Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. IIII.

Verse 1. HEare this word ye kine of Bashan ] Obesae & been pastae, ye fat bawsons (as we use to call them) ye that are

Ye that have hearts as fat as grease, and delight not in God's law Psal. 119.70. Ye that cover your faces with fatness, Job. 15.27. till both your eyes stand out with it Psal. 73.7.8. (as fullness breeds forgetfulness Deut. 32.15. the fed hawk forsakes his master) as untamed heyfers full-fed, ye have been unruly and refractary, means of much mischief to my poor afflicted, as was Jezebel to Elijah, Herodias to the Baptist, Eudoxia the Empresse to Chrysostom, Theodora to Bellisarius that brave and noble Captain, and others; Poor Tegedine suffered many years captivity in misery and irons, by the Turk, for one word in a sermon, which distasted a proud and petulant woman without the least cause. What cruel persecutions raised the Q. Mother of Scotland about the beginning of the Reformation there? the Q. Mother of France Katherine de Medices, for thirty years together? Q. Mary here, being wholly possessed by the Bishops, as Alexandra was by the Pharisees, of whom Josephus testifieth that she had the name, but they had all the power of the kingdom? Oh these kine of Bashan, these wanton and wicked women (for so I understand the text after the Jew-Doctors Vatablus, Lyra, Lively &c. ) when once they get the reins in their hands, there is no hoe with them: when once the devil gets passage per costam ad cor (as Gregory speaketh) by the rib to the heart, what may he not effect? when the hen is suffered to crow, what hope is there of good? David complains of strong bulls of Bashan Psal. 22, 12. but those he might better deal with, then with these cursed cows of Bashan that thrust with side and shoulder, and pushed the diseased with their horns, till they had scattered them abroad, Ezek. 34.21.

that are in the mountains of Samaria ] Ladies of the Court, accustomed to high titles, such as I (that am non aulâ sed caulâ natus & educatus, no courtier but carter rather, and used to call a spade a spade ) care not to complement.

which oppress the poor, which crush the needy ] As did, much about the same time, Jezebel in Israel, and Athaliah in Judah: and (besides the above-mentioned) Dame Alice Piercy K. Edward the thirds concubine, an impudent woman; who so far wrought upon the kings impotencies, and presumed on his favor, that she imprisoned Sr. Peter Lamare Speaker in Parliament, and intermeddled in courts of Justice, and other offices; where she her self would sit to effect her desires: which though in all who are so exalted are ever excessive, yet in a woman, most immoderate: as having less of discretion and more of greediness. I have spoken before of Diana Valentina King Henry the second of France his mistress, to whom he had given all the confiscations of goods made in the kingdom for cause of heresy, whereby many poor Protestants were oppressed, and needy crushed and quashed to pieces: for a poor man in his house is like a snail in his shell: crush that, and you kill his heart.

which say to their masters ] Or, Lord's, that is to their husbands: as Sarah called her husband Lord Gen. 18.12. She in obedience, but these in craft and counterfaisance: that they may the sooner subdue them, and have what they will of them.

Bring and let us drink. ] q. d. Fac nobis potestatem in hos aut illos, saith Mercer: that is, Give us authority over such and such, that we may pick their bones, drink their tears, enrich and feast ourselves of their spoils, make no more scruple to undo them by force or forgery, then to eat a meals-meat when hungry, or then the luxurious Italians (who have twenty distinct species of liquor, to please the Gusto) do, to take off a cup of the most delicious, which they profanely call Lachrymae Christi.

Verse 2. The Lord God hath sworn by his holiness, ] He hath sworn for more assurance, Heb. 6.16, 17, 18. it being hard to persuade secure sinners of the certainty and infallibility of the threatenings: which yet will as surely befall them without repentance, as the coat is on their back, or the heart in their bodies. And, by his holiness, he hath sworn; that is, by himself, (as having none greater to swear by) confer Gen. 22.16. Jer. 51.14. Isaiah 45.23. and 62.8. where God swears by his right hand, and by the arm of his strength, Exod. 17.16. He is brought in laying his hand upon his throne; and swearing to root out Amalek. And so some in this place think, that by God's Holiness, is meant heaven, the habitation of his holiness, and of his glory. But Drusius dislikes that, because swearing by heaven is condemned by Christ, Mat. 5. If God be holiness itself, let him be sanctified in righteousness, Isaiah 5.16. and let men swear (when called to it, and not till then; the Hebrew word here used is passive, and signifieth to be sworn, rather then to swear) in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness, Jer. 4.2.

