Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. XIV.

Verse 1. OIsrael, return unto the Lord, ] Usque ad Dominum, as far as to the Lord: give not the half but the whole turn; and take it for a mercy that you are yet called upon to return, and may be received: that yet there is hope in Israel concerning this thing. All the former part of the Prophesy had been (most-what) Comminatory: this last Chapter is wholly Consolatory: the Sun of righteousness loves not to set in a cloud.

return unto the Lord thy God; ] He is yet thy God: no such argument for our turning to God as his turning to us, Zach. 1.3. See the Note there Tantùm velis & Deus tibi praeoccurret. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat, &c. The Fathers plenty brought home the Prodigal: he had but a purpose to return, and his father met him, Isaiah 65.24. See Joel 2.12, 13. Isaiah 55.6, 7. Jer. 31.18. Hos. 3.5. Acts 2.38. This is the use we should make of mercy. Say not, He is my God, therefore I may presume upon him: but, He is mine, therefore I must return unto him: Argue from mercy to duty, and not to liberty, for that's the Devils Logic, which the Apostle holds unreasonable, yea to a good heart impossible, Rom. 6.1, 2. His mercy is bounded with his truth, with which it therefore goes commonly coupled in Scripture. It is a sanctuary for the penitent; but not for the presumptuous.

for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. ] i. e. Consumption is decreed, yet a remnant reserved, Isaiah 10.22, 23. Thou hast fallen into great calamity, and that by thine iniquity, which puts a sting into thy misery. This it is fit thou shouldst be sensible of: for conviction is the first step to conversion. But if thou art fallen, wilt thou there lie and not rise again by repentance, and return to him that smiteth thee? wilt thou not submit to his justice, and implore his mercy? Here then is another motive to conversion; as indeed this verse abounds with arguments to that purpose, as Pareus well observeth. First, thou art Israel, a Prince of God, who hath greatly graced thee above all people: Return to him therefore. 2 Thou hast run away from him by thine iniquity: ad turned upon him the back, and not the face: Return therefore. 3. He is Jehovah, the Author of thy being, and well-being. 4 He is God, to whom thou must either turn, or burn forever: aut poenitendum, aut pereundum: he can fetch in his rebels. 5 He is thy God in covenant with thee, and will accept of pence for pounds, desires for deeds, sincerity for perfection. 6 Thou hast fallen by thine iniquity: and yet wilt fall further, and never rise again, as Am. 8.14. if thou stop not, step not back by repentance, and stir up thyself to take hold of God.

Verse 2. Take with you words, and turn to the Lord, ] Confess your sins, beg pardon, and promise amendment. Sue to God to give you those words that he bids you Take: go to him in his own words, put his promises in suit: crave the help of his holy Spirit, without which what can we do, Rom. 8.26. Say to God as Job 37.19. Teach us what we shall say unto thee: for we cannot order our words, by reason of darkness. David promiseth not only to pray, but to marshall up his prayers, to put them in good array, so the word signifieth, Psal. 5.3. In the morning will I direct my prayer, order it in the best manner: his words should be, nec lecta, nec neglecta, neither curious, nor careless, but such as are humble, earnest, and direct to the point, avoiding vain babblings. Here's a form prescribed in the Text (forms of prayer therefore are not so unlawful, as some conceive them) words put into their mouths (as the phrase is 2 Sam. 14.3.) that they might not miss. Men must as well look to their words, as to their feet, when they come before God: and see that their affections in prayer be not without answerable expressions. Take with you such words, as may testify that ye turn heartily to the Lord, and not from the teeth outward, as they in the Psalmist, Psal. 78.36, 37. Turn before ye begin to pray: for God heareth not sinners; since their incense smells of the hand that offereth it, Isaiah 1.

Say unto him, ] Mentally and vocally: with spirit and speech. True it is, that prayer is not the labor of the lips, but the travel of the heart: and God hath promised to answer his people before they call, Isaiah 65.24. By calling upon his Name, we neither inform him of what he knoweth not; nor move him to show us more mercy then he intendeth. But yet prayers are necessary, as means which God will have used, that we may receive what he of free mercy giveth. Besides, it prepareth us holily to enjoy the things received; and makes us ready, either to wait for them, or to want them: and to be content that he may be glorified, though we be not gratified. And although God knoweth our thoughts, and understands the mind of the spirit, as being the searcher of hearts, Rom. 8.27. yet he calls for the calves of our lips, the service of our tongues, Jam. 3.9. guiding them now and then in a wonderful manner, far beyond all natural apprehension: and strangely enabling his praying servants, who do also find no small benefit by this practice of pouring out their hearts before him, both for the preventing of distractions, and kindling affections, and discerning their profiting in holy disires: for the more worthy effect followeth, where more fervent affection went before.

Take away all iniquity, ] Few words, but full of matter: O quam multa, quam paucis! What a short, but pithy prayer is this! Such was that of the Publican, Luke 18.13. that of our Savior in his agony, when yet he is said to pray more fervently: that also which he taught us to pray, Mat. 6.7, 8, &c. set in flat opposition to Paganish battologies. This in the Text is not much unlike that perfect pattern: for here they are taught to beg, Ut auferantur sua maleficia, conferantur Dei beneficia: Take away all evil, and give good: and then to restipulate thanks. So will we render, &c. Take away from us, as an unsupportable burden, such as we cannot stand under, All iniquity, stain and sting, crime and curse, power and punishment, that there be no after reckonings: cross out the black lines of our sins, with the red lines of thy Sons blood, that Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world by this Merit and Spirit, by his Value and Virtue; that true scape-goat, that carrieth the sins of his people into the wilderness.

and receive us graciously, ] Heb. Receive good, that is, (as some interpret it) Accept, out of thy fatherly favor, the true witnesses and effects of our thorough conversion: But better they that thus sense it, Take good, to wit, to bestow upon us, as Psal. 68.19. with Ephes. 4.8. And it is not improbable (saith a Reverend Writer) that the Prophet here secretly leadeth us to Christ the Mediator, who first receiveth gifts from his Father, and then poureth them forth upon his Church, Act. 2.23.

So will we render the calves of our lips, ] Thy benefits shall not be cast away upon unthankful persons: but we will present unto thee a sacrifice that will please thee better then an ox or bullock, that hath horns and hoofs, Psal. 69.31. This cannot be done but by a sound Convert: for the Lepers lips must be covered according to the Law: and the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord. To the wicked God saith, What hast thou to do to take my Name into thy mouth, &c. he liketh not a good motion from an ill mouth, as that State in the Story: The lip of excellency becometh not a fool, ( Prov. 17.7.) no more then lying doth a worthy man, that is renowned for his wisdom. It well becometh the Saints to be thankful, to cover God's Altar with the calves of their lips. This expression implieth (saith One) That God's people should not offer their thankfulness to God of that which cost them nothing; but bring, 1. A calf, do something to further God's worship, or relieve the necessities of others. 2. It must be a dead calf, that is, it must proceed from humble and mortified minds. 3. A sacrificed calf: where is required, 1 An Altar, our praises must be tendered in the mediation of Christ. 2 Fire, for the bare throwing out of words, though in the name of Christ, will not serve without feeling, ardency, and zeal. 3 We must lay our hands on the head of the calf; that is, in all humility, confess our unworthiness of the blessings we give thanks for, as being less then the least, Gen. 32.10.

Verse 3. Ashur shall not save us, &c.] q. d. He cannot if he would: he shall not, if he could. The two great sins of this people were Creature-confidence, and Idolatry: both these they do here abrenounce and abandon. The best repentance, saith Luther, is a reformed life. It is true say they, we have gone to the Assyrian, (wherein we have dealt as the silly bird flying to the snare, or as fishes, which to avoid the powle wherewith the water is troubled, swim into the net.) We have taken our horses instead of our prayers, and gone about to find out good. We have been so foolish, as to think that dumb Idols, that cannot help themselves, should help us. But now we are otherwise resolved, experientiâ edocti & poenitentiâ ducti: we find at length (that which we should have believed sooner, without trying conclusions) that men of high degree are but a lie, that horses are but a vanity, that an Idol is nothing, and can give nothing. That power belongeth unto thee, none else can do it: that mercy belongeth unto thee, none else will do it: therefore since in thee only, the fatherless, that is, the friendless and shiftless find mercy, O be thou pleased to do us good.

For in thee the fatherless findeth mercy. ] The poor pupil, the forlorn orphan, that's left to the wide world, and lost in himself, cries out, Lord, I am hell, but thou art heaven, &c. I am an abject, oh make me an object of thy pity, Jer. 39.17. Because they call thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after, therefore I will restore health unto thee, &c. The proud Assyrian, and other enemies, would be apt to insult over Israel: as afterwards Cicero did: The Jewish Nation, saith he, show how God regards them, that have been so oft overcome by Pompey, Crassus, &c. But let God's people be but fatherless enough, let them withdraw their confidence from men and means, and cast it wholly upon God, making him their Tutor and Protectour, and they shall be both preserved, and provided for. Deo confisi nunquam confusi. I will not leave you orphans, saith Christ, Job. 16. Hence the Church resteth on God, in the fail of other comforts, Psal. 10.14, 17, 18. Psal. 27.10. Hab. 3.17. Psal. 102.13. The prayer of the destitute he regards. The Hebrew word signifies a poor worthless shrub in the wilderness, trod upon by beasts, unregarded.

Verse 4. I will heal their backslidings, ] Relapses, we know, are dangerous: and Apostasy little less then incurable, 2 Pet. 2.20, 21. Heb. 6.6. Bishop Latimer, in a sermon afore King Edw. 6. tells of one notorious back-slider that repented: but beware of this sin, saith he, for I have known no more but one that did so. To fall forward is nothing so dangerous, as to fall backward with old Eli. Hence Paul so thundereth against the Galatians, and Peter against apostatizing Libertines, 2 Epist. 2.22. But if Jehovah the Physician, (as he is called, Exod. 15.26.) undertake the cure, and say, I will heal their backslidings, what can hinder? Christ in the Gospel, cured the most desperate diseases: such as all the Physicians in the country might have cast their caps at, Matt. 4.23, 24. and 8.16. He refused none that came to him, Matt. 12.15. no not his enemies, as Malchus. Will he then reject his Ephraim, a child, bemoaning himself, though not a pleasant child, a towardly son, Jer. 31.18, 20. a back-slider indeed, but such an one, as crieth now, that God bindeth him, Job 36.13. No sooner doth God cry, Return ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings, I will love you freely: but Ephraim, melted with such a love, replieth, Behold we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God, Ier. 3.22. O most happy compliance! See the like, Zach. 13.9. with the Note there. They shall return even to the Lord (from whom they had deeply revolted) and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them, Isaiah 19.22. They had begged of him to take away all iniquity, verse 2. And He here (in answer) promiseth to heal their backslidings, that compound of all iniquities, that fallingsicknesse, that oft hales hell at the heels of it, Heb. 10.38.

I will love them freely: ] Ephraim might remember, and Satan would be sure to suggest, that the Prophet had said before, Ephraim is smitten, or wounded, My God will cast them away, or hate them. Mine anger is kindled against them, Chap. 8.5. and 9.16, 17. Here therefore, upon their repentance, all this is graciously taken off in one breath, and Satan silenced. Be it that they are back-sliden, and sore wounded by their fall; I will heal their backslidings, and make their broken bones to rejoice. Be it that there is nothing at all in them that is laudable, or love-worthy, yet I will love them freely, ex mero motu, of mine own free, absolute, and independent grace, and favor, out of pure and unexcited love, without any the least respect to their merit, which is nothing better then hell. Be it that they have bitterly provoked me to anger, and (as angry people use to do) I have both threatened them, and punished them: yet now mine anger is turned away from them. ] I am fully reconciled unto them in Christ, will clear up my countenance toward them, and remove mine heavy judgments from them. God's favor is no empty favor. It is not like the Winter-Sun, that casts a goodly countenance when it shineth, but gives little heat or comfort. If he love a man freely, and out of the good-pleasure of his will, cum spontaneitate (as he doth all His, Ephes. 2.8. making them accepted in the Beloved, Ephes. 1.6.) such a man may promise himself all the blessings of this and a better life. Excellent is that of Bernard; He that sent his Son for thee, poured his Spirit into thee, promised to clear up his countenance upon thee, quid tandem tibi negaturus est? What can he deny thee? He that inviteth thee to feed upon the fatted-calf, will not only take away all iniquity, but give good. That was the second Petition they preferred, and they have it answered in the next verse, ad cardinem desiderij God not only grants their prayer, but fulfills their counsel.

