb both in one day, Lev. 22.28. The Spaniards murdered fifty millions of Indians in 42. years, as Acosta the Jesuit testifieth. Arsenoe was killed upon her children by her bloody brother Ptolomce king of Egypt. And another of that name killed thirty thousand Jews, and compelled the living to feed upon the flesh of the dead. When the Swiss vanquished the Thericcuses in battle, they banqueted in the place where they won the victory: using the dead bodies of their Adversaries instead of stools and tables. The sight of such like cruelties, common in war, might well make Zwingli lius say, when he had been abroad with the Army, that he had found more wickedness, and bad counsels and courses therein, then ever he had known before, either by experience, or out of books. This passage in God's book (and the like, chap. 13.16. their infants shall be dashed-in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up. ) he could not be ignorant of. The Prophet refers his hearers to a sad example of fresh-bleeding cruelty, well known to them: that they might relent, repent, and prevent the like misery upon themselves. This is the use we should all put such examples to, Luke 13.2, 3, 5. & 17.26.28. 1 Cor. 10.6, 7, 8, 11.

Verse 15. So shall Bethel do unto you, ] i. e. the idolatry that you have committed at Bethel, by a Synecdoche of the place, this shall undo you. Or, So shall he do unto you, O inhabitants of Bethel. Bethel shall be made a Betharbel. They that take not example by others, shall be made an example to others. Lege historiam, ne sias historia •

Because of your great wickedness: ] Heb. the wickedness of your wickedness, the iniquity of your sin, the foolishness of your madness, Eccles. 7.25. your idolatry especially, that wickedness with a witness. Let us (by God's example) learn to lay load upon our sins, and not to extenuate, but to aggravate them against ourselves.

In a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off. ] This was fulfilled in Hose •• the last king of Israel, 2 King. 17. cut off in a morning, that is, in a moment, as foam, or a bubble upon the waters. The morning-light lasteth not long, but shineth on to the perefect day. Or, in a morning, when some hope appears, and some comfort is expected, as Psal. 30.6. it is but a lightning afore death.

Contrarily, the Saints at evening-time have light, Zech. 14.7. See the Note there.

CHAP. XI.

Verse 1. WHen Israel was a child, then I loved him, ] Or Because Israel was a child, I loved him. Young things are lovely; young children especially, for their innocence, and ignescency. Some sense it thus, Israel was a child, and had nothing of worth, or lovely in him; yet I loved him freely, Deut. 7.7. Hos. 10.9. called him out of Egypt, out of the iron furnace, led him thorough the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, Isaiah 63.13. possessed him of the promised land. Out of which though I shall shortly cast him for him ingratitudes: yet there is hope of his restauration, by the Messiah my Son, whom when I have called out of Egypt, he shall gather together again the dispersed of Israel, and bring life and immortality to light by the Gospel. The foundation of which restauration, he here maketh to be his own free grace. He hath holpen his servant (or his child) Israel, in remembrance of his mercy. God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, &c. Joh. 3.16. Here then beginneth our Prophets first Evangelical sermon, as Tarnovi • s observeth: who also readeth the Text thus: Albeit Israel was a child, such a forlorn outcast child, as is described, Ezek. 16. and 23. Yet I loved him, and adopted him for my son: not for any defect on my part, (for I had an only begotten Son, in whom I am well pleased:) or, for any desert on his part, for I found him in his blood, in his blood, in his blood, when I cast my skirt of love over him, and said unto him, Live. Yea and for his salvations sake, I have called, that is, I have decreed to call out of Egypt (whither he fled from Herod, and where he abode two or three years at least) my child Jesus, whose office it is to save his people from their sins. And although I might justly have deprived them of such a Savior forever, because when he came to his own, his own received him not, (yea, rejected him to whom their own signs given to Herod, did so aptly and evidently agree) yet out of Egypt, to show the constancy of my love to Israel, have I called (by mine angel, as Jacob by a messenger called his wives to him into the field, Gen. 31.4.) My Son Christ, who is God's Son, first by eternal generation, Prov. 8.22, 23. Secondly, by personal union, Psal. 2.7. And thus God called out of Egypt, first Israel his people, and then Christ the Head of his people; in whom at length this prophecy was fulfilled.

Verse 2. As they called them, ] i. e. As the Prophets and Ministers (whose names are here concealed, that the Word only may be glorified, as Acts 13.48.) called to them, to come out of spiritual Egypt, out of darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among the Saints, by faith that is in Christ, Act. 26.18.

so they went from them: ] They went a contrary way, as the child Samuel, when God called him, ran to Eli: or rather as the willful Jews, when God would have gathered them, as the hen doth her chickens, they would not. When God called his natural Son out of Egypt, he came presently, Heb. 10.7. Psal. 40.7, 8. not so his adopted sons: for they turned upon him the back, and not the face, as Jer. 2.27. they refused to be reformed, they hated to be healed. See chap. 7.1. with the Note. Nay to make up the full measure of their sins, and to heighten their contempt,

they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burnt incense to graven images, ] Quasi agre facturi Deo, as if they would despite God on purpose, and spit in his very face: commit the like villainy in his presence, as the Irish Rebels lately did, when they bound the husband to the bed-post, whiles they abused his wife before him. See the Notes on chap. 2. and almost on every chapter where their idolatry is cried out upon, and their extreme ingratitude.

Verse 3. I tauaght Ephraim also to go, ] A child he was verse 1. and like a child I dealt with him, teaching him how to set his feet, pedare to foot it, as nurses do their little ones: he keepeth the feet of his Saints, he guideth their feet in the way of peace, Luke 1.79. See for this, Deut. 1.31. & 32.11. Num. 11.12. So great is the goodness of God to his people, that he dealeth with us as with his little children, nos sublevando, submonendo, docendo, ducendo, regendo, tegendo, convocando, condonando, portando, confortando, &c. saith a learned Interpreter truly, and trimly. He speaketh unto us as unto children, Heb. 12.5. pattern diligit, • mice dirigit, he loveth us as a father, he directs us as a friend, guiding us with his eye, leading us in his hand, setting us betwixt his knees, as some interpret that text, Deut. 33.3. setting us upon his knees, as a father doth his darling, and rejoicing over us with joy, yea joying over us, with singing, Zeph. 3.17. His affections are more then fatherly: and his expressions are according.

But (he knows) little understanding have we of him. After this, he teacheth us to go, taking us by the arms, ] to help our feeble knees. And taking us up in his own arms, when we come to a foul or rough place: helping us over the quagmires of crosses, and the difficulties of duties. And whereas we fall seven times a day, and in many things fail all: he taketh us up after that we have caught a knock, and cherisheth us in his bosom, &c. Montanus and Junius carry the sense another way, as if the words were not a description of God's love to the people, but of their unthankfulness to God; rendering the words thus: When as • inform Ephraim, he taketh them in his arms, that it, he setteth up idols, and, after the manner of impudent and shameless strumpets, he taketh the puppets in his arms, and embraceth them before my face. But I like the former sense better.

But they knew not that I healed them. ] Not only held them, that they might not fall, but healed them when they had fallen. Daring they would be sometimes to stand upon their own legs, to prevail by their own strength, 1 Sam. 2.9. to say with her in the Poet, Consilij satis est in me mihi, &c. I am wise enough, and able enough, to go on as if they were petty-gods within themselves, and had no need of nor dependence upon me. Hence they hurt themselves, but I healed them. I forgave all their iniquities, I healed all their diseases, their bruises, and putrifying sores, that else had not been closed, bound up,, nor mollified with ointment, Isaiah 1.6. God left not his people in their low estate, as some Physicians do their Patients: but provided a sovereign salve, an horn of salvation, such as would cure any disease, or maim, even the sin against the holy Ghost too: but that it is the nature of it to rage and rave both against the physic, and the Physician. Christ is both the one and the other: as being made unto us of God, Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, 1 Cor. 1.30. Quod sanitas in corpore, id sanctitas in cord. He is Jehovah that healeth, for he is Jehovah that sanctifieth. This Ephraim knew not, that is, out of pride and stoutness they acknowledged it not, but sacrifice to their own nets, wits, endeavors, &c. Of all things God can least endure to be neglected, or to have the glory of his benefits transferred upon others (See chap. 2.8. with the Note.) When men shall either say in the language of Ashdod, It is a chance, or else, I have made myself thus and thus happy. This, though the Saints should at any time do, yet God will pardon their frowardness, and say, as Isaiah 57.17, 18. I have seen his ways, (his waywardness) and will heal him (nevertheless) and restore comforts to him.