Behold the days come, ] certo & cito, surely and suddenly: even those dismal days of blackness and darkness, of greatest calamities. See chap. 5.18, 20. And let this prediction be to you as the knuckles of a man's hand, to write you your destiny; or as a prophet to read it unto you.

That he will take you away ] i. e. Ye shall be taken away, and hurried into another country: like as Isaiah 8.4. He shall take away the spoil of Samaria, i. e. It shall be surely taken away, so Luke 12.20. They do reqire thy soul, that is, it shall be required of thee.

with hooks, ] Heb. with thorns, which were wont to be used in fishing, till ironhooks were more frequent. See Job 40.21. Ezek. 29.4. and 19.4. They brought him with hooks, that is, with chains, nto the land of Egypt. Those that were overcome, were wont to be linked and langold together; and so led captive by their Conquerors.

and your posterity with fish-hooks. ] Heb. that which is last of you; your children, and nephews, as Dan. 11.4. it is foretold of Alexander the Great, that none of his race shall succeed him, but strangers. See enemies compared to fishers, Jer. 16.16. Habak. 1.16. and note, that hereby is intimated, that these insolent Dames shall be no more like fat kine, that abide in their pastures: but as fishes hanging on the hook, that are easily pulled up, and quickly carried away with little labor, but much delight to the fisher. See a like comparison from swimming, ( Isaiah 25.11.) the motion wherein is easy and not strong: to show, that God can subdue his stoutest adversaries, with greatest facility.

Verse 3: And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow, ] Quâ data porta ruitis, ye shall be glad to get out at any breach to save your lives, which now hang in suspense, Deut. 28.66. yea to ride one upon the back of another for hast, as kine do in a narrow strait. Or, ye shall be led into captivity, after the taking and disman • 'ling of your cities. See Ezek. 12.5, 12.

And ye shall cast them into the palace. ] Or, ye shall cast away the things of the palace. Ye shall cast them, that is, your children and nephews, ( verse. 2.) into the palace: either that ye may not see their destruction, as Gen. 21.16. or that they might with greater celerity, provide for their own safety. That was a singular example of the Vindelici (now called Suevians ) subdued by Drusus the Roman General under Augustus, but not without great resistance: the women throwing their young children at the Romans instead of darts. These were monstrous mothers, mad-cows indeed.

Verse 4. Come to Bethel and transgress, ] Do so, if you think 〈◊〉 good: and since you are so set upon it, go on, despair, die and be damned: That that will perish, let it perish, quoniam vobis stat sententia, since you are resolved, and there's no removing of you, take your own course, at your own peril. Here then we have a most bitter sarcasme, wherein God in seeming to command sin, showeth his utmost dislike of it: for he is not a God that loveth wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with him, Psal. 5.4. See the like Ironicall expressions, Jer. 7.21. Ezech. 20.39. Eccles. 11.9. Numb. 22.20. Isaiah 29.1. and 8.9. and 47.12. Judge. 10.14. 1 King. 18.27.

At Gilgal multiply transgressions, ] that your madness may appear to all men. See Hos. 4.15. with the Note.

and bring your sacrifices every morning, ] Like Apes imitate the daily sacrifice: and do those self-same things to your idols, which I have commanded to be done to myself alone; and in other places, that should be done at Jerusalem only. Do all this, and try what will come of it: will you try a fall with God? will you despitefully spet in the face of heaven? Do ye provoke me to anger, saith the Lord? do ye not provoke yourselves to the confusion of your own faces? Jer. 7.19.

and your tithes after three years. ] that so ye may seem to keep my Law exactly, Deut. 14.28. and to be wanting in no duty, either of piety, or charity. Wasps also have their honey-combs: idolaters a form of devotion,

Verse 5. And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, ] which I have flatly forbidden to be done, Lev. 2.11. Neither leaven nor honey (which hath a leavening property in it) might be burnt in any offering made by fire: to show how God hateth hypocrisy; which, as leaven, soureth, swelleth, impureth, both us and our services. Out with it therefore, 1 Cor. 5.7. God indeed permitted his people to offer leavened bread with the peace-offerings, Lev. 7.13. ut offenderetur, Deum ferre nostram infirmitatem, saith Alsted, to show that God beareth with our infirmities. But those leavened loaves were not to be burnt upon the altar: they were only for food to be eaten.