Verse 5. I will be as the dew unto Israel, ] I will give good in abundance: and and this is sweetly set forth in a seven-fold Metaphor, all answering to the name of Ephraim, (which signifieth fruitful ) and to the ancient promises made unto him: and all again opposite to the many contrary curses, threatened in the former parts of the Prophesy, under Metaphors of a contrary importance, as Pareus and (out of him) Tarnouius have well observed. As First, of solid and fruit-causing dew, in opposition to that vanishing and barren dew, chap. 6.4. and 13.3. Secondly, of the flourishing lilly, contrary to those nettles, thorns, and thistles, chap. 9.16. and 10.8. Thirdly, of the well-rooted and durable trees of Libanus, contrary to dry-roots, chap. 9.16. Fourthly, of spreading and growing branches, instead of branches consumed, chap. 11.6. and 9.16. and 10.8. Fifthly, of trees yielding pleasant shade and repose, contrary to chap. 9.3, 6. Sixthly, of corn to fatisfie hunger, contrary to chap. 8.7. Lastly, of a Vine bringing forth excellent wine, contrary to chap. 9.16. and 10.1. And all these fruits, the fruits of Lebanon, a most sertile mountain, the valleys whereof were most rich grounds for pasture, corn, and vineyards.

as the dew unto Israel, he shall blossom as the lilly, ] Quot verba tot lumina imo flumina orationis. This Prophet aboundeth with similitudes, as is before noted, (See chap. 12.10. with the Note there.) He beginneth here with a Simile drawn from the dew of heaven; a mercy very much set by, in those hotter countries especially, where from May to October they had no rain. The Chaldee Paraphrase, and Hebrew Doctors, understand this Text concerning Christ, and his benefits. Truly, He is good to Israel, to the pure in heart. Peace and mercy, sanctity and safety, all spiritual benedictions in heavenly things in Christ, shall be upon the Israel of God. What the dew is to the herbs, fields, fruits, that is Christ to his Israel. 1. The dew comes when the air is clear: so doth Christ by his blessing, when the light of his countenance is lift up upon us. 2. As the dew refresheth, and cherisheth the dry and fady fields, (hence it is called the dew of herbs, Isaiah 26.19. which thereby recover life and beauty) so doth Christ our hearts, scorched with the sense of sin, and fear of wrath. 3. As the dew allayeth great heats, and moisteneth, and mollifieth the earth, that it may fructify: so Christ cooleth the Devils fiery darts, and filleth his people with the fruits of righteousness. He is unto them as a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest, Isaiah 18.4 and maketh their souls as so many watered gardens, Jer. 31.12. 4. As the dew falls in a narrow compass, without noise, and is felt only by those (in the force of it) on whom it descends: so the grace of Christ watereth his faithful only; secretly and sweetly insinuating into their hearts: the stranger meddleth not with their comforts. See Joh. 14.17. The cock on the dunghill knows them not.

he shall grow as the lilly. ] which hath its name in the Hebrew, from its six leaves, and serves here, and elsewhere to set forth the great comeliness, sweet odour and true humility of the Church: for the lilly groweth in valleys (as Theophylact upon this Text noteth) sweet it is but not great, and the more it blossometh, the more it shooteth upwards: to teach us heavenly-mindedness. It is also of a perfect whiteness, to mind us of innocence. Her Nazarites were purer then snow, whiter then milk, Lam. 4.7. Lastly, Lilio nihil est foecundius, saith Pliny, nothing is more fruitful then the lily, Et lachrymâ suâ seritur, saith the same Author, it is sown in its own tears. Weeping Christians grow amain, &c.

and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. ] i. e. As the Cedars of Lebanon, as the Chaldee Paraphrast interpreteth it: or as the frankincense-tree, which taketh very deep rooting, so Cyril senceth it. The lilly (with its six white leaves, and seven golden-coloured grains within it) soon fadeth, and loseth both beauty and sweetness: but so doth not Christ and his People. He can as well die at the right hand of his Father, as in the hearts of his Elect, where he dwells by faith: whereby they are rooted and grounded in love, strengthened with might, by his Spirit in the inner man, so that the gates of hell cannot prevail against them. Immo • a manet, is the Churches Motto; Nec fluctu, nec flatu movetur, which is the Venetian Motto. They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth forever, Psal. 125. Winds and storms move neither Libanus, nor the well-rooted Cedars thereof: which the more they are assaulted, the better they are rooted So fareth it with the Saints. Plato compareth man to a tree inverted. The Scripture oft compareth a good man to a tree planted by the rivers of waters, that taketh root downward, and beareth fruit upward, 2 King. 19.30.

Let us cast forth our roots as Lebanon: stand fast rooted in the truth, being steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, and with full purpose of heart cleaving close unto him, 1 Cor. 15. ult. being established by his grace, Col. 1.11. Heb. 12.28. and 13.9. In the Civil Law, till a tree hath taken root, it doth not belong to the soil whereon it is planted. It is not enough to be in the Church: except like the Cedars of Lebanon, we cast forth our roots, and are so planted, that we flourish in the Courts of our God, and bring forth fruit in our old age, Psal 92.12, 13, 14.

Verse 6. His branches shall spread, ] Heb. shall walk, or expatiate; shall reach out, and stretch themselves all abroad: so shall the Church be propagated all the earth over: She shall flourish as the Palm-tree, which though it have many weights hung on the top, and many snakes hissing at the root, yet it still saith, Nec premor, nec perimor, I am insuperable: I am like a green Olive-tree in the house of God: I trust in the mercy of God forever, and ever, Psal. 52.8.

and his beauty shall be as the Olive-tree, ] that goodly tree, Lev. 23 40. that retaineth her greenness in the depth of Winter: yea in that Universal deluge, Noah's Dove met with an olive-leaf. The Lord hath called thy name (saith the Prophet to the Church, Jer. 11.16.) A green olive-tree, fair and of goodly fruit. The Cypress is fair, but not fruitful; the fig-tree fruitful, but not fair and flourishing. But the olive-tree is both fair and fruitful: her fruit also is of singular use to mankind both for food, and physic, and light for the lamp, Exod. 29.20. Lev. 6.15, 16. In one respect it is an emblem of peace, it maketh the face shine, Psal. 104.15. and in the other, it is an emblem of grace and spiritual gifts, 1 Job. 2.20. of increasing with the increase of God, by the Spirit, and of reigning with him in eternal glory.

and his smell as Lebanon. ] Whereby is meant, the sweet savor of the Gospel, which spreadeth itself abroad in the ministry of the Word, and in the lives of belcevers, 2 Cor. 2.14, 15. who besides their continual offering up to God spiritual incense and services in prayers, thanksgivings, alms, and good-works, they perfume the very air they breath upon by their gracious and savoury communication, Ephes. 4.29. yea the very company they come into: as a man cannot come where sweet spices and odors are beaten to the smell, but he shall carry away the scent thereof in his clothes. When the spirit of Christ blows upon them, and grace is poured into their hearts, then their lips drop sweet smelling myrrh, Cant. 5.13. and 4.16. then also their good name is better then a precious ointment, Eccles. 7.1. (See the Note there) when the wicked stink alive and dead.

Verse 7. They that dwell under his shadow shall return, Or, shall sit still, shall be at rest. The Chaldee hath it, They shall dwell in the shadow of his Christ. See a like promise of refocillation and protection, Isaiah 4.6. Es. 25.4. Psal. 35.8. The refuge and refreshment of the Church is whole from Christ: under the shadow of whose divine grace shhe resteth in her members, shaded and sheltered under the hollow of his hand, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall, Isaiah 25.4. when indignation is kindled ( Isaiah 26.20.) and when the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the land for their iniquity: then shall true converts have a chamber of rest, a Pella provided them: or, at least be able to sing David's Requiem, Return to thy rest, O my soul, hover and cover under God's wing, run to his Name as a tower, and be safe. Why art thou cast down, trust in God, trust in an angry God, in a killing God, as Job, believe him upon his bare word, and that against sense, in things invisible; and against reason, in things incredible. This is Faiths triumph, and this is the Saints safety.

They shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine, ] The Seventy and Latin render it, They shall live with corn; that is, they shall have great plenty of all things necessary, as Psal. 87. and 142.14. But the other reading is better; They shall revive as the corn, which suffering much from frost, hail, snow, tempest, lieth for dead, as it were, in Winter; but at the return of the Sun in Springtide reviveth, and yieldeth a great increase. In like sort, the Vine when pruned and lopped spreads again, and is the more fruitful: So those that are viti vitae inserti, set into the true Vine, though lopped and harrowed with sore and sharp afflictions, yet can truly and triumphantly say, As dying, and behold we live, as chastened, and not killed, &c. Their bodies also by death are not so much rotted as refined, and shall be conformed to Christ's most glorious body the standard, Phil. 3. ult.

and the sent thereof as the wine of Lebanon. ] which was noted for the best, as Kimchi proves, and Athenaeus confirmeth. Among the Jews at this day, the women when they speak of their dead husbands, say, His scent, or his memorial is as the wine of Lebanon.

Verse 8. Ephraim shall say, What have I to do, &c. Heb. Ephraim, what have I to do, &c. This some make to be the speech of God to Ephraim: as if Ephraim here were the Vocative case, and God were brought in abhorring the motion of parting stakes with idols, of sharing his glory with another. But because this, God never did, (for what communion hath light with darkness, Christ with Belial? ) and because the Chaldee Paraphrast, and from him the best Interpreters supply [shall say] I take this latter to be the better translation. Here then God promiseth, first, what Ephraim shall do, or rather, what he by his grace will cause him to do: he shall utterly abominate and abandon his idols, whereunto his heart had been joined, or glued, chap. 4.17. Secondly, what he will thereupon do for Ephraim: what special favor he will show him, and what a gracious compensation he will make him, I have heard him, and observed him, &c. Ephraim now grown penitent, shall say, (See the like ellipsis supplied, Isaiah 5.9.) with utmost indignation and aversation, with greatest heat of anger, and height of hatred, shall he utter it. See the like, 2 Sam. 16.10. 2 King. 3.13. Matth. 8.29.

What have I to do anymore with idols? ] Or sorrows, or buggs, those Balaam's -blocks, those mawmets, and monuments of idolatry, those images of jealousy, that provoke to jealousy, Ezek. 8.3. those dunghill-deities that can produce no good, hear no prayers, work no deliverance, bring nothing but evil and anguish to us. What then should we rather do, then pollute those images that we had perfumed, cast them away with detestation, as a menstruous clout, and say unto them, Get ye hence, Isaiah 30.22? Then will God soon say, I have heard him thus bemoaning and befooling himself. God hath a quick ear in such a case; He hath also an eye open to the supplications of his servants, in all that they call upon him for, as Solomon telleth us, 1 King. 8.52.

I have observed him. ] Or fixed mine eyes upon him, with a most vigilant care, and critical inspection. It would be wide with God's Ephraim's, and they would want many things, if he should not see as well as hear, if he should not seriously, and solicitously consider and care for them, above all that they ask or think, and without any monitour, aid and accommodate them. He is ofttimes better to them then their prayers: for why? The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, as well as his ears are open to their cry, Psal. 34.15. The Vulgar Latin rendereth it, Dirigam eum, I will direct him, as a Tutor, and Guardian doth his Pupil, his Orphan. See verse 3. He will also protect him, that nothing may be wanting to his happiness.

I am like a green fir tree, ] green all the year about, and of so large branches, and broad leaves thick set, that neither Sun nor rain can easily come at the wearied passenger, reposing himself under them. And whereas Ephraim might say, Here's repose, but where shall I have repast? It is added;

In me is thy fruit found, ] q. d. The sir-tree is indeed green, and shady, but withal barren: it bears no fruit, either ad esum, or ad usum. It boweth itself down to the earth, so that a man may easily lay hold upon the branches, saith Rabbi David, and other Hebrews. But what shall he get by that more then a green bowre, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, &c? As an Ancient speaking of Ahab, describeth him sitting in his ivory Palace in Samaria, in the time of the three years famine: He had everything else, but wanted bread: So Ephraim here, hath shade, but can he live by that? what shall he do for food? He shall not want for that, saith God-All-sufficient: for

From me is thy fruit found. ] Praesto est, (so some render it) Here it is ready, and mouth-meet: yea satis est (so others render it) it is enough of it, satisfactory, and proportionable to thy necessity. Yea I would thou shouldst know, that what fruit soever thou hast, or shalt bear as an Olive or Vine, verse 6. and 7. it is found in me, proceeds from me, the root of the matter is in me, as Job speaketh in another case.

Verse 9. Who is wise and he shall understand these things, ] A pathetical perclose, whereby the Prophet (Orator-like) would leave a sting in the hearts of his hearers, and so seal up, and fet on all that he had said before. Who is wise, ] q. d. I could wish there were more: but I see there are not many. Store there are of fools, Stultorum plena sunt omnia, such dust-heaps there are in every corner to be found, not a few, that either know not the will of God, or stumble at it. But who hath known the mind of the Lord? Who amongst you will give ear to this? Who hath believed our report? or to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who is the wise man that may understand this? Lucernâ accensa hominem quaerebat Aesopus. Jeremy was bidden run to and fro to find a man that sought the truth, chap. 5.1. Rari quippe boni. Not many wise, wise I mean to salvation, 2 Tim. 3.15. that make sure work for their souls, and draw their wisdom from God's holy word, from the Mine of the Mystery of Christ. All others are foolish people, sottish children: they have no understanding, be they never so shrewd and of deep reach for the world, be they never so wise in their generation; the fox is so in his, and the devil in his, for when he was but young, he out-witted our first Parents, who yet were no babies, simple and weak in understanding, as the Socinians affirm them to have been, or else they would not (say they) have so sinned. A fond conceit, and without footing in God's holy word; where we find, that they were created in God's image, which consisteth in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, as saith the Apostle.