Verse 4. I drew them with cords of a man, ] Not of a beast: though they have deserved to be hampered as unruly heifers, and to be yoked and ruled over with rigor; to be tamed and taken down a link lower, yet I, out of my Philanthropie, yea out of singular grace, have dealt civilly, nay courteously with them, in an amicable and amiable way, and not as I might have done out of my Sovereignty, and according to my justice. I drew them by the cords of a man, that is, 1. Gently, and favourably; suiting myself to their dispositions, (which are oft as different as their faces) hiring them to obedience, afflicting them in measure, with the rods of men, 2 Sam. 7.15. fitted to the weakness of men: If God should plead against us with his great power, as Job speaks chap. 23.6. it would soon grind us to powder; but he hath no such design: he correcteth his children vel ad demonstrationem debitae miseriae, vel ad emendationem labilis vitae, vel ad exercitationem necessariae patientiae, saith Austin, ad exercitium non ad exitium, saith another Ancient, to refine, and not to ruin them. 2. Rationally, by cogent arguments and motives, befitting the nature of a man: able to convince them and set them down with right reason, would they but consider, Deut. 32.29. would they but be wise, and weigh things aright. This God wisheth they would do: calleth them to reason the case with him, Isaiah 1.18. pleads with them in a friendly way, Jer. 2.31. and then appeals to their own consciences, whether they have dealt well with him, yea, or no, Isaiah 5.3. making them read the sentence against themselves, as did Judas the traitor, Matth. 27.4. and those Pharisees, Matth. 21.40. He bespeaks them, after most clear conviction, as Isaiah 46.8. Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Most people are led on in a continued hurry of lusts, and passions, and never bethink themselves, as 1 King. 8.47. never say so much as What have I done? Si haec duo tecum verba reputasses quid ago? saith Cicero to Nevius. Hadst thou but bethought thyself of those few words, What have I done? thou wouldst never have been so covetous a cormorant. Oh could men have but so much power over their passions and lusts, as to get alone and weigh God's ways, much good might be done upon them: But for want of this, Fertur equis auriga, &c. they rush into all excess of riot, as an horse into the battle: yea they are so far unmand, as to think that they have reason to be mad, and that there is no small sense in sinning. I do well to be angry, even unto death, Jon. 4.9.

with bands of love, ] Heb. thick cords, cart-ropes (as it is rendered, Isaiah 5.18.) ropes of many wreathes, twisted together, and inter-twined with love, that sweetest Attractive. So Jer. 31.3. With loving-kindness have I drawn thee: and Isaiah 63.9. In his love and his pity he redeemed them, and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old. He gave them a law, the sum of which was nothing but love; and multiplied mercies upon them without measure, as is amply set forth by those holy Levites, Neh. 9. Now, mercy commands duty: and every new deliverance is a new tie to obedience. Love should have love, Publicans and sinners yield that, Matth. 5.46. Yea, love should show itself strong as death, Cant. 8.6. Jonathan would have died for his David; David for his Absalom; Priscilla and Aquila, for Paul, Rom. 16.4. Christ out of his love did die for his people. Have I but one life to lose for Christ? said that holy Martyr. Let men take heed how they sin against love, for this is the greatest aggravation of sin: this is bestial, this is like unruly horses in a teame, to break the gears, to snap in sunder the traces, that should hold them. Such yokelesse sons of Belial shall one day be held by the cords of their own sin, and whipt with those cords of conviction, that they would not be drawn by. Shall the harlots hands be bands, her words cords to draw men to destruction, and shall God stretch out his hand all day long to them to no purpose? Shall he lose his sweet words upon them, &c? Peters heart burst, and he brake out in weeping, when he saw Love sparkling in Christ's looks; and considered how he had burst asunder the bands of love, sinned against such manifestations of mercy, wiped off all his comfortables for the present, drew from Christ those piercing quick questions, Lovest thou me? yea but dost love me indee? O let the cords of God's kindness draw us nearer to him, hold us closer: to sin against mercy, is to sin against humanity: and as no surfeit is more dangerous then that of bread: so no judgment is more terrible, then that which grows out of love felt and slighted.

and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on the jaws, &c. ] i. e. on their neck: albeit it seemeth by that law, made for not muzling the ox that treadeth, &c. that those creatures when they wrought, were muzzled or haltred up: and that halter fastened to the yoke that was upon their necks. The sense is this, I unyoked them often, to give them meat, as the good husbandman doth that is merciful to his beast, he lifts up the yoke that lies hard upon its neck, leads it to the manger, lays food before it, &c. So dealt God by this people all along from the wilderness, and forward: not suffering them to abide jugiter sub jug is Gentium, long under their enemies yoke: but delivering them out of the hand of those that served themselves of them, Ezek. 34.27. Christ also hath delivered His out of the hands of those that hated them, and lay hard upon them; as the devil is an hard taskmaster, that neither takes off the yoke, nor lays meat: gives no rest or refreshment to his drudges, and dromedaries: but acts them and agitates them day and night, &c. Now those that are His, Christ brings them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may do works meet for repentance, that weigh just as much as Repentance doth, Acts 26.18, 20. and so find rest to their souls: Provided, that they take and keep Christ's yoke upon them (not thinking to live as they list more saying as those Libertines in Jeremy we are delivered to do all these abominations ) and learn of him to be meek and Iowly &c. Mat. 11.29. so shall they soon find Christ's yoke easy, and his burden light Vers. 40. And of this easy yoke of Christ Luther understands this text in Hosea; and thereupon discourseth of the Laws rigor, and Gospels relaxation, according to that of Austin, Lex jubet, gratia juvat: the Law commandeth but the Gospel helpeth: God by his spirit assisting, and further accepting pence for pounds, the will for the work, the desire for the deed done &c. and laying meat before us, meat that the world knows not of, hidden Manna, the convivium juge of a good conscience &c.

Vers. 5. He shall not return unto the land of Egypt ] That is, he needs not run to Egypt for help, (as King Hosea did) nor to the Assyrian, to whom they were tributaries from the time of Menahem: for they wanted nothing, and less should have wanted, if they would have been ruled by me.

but they refused to return. ] He was not to have returned to the land of Egypt or of the Assyrian who is his king; so some read the text. Others sense it thus: When I threaten them with the Assyrian, they think to shift and shelter themselves in Egypt: but I shall keep them thence, or find and ferret them out there. God knows how to cross wicked men of their will, to spoil their plots. Egypt shall prove no better then a broken reed running into the hand of him that leaneth on it 2 King. 18.21. The Egyptian was ever an enemy to Israel: and though for his own ends he gave goodly words, and seem reconciled: yet such Reconciliations are but vulpinae amicitiae. But were he never so fast a friend, yet sin-guilty Israel shall not have their an Asylum, nec stabile stabulum (see Chap 9.3. with the Note) because the desire of the wicked shall perish Psal. 112.10. They take counsel together, but it shall come to naught, they speak the word, but it shall not stand Isaiah. 8.10. Confer Isaiah. 30.1.2. and 31.1.2.3. Prov. 21.38.

but the Assyrian shall be his king ] Will they, nill they, they shall be carried captive to Assyria: and since they will needs be crossing of God, he will cross them much more: he will walk contrary to those that walk contrary to him Lev. 26.21. and be as froward as they for the hearts of them Psal. 18.26. They will not return to me, saith the Lord, they shall not therefore return to Egypt: they will not submit to my scepter, they shall therefore have the Assyrian for their King, that proud cruel stout-hearted Prince Isaiah. 10.5.7.12. who will tyrannize over their bodies, and over their cattle at their pleasure, so that they shall be in great distress Neh. 9.37.

because they refused to return ] Heb. they disdained to do it, scorned the motion, slighted the messenger. By their sins they had run from God: by repentance they should have returned unto him, and then the amends had been well-nigh made: for Quem poenitet peccasse paene est innocens the penitent is in almost as good a case as the innocent; Ambrose saith he is in a better. But for these men, to all other their sins to add obstinacy and impenitence, as Herod to all his former evils did the death of the Baptist, this was to heap up wrath against the day of wrath Rom. 2.5. The word here rendered (refused) is by the Seventy turned They would not. That therefore thy returned not to God, it was the fault of their will. True it is, they had no power to turn themselves: but the cause of that inability too, was in themselves. They therefore neither could nor would return: and both by their own fault and folly.

Vers. 6. And the sword shall abide on his cities ] Heb. shall keep residence or rush upon his cities. It can do no less; it cannot return into the scabbard, rest or be still till the Lord, who put it into commission, call back again his commission, Jer. 47.6.7. It is a dreadful thing when the sword abideth on a people; as in Germany that stage of war, Ireland still a land of divine ire &c. England hath some Halcyons at present, praise be given to God: and let every good man pray with David, scatter thou the people that delight in war Psal. 68.30. The Pira • s war was dispatched by Pompey with incredible swiftness, to his eternal commendation. And we have cause to bless God (saith a countryman of ours) that God hath raised up instruments for us, who have hazarded the shortening of their own lives for the shortening of the war: who have done their work of late, as if they had took it by the great &c. And the same Author observeth, that it is a sad thing for the sword to be in the field; but for the sword to be in the cities it is much more sad: and he instanceth in Jerusalē out of Josephus, where the number of the slain was eleven hundred thousand: We may further instance in that unhappy city of Magdeburg in Germany, where so much cruelty was exercised first by Charles the fifth, (much regrated by him at last in his retired life, taking account of his actions) & since that in our memory by Mounsier Tilly, who like a bloody villain put to the sword there twenty thousand persons at least of all ranks, ages, and sexes: that great city also he burned down, utterly turning it into cinders excepting an hundred nine & thirty houses &c. The like immanity was exercised by the Popes champions upon the poor Protestants at Angrogue in France: where they killed and burned without mercy: but could never set fire upon the two temples there, nor upon the Ministers house, which remained whole, the houses round about being all consumed with fire.

and shall consume his branches and devour them ] His branches or his villages, which are as branches of the greater cities. The trees of America (but especially of Brazil) are so huge, that it is reported of them, that several families have lived in several arms or branches of one tree, to such a number as are in some petty village or parish here. The greater cities are as the body or-root of a tree, the villages as the branches. The scripture oft calleth them mother and daughters, as Heshborn and all her daughters, That is villages Num. 21.25. as the Chaldee there explaineth it. See Ezech. 10.44.45.46.48.53. hence we read of a citieand mother in Isracl 2 Sam. 20.19. Branches also are called daughters of the trees they grow from Gen. 44.23. The word here rendered branches is by some rendered Barres, by others, Diviners or Liers, as the word here used is interpreted Jer. 50.36. A sword is upon the liars or diviners, and they shall dote: potest Augur Augurem videre & nou ridere? saith Tully of such diviners: that is, Can they one look upon another and not laugh, considering how they gull people with their lies and fopperies? The sword shall be upon such, as it was upon Balaam Satan's spelman, they shall be a portion for foxes Psal. 63.10. as those that

because of their own counsels ] He that goeth to school to his own carnal reason, is sure to have a fool to his master; an ignis fatuus that will bring him into the bogges and briers. The wisdom of the fiesh is enmity to God. Nemo laeditur nisi à seipso. See the Note on chap. 10. verse. 6.