and proclaim and publish the free-offerings, ] that you may not seem in anything to come short of my most forward worshippers: nor to be without your holy convocations solemnly proclaimed. Atque ita omnino in caepta idololatria strenue pergite, and so show yourselves thorough-idolaters: as the Historian saith of our Rich. 3. that knowing it was no good policy to play the villain by half-deal, he resolved to suffer never a rub to lie in his way, that might hinder the true running of his bowles.

for this liketh you. ] Heb. so ye love. Idolatry is marvelous pleasing to corrupt nature: as is to be seen in little ones delighting in babies. The whole world wondered after the beast. The Papacie with its pomp and pleasure is an alluring, tempting, bewitching religion. The great whore with her cup of fornications may easily boast, as that harlot in Aelian did, that she could soon get scholars from Socrates; not he from her. But what an odd or rather sad thing is it, that men should so like that which will be their bane? and that God should be put to complain, as here, and Jer. 5.31. My people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? Polybius saith, that whereas man is counted the wisest of all creatures here below, to him he seemeth to be the foolishest: for other things love and seek their own preservation, Solus homo ab aevo ad aevum peccat fere in ijsdem & punitur. Man only persisteth in sin, and is punished, as if he were ambitious of destruction.

Verse 6. And I have also given you cleanness of teeth, ] so that you need not spend time in picking them, as those that are full-fed: for I have cut you short enough, and held you to hard allowance: as those that would tame wild creatures, keep them empty and waking: but you have been, and so continue, untamed and intractable, incorrigibly flagitious, uncapable of repentance. Your diseases are complicate, yea they are so ingrained, that they are not easily stirred, much less destroyed by any potion I have yet given you. In vain have I smitten your children: they received no correction, Jer. 2.30

In all your cities, ] One as well as other, lest you should say as those Philistines, It was a chance 〈◊〉 and as the Rabbin's tell us, that the idolatrous priests told Jeroboam, that the drying up of his hand fell out merely by accident.

and want of bread in all your places, ] Thus the Scripture oft interpreteth itself, and is ever its own best gloss. Some think that by want of bread here, is meant dearth of corn; as by cleanness of teeth, scarcity of flesh: and that by all your places, we are to understand, all your houses. This fell out in the times of Elias and Elisha, 1 King. 17. and 2 King. 6.21. and 8.1. and God would not have it to be forgotten, but is justly angry that they remained so irreformable. That dearth in Elias his days, lasted above three years: and might (likely) be as extreme, as that here in England, (about the year 700.) of three years continuance: and so violent it was, that not only many died daily for hunger, but great numbers joining hand in hand, forty or fifty in a company, threw themselves headlong into the Sea. A like three-years famine also we read to have been in Bohemia and Polonia, Anno 1312. so great, that children devoured their parents, and parents their children: some fed upon the dead carcasses that hanged in gibbets, &c. Wolves also were so famished, that they fell upon all they met, and fed upon them.

yet have ye not returned unto me, saith the Lord. ] Ye have lost the fruit of your afflictions, and all mine hammers hitherto have but beat cold iron. The bellows are burnt, the lead is consumed, the Founder melteth in vain, for the wicked are not pluck away, sc. from their wickedness: his dross is yet with him, his great scum still in him. Ezek. 24.6, 12, 13. it is woven into the very texture of his heart, and cannot be separated. Reprobate silver shall men call him, because he returneth not to God that smiteth him, Jer. 6.29, 30. Isaiah 9.12, 13.

Verse 7. And also I have withholden the rain from you, &c.] And so have punished you with thirst and drought, as well as with dearth and famine: and because I have found you wells without the water of piety, 2 Pet. 2.17. therefore I have refused to rain upon you, as I threatened, Deut. 28.23, 24.

When there were yet three months, &c.] When you could worst of all want it (see Joel 2.23. with the Note) for the watering of the seed, and opening of the earth.

And I caused it to rain upon one city, ] It rains not then by hap-hazard: neither are the seasons of the year (whether barren or fruitful) ruled by the course of nature, or influence of the stars, but by God, Act. 14.17. It is he that giveth rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons. He covereth the heaven with clouds, he prepareth rain for the earth, he maketh grass to grow upon the mountains, and standing corn in the fields, Psal. 147.8. He weighs these waters by measure: so that not a drop falls in vain, or in a wrong place; but by Divine decree, Job 28.26. for the fattening of the earth, allaying the heat, nourishing the herb and tree, Deut. 32.2. Isaiah 44, 14. producing unto us the appointed weeks of harvest, Jer. 5.24. that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, Isaiah 55.10. This the poor Pagans ascribed to their god Jupiter, whom they therefore styled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Him they confessed the greatest of all, calling him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : the Overseer of their trading, hence 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : the keeper of their houses, hence Jupiter Herceus, &c. this they did to the great shame of many Atheists amongst us, who hold that all things come either by benign nature, or blind adventure.