And he shall understand these things, ] which none of the Princes of this world know, because their learning hangs in their light; and like Moles, they dig dexterously under ground, but are blind above ground. Sapiens est cui res sapiunt prout sunt, saith Bernard. He is the wise man that savoreth things as they are. And herein lieth the whole wisdom of a man, saith Lactantius, ut Deum cognoscat, & colat, that he know and worship God aright, that with a practical judgment, he ponder the word and ways of God, in order to salvation. This is that wisdom that dwelleth with prudence, Prov. 8.12. Aristotle in many places of his works, distinguisheth between Wisdom and Prudence. Wisdom he maketh to be a right apprehending of truths in general: Prudence, an applying them to particular cases, and uses. But Socrates said, that there was no such difference: since He that knoweth good things to do them, and evil things to avoid them, is to be held a wise man, and none else. They may seem here, to be put for one and the same: since the wise man is said, not to know, but to understand, judge, and powder, and the prudent to know: teaching us, that God calls for a prudent wildom, and a wise prudence, directing the soul to an orderly carriage, and an holy care, that godliness, (which is the only wisdom) may run thorough our whole lives, as the woof doth thorough the web.

For the ways of the Lord are right, ] Understand it not so much of the ways of Predestination, providence, &c. wherein God walks toward us (which yet are all right and equal) as of those ways of his Will, Word, and Worship, wherein he requireth us to walk towards Him. These are called the way of God, Matth. 22.16. and the way of salvation, Acts 16.17. and the way of truth, 2 Pet. 2.2. and the right way, verse 15. and the way of righteousness, verse 21. Right these ways are called, or strait. First, because they are conform to the Will of a righteous God, which is the mensura mensurans, the first rule of right, the standard. Secondly, because the matter of it is holy, and just, and good, a doctrine of righteousness, that teacheth us to give God his due, and men theirs. It is also pat for every purpose, Psal. 19 7, 8. Prov. 30.5. Of the Book of Psalms, Athanasius hath observed, that they are so penned, that every man may well think they speak de se, in re sua, of himself, and to his own particular necessities. Thirdly, because it rectifieth us, and transformeth us into the same image: it maketh such as deliver up themselves thereunto, to walk as patterns of the rule, as a transcript of the word, that dwelleth richly in them, and worketh effectually, as a seed of immortality. Fourthly, because it carrieth us on in a strait line unto a right end, without crooking, or compassing about, Psal. 19.8. and 25.4. Has vias qui teru, non terit. Pray therefore as David did, Psal. 13.29. lest breaking out into by-ways (all which are high-ways to hell) or but stepping over the hedge, to avoid a piece of foul way, we brush and bruise ourselves to get in again, break our bones with David, &c.

And the just shall walk in them: ] Such as are just with a double righteousness, Imputed, and • mparted; that of Justification, and this of Sanctification: these will choose the way of truth, Psal. 119.30. and 25.12. and be willing to walk honestly, Heb. 13.18. orderly and by rule, Gal. 5.25. accurately, and to the utmost, Ephes. 5.15. directly, and distinctly, eyeing the mark, and propounding to themselves the highest pitch, and the best patterns: often comparing themselves with the rule, laying their lives by the line, and reforming their outstraies, Psal. 119.59, 60. making it the main of their endeavor, that all their deeds may be wrought in God, Joh 3.21. Lo this is the just man's practice: and it is • er • • opounded for a president.

But the transgressors shall fall therein. ] They perish from the way, Psal. 2.12. they stumble at the word and fall into perdition, as the Chaldee here hath it: and so show themselves to be transgressors, traitors, rebels, yea reprobates. See 1 Pet. 2.8. they stumble at the word, being aisobedient, whereunto also they were appoiinted. O fearful!

CHAP. I.

Verse 1. T HE Word of the Lord that came, &c. ] See the Note on Hosea 1.1. with whom, Jerome and some other Interpreters, make this Prophet a Contemporary, for the likeness of Argument: and that common Canon of the Jew-Doctors, that the Prophet who sets not down his time, is to be held of the same time, with him that is placed before him. The Seventy set him not only after Hosea, but also after Amos and Micah: and the ancient Hebrew Chronicle, called Sedar-Olam affirmeth, that Joel prophesied together with Nahum and Habakkuk, in the days of king Manasseh: which Drusius would prove out of Joel 3.5. Others, with more show of reason, out of 2 King. 21.10. and 23.26. Joel might very well be one of those Prophets that denounced God's heavy judgments against Judah, for the sins and abominations of Manasseh, whom some make to be his convert. For although at first the Lord spake to Manasseh, and to his people, but they would not hearken (2 Chron. 23.10) yet the rod might set the word awork afterwards: for Manasseh when he was in affliction besought the Lord, and humbled himself greatly ( verse 12.) and Joel might very well be to him a son of Pethuel, or of God's persuasion: God, by his ministry might speak to his heart, Hos. 2.14. set before him an open door, (another Etymon of the name Pethuel ) Rev. 3.8. minister unto him an entrance further and further into Christ's everlasting kingdom, 2 Pet. 1.11. If any think it more likely that Joel prophesied under Josiah king of Judah, when that great famine fell out which is described in like terms by Jeremiah, chap. 14.1, 2. compared with 2 King. 23.26. I shall not strive with him. But that this Joel was the son of Samuel (here called Pethuel ) a persuader of God, because what he asked of God he obtained) as R. Solomon would carry it, I cannot imagine: for that Joel was not a Prophet, but a corrupt Judge.

Verse 2. Hear this ye old men, ] Who, as ye are fittest to hear serious discourses ( Aristotle excludeth young men from his Ethick-Lectures, because raw, and rash: green wood is ever shrinking, and warping) so ye are more experienced; and yet not so wise, but that, by hearing, ye may become wiser, Prov. 1.5. Solon said, he could never be too old to learn. Julianus the Lawyer said, that when he had one foot in the grave, yet he would have the other in the school. David Chytraus, when he lay a dying, lifted up himself to hear the divine discourses of his friends, that sat by him; and said, that he should die with better cheer, if he might die, learning something.

and give ear all, &c. ] Hear and give ear: draw up the ears of your minds to the ears of your bodies, that one sound may pierce both. When these two words are joined together, as they are often, the matter propounded, is either very dark, or very remarkable, and commands attention, as Deut. 1.45. Isaiah 1.2, 10. Jer. 13.15. Hos. 5.1.

all ye inhabitants of the land, ] sc. of Judea, or all ye inhabitants of the whole earth, q. d. I shall speak of so great a matter, as that I could wish to be heard all the world over. And because all men love to hear news, I shall tell you that, that was never known to fall out in any age. Rem novam pollicetur emphaticoter • s quam more Rhetorico, saith Oecolampadius. Prick up your ears therefore and listen.

Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers? ] Was there ever such havoc made by several sorts of vermin successively, for four years together? This was the very finger of God, Exod. 8.19. all whose works (by how small instruments soever) are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein, Psal. 111.2. His extraordinary works especially, are to be noted and noticed; the memory of them is to be transmitted to all posterity. This shall be written for the generation to come, Psal. 102.18. They shall come and shall declare his righteousness, unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this, Psal. 22.31. Sed vae stupori nostro. There is a woe to such as regard not the works of the Lord, neither consider the operation of his hands, Isaiah 5 12. that make of them but a nine days wonderment at best, and so pass them over. Whereas every judgment of God should be a warning-peal to repentance. We be like the Smiths dog, (saith One) who the harder the Anvil is beaten on, lies by, and sleeps the sounder. Like the hen (saith Another) which loseth her chickens one after another by the devouring kite; and yet still continues to pick up what lies before her: such a deep drowsiness and drossinesse of spirit, there is upon most of us.

Verse 3. Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, ] Heb. Cipher them up diligently, after the manner of A • ithmeticians: reckon up the several years, with the several calamities thereof to your children and nephews; that they may hear, and fear, and do no more so. Let your woes be their warnings, your sufferings their standing-sermons; your corrections their instructions. See 1 Cor. 10.5, to 12. Ruina majorum sit cautela minorum. Hast thou marked the old-way (saith Eliphas to Job, Chap. 22.15, 16.) which wicked men have trodden, which were cut down out of time: whose foundation was overflowen with a flood, (Heb. a flood was poured upon their foundation ) which said unto God, Depart from us, &c? He speaketh of those Antediluvian Atheists, buried in one universal grave of waters. See Josh. 22.20. Neh. 13.26. Jude 5, 6, 7. and learn to keep a Catalogue of God's great works, whether of mercy or judgment; yea to polish and garnish them for the use of posterity, not with vain affectation of wit, not with pedantic pomp of words, but with sobriety, and holy gravity, as here: such as may stick by our children, and leave impression.

Verse 4. That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the locust eaten, ] The palmer-worm hath its name in Hebrew from shaving. (because it shaveth off the fruits of the earth.) In Chaldee from creeping: In Greek from crookning: In Latin from gnawing. The Locust hath its name in Hebrew from multitudo, wherewith the very Sun is darkened: In Latin from burning places, where it spoileth: In Greek from cropping the tops of corn, and plants, which as they fled, they fed upon. The Canker-worm hath its name in Hebrew from licking: In Chaldee from fleeing: In Greek and Latin from feeding upon the flowers of apples and other fruits. Comester some render it. Flemings call it, The preacher, a bombo quem polando edit from the noise it maketh as it flies. The Caterpillar hath its name Chasil, from wasting, because it utterly consumeth all, not only fruits and leaves, but tender boughs and branches: Ut ita crescat oratio sicut ipsum malum, to show that as their sin increased, so did their punishment. The Lord of Hosts cannot possibly want a weapon wherewith to beat a rebel: neither may wicked men expect that He should lay down the bucklers first. To that bold question of Pharaoh, Who is the Lord that I should obey him? God made a large reply, by his armies of locusts, lice, slies, &c. till Pharaoh was forced to answer himself, The Lord is righteous. What spoil hath been made by these despicable creatures here mentioned in other countries, Pliny recordeth. Pierius testifieth that the Egyptians made the Locust an Hieroglyphic of Famine. And although we find not expressly set down in the holy History, when this particular plague was executed, yet we need not doubt but it was done according to Deut. 28.38, 39. See 1 King. 8.37.

Verse 5. Awake ye drunkards, ] ye Ale-stakes, and Suckers (Heb. Shiccorim ) that pour in heady and intoxicating drinks, such as soon lay you to sleep, and (besides) take away your heart, Hos. 4.11. rob you of yourselves, and lay a beast in your room. Portentosum sane potionis genus, saith Pliny concerning ale, that excessively drunk, maketh men more sleepy then dormise: besides that worse sleep of carnal security, Eph. 5.14. Rom. 13.11. These therefore are here called upon to be sober and watch, (See 1 Thess. 5.6. 1 Pet. 5.8. 1 Pet. 4.7.) ye to weep and howl, to turn their laughter into mourning, and their joy into heaviness. And why? For their sin they should have done (as that drunkard in the Ecclesiastical History, that, touched with a sense of his sin, wept himself blind) but here they are sarcastically called upon to weep for their great loss, as they esteem it.

Because of the new-wine for it is cut off from your mouth, ] As many things fall out betwixt the chin and the challice, the cup and the lip: You made account to have mouthed it, to have swilled your souls, as they say, and to have swallowed it down your wide gullets. But behold, it falls out somewhat otherwise: the caterpiller hath been before you, and left you nothing better then Adams-ale to tipple. This is cold comfort to the drunkard, whose Word is that of the Vine in Jotham’s parable, Non possum relinquere vinum meum, Take away my liquor, you take away my life. Austin brings him in saying, Malle se vitam quàm vinum eripi, He had rather lose his life then his wine. And Ambrose tells of one Theotimus, that being told by his Physicians, that much quaffing would make him blind, Vale lumen amicum, said he, Farewell sweet eyes; if ye will not bear wine, ye are no eyes for me. This drunkard would rather lose his sight then his sin; his soul then his lust. Such kind of persons are like the Panther, which is said to love the dung of man so much, as if it be hanged on high from it, it will skip and leap up, and never leave till it have burst itself in pieces to get it: and this is the way they take that creature. God will take these natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, 2 Pet. 2.14. after another manner. He will not only cut them short enough here, but turn a cup of fire and brimstone down their throats, Psal. 11.6. which will be worse to them then that ladle full of boiling lead, poured down the throat of a drunken Turk, by the command of a Bashaw.

Verse 6. For a nation is come up upon my land, ] A nation, sc. of vermin, by swarms, as verse. 9. called afterwards, an army chap. 2.11. and a people, chap. 2.2. See the like Prov. 30.25, 26. Is come, ] that is, shortly shall come. Upon my land, ] this glorious and goodly land, as it is called Dan. 11.16. Tarnouius makes this by a mimesis to be the drunkards lamentation A nation is come up, &c. Strong and without number. ] yea therefore strong, because without number: insuperable, because innumerable. Feeble they are, and yet formidable; because set on by God Almighty, whose warriors they are, as the Roman spoilers are called, Matt. 22.7. And perhaps the Assyrians may here be hinted at. I doubt not but the literal sense is chiefly intended: Neither can I concur with Oecolampadius, who holdeth it to be Propheta indignum, unbeseeming the Prophet, to preach thus concerning worms and locusts: For concerning such poor creatures deal the Prophets by the instinct of the Holy Ghost, in sundry other places, Prov. 6.6. Am. 4.9. and 7.1. Nahum. 3.15. Whose teeth are the teeth of a lion. ] that is, they devour all that is in their way; as there is no standing before a lion, no not before a moth, that hath commission to crush a man, Job 4.19.