Vers: 7. My people are bent to backsliding from me ] they have a principle of Apostasy in them, as those Galatians had, of whom the Apostle, I marvel that you are so soon removed unto another Gospel Gal. 1.6. and as those old Apostates in the wilderness, who so soon as Moses his back was turned almost, cried out to Aaron, Make us golden God's. This people was before accused to be acted by a spirit of fornication, a certain violent impetus, a strong inclination to whoredom, and to be apt to backslide with a perpetual backsliding: all their recidivations and revolts were but a fruit of the bent of their spirits, which were false and unsettled: not resolved whether yet to turn to God, though they were beset with so many mischiefs: they hangd in suspense and rather inclined to the negative then else. Suspensi sunt, so Calvin, Pareus, and others, read this text. My people are in suspense, or in a mamering whether to turn to me or not, they hang in doubt, as the same word is rendered Deut: 28.66. God liketh not that his people should stand doubtful as S •• pticks; and adhere to nothing certainly: to be in religion as idle beggars are in their way, ready to go which way soever the staff falleth: but that they should strive to a full assurance in what they believe Luk. 1.4. to be fully persuaded as ver. 1. and to a firm purpose of heart in what they should practice Act. 11.23. Irresolution against sin or for God can hardly consist with the power of Godliness: be not off and on with him, halt not, hang not in doubt what to do; but follow God fully as Caleb did; come off freely as David, who had chosen God's precepts when he was solicited to have done otherwise Psal. 119.173. And again, I have chosen the way of truth: thy judgments have I laid before me ver. 30. I have weighed them, and am resolved to keep them, I am come to a full determination. Mr. Deodate senseth the words thus. They desire and expect that I should turn in favor to them and relieve them: whereas they should turn to me by repentance, which they will not do: and herein he followeth Arias Montanus. Thus those stiffnecked Jews in Jeremy expected that God should still deal with them (however they dealt with him) according to all his wondrous works chap. 21.2. presuming and promising themselves impunity; and thus Judas also had the face to ask, as the rest did, Is it I? as resting upon Christ's accustomed gentleness, and that he would conceal him still, as he had done certain days before.

though they called them to the most High ] They, that is the Prophets as verse. 2. called them with great importunity, upon every opportunity, to the most High, to God (in opposition to those Dii minutuli petty deities whom they doted on. See chap. 7.16.) to come up to him, to have high and honorable conceptions of Him, not casting him in a base mould, as those miscreants did, Psal. 50.21. but saying as David, and with a David-like spirit, Thous Lord art high above all the earth, thou art exalted far above all God's, and there-hence inferring, Ye that love the Lord, hate evil Psal. 97.9.10. I am God Almighty, walk before me and be upright Gen. 17.1. The God of glory appeared to Abraham Act. 7.2. he so conceived of God; and hence his unchangeable resolutions for God.

none at all would exalt him ] Heb. together he exalted not, scarce a He, a single man that would do it, that would lift up his head to listen to such good counsel, (so some sense it) or that would exalt and extol the most High; who though he be high above all praise as Neh. 9.5. and cannot be praised according to his excellent greatness: Yet is he pleased to account himself exalted and magnified by us, when, considering the infinite distance and disproportion that is betwixt him and us, we lay ourselves low at his feet for mercy, we set him up in our hearts for our sole Sovereign, we esteem him as the people did David more worth then ten thousand, we give him room in our souls, and with highest apprehensions, most vigorous affections, and utmost endeavors we bestow ourselves upon him, as the only Worthy. Now this is done but of a very Few, and well done but of fewer yet; so drossy and drowsy are men's spirits, and so little is the Lord, li • ted up by the sons of men. See the Prophet Isaiah his complaint chap. 64.7.

Vers: 8. How shall I give thee up Ephraim? ] Here beginneth the second part of this chapter, full of many sweet Evangelical promises, and here, if ever, Mercy rejoiceth against Judgment, or treadeth on the very neck of it, as St. James his word importeth chap. 2.13. The Lord seemeth here to be at a stand, or at strife with himself about the destruction of this people fore-threatened; which well might have been a gulf to swallow them up, and a grave to bury them in forever, being most worthy to perish, as were the Cities which God destroyed in his wrath. Gen. 19. Howbeit God in the bowels of his mercy earning and taking pity of his Elect amongst them (for he had reserved 7000. hidden ones that had not bowed their knees to Baal ) spareth to lay upon them the extremity of his wrath, and is ready to save them for his mercies sake. Hear how father-like he melts over them;

how should I expose thee O Ephraim? how should I deliver thee up O Israel? How should I dispose the as Admah? how should I set thee as Zeboim ] q. d. Justice requires that I should lay thee utterly wast, and even rain down hell from heaven upon thee as once upon Sodom and her sisters. But Mercy interposeth her four several How's (in the Original two only, expressed, but the other 2. necessarily understood, and by Interpreters fitly supplied) four such pathetical Interrogations as the like are not to be found in the whole book of God, and not to be answered by any but God himself: as indeed he doth to each particular in the following words, My heart is turned within me, that is the first answer, The second, My repentings are kindied together: The third I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: The fourth I will not return to destroy Ephraim. And why? First I am God and not Man: Secondly the Holy One in the midst of thee.

My heart is turned, or turneth itself, within me ] that is my mind is changed, or at least is, in doubt what to do, in this business. This is spoken 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 after the manner of men, and must be understood 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 agreeably to God's greatness. Here is mutatio rei non Dei, effectus non affectus, facti non consilij: Repentance with man is the changing of his will. Repentance with God is no more then the willing of a change: ill is not a change of his will, but of his work. Confer Lam. 1.20. & 2.11. Am. 1.12. There are that render it, My heart is turned against me, that is, against my former severe sentence of cutting them all utterly off at one blow; Fiat Justitia, pereat mundus. Oh! I cannot find in my heart to do it. For my

repentings are kindled together, ] Simul aestuant viscera mea poenitentiâ. So Tremellius: My bowels are altogether on a light fire with repentings, as Gen. 43.30. and 1 King. 3.27. Now repentings are as improperly attributed to God, as bowels. There were a sort of ignorant Monks in Egypt, who started this foolish and ridiculous question (which yet bred no small stirs there Anno Dom. 403.) An Deus corporeus sit? Whether the Divine Essence be a body, having hands, heart, bowels, &c? The ruder sort of them held it affirmatively. What blasphemies Vorstius hath vented, in that base book of his de Deo, I need not relate. How God is said to repent, hath been said already: Sure it is, that herein he graciously accommodateth himself to our rudeness, and speaketh as we are able to bear. It appeareth that fury is not in God, Isaiah 27.4. Our sins put thunder-bolts into his hands, and it is, Non nisi coactus with him, when he proceeds to punishment. His bowels are very ready to work in the ways of grace, and mercy toward sinners: and the least act of faith in that mercy, would certainly set bowels on work amain. This the Church in Isaiah well knew, and therefore prayed when deserted, Look down from heaven, &c. Where is thy zeal, and thy strength? the sounding of thy bowels and of they mercies toward me? are they restrained? Doubtless thou art our Father, notwithstanding thine austerities. God seemeth sometimes to lose his bowels, and then we must find them for him: to sleep, and we must awake him: to hide himself, and then we must fetch him out (as the woman of Canaan did by the force of her faith, Mark. 7.24, 25.) God will come, but he will have the faithful prayers of his people to lead him. I came for thy word, Dan. 10.9. &c.