One piece, ] sc. of the same field, was rained upon, and fructified (this was near to a miracle; as when Gideon's fleece was wet and no place else: and again, every place else, and not Gideon's fleece, Judge. 6.37.) and the piece whereupon it rained not ] It, that is, the cloud, but by God's appointment: for He it is that filleth those bottles of the sky, and emptieth them again, where and when he pleaseth, either in mercy, as Joel 2.23. Zach. 10.1. Lev. 26.4. or for a judgment, as Joel 1.17. Gen. 17.11, 12. 1 Sam. 12.18, 19. In the year of grace 1551. a great multitude of men and cattle in Germany were drowned and destroyed; decidentibus subito nubibus, ac effusis certatim aquis, saith Bartholinus; by excessive showers and immoderate waters, pouring down upon people as by spoutes. This was the very finger of God, who will one day rain upon the wicked, snares, fire, and brimstone, and an horrible tempest. Heb. a burning tempest: like as now out of those very clouds where-hence he raineth, he doth oftsoons scatter sudden fires unto all parts of the earth, astonishing the world with the fearful noise of that eruption.

withered ] It must needs do so: and so must God's own Vineyard the Church, when he shall command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, Isaiah. 5.6. that is, his ministers, that they drop no doctrine upon it, Deut. 32.2. Ezek. 21.2. Am. 7.16. fitly resembled to rain in regard 1. of cooling heat, 2. quenching thirst, 3. cleansing the air, 4. allaying the winds, 5. mollifying and mellowing the parched and heat-hardened earth, 6. causing all things to grow and fructify. This rain of righteousness goes sometimes by coasts, as here: God tying up the tongues of his faithfullest laborers, and witholding their showers, though they be clouds thick, and full, and likely enough to drop down in abundance. See Ezek. 3.26, 27. Hos. 9.7. Prov. 16.1. Pray therefore, oh pray earnestly, both ministers, for ability and liberty to drop their word toward the holy places, and prophesy. Ezek. 21.2. and People, that he would fill their ministers as full of good matter as ever Elihu was Job. 32.18. and then be with their mouths Exod. 4.12. yea stretch out his holy hand, and touch them Ier. 1.9. performing that piece of midwifery Prov. 16.1. that they may freely utter their conceptions, and come to their hearts in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of peace Rom 15.29. In the Island of St. Thomas on the back-side of Africa in the midst of it, is an hill: and over that, a continual cloud wherewith the whole Island is watered. This is our happiness for present. Oh that we knew but this gift of God, and were answerably thankful and fruitful: Oh how cursed a generation are those that repine at it saying, Never was merry world, since so much preaching &c. How shall such miscreants one day wish to have but one drop fall from these full clouds to cool the heat and horrors of their consciences, but shall not obtain it.

Verse 8. So two or three cities wandered ] Necessity is an hard weapon: and want of water will make men wander far, and part with anything for it: as Lysimachus did with his kingdom, sacrificing his estate to the service of his life. Oh that we were as solicitous for our souls &c. Those good souls Psal. 84.7. went from strength to strength, travelled many a mile, to see God's face though but in that dark glass of the ceremonies. The good Sunamite went every Sabbath and new-moon to the Prophet. Our forefathers were unweariable in making out after the means, which we vilipend, and make no reckoning of &c.

to drink water ] rain-water: for in those countries (as Jerome testifieth who lived there many years, and therefore knew the situation and nature thereof) they have but few springs, and no considerable rivers, but only lordan: and are therefore glad to keep rain-water in cisterns for all uses: being much afflicted with thirst and drought, if it rain not.

but they were not satisfied ] either because there was not enough to be had: or by a singular curse of unsatisfiablenesse, See Hag. 1.6. with the Note.

yet have ye not returned unto me ] usque ad me, so far as me. You have made some faint overtures and essays of returning, but they have not reached out unto me: they have not amounted to the full measure of a sound conversion. Plectimur, may you well say, nec tamen flectimur: corripimur, sed non corrigimur &c. God rained not upon us that we might return unto him, and learn righteousness Isaiah. 26.10. that we might pour out a prayer when his chastening was upon us verse. 16.18. But we, alas, have done nothing less: we have turned everyone to his own way: and done what in us lies to defeat God and undo ourselves by our incorrigibleness and uncureablenesse.