Verse 7. He hath laid my vine wast ] The Prophet proceeds in aggravating the the calamity, that he might make the people the more sensible. There is nothing in the world more stupid and more stubborn then a drunkard. Of such it is that that saying of an Ancient is often verified, Ablatus est à peccantibus timor, ne possit esse cautela, Fear is taken away from offenders, that there should be no caution against it. Here therefore let the words of the wise be as goads and as nails fastened by the Masters of the assemblies. Let them so preach with Peter, that their hearers may be pricked at heart Act. 2, 37. may be galled and sawed as it were Act. 7.54. may startle and tremble, as Act. 24.25. may awaken out of that dead lathergy, whereinto Satan hath cast them, and recover out of his snare, who are taken captive by him at his pleasure. True it is, we can hardly get men to believe that hell is so hot, or sin so heavy, or the devil so black, or God so unmerciful as the Preachers make him. The Lion, say they, is not so terrible as he is painted; nor is our case so dangerous as is born us in hand. Sed nos pergamus exaggerare, saith Pareus here. Let God's Ministers lay load upon men's sins, and set forth to the full the miseries that will fall upon them. The Prophets did so for temporal (as here most graphically and to the life) shall not we much more for eternal punishments?

and barked my fig-tree ] Take away the bark from the tree, and the sap can never find the way to the boughs. These Vermin had barked the trees with their teeth, cast the bark out of their mouths upon the ground, and made the branches naked and all white as froth; so that the drunkards, deprived of their sweet draughts, were brought ad efflationem animae (as the Calde here expoundeth Chetsephah ) to an yielding up of the ghost, yea, ad laqueum & restim, as the Latins, to the very halter.

Verse 8. Lament like a Virgin ] Our Prophet hath done with his drunkards: and now applieth himself to the soberer sort, whom also he calleth to deep and downright mourning, in this case of common calamity; there being not any so innocent and holy, but had some hand, if not upon the greater cart-ropes yet surely upon the smaller cords that drew down dearth and judgment upon the land.

lament therefore like a Virgin ] betrothed, but bereft of her espoused husband, before she was married to him; So Piscator. Others understand it of her that (lately a virgin, but now new-married) passionately loved her husband and bitterly bewaileth his death; which some young women have taken so grievously, that they have refused to live any longer; but have chosen to put an end to their life and grief together, as historians testify.

girded with Sackcloth ] Sacco non serico, with mourning weeds as a testimony of, help to your humiliation. The dead we see, may be lawfully lamented: indeed it is one of the dues of the dead. It is fit that the body, when sown in corruption, should be watered by the tears of those that plant it in the earth. Only we must not mourn in this case as heathens Without hope. 1 Thes. 4.13. Our grief must not be excessive, either for measure or continuance; Neither must we mourn so much for our friends departed, as for our sins against God. In the former case baldness is forbidden: in the later it is required Isa. 22.12. And Zach. 12.10.11.13. One poor woman weeping over Christ shall be as deeply affected as all the people were in that unspeakable loss of their good king Josiah, at Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo, where Jeremiah lamented, and all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentation, and made them an ordinance &c. 2 Chron. 35.24.25.

Verse 9. The meat-offering and the drink-offering is cut off ] Periit libatio & oblatio. This was the godly man's greatest grief, that there wanted matter of testifying their thankfulness to God in his commanded worships: and that God was so deeply displeased, as that he had deprived Himself and his Ministers of the due allowance; so that they also mourned, and could not chreefully execute their office, for lack of maintenance; for they were not of the Chameleon-kind.

Verse 10. The field is wasted the land mourneth ] The sacrifices are not only cut off for present, but little hopes left for the future: for the field, that common storehouse, that horreum unde hauriatur, is wasted: Shuddad Sadeh, there is an elegant allusion in the Original: as in the following words a Prosopopoeia not inferior to those of the Poets, as Luther and Vatablus here note.

The land mourneth ] By an ordinary Metaphor among the Hebrews, those things are said to mourn that are wasted, defolated, corrupted and changed for the worse. Lam. 2.8. the rampart and the wall are said to lament, and to languish together. When Ephestion died, Alexander not only clypped his horses and mules hair, but plucked down also the battlements of the walls of the city: because it should appear that the walls and ramparts did mourn for his death: So Isaiah 24.7. The new wine mourneth, the vine languisheth: all the merry-hearted do sigh. It is fit that if the land mourn, and fail of her increase, men should much more mourn and be moved with a sense of their sins, the cause of such calamities. The earth lies under a curse of barrenness, at its best Gen. 3.17. and was never so beautiful and cheerful since the Fall of Adam. At this day it lieth bed-rid, as it were, waiting for the coming of the Son of God, that it may be delivered from the bondage of corruption Rom. 8.20. But in times of dearth, it seemeth to mourn more then ordinary, yea to blush and bleed.

the new wine is dried up ] Or is abashed: as loath to look men in the face, because not answerable to their expectation, See Isaiah. 33.9.

the oil languisheth ] Or, is sick. Corn, wine, and oil, are the main supports of man's life: all's gone.

Verse 11. Be ye ashamed O ye husbandmen ] This Repetition of his former exhortation is not needless: for man is a stout and stubborn creature: neither goeth anything more against the hair and the heart with him, then to come downward, and to be so soundly sensible of God's judgments, as seriously to repent. Hence St. James his extraordinary importunity in pressing this most needful but much neglected duty, chap. 4.9, 10. He knew, & so did our Prophet, that this work must be done, or else men are undone. Hence that heap of words. Nunquam satis dioitur quod nunquam satis discitur. That can never be too much taught, that is never enough learned.

Verse 12. The Vine is dried up, and the Fig tree languisheth ] God cutteth you short of all things both for necessity and delight: and this is so much inculcated, and iterated, that you may not slight it as a common occurrence: but be deeply affected with it, as a sore affliction. Verba toties repetita viva sunt, vera sunt, sana sunt, plana sunt. Let no man think that this is a superfluous tautology, or an idle repetition of the same thing. For, in sacred scripture there is not a tittle in vain: there is not an apex whereon there hangs not a mountain of fence, as the Rabbin's use to say. By one and the same thing repeated, memory is helped, affection is excited, and matters of moment are better minded, Phil. 3.1. Besides, Repetitio confirmatio est, saith Ambrose, The repeating of a matter implieth 1 The infallible truth of it. 2 The inexpressible excellency of it. 3 The profitable use of it. 4 The absolute necessity of it. Aut faciendum, aut patiendum.

Verse 13. Gird yourselves and lament ye Priests ] Be you Prest, and first in the practice of humiliation: Be you an example of the believers in word in conversation &c. 1 Tim. 4.12. a pattern of piety. Si vis ne flere &c. If others shall lament, you must begin to them: and say as Abimelech did to his soldiers, What ye have seen me do, make hast and do likewise: and as St. Paul doth to his Philippians, Those things which ye have both learned and received, and heard and seen in me, do; and the God of peace shall be with you.

for the meat-offering and the drink-offering, &c. ] your maintenance is substracted, and (that which should more affect you) the sacred service of God is intermitted, and so the glory is departed, the daily sacrifice is neglected, which the Jews counted and called The abomination of desolation. Phineas his wife was not without natural affection 1 Sam. 4.21. but her spiritual affections prevailed. Therefore in the declaration of her sorrow, that of her father in law and husband is but once named: but twice it came in, The glory is departed, The glory is departed. All comforts are but Ichabods to a good heart without the ordinances: without the sincere milk of the word God's new-born babes cannot be quitted. I could not live in Paradise without the Word (said Luther) as with the Word, I could easily live in hell itself.

Verse 14. Sanctify ye a fast ] Having humbled yourselves, preach repentance to others. That's the best sermon that's digged out of a man's own breast. Sanctify yourselves first, and then prepare your brothren, saith losiah to the Priests of his time 2 Chron. 35.6. A religious fast (for that the Prophet intends here by Sanctify ) rightly observed and referred to religious ends, is both a testimony of true repentance, and a furtherance thereunto: for it cames the rebel flesh 1 Cor. 9. ult. which else will wantonize, and overtop the Spirit Deut. 32.15. And it giveth wings to our prayers, which before groveld on the ground, as it were. Fasting inflameth prayer; and prayer sanctifieth fasting.

sanctify therefore a fast, call a solemn assembly ] Heb. a day of restraint separating yourselves as Zech. 8.19. from all fleshly delights; amercing and punishing yourselves in that sort by an holy revenge, as Psal. 35.13. and afflicting your souls with voluntary sorrows for your sins and miseries.

gather the Elders ] both those qui canis & annis sunt tales, who are full of days and so of sins; and also those, that are in place of authority: whose offenses have sored higher on the wings of Example, and Scandal.

and all the inhabitants of the land ] For as all are sin-guilty, so your unanimity and charity will further the service. All should get together in this case, and bring their buckets to quench a common fire: the more public and general the humiliation is, the more pleasing and prevalent, Judge. 20.26. 2 Chron. 30.3, 13. Ion. 3.5, 7, 8.

into the house of the Lord your God ] which house was a type of Christ, (in whom God heareth His) and had made many promises to prayers there put up in faith, 1 King. 8.37, 38, 39. 2 Chron. 6.28, 29.

of the Lord your God ] Yours still by virtue of the covenant: be sure to keep faith in heart, when we are at the greatest und • r.

And cry unto the Lord ] with the heart at least as Moses did at the red sea, when yet none heard him but the ear of heaven only; and as Hannah did when she uttered no audible voice, and yet poured forth her soul to the Lord with such a strange and unwonted writing of her lips, that Eli thought she had been drunk.

Verse 15 Alas for the day &c. ] Gr. Alas, Alas, Alas; the Vulgar Latin A, A, A, which à Lupide makes much ado about, to little purpose.

for the day of the Lord ] that is, The day of the greatest evils and miseries then ever hitherto they had suffered, if repentance prevent not. That they had suffered much already appeareth chap. 2.25. but those were but the b • ginnings of their sorrows, if they yet went on in their sins.

for as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come ] An Elegant Agnomination there is in the Original: together with an allusion to that tremend title of God Shaddai. The Jews (probably) boasted much and bare themselves over-bold upon their interest in God almighty. The Prophet therefore tell's them that God's greatest power should be little to their profit whiles impenitent: for that it should be put forth and exercised for their utter destruction. Ibn-Ezra interpreteth Shaddai a Conqueror, Others a Destroyer, which a Conqueror must needs be. And hereto this text and that Esa. 13.6. do allude, when they say Shod shall come from Shaddai, Destruction from the Almighty. Here also we may learn when we are under affliction, to ascend to the first cause thereof Am. 3.6. as David did in that three years famine 2 Sam. 21.1. See • am. 3.38.

Verse 16 Is not the meat cut off before your eyes? ] Heb. before your eyes: and so it appeareth to be the Prophets speech, and not a form prescribed by him to the people, by adding the word (saying) to the end of the fourteenth verse Cry to the Lord, saying, Alas for the day &c. And it is as if the Prophet should say; Do ye not yet see what case you are in? Are ye so stupid and so stout or sturdy, as not to stoop though starved almost? should not Vexation give understanding; Are not the fiercest creatures tamed with hard hunger? Will not men in such case buy or beg food of their deadly enemies? O brawny breasts! O horny heart-strings!

yea joy and gladness from the house of our God? ] All God's services were to be performed with joy: but now, for want of corn and wine (which cheereth God and man Judge. 9.13.) the daily sacrifice ceased, and all good hearts were thereby sadded. See verse. 9 with the Note.

Verse 17 The seed is rotten under their clods ] It lieth buried or drowned with excessive rain and moisture, corrupting the seed soon after it was sown: and that which was not so marred, was afterwards, when it came to be corn, dried up with excessive heat.

The corn is withered. ] So that the garners were desolated, the barns broken down for want of stuffing, and for that there was no use of them, since they sowed, but reaped not, Mic. 6.15. The husbandman was called to mourning, Amos 5.16, for a three-fold calamity that lay upon his tillage. First, Immoderate rain, in or about seeding. Secondly, Locusts and other vermin at spring. Thirdly, extreme drought after all, verse 19, 20. Thus God followeth sinners with one plague in the neck of another, (as he did Pharaoh, that sturdy rebel) till he have made his foes his footstools To multiply sin, is to multiply sorrow, Psal. 16.4. to heap up wickedness, is to heap up wrath, Rom 2.5. I will heap mischiefs upon them, saith God, I will spend mine arrows upon them, Deut. 32.23. which yet cannot be all spent up, as the Poet feared of his Jupiter, that if he should punish men for every offense, his store of thunder-bolts would be soon spent and exhausted.