Verse 9. I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, ] Heb. the heat of it God's bowels kindled, and whatsoever might cause repentance came together, and lay glowing as it were at his heart: and this cooled and even quenched the heat of his wrath, (as the Sun-beams when they shine full upon the fire) so that now he resolves not to execute the height of his heat, the extremity of his fury, for then the spirit should fail before him. Ephraim is God's dear son, his pleasant child: whom when he hears bemoaning himself, as Jer. 31.18, 19, 20. he soon repents him of the evil, ans cries,

I will not return to destroy Ephraim, ] I will not undo him twice over, or utterly ruin him: as those that have laid their enemy for dead, return to see whether he be dead out-right: or as soldiers that have once pillaged a city, return after a while to take all that little that was left before, and to set the rest on fire. God will not deal so hardly with Ephraim, though he might do it. Reprobates indeed shall have an evil, an only evil, Ezek. 7.5. without mixture of mercy; they must expect one plague upon another, as it fared with Pharaoh, till God had dashed the very breath out of his body, &c. But for his elect people, Hath he smitten them, as he smote those that smote them? No, but in measure, in the branches only: he stayeth his rough wind, &c. Isaiah 27.7, 8. And as Croesus his dumb son burst out into Kill not King Croesus. So when enemies are ready to devour the Church, or Satan to swallow God's child up in despair, his bowels work; he can hold no longer, but cries, Save my child, save my Church, &c. Why should the spirit fail before me, and the souls which I have made? I have seen his ways, and (though bad enough) I will heal him, I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners.

For I am God, and not man, ] yea such a God, as the like is not, for pardoning iniquity, and passing by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, Mic. 7.18. 'It is natural to him, Exod. 34.6. 'tis usual, Neh. 9.17. there he is called a God of pardons, as Isaiah 55.7. he is said to multiply pardons. He hath commanded men to forgive an offending but repenting brother, seventy times seven times in a day, Mat. 18.22. What then will himself do? For he is God Almighty, and not man. Man is an angry vindictive, cruel creature: one man is a Wolf, yea a Devil to another: unsociable, implacable, unmerciful, as those were Rom. 1.31. Beware of men, saith our Savior to his disciples, Matt. 10.17. absurd and wicked men, 1 Thess. 3.2. barbarous, and brutish, skillful to destroy, Ezek. 21.31. Yea beware of good men, when enraged. What strange deaths did David (soon after his foul fall, and not fully recovered) put the poor Ammonites to, 2 Sam. 12.31. Further, men as they are unmerciful, so they are unmindful of their promises. But God is not a man that he should lie, Num. 23.18. What he hath spoke with his mouth, he will make good with his hand. The eternity of Israel will not lie, (as men will, Rom. 3.4.) nor repent, (as men do, whatever he may seem to do; see the note on the former verse ) for he is not a man that he should repent, 1 Sam. 15.29. Men are mutable: the truest friend is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and easily changeable creature, as the Heathen complained; all in changeable colors, as Tertullian saith of the Peacock; as often changed as moved. Not so Almighty God. I am Jehovah, I change not, Mal. 3.6. See the Note there, and remember still to retain high thoughts of God: not measuring him by our model; as to think him to be as merciful as we are, as powerful as our understanding can reach, &c. See Isaiah 55.8, 9. and beg supernatural grace: without which it is impossible for a finite creature to believe the infinite Attributes of Almighty God.

the holy One in the midst of thee, ] Though Israel had deeply revolted, set up golden gods, and done wickedly as they could, so that there was no visible Church amongst them, yet God was the holy One in the midst of them: Seven thousand he had reserved that Elijah knew not of, 1 King. 19.18. and a Church there was in Israel, when at worst. Like as there was in medio Papatu, in the darkest midnight of damned popery: and at this very day, there are said to be thousands of professed Protestants, even in Italy itself: and in Sivil, a chief city of Spain, there are thought to be no fewer then twenty thousand.

and I will not enter into the city. ] I will not invade the city as an enemy, to wast all with fire and sword, as once at Sodom. For why, there are holy ones in the midst of thee (so Rivet expoundeth it by an enallage of the number ) a considerable company of righteous people, for whose sake I will spare thee, Jer. 5.1.

Verse 10. They shall walk after the Lord, ] powerfully calling them by his Word and Spirit, going before them, and bringing up the Rear, Isaiah 52.12. their King shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them, Mic. 2.13 Time was, when they fled from God, Hos. 7.13. and said, I will go after my lovers, &c. chap. 2. Now they are of another mind, and other manners: they shall walk after the Lord, non pedibus sed affectibus: they shall be carried after him with strength of of desire, and delight, which he shall work in them: they shall follow the Lamb whither soever he goeth: God's people are said in Scritpture to walk before him in godly sincerity, to walk with him in an humble familiarity, to walk after him in an holy conformity, yielding unto him the obedience of faith. As Israel in the wilderness, so must we, follow God and the line of his Law, though it seem to lead us in and out, backward and forward (as them) as if he were treading a maze.

he shall roar like a lion, ] By the preaching of the Gospel, he shall shake heaven and earth. The voice of the Gospel is, Repent. Aut poenitendum, aeut pereundum, except ye repent ye shall all perish. He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved: He that believeth not, shall be damned, was a terrible voice. Of the Lion it is reported, that he roareth so fiercely, that the rest of the creatures stand amazed: and that, whereas his own whelps come dead into the world, he roareth over them, and reviveth them. Afterwards, when he meeteth with prey, he roareth for them to come about him. Let this be applied to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. Confer Jo • l 3.16.

then the children shall tremble from the West. ] The children of grace, Deut. 14.1. shall join themselves in spirit to the communion of the Church from all the ends of the world, where they have been scattered: they shall serve the Lord with fear, rejoice with trembling. The Ancient Hebrews applied this promise to the coming of the Messiah: only they dreamt of an earthly kingdom of his, as did also the disciples, being soured with the leaven of the Pharisees. Others think it to be a Prophecy of the conversion, and calling of the Jews, to be accomplished in the last days: as also of the general spreading of the Gospel, and gathering of the Elect, far and wide from one end of the heavens unto another. And this they call, the time of the Restitution of all things.

Vorse. 11. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt. ] Trepide accurent, so Tremellius: they shall run tremblingly. Fear causeth hast. Men delay and trifle till God strikes their hearts with fear: then 'tis ecce ego, mitte me, Here I am, send me, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth, What wilt thou have me to do Lord? &c. timor addidit ulas; as the doves when pursued by the hawk, scour into their columbaries. As birds frighted, fly to their nests, and other creatures to their holes, and harbours: so do those that are pricked at heart with the terrors of the law, flee to the precious promises of the Gospel: hiding themselves in the wounds of Christ crucified, and are relieved. All St. Paul's care was, that when he was sought for by the justice of God, he might be found in Christ, not having his own righeousnesse, but that which is through the faith of Christ.

and as a dove out of the land of Assyria, ] i. e. out of what country soever, where they shall be scattered, I will recollect them by my Gospel, which is therefore called God's arm, because thereby he gathereth his Elect into his bosom. Doves fly swiftly, Psal. 55.6. and by flocks, Isaiah 60.8. so shall the Elect to Christ, both of Jews and Gentiles. By the children of the West, may be meant these Western Churches, and withal the Northern parts. By Egypt, the whole South. By Ashur, all the Eastern Tract, those large and mighty kingdoms that lie Eastward from Judea, even to the Sun-rising. Thus many shall come from East and West, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and • acob in the kingdom of heaven, Mat. 8.11. The molten-Sea stood upon twelve Oxen, which looked to all the four quarters of the world: so did the twelve gates of the new Jerusalem, &c.

and I will place them in their houses, ] Not in strong garrisons, but in their ownhouses; where they shall dwell securely under their own vines and fig-trees: for they shall have the Gospel of peace, and the peace of the Gospel, See 2 Sam 7.10 Or thus, I will place them in their own houses, that is, in my Church (saith Polanus ) which hath its houses and places of receipt among all people the whole world throughout, where they may serve God, without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all their days. Thus the Apostles in their travels, where ever they came, found brethren, &c. and having nothing, yet they possessed all things, 2 Cor. 6.10. True tranquility and sound security is to be found nowhere but in Christ, Mic. 4.4. and 5.5. nor by any but by those that hear him roaring, and calling them to the participation of his grace and peace. Those that hearken to Christ's Oracles shall dwell in his tabernacle.

Verse 12. Ephraim composseth me about with lies, ] They get about me as if they would do me doubty service ( Psal. 76.11. the saints are called a people that are round about God: and Psal 148.14. a people near unto him, and that compasseth his altar. See Rev. 4.4.) but all's but counterfeit: a mere imposture, a loud lie, Psal. 78.36 whereby they would cozen me of heaven, if they could: putting upon me false coin silver'd over a little; and circumventing me, if it lay in their power. But what saith Bernard, Sapi • ns nummularius Deus est; Nummum fictum non recipiet. God is a wise Mint-man: there's no beguiling him with counterfeit coin. Hypocrisy (that real lie) is an odious, a complexive evil: for it hath in it, 1. Guile, opposite to simplicity, as intending to beguile God, which he cannot, and man, which he fain would, and oft doth, to further his worldly and wicked designs, as Judas, Herod, Matth. 2.8. Pharisees, Mat. 23.14. 2. Falshoud, opposite to truth; as only acting religion, playing devotion, compassiong God with deceit, as the house of Israel here, deceiving him not by impotency only, and in the event; but by imposture, and so in purpose; contenting themselves with a show, with a semblance, Luke 8.18. with a form of knowledge, Rom. 2.20. and of godliness, 2 Tim. 3.5. rather • eeming to be good, then seeking to be so. These are hells free-holders: and other sinners are said but to have their part with them. There are that thus interpret this Text; Ephraim compasseth me, the Prophet preaching mercy, and promising good things, they beset me, and gather close about me, as desirous of my doctrine: but it is in mendacio, in hat • full hypocrysic (see Ezek. 33.31, 32.) and when I cross them never so little, they craftily conspire to prejudice my Ministry, to asperse my person, &c. To preach saith One, is nothing else but to derive the rage of the whole world upon a man's self, to become the But-mark, yea the Center ad quod omnes lineae dolorum tendunt, to which all the lines of lies and falsehoods do tend.