Verse 9. I have smitten you with blasting and mildews &c. ] This, by immoderate rain: that, by drought caused by an East-wind, that ventus vrens & exsiccans. God cannot possibly want a weapon to tame a rebel.

when your gardens and your vineyards increased ] Or were trimmed and tricked up. Taxat nimium eorum studium saith Mercer. The Prophet here taxeth their overmuch pains taken, and cost cast away in multiplying and dressing their hort-yards, and Vineyards: when in the mean while, they neglected the sincere service of God: and suffered their own hearts to lie like the sluggards field, that was all grown over with thorns and briars, Prov. 24.31. that is, with lusts and sins, under which lurketh that old serpent.

the palmer-worm ] which is worse then the locust, as Jerome noteth: for the locust feeds only on the tops of the ears of corn as he flies (and thence hath his name in Greek) but palmer-worms stick close to the fruits or flowers they light on: and will not off, till all be consumed. It is the last and worst of evils, saith He: and leaves nothing behind it: omnia corradit & converrit, makes clean work. See Joel. 1.3, 10, 11, 12. &c. with the Notes.

yet have ye not returned unto me ] No not yet: but have rejected the remedy of your recovery: see verse 8.

Verse 10. I have sent among you the pestilence ] that evil angel Psal. 78.49. that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 eminent hand of God, as Hippocrates calleth it: that destruction that walketh in darkness, and wasteth at noon day, as the Psalmist styleth it. This God sent: for it is a messenger of his sending, an arrow of his shooting 2 Sam. 24.15. and may better be called morbus sacer, then the falling sickness; as being an extraordinary hand of God, such as was that Sudor Anglicus in the days of Edward the sixth, the sweating sickness that raged very violently for forty years together here in England (as Sennertus testifieth) and slew so many, that strangers wondered how this Island could be so populous as to bear and bury such incredible multitudes. No stranger in England was touched with this disease: and yet the English were chased therewith, not only here but in other countries abroad: which made them like tyrants both feared and avoided, where ever they came. So long as the ferventnesse of this plague lasted, there was crying Peccavi Peccavi: and some pretences of turning to the Lord. The Ministers were sought for in every corner (saith Mr. Bradford ) oh you must come to my Lord, you must come to my Lady &c. Thus, when he slew them, then they sought him: and they returned and inquired early after God: Nevertheless they did flatter him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongues. As the fox, when taken in a snare, looks pitifully; but 'tis only that he may get out: as Ice melts in the day and hardeneth again in the night; or as Iron is very soft and malleable whiles in the fire, but soon after returneth to its former hardness.

after the manner of Egypt ] In the way to Egypt (so some read it) as you were trudging down to Egypt for help against enemies, or for corn in time of famine (for Egypt was the worlds granary ) I have stretched my net over you: Egypt hath gathered you up, Memphis hath buried you, Hos. 9.6. But taking the words as we translate them, After the manner of Egypt, i. e. so as I plagued the Egyptians, when you were amongst them (See Exod. 12.29.) with mortality of men and murraine of cattle. The plague of Athens is graphically described by Thucydides: whence Ovid and Virgil are thought to have borrowed their descriptions of the pestilence. The plague of Italy is set forth in lively colors by Dionys: Halycarnass: lib. 11. Antiq. That of Constantinople, by Nicephorus and Sigebertus.

your young men have I slain with the sword ] Juvenes à juvando saith Varro: because they are able and apt by arms to defend the commonwealth, and to help it at a dead lift. In Hebrew they have their name à delectu: because they are chosen to fight and do business, as fittest for the purpose Exod. 17.9. 2 Sam. 6.1. These God had slain with the sword which cutteth its way thorough a wood of men, and heweth down the youngest and strongest; spareth neither Lord nor loscll, as they say: is dispatched with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood Isaiah. 9.5.

and I have made the stink of your camps ] by means of the slain, both men and horses that lie unburied, and poison the air; See Joel. 2.20. Isaiah 34.3.

and yet have ye not returned ] Nec sic tamen: Vide contumaciam, saith Mercer here. Obstinate men will sooner break, then bend. Monoceros interimi potest, non capi.