Verse 18. How do the beasts groun ]? The wild beasts groan in their kind. The herds of cattle ] home and tame beasts, as oxen, &c. are perplexed, ] as not knowing what to do: 'tis the same word with that, Esth. 3.15. God had hid his face, (withdrawn his hand) and they were troubled, he taketh away their breath, (for lack of pasture) they die and return to their dust, as David telleth us in his Physicks, Psal. 104.29. Epiphaxius his Physiologer reporteth of the bird called Charadius, that being brought where a sick man lieth, if he look upon the sick with a fixed and unremoved eye, there is hopes of recovery: but if he look another way, the disease is deadly. Sure it is, that if God look in mercy upon man and beast, they are cared and catered for, Psal. 36.7. and 104.27. and 145.15, 16, &c. and the contrary. yea the flocks of sheep, &c. which yet can bite upon the bare, live with a little, and get pasture, where the bigger creatures cannot come.

Verse. 19. O Lord to thee will I cry. ] I will, though others will not. I have called upon others to cry mightily unto thee, and to meet thee by repentance: but they ranquam monstra marina, as so many Sea-monsters, pass by my words with a deaff ear, they refuse to return: thy hand is lifted up in threatening, and will fall down in punishing, but they will not see, Isaiah. 26.11. they will not search, they will not have their eyes (like the windows in Solomon's Temple) broad inward: the eyes of their minds are as ill set (for this matter) as the eyes of their bodies, they see not what's within. But whatever they do, my soul shall weep in secret for their pride, and mine eyes shall weep sore, &c. ( Jer. 13.17.) for their insensibleness of their misery.

For the fire hath devoured the pastures, ] that is, the immoderate scorching heat of the season. See Psal. 83.14. Jer. 17.6. Or the blasting wind, as Lyra expounds it; or the locusts, as Drusius, or God, (who is a consuming fire) by any, or all these instruments of his wrath, as Tarnouius.

And the flame hath burnt all the arees of the field. ] This was dreadful; but yet nothing to that conflagratio mundi, spoken of by St. Peter, 2 Epist. 3.12. when the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved, and the elements melt with fervent heat on the heads of the wicked: who shall give a terrible account, with the world all on alight fire about their ears.

Verse 20. The beasts of the field cry also unto thee, ] Glocitant, a term taken from Deer: they cry as they can, they cry by implication, imploring thine help, each for himself. See Psal. 149.9. Job 39.3. Psal. 104.27. And should men be silent?

For the rivers of the waters are dried up, ] This maketh the Hart bray after the water-brooks, yea shed tears as hunters say the Hart will, when hot and hard-bestead for water. Hereto David seems to allude, Psal. 42.5. My tears have been my meat, &c.

And the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness. ] This had been said before verse 19. The reason of such repetitions, see above in the Notes on verses 11, 12. Neither let this last exaggeration of the common calamity, by that which befell the brute beasts, seem superfluous. For whereas the security and obstinacy of most men is such, that they take little notice of present pressures, but promise themselves peace and safety, whatsoever God by his servants shall say to the contrary: it is but needful surely, that their danger should be inculcated, and their calamity set out, and set on with utmost importunity, and vehemency.

CHAP. II.

Verse 1. BLow ye the trumpet in Zion, ] Idem aliis verbis repetit, saith Mercer here. The Prophet repeateth the same as in the former Chapter; only in other words, more at large, and after another manner: pressing the people further to the practice of repentance by many sweet promises of the blessings of this, and a better life. Our Prophet may seem to be of the same mind with Tertullian, who said that he was nulli rei natus nisi poenitentiae, born for no other end, but to repent, and to call upon others so to do. Tot autem verbis & figuris ntitur, saith Luther, he useth so many words, & figures, because he had to do with a people that were harder then rocks, Jer. 5.3. as also, because there is an absolute necessity of repentance. Aut poenitendum, aut pereundum, as our Savior tells his Disciples twice in a breath, Luke 13.2, 5. The Prophet had urged them hereunto from the evils they felt, or feared, chap. 1. Pain and penitency are words of one derivation: God plagueth men that he may make them cry Peccavi: not Perij only, I am undone, as Cain; but peccavi, I have done very foolishly, as David. The seventeen first verses of this Chapter, are Hortatory; the rest Consolatory. The day of the Lord cometh; therefore Repent. This is the sum of the exhortation. It cometh, and that instantly; Give warning therefore: God loveth to foresignifie, (saith the Heathen Historian) and to premonish, before he punish. He dealt so with Cain, to whom he read the first lecture of Repentance, Gen. 4. as he had done of Faith, to his father Adam, in the Chapter before. He dealt so with the old world, with the Sodomites, Ninevites, &c.

Sound an alarm in my holy Mountain, ] Ring the bells backwards, (as amongst us they do) the house is on fire; the enemy is at hand.

Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, ] and take course to prevent, or mitigate the ensuing mischief; to cut the cart-ropes of sin, that pull down wrath upon the land.

for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. ] An end is come, is come, is come, as Ezekiel hath it, chap. 7.6, 7. I will overturn, overturn, overturn, as the same Prophet hath it elsewhere. Should we then make mirth? as it is in the same Chapter: should we sleep upon a mast-pole, dance upon a weather-cock? go hallowing and hooping to the place of execution?

Verse 2. A day of darkness, and of gloominesse, ] Lest they should imagine it to be some light matter, that hath been, and is still threatened, he sets forth to the life, the bitterness of that day, so lowering and lightlesse, that it can hardly be called a day: a dark and doleful doomesday it will be to the impenitent, infaustus & infelix, dismal and dreadful. What better can be expected by those Tenebriones, that delight in the deeds of darkness, and are acted by those Rulers of the darkness of this world, the Devils, whom they follow as they are led, 1 Cor. 12.2. till they fall into outer darkness, even that darkness beyond a darkness, (as the dungeon is beyond, or below the prison) where they shall never see the light again, till they see all the world on a light fire. Let those Lucifugae look to it, that love darkness better then light: for, besides what they meet with here, they shall one day have their bellies full of it in that dungeon of darkness.

A day of clouds and of thick darkness, ] Caused by that huge army of Locusts, &c. coming in great swarms, and darkening the air.

as the morning spread upon the mountains, ] i. e. longe, lateque, far and near, all the country over, and that in an instant: even as the Morning spreadeth abroad upon a sudden over the tops of hills, though they be a great way off. Hereby is imported, that the calamity here threatened, is such as they can neither avert, nor avoid: Irretensibilis est, saith Luther.

A great people and a strong, ] So the Locusts are called. See Chap. 1.4, 5, 6. not without some respect to the Chaldeans, that should afterwards carry them captive, as Jerome here glosseth.

there hath not been ever the like, ] sc. in the land of Judea, nor of the like continuance. See chap. 1.2, 3.

even to the years of many generations. ] Heb. of an age, and an age; so Deut. 32.7. Joel 3.20. This assureth us of the greatness of this people's sin, since they were so signally punished: for God doth not use to kill flies with beetles, as they say.

Verse 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth, ] Such waste these vermin shall make: like as it is said of the great Turk, that where-ever he sets his foot, there never grows grass again; he doth so eat up the countries where he comes with his huge armies. And the late Lord Brook, in his discourse of Episcopacy noteth, that that unhappy proverb amongst us was not for naught, The Bishops foot hath trodden here. In Biscay, a Province of Spain, they admit no Bishops to come amongst them: and when Ferdinand the Catholic K. came in progress hither, accompanied amongst others by the Bishop of Pampelune, the people arose in arms, drove back the Bishop, and gathering all the dust, on the which they thought he had trodden, flung it into the Sea. What fires they kindled here in Queen Mary's days, devouring six or seven hundred at least of God's faithful witnesses in five years space: And what work they made in our remembrance throughout the three Kingdoms, to the imbroyling of all, and their own utter ruin, I need not relate. That renowned Author afore-cited, had told them time enought, (but that they were destined to destruction) that if they forbare to touch the supreme Authority of the Land, which they affected, it was but as once Mercury spared Jupiter's thunderbolts, which he durst not steal, lest they should roar too loud, or, at least, burn his fingers.

The land is as the garden of Eden, ] i. e. of all kind of pleasures and delights. See Gen. 2.8. and 13.10. Strabo speaks spitefully of the land of Canaan, as if it were a dry, stony, and barren country, not worth the seeking after. Rabshaketh shows more ingenuity then this, Strabus & pravus Strabo (as one therefore calleth him) 2 King. 18.32. Tacitus commends it for a fertile soil: so doth Pliny: but above all, the holy Scripture setteth it forth to be Sumen totius orbis, a land flowing with milk and honey, &c. Exod. 3.15. Deut. 32.13.

and behind them a desolate wilderness. ] Not such a wilderness as yielded pastures, and habitations for shepherds, chap. 1.19, 20. but utterly desolate, and therefore unhabitable, as under the Torrid Zone. No place can be so pleasant, but sin can lay it waste. A fruitful land turneth the Lord into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. There is no footstep left at this day of that gallant Garden, planted by God himself: or if any, cecidit rosa, sit spina; the place remains in the upper part of Chaldea, but not the pleasantness of the place. The like we may say of Sodom, of Jerusalem, of Greece, of Asia the less, of Germany, Ireland, &c. England hath hitherto subsisted merely by a miracle of God's mercy, and by a prop of his extraordinary patience: The Lord continue it to the glory of his Name, and the good of his poor people. Fiat, fiat.

Verse 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses: and as horsemen, ] i. e. the Locusts, and other Insects come on amain: they march with much nimbleness and swiftness. An horse is a warlike creature, full of terror: so swift in service, that the Persians dedicated him to their god, the Sun, as the swiftest creature to the swiftest god. See Job 41.20. Prov. 21.31. In Persia they do all, almost on horseback: they buy, sell, confer, but especially fight on horseback to this day. So they did of old; and so did the Chaldeans, from whom they took the Monarchy. These were horsemen, and not as horsemen: this place therefore is properly and principally to be understood of the locusts. Confer Rev. 9.7.

Verse 5. Like the noise of chariots on the the tops of mountains, ] Not only on the tops of standing-corn, (as other Locusts, which therehence also have their name 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) but as the hurry of chariots in stony places, Rev. 9.9. For in that book of the Revelation, the Penman borrows all the elegancies and flowers of the Old Testament, thereby to set out the story of the New in succeeding ages: as herehence the Popish Priests are fitly called Locusts for their numerosity and voracity, Rev. 9.3. They are also likened unto horses ( verse 7.) fed and fierce to run, and rush into the battle, not without noise: Like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, Eccles. 7.6. Or the rattling of the jumping charet-wheels, Nahum 3.2.

as a strong people set in battle array, ] In a bloody fight between Amurath the third, King of Turkey, and Lazarus Despot of Servia, many thousands fell on both sides. The brightness of the armor, and weapons, was as it had been the lightning: the multitude of launces, and other horsemens-staves shadowed the light of the Sun: arrows and darts fell so fast, that a man would have thought they had poured down from heaven. The noise of the instruments of war, with the neighing of horses, and out-cries of men, was so terrible and great, that the wild-beasts in the mountains stood astonied therewith: and the Turkish Histories, to express the terror of the day, vainly say, that the Angels in heaven, amazed with that hideous noise, for that time forgot the heavenly hymns, wherewith they always glorify God.

Verse 6. Before their face, the people shall be much pained, ] This is a confirmation of the former assertion: the people when they shall see those swarms of Locusts, &c. mustering and marching in the air, they shall be much pained (as a travelling woman is) pangs and sorrows shall take hold of them, their faces shall be as flames, Isaiah 13.8. for fear least they should light on their country, and lay all wast.

all faces shall gather blackness. ] Pallorem, paleness, so Castalio rendereth it: a blackish lead-like-paleness, such as is on sooty-pots. (the Original here is, hath gathered a pot, that is by a metonymy, a pot-like-blackness ) See Nah. 3.10. Jer. 30.6. Psal. 68.13. where, by blackness (such as slaves and scullions contract by lying among the pots, and smoky, and sooty chimney-corners) is set forth the exceeding great fear, and affliction that God's people are oft in: and from whence he graciously promiseth to deliver them that trust in him. Such shall not be afraid— whose heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. It was fear that now caused (the natural heat and the blood retiring to the heart, to receive it, as in a sudden surprise, the soldiers run to the Castle) paleness and blackness of face. It was hunger afterwards, that burnt them, Deut. 32.24. and made their visages blacker then a cole, (as Lam. 4.8.) or darker then blackness, as the Original hath it.