but Judah yet ruleth with God, ] To serve God is to rule with him (as Livia said, she ruled her husband Augustus, by obeying him) It is the greatest liberty, Rom. 6.18, 22. 1 Pet. 2.16. Abraham was a prince of God, Jacob prevailed with God, and had power as a Prince, Gen. 32.28. Moses (as if he had been Chancellor of heaven) over-ruled the business, and God is fain to bespeak his own freedom, Exod. 32.10. Judah also is here said to rule with God, to be potent with him; because God was sincerely served amongst them, and they held fast their first integrity: the true religion was openly professed, and the true worship of God incorruptly maintained in the Temple at Jerusalem. This made Abijah (though none of the best) so boldly to boast, and he prevailed: so that there fell down of Israel slain four hundred thousand, 2 Chron. 14.10, 17. and yet the men of Judah that slew them, were but four hundred thousand ina ll, verse 3. Israel's Apostasy is here aggravated by Judah's integrity: they were not under the temptation of evil example. Judah was the worse for them, and not they for Judah.

and is faithful with the Saints. ] Or, with the most Holy: he keepeth the faith to God, those Holy Ones, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (so some sense it) as Josh. 24.19. Prov. 9.10. he is far from those false and fraudulent dealings wherewith the ten Tribes seek to circumvent and beguile god. Or thus, J • xlah is faithful with the saints of former ages: he holds to his old principles, to the good old way, wherein Abraham and the other Ancients went before him. He is also faithful; with such as are sanctified, the true priests of God, consecrated to himself, and set apart for holy use: In opposition to the ten Tribes, who went after those leaden priests made by Jeroboam of the lower sort of the people, and well fitted to golden deities. Lastly, he is faithful with the people of God, those good souls that left the ten Tribes and went to Judah, to the true worship of God. With these Judah was faithful, courteous, and communicative: embracing and encouraging them all that might be. This was a singular commendaton.

CHAP. XII.

Verse 1. EPhraim feedeth on wind, ] Slender feeding; unless Ephraim were of the Chamaeleon-kind: quippe nec cor auro satiatur nec corpus aura. Wind fills, but feeds not. Ephraim had sowed the wind, chap. 8.7. but to what profit? He that ministereth seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, would here, surely, neither give bread for food, nor multiply their seed sown, but send them to the gods that they had chosen, and to their confederates whom they so relied upon, from whom they should reap the whirlwind. (See the Note on chap. 8.7.) Wind, we know, bloweth up storms and tempests: so doth idolatry and creature-confidence, the tempest of God's wrath that will never be blown over.

and followeth after the East-wind, ] Which if he catch, a great catch he is like to have of it. Eurus est ventus urens & exsiccans. The East-wind is noted in Scripture for pernicious and hurtful to fruits and herbs, Gen. 41.6. Ezek. 7.10. and 29.17. Hos. 13.15 violent it is also, and spareth not men, Ion. 4.8. The Seventy render it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a burning blast, as they do the former words, Ephraim is an evil spirit, by a mistake of the points. Job speaketh of some that fill their bellies with the East-wind; they think to do so, but it proves otherwise: they snuff up the wind with the wild-asse, but it tumours them only, and proves pestilential. It is very dangerous for men to follow after their own conceits and counsels. It may be worse to them upon their death-beds, when they are launching into the main of Immortality, then any rough East-wind, or then any Euroclydon, that wind mentioned, Acts 27.14. that hath its name from stirring up storms, and is by Pliny called Navigantium pestis, the Mariners misery. An empty body meeting with tempests, will have much ado to bear up. If Ephraim first seed upon wind, and then fall under the East-wind, it must needs go hard with him. The godly man, who is filled with all the fullness of God, Ephes. 3.19. shall have him for a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall, Isaiah 25.4. His prayer is that of Jeremiah, chap. 17. verse. 17. Be not thou a terror unto me, O Lord: thou art my hope in the day of evil. If the wind be not got into the earth, and stir not there, storms and tempests abroad cannot make an earthquake: no more can afflictions, or death, an heart-quake, where there is peace with God: Such a man's mind immota manet, is as mount Zion which cannot be removed.

He daily increaseth lies and desolation, ] This being the fruit and consequent of those; for flagitium & flagellum sicut acus & filum, sin and punishment are inseparable companions, Woe unto them for they have fled from me: destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against me, Hos. 7.13. See the Note there. To heap up lies, is to hasten desolation. A false witness shall not be unpunished: and he that speaketh lies shall perish, Prov. 19.9. They tell us of a threefold lie, i. e. A merry lie, an officious lie, and a pernicious lie. But the truth is, every lie is pernicious: and a man should rather die then lie. He that lieth in jest, may go to hell for it in earnest. Jacob told his father an officious three-foldlie, and scarce ever had a merry day after it, Gen. 27.19. God followed him with one sorrow upon another, to teach him and us, what an evil and a bitter thing it is to cumulate lies, as here, and how it ensnares and ensnarles us.

And they do make a covenant with the Assyrian, and oil is carried into Egypt. ] that is, all precious and pleasant substance was carried for a present, to make roomth for them. Oil is instanted, as the chief staple commodity of the land, (see Ezek. 27.17.) and in Egypt very scarce: this sin of theirs in seeking to other nations, and relying on the arm of flesh, is oft reproved and threatened throughout this Prophesy. See chap. 5.13. & 7.11. & 9.8. & 10.4 & 11.5. To neach God's Ministers to continue crying out against the prevailing sins of the people, and never give over, till they see a reformation wrought amongst them. The Cretans are always liars, &c. Rebuke them sharply, saith the Apostle; yea, be instant and constant, in season, and out of season, using the same liberty in beating down sin, that men do to commit it. Chrys • stom told his heaters at Antioch, that till they left their swearing, he would never leave preaching against it.

Verse 2. The Lord hath also a controversy with Judah, ] Lest the Prophet should be thought partial in the law, Mal. 2.9. (See the Note there) and lest Ephraim should say of Judah, as once Oded did of Israel; Are there not with them, even with them also, sins against the Lord? The Prophet answers by way of concession, that there were so indeed; and that therefore God had a controversy with them, a litigation, or disceptation: he was expostulating with them by words, and some lighter strokes, notwithstanding he had commended them before, as ruling with God, and retaining his pure worship. God would take his time to deal with them too, for their many impieties, and especially for running to Egypt for help, as they did in the days of Ahaz, and Zedekiah, see Isaiah 30.2. and 31.1. but because they were not yet so bad as the ten Tribes, nor so desperately wicked, therefore the Lord was yet but pleading with them, he had not passed sentence, he was not resolved upon their ruin and utter extirpation: as he was for the ten Tribes, those foul Apostates and shameless covenant-breakers: concerning whom he saith, and is set upon it, I will punish Jacob according to his ways. ] See the like words, chap. 4. verse 9. with the Note. He calls them Jacob, because they gloried much in him their Progenitour, as did likewise the Samaritans that succeeded them, Job. 4.12. So did the Jews in Micah chap. 2.7. But the Prophet Hosea answereth them in effect (as there) by proving a disparity. O th •• that art named the house of Jacob, (that wilt needs be named so, and therein pridest thyself) is the Spirit of the Lord • raitned? (ye are not surely straitened in him, but in your own bowels, that ye express Jacob no better, that ye resemble him no more) Are these his doings? was Jacob a man of your practices? No: for he left no means unattempted, that he might attain the blessing: he strove for it with his brother in the womb, afterwards with the Angel, against whom with much wrestling and raising of dust, he prevailed, as it followeth in the two next verses.

Verse 3. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, to have hindered him if he could, of the first-birth-right; so desirous he shown himself, so soon, of that desirable sireable privilege, and the pro •• ises annexed. Whence we may learn (saith One) that God taketh care even of unborn babes, that belong to him, and worketh strangely in them sometimes, as he did in the Baptist, Luke 1.44. the child leaped in the womb, by a supernatural motion; he leaped more like a suckling at the breast, as the word signifieth, then an unborn Embryo. Mention had been made in the former verse, of the name of Jacob: here we have the etymon, or reason of that name; He took his brother by the heel, or foot-sole, as if he would have turned up his heels and got to the goal before him. Hence his name was called Jacob, Gen. 25.26. that is, Calcanearius, or Heel-catcher, as if he would have pulled his brother back; or presage of what he should afterwards do, viz. supplant Esau, and get the preeminence both of birth-right; and blessing; Gen. 27.36. and withal a fruit, an instance of God's free grace, in preferring Jacob when he could not yet do anything that was good) before Esan, though he were the elder, stronger, stouter, a manly child, a man already, as his name importeth, one that had everything more like a man then a babe. See Mal. 1.2. with the Note. And observe, that God here upbraideth Jacob's degenerate brood, with his benefits toward him their forefather, whereof they now walked so utterly unworthy.

And by his strength, ] By his hard labor, say the Seventy • but better, by, or in his strength, that is, by the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, Phil. 1.19. and by the power of the Almighty, casting him down with the one hand, and bearing him up with the other.

He had 〈◊〉 with God. ] Heb. he played the Prince with God, fortiter & fideliter se gessit, he bore himself bravely, and had strength with God. He doth not lie down sullen and discouraged, but wrestleth with excellent wrestlings; he held with his hands, when his joints were out of joint. He wrestled in the night, and alone, and when God was leaving him, and upon one leg, and prevailed, as it is in the next verse. This he did partly by his bodily strength elevated, for he was a very strong man, as appeareth Gen. 29.10. by his rolling the great stone from the Wels mouth; but principally by the force of his faith put forth in prayer, which can work wonders. Oh, its a sweet thing indeed to be strengthened with might, by the spirit, in the inner man. Orqu •• hic home, non est omnium! This is the generation of them that seek him: that seek thy face, this is Jacob: yea, this is Israel, for so God knighted him, as it were, in the field for his good service: and new named him, G •• 3 • .28. Neither were the faithful ever since called Abrahamites, or Isaakites, but Israelites; for honors sake.

Verse 4. Yea, he had power over the Angel. ] that Angel of the Covenant, Mal. 3.1. the Angel of the great Council, as the Seventy render, Isaiah 9.6. the Lord Christ, who redeemed Jacob from all evil, Gen. 48.16. and is called Elohim in the former verse •• Jacob is reproved for asking his name, an argument of his Majesty. God as he surmounteth all creatures, and hath no parallel, so he surpasseth all notion, and is above all name. The Africanes call him Amon, that is Heus, tu, quis et? Our best eloquence of him, •• an humble filence: Or if we say anything, to say as in the next verse following, Jehovah, God of heasts, Jehovah is his momoriall.

and prevailed • ] Sept. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He had power, or got the better, Christ yielding himself overdome by the prayers of the Patriarch: for the effectual servant prayer of a righteous man availeth much, saith St. James: there is a kind of omnipotency in it, saith Luther, of whom also that saying passed amongst his friends, Iste vir pot uit, apud De •• s qnod vol • it, That man could do what he would with God. The reason whereof is given by St. Jerome, in these words, Deus ipse qui nulliscontra se viribu • superari potest, precibus viucitur, that is God himself, who is otherwise insuperable, may be overcome by prayers: provided that men persevere in prayer as Jacob did, holding out till the morning-light, and growing more resolute toward the later end then he had been before.

He wept and made supplication. ] Jacob did. (not the Angel, as Mercer and Drusrus would carry it) His wrestling was by weeping, and his prevailing by praying.

We read not till this Text, of his weeping for the blessing, (no more we do of the earthquake in Hezekiah's days, till Amos 1. and Zach. 14.) But this we know, that ardent prayer is a pouring out of the soul to God, not without a shower of tears, or at least a storm of sighs. And as music upon the water sounds farther, and more harmoniously then upon the land: so prayers with tears are more pleasing to God, and prevalent with him. Christ could not but look back to those weeping women that followed him to the cross, and comfort them. Tears of compassion, and of compunction, when men love and weep, as Mary Magdalene did, are very acceptable to God, who puts them into his bottle as precious. There are tears of another sort, lachrimae nequitiae, tears of wickedness, expressed either by hypocrisy or a desire of revenge: such were Esau's tears for the blessing too, Gen. 27.38. but he went without it, because a profane hypocrite: he cried out of discontent, and threatened his brother Jacob: he complained of his fathers store, (Hast thou but one blessing) of his brothers subtlety, (was he not rightly called Jacob? ) but not a word of his own wickedness. He roared for the disquietness of his heart, but he did not, as Jacob, weep and make supplication to his Judge, deploring his own wants, and imploring the supplies of his grace, quam unice expetijt, as the main thing he desired.

he found him in Bethel, ] that is the Lord found Jacob there, Gen. 28.18. but especially, Gen. 35.14. confirming his promises to him and all his posterity.

there he spake with us, ] who were then in Jacob's loins, and promised that God should be our God: but we have falsified with him, and turned Bethel into Bethaven: abusing that place to idolatry and calf-worship, where we, in our forefathers, had so many manifestations of divine mercy. Oh better he had never spoken with us there. then that we should have so slighted his promises, cast his words behind our backs, and wickedly departed from our God. Is this Jacob -like, &c. There he spake with us. What he spake with Jacob, he spake with us: and we are to hold ourselves no less concerned therein then he was. See a like expression. Psal. 66.6. See likewise, R • m. 15.4. and Heb. 13.5. what God spake to Joshua, chap. 1.5. he spake to all Believers And that which he spake to his afflicted; Psal. 102. He will regard the prayer of the destitute, and not despise their prayer, that he spake to us: for verse 18. This shall be written for the generations to • ome. The Hebrews have a proverb; Quae patribus a ciderunt signum sunt filijs, What things befell the fathers, those were a sign to their children: and thence it is, that the deeds of the fathers are oft attributed to the children. Let us labor to see our own names written upon every promise: and secure our interest by searching for the conditions whereunto the promises are annexed; and then put them in suit by faithful prayer, saying with David, Remember thy word unto thy servant, whereupon thou hast caused me to trust.

Verse 5. Even the Lord God of hosts, ] Lo, He it is who promised, who spake with us at Bethel: even that Jehovah who is himself unchangeable and Almighty; whose promises are eternal, and infallible: who will perform with his hand, what he hath spoken with his mouth, to the thousandth generation of those that return unto him. Concerning God's name Jehovah, see the Note on Mal. 3.6. Concerning his Title, God of Hosts, see the Notes on Mal. 3.17. Doct. 1.

The Lord is his memorial. ] Jehovah is that nomen majestativum (as Tertullian hath it) that holy and reverend name of God, whereby he will be known, and remembered, Exod. 3.19. which place doth notably illustrate this. True it is, that the Jews to countenance their conceit of the ineffability of this name Jehovah, do corrupt that Text: and, for this is my name Legnalam forever, they read, this is my name Legnalam, to be concealed. Where it is well observed by One, how cross the superstition of men is to the will of God. They in a pretended reverence to God, will not so much as mention this name; because they say, 'tis a name that God so much glorieth in: and yet the Text saith, this name is God's memorial: it is the name by which he would be remembered to all generations, as that which setteth forth his glory more then any other Name whatsoever. So that when we would have a holy memorial of God (and to remember Him, is every whit as needful as to draw breath, saith an Ancient) we need no Images or other unwarrantable helps: the meditation of the Name Jehovah, and the import of it, will be of singular use that way. Papists have their pictures, and their memories, as they call them; Idolaters fain to themselves diverse representations, and remembrances. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrances, Isaiah 57.8. where God's Law should have been written, according to Deut. 6.9. & 11.12. and when as God's Name should have been remembered, Psal. 135.13. and Psal. 102.12.

Verse 6. Therefore turn thou to thy God, ] The premises considered, Repent: and so return to God from whom thou hast deeply revolted. It is to thy God, to whom thou art exhorted to turn; not to a tyrant, but to a God in covenant: yea it is with thy God (as the Hebrew hath it) with his good help, that thou shalt turn. Only cry unto him, Turn us Lord, and we shall be turned, draw us, and we will run after thee, &c. Of turning to the Lord, see the Note on Zach. 1.3.

Keep mercy and judgment, ] Those magnalia legis, those weightier matters of the Law (as our Savior calleth them, Matth. 23.23.) which Ephraim had made light of, chap. 4.1. He is therefore called upon to evidence the truth of his turning to God, by bringing forth fruits meet for repentance, Matth. 3.8. such as are tantamount, and weigh just as much as repentance comes to. Optima & aptissima poenitentia est nova vita, saith Luther; The best and rightest repentance is a new life, universal obedience to both Tables of the Law: Mercy and judgment are here put (by a figure) for the duties of the second Table: as constant waiting upon God for the duties of the first: for the Prophet here observeth not the order of nature, but of our knowledge, when he instanceth first in the second Table, as doth also the Prophet Micah, chap. 6.8. Mercy must be kept and exercised, by 1 Giving, 2 Forgiving: This God prefers before sacrifice, Hos. 6.7. This Chrysostom saith, is a more glorious work then to raise from the dead. And here let those that would keep mercy (and not show it only sometimes, when they are in a good mood) steep their thoughts in the mercies of God: and so strive to be merciful, as their heavenly Father is, Matth. 6. Judgment also must be kept, and justice done, Isaiah 56.1. after the example of God, who is said to exercise loving-kindness, but withal judgment, and righteousness in the earth, Ier. 9.24. Gracious is the Lord, and righteous, yea our God is merciful, Psal. 116.5. the mixture of mercy and judgment is very comely: as in public persons, Psal. 101.1. (where we see, that David's ditty was composed of discords, which made an excellent harmony) so in others of all sorts, Prov. 21.21. who are required to be mercifully just, and justly merciful in all their enterdealings: according to that golden rule, given by our Savior, Luke 6.31. Whatever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye to them likewise. This is the standard.

and wait on thy God continually. ] First, believe Him to be thy God, by a particular individuating faith: and then thou wilt be easily drawn to wait upon him, who waiteth to be gracious: or to draw near unto him, (as the Seventy here render it) and come boldly to the throne of grace, Heb 4.16. for as the Ark of the Covenant, and the Mercy-seat, were never separated: to neither is the mercy of God from those that are in covenant with him, and can truly call him Theirs. Hope is compared to a line (the same Hebrew word that signifieth the one signifieth the other) and waiting on God is nothing else but Hope and Trust lengthened, or drawn out. Sure it is that Trust in God at length will triumph: and all his dispensations will appear beautiful in their season. Hold out therefore faith and patience. Wait upon the Lord, be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart: Wait I say upon the Lord. Ponder that sweet promise, Habak. 2.3. not delivered only, but doubled, and trebled for more surety. And then consider first thy distance from God in worth, and degree: next thy dependence upon him, thine undone condition, if he desert thee: and then thou wilt be content to wait upon him continually, to stay his leisure as David did for the kingdom, and as those in Esther did for deliverance: to say with those good souls in the Acts, The will of the Lord be done.