Verse 7. They shall run like mighty men, ] Horribiles, fortissimi ut Gigantes. They shall strike terror into others, as in the former verse: but themselves, as Giants and Conquerors, shall over-run all, with incredible swiftness and prowess. Strong soldiers have strong sinews: and thence their speedy marches, and quick dispatch. Asahel was light of foot as a wild-Roe. Aehilles is everywhere by Homer called Swift-footed. Alexander the Great, being asked how he so quickly conquered so many countries? answered, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , By my nimbleness. Caesar, in omnia praeceps, saith Lucan, he passed the Alps, and was at Rome with a trice, as they say. His Word was, Veni, vidi, vici, I no sooner came, but I overcame. He is said to have taken a thousand Towns, conquered three hundred Nations, took prisoner one million of men, and to have slain as many. What a deal was done by Joshua in a short space at the conquest of Canaan? Charles the fifth, Emperor of Germany, is reported to have won in the Indies, by his Captains and Commanders there, 28. Kingdoms, in 28. Battles. Bajazet the Great Turk, for his swiftness and fierceness, was surnamed Gilderun, or lightning. To such worthy Warriours, ready and speedy, prompt and present, are these Locusts, God's armed soldiers, here compared, They shall run like mighty men, they shall climb the wall like men of war, that cannot be kept out, that will not be worsted.

They shall march everyone (Heb. man ) on his way, ] though many, yet they shall not one hinder, or hurt another, but hold a comely equipage, keep rank and file, observe the laws and rules of discipline, and so

they shall not break their ranks ] Or, writh and pervert their paths, as Ibn-Ezra out of the Arabic idiom rendereth it. Jerome testifieth that He and others saw in Judea troops of Locusts flying in so even an order, ut ne puncto quidem aut ungue teausverso declinent ad alteram, that you could not say they brake rank at all; tanto ordine & dispositione jubentis Dei volitant, saith He, so strict and beautiful discipline there is in God's whole army, to whom belong the sheilds of the earth, the Militia of the whole world.

Verse 8 Neither shall one thrust another ] Or straiten another. The Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to press and persecute, seems to come from this Hebrew word Dakag. The Prophet still alludeth to the manner of marshalling armies in such sort, as that neither may the soldiers hinder one another, nor the enemy have any advantage to break in upon them. Exercitus pulchre dispositus, & amicis pulcherrimus videtur, & hostibus inexpugnabilis, saith Zenophon; that is, A well-ordered army seemeth both beautiful to their friends, and invincible to their enemies.

They shall walk everyone ] Heb. Man, Mighty man q. d. Each locust shall walk and stalk, as a strong lusty man in his trodden track, in the path that God hath put him into, and shall hold to it.

and when they fall upon the sword ] Heb. the long sword, or javelin, they shall not be wounded: as if they were unwoundable, or shot-free, as the Poet fabled of Achilles, and as the Persians, vanquished by the Athenians at the field of Marathon, cried out

Verse 9 They shall • un to and fro ] As soldiers do when they have taken a town by assault, and have leave to plunder. En victoriam & hostilem insultationem, saith Mercer here. See the lively portraicture of Victory and Triumph.

they shall ru • upon the 〈◊〉 ] After they have scaled it (as afore) they shall walk or run upon it as Conquerors, without fear of an enemy: Alexander the great would do so.

they shall climb up upon the houses ] No longer now the owners castles: for they shall be ferrited out of their retiring rooms, or forced to do as Sardanapalus the Assyrian Monarch did; who, straighted by the enemy, sacrificed himself with his wealth and wenches to Vulcan in a wood-pile, (as One phraseth it) in his royal palace.

they shall enter in at the windows, as a thief ] whose property is 1. to climb up some other way, and not to enter in by the door John. 10.1. death also getteth in by the windows and that way entereth into palaces Ier. 9.21. so doth Satan (that thief of the truth, as Basil calleth him) wind himself into the soul by the eyes, those windows of wickedness and loop-holes of lust. 2. to rifle and ransack, and leave little enough behind him. What clean-work these insets made, see before chap. 1.4. and take notice what great matters God Almighty can do by the most contemptible creatures. Quid ciniphe vilius, saith Philo the Jew, what can be baser then a louse? and yet all the strength of Egypt was brought down by that despicable vermin? Pliny in his eight book and twenty fourth chapter tell's us out of Mr. Varro, that a great town in Spain was undermined and overturned by conyes; another in Thessaly by Moles: a third in France undone by Frogs: a fourth in Africa by Locusts: a fifth in Italy by Serpents &c. Who hath not heard of Hatto, that merciless Archbishop of Ments devoured by Mice, though he had motted up himself against their invasion in an Island? God cannot possibly want a weapon wherewith to beat his Rebels.

Verse 10 The earth shall quake before them &c. ] Tragicis figuris calamitatem amplificat, saith Luther here. By such tragical terms the Prophets use to set forth an horrible desolation, such as first the Assyrians and afterwards the Romans brought upon the Jews: the Turks and Saracens upon the Christian churches whether there were any such earthquake or stupendous concussions of the heavenly bodies as is here described, is uncertain. Strange forerunners there were both in heaven and earth of the last destruction of Jerusalem, as Christ also had foretold. In the days of Justinian the Emperor, the Sun for the greatest part of an year gave so little light, that it was but equal to the light of the Moon, the sky being clear without clouds or anything to shadow it: after which, there followed a great famine, and much war and bloodshed.

the Sun and the moon shall be dark ] Wondrous expressions to meet with their wondrous stupidity. The Hebrew Doctors (and Oecolampadius much disliketh it not) allegorize the text; and by the earth understand the common people, by the heavens the Grandees, by the Sun and Moon the king and kingdom, as by the Stars those of indifferent rank, all which are woe begone (as they say) by reason of the present calamities: as when upon the death of Prince Henry, Great Britain was said to be all in black; and as Demades was wont to say of the Achenians, nunquam eos sapere nisi pullis vestibus indutos that they were never so wise, as when they were in mourning weeds.

Verse 11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army ] In the head of his army, as Generals use to do for encouraging the soldiers. A General should be like Quintilians Orator, Vir bonus, dicendi peritus, both valiant and eloquent, as was Cato Censorius, Optimus Orator, Optimus etiam Imperator saith Pliny: and Julius Caesar, and Hunniades, who were Masters of speech as well as men of their hands: So was Joab David's General, of whose speech to the army 2 Sam 10.12. Pelican saith, Non potuit vox Duce dignior cogitari, A braver speech could not have been uttered by the mouth of a mortal. But here God himself uttereth his voice before his army: for the Lord is a man of war Exod. 15.3. a Victor of wars (as the Chaldee there hath it) and what wonder since the voice of the Lord is powerful, the voice of the Lord is full of Majesty. Psal. 29.4. he sets on and gives the signal of the battle to these Locusts, he puts spirit into them and cries Courage, my hearts: and thence it is, that they are so valorous and victorious.

for his camp is very great ] His camp these Locusts are called, though they knew it not. He hisseth for the Fly of Egypt and for the Be, that is in the land of Assyria. And they shall come and rest all of them in the desolate valleys, &c. Esa. 7.18, 19. The Assyrian, is the rod of God's anger, and the staf in his hand. I will send him saith the Lord, against an hypocritical nation, to avenge the quarrel of my covenant. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so &c. Isaiah. 10.5, 6, 7. But it is here, as when in applying of horse-leeches, the Physician seeketh the health of his patient, the leech only the filling of his gorge. Almighty God as he disposeth and ordereth membra culicis & pulicis, as Austin hath it, the members of the meanest creatures: so by the same power and providence, he overruleth all their motions, to his own glory.

for he is strong that executeth his word ] Or, that thing is strong, that weak Locust, set a work by God, shall do his will vigorously (and not faintly as Jer. 48.10.) shall go through stitch with it, and none shall hinder it.

for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible ] Tremble therefore and humble under this mighty hand of God: let this earthquake work in you an heart-quake, these horrible commotions and calamities draw from you a shower of tears, or at least a storm of sighs for your sins: unless ye hold it better to be carnally secured then soundly comforted.

who can abide it? ] Or else avoid it, otherwise then by repentance? Am. 8.12. Fly, saith a Reverend man, from God's anger to God's grace. Blood-letting is a cure of bleeding: and a burn a cure against a burn. Running to God is the way to escape him: as to close, and get in with him that would strike you, doth avoid the blow.

Verse 12 Therefore also now saith the Lord ] Now though it be late first, and, as you may think, too late. Now, though the dreadful day of the Lord be very near at hand: yea though the Locusts be already come, as Kimchi senseth it. Oh that ye would know at the last in this your day of grace, the things that belong to your peace, before the gate be shut, the draw-bridg taken up, the taper burnt out &c. Behold now is the accepted time: behold now is the day of salvation, 2 Cor. 6.2. The Apostle (after the Prophet Isaiah ) purposely beateth upon the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as if he should say, Now, or never; since thou mayest, the very next minute be cut off by the stroke of death from all further time of repentance and acceptation. Up therefore and be doing: It is the Lord himself that thus saith,

Turn ye even to me, ] Usque ad me, altogether as far as to me: give not the half turn only: begin not to repent, and then give over the work. Some are ever about to repent, but they can never find time, and hearts to set seriously about it, to do it in good earnest. Some wamblings they have, as I may say, and some short-winded wishes, some kind of willingness and velleity, but it doth not boil up to the full height of resolution to return. The Prodigal changed many places, ere he came home. Many came out of Egypt, that yet never came into Canaan.

with all your heart, ] with the heart, Jer. 4.14. Prov. 23.26. and with the whole heart, in opposition to a divided heart, Hos. 10.2. a double heart, Jam. 4.8. a heart, and a heart, Psal. 12.2. This whole heart, is elsewhere called, a true heart, Heb. 10.22. a perfect heart, 2 Chron. 16.10. truth in the inwards, Psal. 51.6. where there is an unfeigned faith, 1 Tim. 1.5. laborious love, 1 Thess. 1.3. sound and cordial repentance, as here, undissembled wisdom, Jam. 3.17. such holiness as rendereth a man like to a crystal glass with a light in the midst of it, doing the truth, Job. 3.21 and having his works full, Rev. 3.1, 2. being a true worshipper, Joh. 4.24. an Israelite indeed, John. 1.47. God, he knows to be just, and jealous: he will not endure corrivals, or compartners in the kingdom. His jurisdiction is without peculiar: he will not divide with the Devil. Be the gods of the Heathen good-fellows? saith One; the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. He must be served truly, that there be no halting; and totally, that there be no halving

and with fasting, weeping, and with mourning. ] with deep, and down-right humiliation, suitable to your sins as Ezr. 9.6. ye have inveterate stains; such as will not be gotten out, till the cloth be almost rubbed to pieces. Satan hath intrenched himself in your hearts, and will not be gotten out, but by fasting and prayer. Fasting, is of itself but a bodily exercise, and meriteth nothing; for religion consisteth not in meat and drink 〈◊〉 the belly full or empty, Rom. 14.17. Col. 2.23. But fasting is a sin • ular furtherance to the practice of repentance, and the enforcing of our prayers. • ee Ezr. 8.21. As full feeding increaseth corruption, Ier. 5.7, 8. so religious A • stinence macerateth, tameth, and subdueth the Rebell Flesh, 1 Cor. 9.27. giving it the blew-eye, as there, and 2 Co • . 7.11. so that not the body so much, as the soul is made more active by emptiness. Fasting days are soul-fatting days, they fit men for conversion as here, and make much to the humbling of the spirit; hence they are called days of humiliation, and of self affliction, Levite. 16.31. and 23.37.

and with weeping, [Drown your sins in a deluge of tears; cleanse your wounds by washing in this precious water: quench hell fire with it, kill the woe • m, fetch out sins venom: there's a healing property in these troubled waters. Tears of vine-branches are said to cure the leprosy, and the Olive is reported to be most fruitful, when it most distil eth. These April showers bring on May -flowers, and make the heart as a watered garden; or as some faces appear most oriently beautiful, when most bedewed with tears. Peter never looked so sweetly as when he wept bitterly. David never sung more pathetically then when his heart was broken most penitentially, Psal. 6. and 51. when tears instead of gems were the ornament of his bed, as Chrysostom speaketh. Mary Magdalene (that great weeper) as she made her eyes a fountain to wash Christ's feet in, so she had his wounds as a fountain to bath her soul in; yea she had afterwards the first sight of the revived Phoenix, whom she held fast by those feet, that had lately trod upon the lion, and the adder, &c.

and with mourning. ] This is added, as a degree beyond the former. Men may fast, and yet find their pleasures, Isaiah 58.13. weep out of stomach as Esau, or complement, as Phryne the harlot, who was surnamed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , weep-laugh, because she could easily do either: and as among the Brasileans, tears are for a present salutation, and as soon gone, as if they had said, How do ye? What is an humbling day, without an humbled heart? not only a religious incongruity, but an high provocation; like Zimri's act, when all the Congregation were weeping, before the door of the Tabernacle. Here therefore the Lord calleth to mourning, funerallmourning, as the word signifieth: with tabring upon the breast, Nah. 2.7. smiting on the thigh, Jer. 31.19. beating on the head, face, and other parts, sicut mulierculae in puerperio facere solent, saith Luther there. See Isaiah 32.11. and 22.12. Sorrow for sin must not be slight and sudden, but sad and soaking: the heart must be turned into an Hadadrimmon, Zech. 12.10, 11. where the Prophet seems in a sort, to be at a stand, for comparisons fit enough, and full enough, to set forth their sorrow, who looking upon Christ whom they had pierced, felt the very nails sticking in their own hearts, as so many sharp daggers, or stings of scorpions. The good soul (say the School-men) seeth more cause of grief for sinning, then for the death of Christ: because therein was aliquid placens, something that pleaseth: but sin is simpliciter displicens, simply displeasing. So that God's mourners need not send for mourning women to teach them to mourn, as Jer. 19.17. but rather have need to be comforted, lest they should be swallowed up with overmuch grief, 2 Cor. 2.7. and lest Satan get an advantage against them, verse 11. by mixing the detestable darnel of desperation, with the godly sorrow of a pure penitent heart, as Mr. Philpot Martyr speaketh.