Verse 7. He is a merchant, ] Heb. He is Canaan, that is, a mere natural man, Ezek. 16.3. a money-merchant, who so he may have it, careth not how he comes by it: he is more like a Canaanite then a Jacobite. Jacob said, I have enough my brother; but Ephraim is sick of the plague of unsatisfiablenesse: and instead of keep mercy and judgment, as in the former verse, he keepeth false balances in his hand, and false weights in his bag, Deut. 15.13, 14, 15. Lev. 19.36. Prov. 11.1. and 16.11. and 20.10. See the Notes there, He that hath his hands full of the balances of deceit, and will not loose them to take hold of God, will not part with his fat and sweet (as the Vine and Olive in Jotham's Purable) though it be to reign in heaven, how can it be expected that he should turn to God, or that he should love to be his servant, Isaiah 56.6?

when he loveth to oppress. ] To get gain, if not by fraud and cunning contrivance, then by force, and by forged cavillation, as Luke 19.9. Sic quaecunque potest art nocere, nocet: And all this he loveth to do: he delights in it; he not only is pleased with it, but pleadeth for it, and opposeth with crest and breast whatsoever standeth in the way of his own heart; exercised with covetousness, (as S. Peters phrase is, 2 Pet. 2.14,) which he constantly followeth, as the Artificer doth his trade. Let such Canaanites read that flaming text, 1 Thess. 4.6. and take heed, lest while they get all they can, by wrench and wile, lest while they count all good fish that comes to net, they catch at length the Devil and all: lest they receive no less sums of curses, then of coin; lest screech-owls of woe cry aloud, from the beams of their chambers, &c. See the Note on chap. 7.1.

Verse 8. And Ephraim said, yet I am become rich, ] Sed mihi plande domi. I have it howsoever, though I hear ill for it; though the Prophet inveigh against my covetousness, yet I am rich, while he and his companions are poor, and indigent:

yea I have found me out substance, ] An idol, so the Vulgar renders it: and indeed, every covetous man is an idolater, and performs both outward and inward service to his Mammon of unrighteousness, to his golden-calf. Substance he here craekes of, and rest to his soul (as the Seventy render it) in opposition haply to the aery notions (as he accounted them) of the Prophets invectives against his covetous practices, and the terrors of his own conscience, which he endeavored to corrupt and bribe: See to like purpose, Isaiah 57.10. Thou hast found the life of thy hand, that is, a livelihood by thy labor; therefore thou wast not grieved: thy heart is hardened, and thou art insensible of thy sin-guiltiness; thou settest the gain against the guilt, and then all is hall with thee. Felix scelus virtus vocatur; Prosperous wickedness is accounted virtue. Leah, because fruitful, and successful, rejoiced in that whereof she had greater reason to repent. So did those Idolaters, Ier. 44.11. Dionysius, after the spoil of an idol-Temple, finding the winds favorable in his Navigation; Lo, said he, how the gods approve of sacrilege. It is no better that Ephraim here deals with the Almighty: Surely saith he, if God disliked my courses so much as the Prophet would make believe,, I should not gather wealth as I do: but the world comes tumbling in upon me, therefore my ways are good before God. This is an ordinary paralogisme, whereby wicked worldlings deceive their own souls; hardening and heartening themselves in their sinful practices, because they outwardly prosper. But a painted face is no sign of a good complexion. Seneea could say, That it is the greatest unhappiness to prosper in evil.

In all my labors, ] so he calleth his fraudulent and violent practices, as making the best of an ill matter.

They shall find no iniquity in me. ] Though they search as narrowly as Laban did into Jacob's stuff: What can they find, or prove by me? Am I not able, either to hide mine ill-dealings, or to defend them? Can they take the advantage of the Law against me? Why then should I be thus condemned and cried out of, as I am? Thus the rich man is wise in his own conceit, Prov. 28.11. and covetousness is never without its cloak, 1 Thess. 2.5. which yet is too short to cover it from God, who is not mocked with masks, or fed with feigned words, whereof the covetous caitiff is sull, 2 Pet. 2.3. witness Ephraim here, with his pretences, of innocence, In all my labors, that is, mine ill-gotten goods, (the fruit of mine hard and honest labor, saith he) they shall find none iniquity, no crimen stellionatus, no craft or cruelty.

That were sin. ] Piaculum esset, that were a foul business: far be it from me to stain my trading, or burden my conscience with any such misdeed. I would you should know, I am as shy of sin as another: neither would I be taken tripping for any good. Thus men notoriously guilty, may yet give good words, yea largely profess what they are guilty of, to be an abominable thing. And this is a sure sign of a profane and cauterized conscience, of an heart that being first turned into earth and mud, doth afterwards freez and congeal into steel and adamant.

Verse 9. And I that am thy Lord God from the land of Egypt, ] This seemeth to be interlaced for the comfort of the better sort, that trembled at the former threatenings: for as in a family, if the dogs be beaten, the children will be apt to cry; so is it in God's house. Hence he is careful to take out the precious from the vile, and telleth them, that he hath not cast off his people whom he foreknew: but would surely observe his ancient covenant, made even in the land of Egypt toward his spiritual Israel

I will yet make them to dwell in tabernacles, &c. ] i. e. I will deliver my Church from the spiritual Egypt: and make her to pass thorough the wilderness of the world, in particular Churches, aspiring toward the heavenly Canaan: even as my people dwelt in Tents in the wilderness, the remembrance whereof is celebrated in the feast of Tabernacles, Lev. 23.43. See Zach. 14.16. with the Note.

Verse 10. I have also spoken by the Prophets, ] And not suffered you to walk in your own ways, as did all other Nations, Acts 14.16. The Ministry is a singular mercy, however now vilipended.

and I have multiplied visions, ] whereby I have discovered thy present sins, and imminent dangers, though thou hast said, They shall find none iniquity in me, &c. The wit of Mammonists will better serve them to palliate and plead for their dilectum delictum, their beloved sin, then their pride will suffer them once to confess and forsake it, though never so plainly and plentifully set forth unto them.

and used similitudes by the ministry of the Prophets, ] Heb. by the hand, which is the instrument of instruments, saith the Philosopher: so is the ministry of the word, for the good of souls. It is called a hand, because it sets upon men's souls with the strength of God, and a certain vehemency. Did not my word lay hold upon your fathers? Zach. 1.6. See the Note there. It is said, Luke 5.17. that as Christ was teaching, the power of the Lord was present, &c. The Gospel of Christ is the power of God, Rom. 1.16. It is his mighty arm, Isaiah 53.1. Now it was ordinary with the Prophets to use similitudes, as Isaiah 5.2. Ezek. 16.3. which is an excellent way of preaching and prevailing: as that which doth noth notably illustrate the truth, and insinuate into men's affections. Galeatius Carac •• olus, an Italian Marquess, and Nephew to Pope Paul the fi • t, was converted by Peter Martyr reading on 1 Corinth. and using an apt similitude. Ministers must turn themselves into all forms and shapes, both of spirit and of speech for the reaching of their hearers hearts; they must come unto them in the most wooing, winning, and convincing way that may be. Only in using of Similies, they must, 1. Bring them from things known and familiar, things that their hearers are most acquainted with, and accustomed to. Thus the Prophets draw comparisons from fishes to the Egyptians, vineyards to the Jews, droves of cattle to the Arabians, trade and traffic to the Egyptians. And thus that great Apostle, 1 Cor. 9 24. fetcheth Similies from runners, and wrestlers, exercises that they were well acquainted with in the Isthmian Games, instituted by Thesus, not far from their city. 2. Similies must be very natural, plain, and proper. 3. They must not be too far urged: we must not witwanton it in using them: and let it be remembered, that though they much illustrate a truth, yet Theologia parabolica nihil probat. There are • nterpreters of good note, that read this whole verse in the future tense; and make a continuation of that promise in the verse afore. I will speak by the Prophets, sc. in the days of the Gospel, when great was the company of those that published it, Psal. 68.11. I will multiply visions: See this fulfilled, Acts 2.17. with Joel 2.28. I will use similitudes, teach in parables, and illustrate therewith grave sentences and doctrines, as Christ and his Apostles did, and as the best Preachers still do, that they may thereby set forth things to the life, and make them as plain, as if written with the Sunbeams.

Verse 11. Is there iniquity in Gilead? ] What in Gilead, a city of Priests? (See chap. 6. ver. 8. with the Note) yea Gilead is a city of those that work iniquity, a very Poneropolis, a place of naughty-packs, chap. 4.15. Now there is not a worse creature on earth, then a wicked Priest, nor a worse place then a wicked Gilead The Hebrew hath it thus, Is Gilead iniquity? Or as Luther, Drusius, and others, Surely it is so. Confer Mich. 1.5. Gregory Nazianzen reports of Athens, that it was the plaguiest place in the world for superstition. Our Universities were so in times of Popery, and began to be so again, a few years since. Revera Gilead est iniquitas, profecto vanitas sunt, they were grown so incorrigibly flagitious, that they seemed to be as it were, transformed into sins image. Some render the Text thus; Is there iniquity in Gilead? Are they only vanity in Gilgal? They sacrifice, bullocks, &c. and set this sense upon it. What? think you the men of Gilead, those beyond the river of Jordan, whom Tiglath Pilesen poyled and l • d captives, that they only were guilty of idolatry, and you not, because you remain at home, untouched of the Assyrian? Nay, saith He, the very entrance into the Country, Gilgal itself, so aboundeth with idolatry, that it is not to be doubted, but in the rest of the parts of the kingdom, their altars are as thick as furrows in the field, that is to say, innumerable. Some think this last clause, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field (or of my fields, whereof I am chief Lord, and wherein he should have served me, and not idols) hath reference to some superstitious way of theirs, of seeking God, by erecting altars in the furrows, for the fructifying of their fields • the Heathen did so to their Dij Terminales: and the Papists still do so in their solemn Processions, erecting crosses and crucifixes in the bounds of their fields, and thereby thinking to get a blessing on their corn and pastures. Turnovius, noteth here, that God in the Old Testament would therefore have but one Altar, whereon to offer sacrifice, and that to be at Jerusalem only, to teach them that Christ, the Anti-type of all their sacrifices, should once be offered up upon the altar of his Cross, a propitiation for their sins, Heb. chap. 9. & 10. This Altar he also appointed to be in the Temple, that the sacrificers might believe the gracious presence of God with them, and might worship him in spirit and in truth.

Verse 12. And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, ] Jacob, in whom ye glory, was a poor forlorn fugitive, glad to run for his life, and to take hard on for his livelihood, Gen. 28. & 29. This they were bound by the Law to make confession of ever when they offered their basket of first fruits, and to say, A Syrian ready to perish was my father, &c. Deut. 26.5. that, considering the meanness of their original, they might not boast of their ancestry; but magnify, God's, free grace in their present enjoyments; and say as that noble Athenian General Aphicrates did, in the midst of all his triumphs, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 from how great baseness and misery, to what great blessedness and glory are we exalted? King Agathocles, would be served in earthen vessels, to mind him of his father, who was a poor potter. Willigis Arch bishop of Ments, Anno 1011. being a Wheel-wrights son, hanged wheels, and wheel-wrights-tools round about his bed-chamber, and under-wrote in Capitall Letters, Willigis, Willigis recole unde veneris, Remember thine Original. How low and mean were we of this Nanion at first? Brith signifieth blew-coloured, sc. with woad; Hence our name Britain's: This was their fine clothing: their food was barks of trees and roots. Holi • sh • d saith, chat some old men he knew, who told of times in England, that if the good-man of the house had a matris, or a flock-bed, and a sack of chaff to rest his head on, he thonght himself as well lodged, as the Lord of the Town: for ordinarily, they lay upon straw-pallets covered with canvase, and a round log under them heads instead of a bolster they said, pillows were fit only for women in child-bed and in a good farmers house, it was rare to find four pieces of Pewter: and it was accounted a great matter that a farmer should show five shillings, or a noble together in silver, &c. There are that render the Text thus: Thither fled Jacob nut of the country of Syri • , after Israel had served for a wife, and for a wife had kept sheep.

Verse 13. Hither also by a Prophee did Jehovah, bring up Israilent of Egypt, &c.] that is, Gilead served as a sanctuary unto Jacob, when be fled from Laban, In Gilgal also God by Joshua renewed his Covenant with your fathers after he had brought them out of Egypt, by the hand of Moses and Aaron. A horrible thing therefore it is, if well considered, that these two places should now he so impured with idolatry; and become the nut •••• s of evil, which heretofore were the means of so great comfort to God's people. Thus Junius, P • lanus, and others. A witty interpretation, but somewhat forced.

And Israel served for a wife, ] He had nothing to endow her with, he would therefore earn her with his hard labor: wherein he shown singular humility, patience, meekness, waiting upon God's providence: none of all which graces were found in his degenerate posterity, who yet prided themselves in their father Jacob.

And for a wife he kept sheep. ] q. d. Jacob, that he might obey his father, was content to serve his Uncle; and to suffer a great deal of wrong from him: but ye refuse to serve me though a liberal Lord, a bountiful Benefactour. He held close to me in that hard service: but you abusing your liberty, enslave yourselves to false gods. He in his misery kept his confidence of the blessing: but you in your prosperity, cast it clean away, &c. Luther upon this Text speaketh much about the blessing of a good wife, (a commodity that cannot be too dear bought) and the plague of a scold that is always railing and wrangling. The Heathen well saith, that every man when he marrieth, bringeth either a good, or an evil spirit into his house; and so maketh it either an heaven or an hell. Parcus well observeth here, the great use of Histories and holy examples, according to Rom. 15.4. Plato thinks that Historia comes 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of stopping the flux of errors and enormities.

Verse 13. And by a Prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, ] By Moses that Prophet, by an excellency: as Aristotle is called the Philosopher, Tully the Orator, Paul the Apostle, Calvin, the most learned Interpreter, &c. Moses was a famous Prophet indeed, and a Type of Christ. Confer Deut. 18.15, 18. and 34.10, 11, 12. Acts 3.22. and 7.35, 36, 37, 38. Theodoret calleth him the great Ocean of Divinity. Bellarmine, God's special favorite, then whom Antiquity had nihil sapientius, sanctius, mitius, none more wise, meek, and holy: Indeed, titles of honor are not worthy of him. Howbeit he was but a mean man at first, Exod. 4.30. he took his wife and his son and set them upon an asse; that was the best, and the only beast that he had, for ought we read. It was not very likely that so poor a Prophet should do so great a deed. But God loves to help his people with a little help, Dan. 11.34. that through weaker means, his greater strength may appear. His end here may seem to be the same as before, in setting forth Jacob's meanness, to take down the haughtiness of the people, proud of their Founders and forefathers. A Prophet he is purposely called, and his name concealed, 1. To show, that the work was done not by might nor by power, but by God's Spirit; Zech. 4.6. 2. To show what God will do for his people by the prayers and for the sake of his Prophets, when they are most shiftless and hopeless. 3. To let this unworthy people see how much God and done for them once by a Prophet, how little soever now they set by such. This is Cyrus observation.

Verse 14. Ephraim hath provoked him to anger, most bitterly, ] Heb. with bitternesses, or unto bitter displeasure, or with bitter things, that is, sins that embitter God's Spirit and put thunder-bolts into his hands. As a Be stings not till provoked, so neither doth God punish, till there be no remedy, 2 Chron. 36.16. If Ephraim will provoke him to anger, (which he will not dare to do to his land-lord) if he will put it to the trial, whether God can be angry, as those did, Heb. 3.9. he shall know the power of his wrath, Psal. 90.11. he shall feel, to his sorrow, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that he hath forsaken the Lord, and that his fear is not in them, Jer. 2.19. there will be bitterness in the end, Principium dulce est, sed finis amoris amarus, Am • r amaror. Lust is a lie, as Amnon proved. Her end is bitter as wormwood, though her lips drop as an honey-comb, saith Solomon of sinful pleasure, Prov. 5.3. It is like Jonathan's honey, or Esau's pottage, or Judas his thirty pence, which he would gladly have been rid of, but could not. Those that provoke God shall one day hear, Do ye provoke me to anger? Are ye stronger then I? they shall be taught to meddle with their match, and not to contend with him that is mightier then they, Eccles. 6.10. they shall cry out in the bitterness of their souls, as Lam. 3.15. He hath filled me with bitternesses, he hath made me drunk with wormwood. And God shall reply, as Jer. 4.18. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee: and this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter.

therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, ] God shall bring upon him deserved destruction; he shall bring him into the fire, and leave him there, Ezek. 22.20. the guilt of his sin shall remain upon his soul, and then punishment cannot be far off. See Ezek 24.7, 8. with chap. 18.13. Josh. 2.19. Or, the enemy shall leave him all bloody.

and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him. ] His Lord, not the Assyrian, as some sense it, but his Liege Lord (whom he hath reproached, by changing his glory into the similitude of a calf, and other corruptible things) shall cry quittance with him, as verse 2. cast utter contempt upon him, according to 1 Sam. 2.30. and make him know that he is his Lord.

CHAP. XIII.

Verse 1. WHen Ephraim spake trembling, ] Or, there was trembling, as there is among the beasts of the field, when the Lion roareth. Ephraim whiles innocent of the great offense, spake with authority, and none durst budge against him: for he had great power in his hand. Now, as the Philosopher told Adrian the Emperor, who challenged him to dispute; Difficile est ei contradicere qui potest aqua & igni interdicere: vel adversus 〈◊〉 ••• scribere, qui potest proscribere.