Verse 13. And rent your heart and not your garments, ] i. e. not your garments only, which was gestus perturbationis, among the Jews, a gesture usual with them, to set forth the greatness of their grief and displeasure; as 1. At funerals, and loss of friends, as Gen. 37.2. In case of blasphemy, as 2 King. 18.3. In time of common calamity, Esth. 4.1. Godly sorrow for sin should exceed all other sorrows whatsoever, both in intention, and extension: the whole soul sending continual streams into it out of every faculty. And hence it is that the Prophet here calleth upon them to Ront, and as it were to discontinuate their hearts, Cor integrum, cor scissum, the broken heart is the only sound heart: and to rent the garment, and not the heart, is as very a juggle as that of Players, who seem to wound themselves, but do not; and make a show of thrusting themselves thorough their bodies, but the sword passeth only thorough their clothes. Stage-players can act to the life those whom they personate; yea out-strip them in outward actions: so do hypocrites the true Christian. Doth good Josiah melt at the menaces of the law, and weep, and rend his clothes, and humble himself? wicked Ahab will, also in like case, rend his clothes, put sackcloth upon his flesh, fast, lie in sack cloth, and go softly and heavily, as sorrowful men and mourners use to do. Doth the Publican fix his eyes on the ground? those hypocrites in Isaiah will hang down their heads as bulrushes. Doth holy Timothy weaken his constitution with religious abstinence? the false Pharisee will not only weaken his constitution, but wither and disfigure his complexion, that he may appear to men to fast, Matth. 6.16. Such pains men will be at for applause, for a little stinking breath; which yet cannot blow one cold blast upon them, when they shall be frying in hell for their seemingnesse. Rent therefore your hearts, saith the Prophet: break up your fallow-ground, circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the filthy fore-skin of your hearts, Jer. 4.3, 4. wash them from wickedness that ye may be saved, verse 14. Be ye active, and voluntaries in your sorrows for sin. Virtus nolentium nulla est; Fained and forced grief is nothing worth. Judas grieved, confessed, restored, and yet miscarried. He went not forth, as Peter, to weep bitterly: he did not cast himself: into heaviness, as I am. 4.9, 10. It was fired out of him, as sweet-water out of roses. It was squeezed out of him, as Verjuice out of crabs. God's people are commanded to afflict themselves with voluntary sorrows, Lev. 16. to loath themselves for all their abominations, Ezek. 16. to mortify the deeds of the body by the spirit, to do it with their own hands: and not to give over the practice of it, till they feel their hearts to ache, and quake within them, yea to fall asunder in their bosoms, like drops of water. See all this done by David, after he had numbered the people, 2 Sam. 24.10. Some shadow of it we have in the example of Epaminondas the Theban General, who the next day after the Victory and Triumph, went drooping and hanging down his head: and being asked, why he did so? he answered, Yesterday I felt myself too much tickled with vain-glory: therefore I correct myself for it today. But we have a better example in holy David, whose heart smote him, saith the Text, and made him smart inwardly. He was not yet smitten, either by God's hand, or the Prophets reproof (as afterwards) but his sanctified conscience did its office of a faithful Monitour, and household Chaplain: his heart misgave him. Be-masters tell us, that those are the best hives, that make the greatest noise. Sure it is that that's the best conscience, that suffers not a man to sleep in sin. David's heart smote him. But for what? for numbering the people. It was for his own sin, for a small, for a secret sin, for a failing in the manner only. David knew that a man may die as well of an inward bleeeding, as of an outward hurt. The good soul is oft afflicted for failings in that holy duty which others applaud and extol. And David said unto the Lord: he could not rest till he had opened his mind unto him by confession and supplication, and so got a vent to his troubled spirit: as when a sore is opened, there is ease immediately. To God therefore he addresseth himself, not to men (as Judas did and Papists do, and many amongst us being in pain of conscience will rather shark for ease, then sue for pardon,) and acknowledgeth with aggravation the iniquity of his sin, the sinfulness of it as Paul's expression is Rom. 7.13. (for sin is so vile that he could call it no worse then by its own name) I have sinned greatly in that I have done: his sin swelled like a toad in his eyes, and he spat it out of his mouth with utmost indignation. He confesseth sorrowfully, but not desperately, as Judas: for he both cries for pardon. Take away the iniquity (for as for the punishment how he stood affected see verse. 17. Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me, and my fathers house ) and concludeth himself God's servant, yea proveth himself so, (as some godly learned think,) by those following words, For I have done foolishly; q. d. If I deserve not to be called God's servant in regard of my late sin (and indeed God calls him but plain David verse. 12. Go and say to David, not to my servant David, as at other times,) yet at least in regard of my later service of confession joined with Reformation; for now I see I have done very foolishly, who once thought I had done wondrous wisely and politically.

and turn unto the Lord your God ] Of turning to God see at large, the Note on Zach. 1.3. Here it is prescribed as a remedy against God's wrath, and pressed again and again, to show the necessity of doing it, or we are utterly undone. So elsewhere, Turn you, turn you, why will you die? except ye repent, ye must needsly perish. Aut poenitendum aut pereundum, Either you must turn on earth, or burn in hell: be born again, or ye cannot see the kingdom of God. Heaven was too hot to hold the Apostate-Angel. And although the devil could get into paradise: yet no unclean thing ever gat into heaven. No dirty dog may trample on that golden pavement. The pure in heart only can see God, as whole eyes can look upon the Sun-beams, and as transparent bodies receive the light. Turn you therefore unto the Lord, If a man see a Lion or a burning fire before him, he will make some shift to turn another way. So here: biasse, for there is no safety in going forward: since our God is a consuming fire: and as a roaring lion will tear, and rent the cawle of our hearts in sunder Hos. 13.8. if we rent not our hearts, and turn unto him. By turning may well be here meant Reformation, that Repentance from sin (as Humiliation before required, is in scripture called Repentance for sin ) for it is not enough to mourn unless we mend also, to bewail our wickedness, but we must embrace better courses, Jer. 26 13. Esa. 1.16. Mat. 3.8. Rom. 12.9, & 13, 11. Eph. 4.22. God for this cause gives us the light of Nature and Scripture, besides other means, and time enough. Had he given us but one Prophet only, and but forty days, as he dealt by Nineveh, we should have done it as they did. How much more now that we abound with leisure (read Jezebels sin and sentence Rev. 2.21.) and have so many Prophets rising up early and speaking to us, Turn ye again now everyone from his evil way Jer. 25.4, 5. what will become of us if we refuse to be reclaimed, hate to be healed. This one Prophet here fills his mouth with arguments. First, it is not to a tyrant or a stranger that you are exhorted to turn, but to the Lord your God, to him that is your head, husband, father, who hates putting away, having once betrothed you to himself in righteousness and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in tender mercies Hos. 2.19. Next, This Lord our God is, for his sweet and patient nature here set forth to be Gratious, and will therefore love you freely Hos. 14.4. Merciful, and will therefore pity your misery: Slow to anger, or not apt to snuff, but a master of his wrath Nah. 1.2. and one that can bear more then any other whatsoever Mic. 7.17.

And, of great kindness ] or Much in goodness, doing good to the evil and unthankful, as our Savior yokes them.

and repenteth him of the evil ] A little punishment being enough to a father for a great fault, Where note, that God's repentance is not a change of his will, but of his work only: and so he repents for his people, when he seeth their power is gone, Deut. 32.36. when there is dignus vindice nodus, an extremity fit for divine power to interpose: when the enemies are ready to devour the church or Satan to swallow down God's child in despair, his bowels work, he can hold no longer, but cries Save my child, save my church &c Jer. 31.20. then he sends out his Mandamus for deliverance, Psal. 44.4. then he comes with his Non obstante as Psal. 106.8. Isaiah. 57.15 Now who would not return to such a God? and what heart can resist such powerful Rhetoric? An heap of words we have here (taken for most part out of Exod. 34.6.) and all to draw out faith, and encourage those that have any mind to look toward God. It is no such easy thing to believe, as fond folk conceit; and to comfort a conscience cast down in the sense of sin and fear of wrath is no less difficult, saith Luther, then to raise the dead from the grave. If men fear they shall fail of mercy upon their return to God. Either they will fall into dedolency or despair. But persuade them once of the goodness of God, and it will lead them to repentance; Rom. 2.4. Let them see that in their fathers house is bread enough, and they will home immediately: that God will abundantly pardon, and he shall have suitors great store. Esa. 55.7. The sweet and gracious nature of God should be as a perpetual picture in our hearts; and an effectual motive to make men turn unto him.

Verse 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent &c. ] Hitherto the Prophet had argued from God's gracious disposition: now here from his courteous and bounteous dealing with his converts.

who knoweth if &c. ] This is not the speech of one that doubteth and is uncertain (as was that of D • vid 1 Sam. 12.22. who can tell whether God will have mercy on me, that the child may live?) but of one earnestly affirming and avouching, as was that of Mordecai Esth. 4.14. And who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this? q. d. 'It is sure thou art. And it is no less sure that if men Turn to God, he will turn to them Zach. 1.3. and that whithersoever he comes, • e leaves a blessing behind him. His favor is no empty favor: it is not like the winter-Sun, that casts a goodly countenance on the earth, but gives little heat and comfort God ever comes with his Cornu-copia in his hand: and his steps drop fatness. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and God even our own God shall bless us, saith the church Psal. 67.6. He will do it the rather, saith our Prophet, that his people may the more cheerfully serve him, when they shall have a meat-offering and a drink offering, et sic maneat int ger cultus ipsius, and so he may have his daily service duly performed: for of this the saints are most solicitous: it is their desire that God should be glorified, rather then that themselves should be gratified, and their own turns served.

Verse 15. Bl • w the trumpet in Zion ] that all may hear, and convene: those of Jerusalem in the Temple, and the rest in their several Synagogues Lev. 23.31. for that yearly fast was standard to the rest, kept upon extraordinary and emergent occasions, as here, for the preventing of the fore threatened judgment. Papists appoint set fasting-days as Lent, and Friday, in every week, Eves of hollydayes &c. whether the times be clear or cloudy. A Lapide, also the Jesuit keeps a coyle against Luther and the Centurists, for decrying their Popish processions and public Litanies, which he thinks to be here and elsewhere authorised. A discourse he giveth us here too, about the use and original of bells among Christians, answerable to trumpets amongst the Jews. A Symmist of his, Cenalis Bishop of Auranches, to prove their Pope-holy Church the true Church, maketh no mention at all either of Preaching or Sacraments: but produceth bells for a sufficient mark of the Catholke true church: we have bells, saith he, whereby our Assemblies are ordinarily called together: but the Lutherans have claps of harquebuzes and pistolets for signs whereby they congregate: betwixt which and bells he maketh a long Antithesis: and therehence inferreth, that the church of Rome is the true church. A proper argument: and yet the man pleaseth himself as much in it, as the second-Council of Nice did in their profound proofs for idolatry, which (as One well saith of them) were such as that the Images themselves (if they were sensible) would blush to hear repeated.

Sanctify a fast ] See the Note on chap. 1.14. Proclaime a religious abstinence from all kind of sustenance (2 Sam. 12.17. John. 3.) for a season, either from morning till evening, as Judge. 20.26. 2 Sam. 3.35. or from evening till evening Lev. 23.32. or longer as Esth. 4.16. Act. 9.9. as the hand and wrath of God is more or less felt or feared. But the least time that may be, is a whole day: there is an old Canon, that our fasts should continue usque dum stellae in coelo appareant till the stars appear in the sky. The very Turks in their solemn fasts eat nothing all the day till night: yea so precise they are, that upon their fasting days they will not so much as wash their mouths with water, till the stars appear: with maketh their fasts (especially in the Summer, when the days be long and hot,) to be unto them very tedious. Christians hold and teach that nature is by fasting to be chastised, and not disabled for service: and that such as cannot fast so long but they shall either endanger health, or be unfitted for the spiritual duties of the day, may eat: provided, that they abuse not this liberty to the satisfying of the flesh. Coloss: 2.23. 1 Tim. 5.23.

call a solemn assembly ] See chap. 1.14. with the Note.

Verse 16. Gather the people, Sanctify the Congregation &c. ] Let the Priests God's ministers see to it, that the people come together: and for the better too, as much as in them lies. For they are to the people in place of watchmen, of Sentinels, of Ambassadors, and in Christ's own stead, who seems to say unto them as Psal. 50.5. Gather my saints together unto me, those that have made a Covenant with me by sacrifice, that they may meet me with entreaties of peace, disarm mine indignation conceived against them, and quench the flame thereof with their tears; not quench the spirit in their teachers by their crossness, and backwardness to business of this nature.

assemble the Elders ] Whether for age as Job. 15.10. or for place of authority as Josh. 7.6. 1 Sam. 15.30. Ruth. 4.4. These must be chief doers and most forward at fasts, as was Joshua, Jehosapat, the King of Nineveh, Ezra &c. For 1 they are most guilty in regard of their years and their office which either addeth two wings to their, sins viz. Example, and Scandal, whereby facile volant, non facile violant they sore much higher, and fly much further. 2 Their presence, counsel, and countenance may be a great furtherance to the work. See Ezek. 46.10. The Prince in the midst of the people, when they go in, shall go in: and when they go forth, shall go forth. A Lapide saith, that the Elder sort are to meet, because they are least lustful, and more prayerfull. It should be so I confess: but how many old goats are there abroad, that even hang over hell, which gapeth for them? and as the canker soonest entereth into the white rose, so doth corruption easily creep into the white head. He was a rare old man of whom we read, that being tempted to sin said, Nay: least he should stain his white head.

Gather the children and those that suck the breasts ] For they are church-members, and to them also pertain the public dangers and calamities: out of which times and cases, children and Novices are not to be tied to these austerities of religion, (as our Savior showeth Mat. 9.17.) as little, as new wine is to be put into old vesels. Add hereunto, that the parents might by the sight of their poor children (subject to God's wrath by their default,) be brought to a further sense of their own sinfulness; and moved by their cries and laments ut ferventius orent, & pl • rent, to cry and pray more earnestly.

Let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber ] The new-married-man was by the law allowed to cheare up his wife Deut. 24.5. and therefore exempted from warfare, and other public employments abroad Deut. 20.7 and the wedding-day is called the day of the rejoicing of a man's heart Cant. 3.11. They were wont to have a week of feasting at such times Gen. 29.27. Fulfill her week sc. of banquet and bride-ale, as they call it. And it is noted as an absurd thing in Samson's wife, that she wept all the seven days of such a feast, when mirth was so much in season. But is it a time for men to hang their hearts upon the merry pin, when God calls them to hang up their Harps upon the Willow-trees? when the sword is sharpened to make a sore slaughter, when it is furbished and glittereth, and contemneth the rod, ( i. e. lesser and lighter judgments, that usually fore-run it) should we then make mirth? Ezek. 21.10. Should men eat, and drink, and marry, and be merry, when tomorrow they may look to die, and are already stumbling in the valley of the shadow of death? Such a thing the old world may do, buried in security, and to be shortly therefore buried in one universal grave of waters. But holy Noah was vexed at it: and Ambrose thinks (not without reason) that during the time of the deluge, all the while that he was in the Ark, he came as little at his wife, as Uriah did, while the Ark, and Judah, and Israel abode in Tents, and Joab, and the Hoste encamped in the fields, 2 Sam. 11.11. Nehemiah, though a great Courtier, and the Kings Cup-bearer, could not but be sad, when it went ill with the Church: all comforts then were but Ichabods to him, he had no joy of them. Sorrow at such a time is better then laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better, Eccles. 7.3. The mad world is a perfect stranger to the truth of this sacred Position, as having so far banished sadness, that they are professed enemies to seriousness; and stick not to light a candle at the devil (as they say) for sinful lightsomeness. But woe be to such mad Mirth-mongers, saith our Savior, Luke 6.25. and after him, St. James chap. 5.1, 5. and before them both, the Prophet Isaiah chap. 22.12, 13, 14. and the Prophet Amos chap. 6.4, 5, 6. What so lawful as the use of the marriage-bed, Heb. 13.4? and for whom more lawful, then for the bride-groom, and bride? Yet in a common calamity, and in a day of restraint (as a fast-day is called, Joel 2.15.) married couples must abstain, 1 Cor. 7.5. where the Apostle speaketh of a public fast, as Peter Martyr observeth. Hence Zech. 8.19. they separated themselves, at such a time. And it is spoken of as a foul sin, Isaiah 58.3. behold in the day of your fast, ye find pleasure. All sensual delights, though never so lawful at other times, must be then suspended and laid aside: As music, mirth, perfumes, Dan. 6.18. brave apparel, Exod. 33.4, &c. all ornaments of the body, soft-lying, 2 Sam 12.16. all cheerfulness and outward joy, Judge. 20.26. 1 Sam. 7.8. The Roman Censor punished one that shown himself out of a window, with a garland upon his head, in the time of the second Punic war.

Verse 17. Let the Priests, the Ministers of the Lord, ] Let not them be either dull, or dumb, (as Popish Mass-priests with their dumb-shows at divine Service) but as (for their dignity) they are the Lord's Ministers, (as likewise the good Angels are, and their (fellow-servants) so (according to their duty) they must be first in holy exercises: going in and out before God's people in the perfor •• nce of their trust, and that worthy work of theirs, 1 Tim. 3.1. for the which 〈◊〉 , are to be very highly esteemed in love, 1 Thess. 5.13. Let Ministers therefore pray hard for their people, as did Aaron, Samuel, Paul, &c. Let their prayers (at • asts especially) be well watered with tears (those effectual Orators, that cry to God for mercy, Psal. 39.12. as blood doth for vengeance, Gen. 4.16.) as theirs were Judge. 20.23. and Judges 2.5. and 1 Sam. 7.6. and as Ezra, chap. 10.1. and • remy, chap. 9.1. and 13.17. and why? but for corruption in Magistrates, Ministers, All sorts; a general defection drawing on a general desolation. Oh let God's two faithful witnesses be clothed in sack-cloth, Rev. 11.3. teaching God's people with many tears and temptations, both publicly and from house to house: yea, not ceasing to warn them night and day with tears, to redeem their own sorrows by sound repentance. It is said of Athanasius, that by his tears, as by the bleeding of a chaste Vine, he cured the leprosy of that tainted Age. And of Luther, that by his prayers and tears he had prevailed with God, that Popery should not over-run his country, during his days. When I am dead, said He, let those pray that can pray. Melanchthon, his Colleague, writeth, that he constantly prayed with abundance of tears: for he knew, that as Music upon the waters, sounds farther, and more harmoniously then upon the land: so prayers join'd with tears, find much respect with Christ; who could not but look back upon the weeping women, and comfort them, though he was then going to his death.

between the porch and the altar, ] This was that void place; where the Priests prayed after the sacrifices were offered, Ezek. 8.16. As in man, there is Body, Soul, and Spirit, 1 Thess. 5.23. so in the Temple at Jerusalem, 1. between Solomon's Porch, Act. 3.11. and the Altar of burnt-offering, was the outer great Court, 2. Chron. 4.9. where the people met for preaching and prayer. Next, there was the second Court, for the Priests only: and here was the Altar of incense, Luke 1.9, 10. Thirdly, the most Holy place, for the High-priest to enter once a year, Num. 17.10. The first is here spoken of, the outer Court, where the priests might be best heard to pray, and seen to weep; and the people might comport, and say Amen; the want whereof St. Paul counts no small loss, 1 Cor. 14.16.

and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, &c.] Other exercises there were usually performed at public fasts; as Reading the Scriptures, Jer. 36.5, 27. expounding and preaching, Neh. 8.4, 8. examining, censuring, and punishing such sins as then most reigned, Neh. 9.2. Ezr. 9.2. Josh. 7. and 22. Binding themselves to God by a Covenant of better obedience, Nehem. 10.18, 29, 30. Contributing to good uses, Isaiah 58.7. and 2 Chron. 31.3, 4. But the chief business and duty of the day was, as here, Prayer to God for pardon of sin, and removal of shame, and other punishment: whence also it was called, A day of Atonement, or Expiation.

Spare thy people, O Lord, &c. Brevis oratio, sed tota affectibus ardens, saith Mercer, A short prayer, but very affectionate: So are all Scripture-forms: they have fullness of matter, in fewness of words. Quam multa, quam paucis! How much in a little! as Tully said of Brutus his Laconicall Epistle. See Numb. 6.24, 25, 26. Hos. 14.2. Luke 18.13. Matt. 6.9, 10, &c. which is both a prayer, and a pattern: as the standard is the exactest measure. Why then should any man fall out with forms, and call them idols, odious as swine's-flesh, &c? Why should they say, that the use of the Lord's Prayer is the Note of a formalist? Is not this to speak evil of good, &c.

and give not thine heritage to reproach: ] Suffer us not, for our sins, to be forced by famine, to beg bread of our enemies the Ammonites, and Moabites: for that will reflect upon thee Lord, and turn to thy dishonor, as if thou hadst no care of thine heritage, couldst not maintain thy servants. See a like prayer to this, Num. 14.11.12, 16, 17, &c. and Deut. 9.26, 27, 28. and learn to deprecate shame and reproach as a fruit of sin, and a piece of the curse, Deut. 28. Lev. 26. 1 Sam. 2.30. Beg of God; 1. To keep thee from reproachful courses, such as may expose thee to the scandal of the weak, and scorn of the wicked. David is much in this petition. 2. To hide thee in a pavilion from the strife of tongues, Psal. 31.20. either to preserve thee from aspersions, or so to oil thy name, that they may not stick. 3 To give thee good repute and report among the best. 'Twas God gave Solomon honor; and he promiseth it to all his, as a reward of religion, Prov. 22.4.

that the heathen should rule over them: ] It is an heavy hand of God upon his people, when Pagans or Papagans have dominion over them, Neh. 9.9, 10, 27, &c. Psal. 79.1, &c. and 80.1, 2, &c. and 137.1, 2, &c. Lam. 1.2, 4, 5. They are bloody in their positions, and dispositions. See Rom. 1.31. their government is tyrannical, such as the Spaniards is over the poor Indians, the Turks over Greece, the Rebels over the English in Ireland, &c. The Saints also are, 1. Consciencious, and cannot yield to their unlawful commands, as the three children. 2. Zealous, and cannot but contest, as Steven, Paul at Athens, the Martyrs. 3. Friendlesse, and destitute, Matt. 10.16. as Paul afore Nero, Christ afore Pilate, forsaken of all. Pray therefore as here, and prevent such a mischief, by shunning Jerusalem's sins of ignorance, ingratitude, incorrigibleness, formallity, &c. and by putting our necks under the yoke of Christ's obedience, observing from the heart that form of doctrine which he hath delivered unto us, Rom. 6.17.

wherefore should they say among the people, Where is their God? ] q. d. Why should they cast our religion in our dish? why should they twit us with thy neglect of us? why should thy name be blasphemed, and thy power traduced, as it were on a public theater? This was that which most galled these good souls, (as it had oft done David before them) that God, with whom they quartered arms, should be reproached for their sakes, and thorough their sides; and his glory defaced. This was as a murthering-knife in David's bones, Psal. 42.10. and worse to him then all the evil that he had suffered from his youth up. Our nature is most impatient of reproach: for there is none so mean but thinks himself worthy of some regard: and a reproachful scorn shows an utter disrespect which flows from the very superfluity of malice. You shall find some (saith Erasmus) that if death be threatened can despise it: but to be belied or reproached, they cannot brook, nor from revenge contain. God's people can bear wrongs best of any: compel them to go a mile, thei'le be content, if it may do good, to go two, yea as far as the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace will carry them. But if wrong be offered to God, if he be any way dishonored, or his Name bored through by blasphemies, O what a stomach they have presently, and how blessedly blown up are they, with a zeal of God's glory, which even eateth them up.

Verse 18. Then will the Lord be jealous (or, Zealous ) for his land ] Then dicto citiùs straight upon it; no sooner shall you repent (as is prescribed,) but the Lord will be jealous &c. Of God's jealousy for his people, see the Note on Zech. 1.14. and 8, 2. And of the happy effect of fasting turned to feasting, see the Note on Zach. 8.19. See also Judge. 20.23. Ezra. 9.6. Dan. 9.20. 2 Chron. 20. Bacah turned into Berachah: besides the constant experience of these and former times, of the happy success and unmiscarrying returns of holy fasting and prayer: no instance to the contrary. God usually answers his humbling people, as here, according to the desire of their hearts: neither so only, but according to the request of their lips also. Psal. 21.2. he fits his mercy ad cardinem desiderii: and lets it be to his, even as they will. They say Spare thy people, and accordingly he will pity or spare his people, saith the Prophet. They would not have God to give his heritage to reproach by inflicting famine upon them, as if they served an hard master that would affamish them. To this God gives a full answer in the next verse, Behold I will send you corn &c. Again, they desire God to take care of his own great name, and to vindicate it. I will, saith God, by doing greatest things for you Verse. 20. and by causing the blasphemers to return and discern that their Rock is not as your Rock, themselves being judges: and that to ask, where is now their God? is as great folly, as if one should say, betwixt the space of the new and old moon, Where is now the Moon? when as it is never nearer the Sun, then at that time. There are some Interpreters of good note, that read this verse not in the Future, but in the Preter tense, thus, Then was the Lord zealous for his land, and pitied his people, sc. when once he saw them seriously to repent, he did all this that followeth for them. Neither maketh it anything against this interpretation, that the repentance of this people, their assembling and fasting &c. is not recorded. For no more is it that Moses went to Pharaoh according to God's command, to threaten those swarms of flies