Verse 11. I have overthrown some of you ] Some and not all: thus, in the midst of judgment he remembered mercy, he did not stir up all his wrath Psal. 78.38. he let fall some drops, but would not shed the whole shower of it: for he remembered that they were but flesh &c. Some he hanged up in gibbets, as it were, for example to the rest: as St. Jude saith he dealt by Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, thrown forth for an instance of divine vengeance to all succeeding ages Jude. 7. and as Herodotus telleth us, that the sparkles and ashes of burnt Troy served for a lasting monument of God's great displeasure against great sinners. See the like threatened to Babylon Isaiah 13.19.20.

as God overthrew Sodom ] As Jehovah from Jehovah rained hell out of heaven upon them Gen. 14.24. that is, God the Son from God the Father: and so Eus • bius observeth that the Father here saith of the Son, that he overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah: he condemned them with an overthrow 2 Pet. 2.6. he overthrew them and repented not Jer. 20.16 he overthrew them in a moment, and no hand stayed on them Lam. 4.6. And yet worse shall be the condition of those that despise the grace of the Gospel, which is the great sin of these last times Mat. 11.24. yea the devils will keep holy-day as it were, in hell, in respect of such sinners against their own souls.

and ye were as a sire brand ] Ambustus & fumigans titio smutchy and smoky, and scarcely escaping with the skin of your teeth Job. 19.20. as Lot out of Sodom, as the man of Benjamin out of the army 1 Sam. 2.12. as the young man that fled naked away at Christ's attachment Mar. 14.52. or as Hunniades narrowly escaping with his life from the battle of Varna; where he had like to have fallen with that perjured Popish king, as good Jehoshaphat had for joining with Ahab. It is as if God should say: There are not many of you that are left, and have your lives for a prey: howbeit they are ill bestowed upon you, for any good use you have made of my forbearance. Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet will he not learn righteousness, Isaiah. 26.10. and if thou deliver him once, yet thou must do it again: and when all's done that can be done. A man of great wrath shall suffer punishment Prov. 19.19. and so (to be sure of it) shall a man of great stomach and stubbornness, that refuseth to return as these of whom the fifth time it is here complained.

and yet ye have not returned &c. ] O prorsus obstinati! saith Tarnovius here: Prorsus indurati et contumaces, saith Mercer. Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, do ye thus always resist the holy Ghost: will ye needs be like horse and mule uncounsellable, intractable? will ye, after conviction, needs run away with the bit in your mouths and take your swinge in sin &c. If so resolved, yet stay saith the Psalmist, and take this along with you, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked: your preservation from one evil shall be but a reservation to seven worse Lev. 26. as it fared with Pharaoh, Sennacherib and others: God will surely subdue, or subvert you.

Verse 12. Therefore thus will I do unto thee o Israel ] Thus? how? Non nominat mala ut omnia timeant saith Ribera. He tells them not how, that they may fear the worst: even all that is written and unwritten. It was the very policy of Julius Caesar never to extenuate or deny to his soldiers the danger of an enemy, but rather to raise up thoughts of valor by aggravating the contrary forces: and this way he did (not seldom) hyperbolically rhetoricate, saith the story. Now the Lord need not do so: since his judgments are a great deep, neither can any man know the power of his anger: let a man fear it never so much, he is sure to feel it a great deal more, if he once fall into his fingers. Is it nothing to drink the dregs of God's displeasure, when it is eternity unto the bottom? Is it nothing to launch into an infinite Ocean of scalding lead, and to swim naked in it forever? Oh do anything rather then be damned, and as Lewis King of France cast the Popes bulls into the fire saying, he had rather they should burn then himself fry in hell for obeying them: Or as Mary Q. of England restored again all the Ecclesiastical livings assumed to the crown, saying that she set more by the salvation of her own soul, then she did by ten kingdoms: So let the wicked forsake his ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord that he may have mercy upon him, and to our God, that he may multiply pardon. Isaiah 55.7.

and because I will do this unto thee ] which (had I not wished thee well) I would never have told thee. But God loves to fore-signify: and therefore threateneth evil that he may not inflict it: he would gladly be prevented by our humble addresses unto him, and by our entreaties of peace. Hear him else.

prepare to meet thy God O Israel ] Turn and try; thou canst not likely lose thy labor: or if thou shouldest, yet thou hast lost many a worse. Let Ephraim but bemoan himself, and God will soon melt over him Ier. 31.20. Let God's prodigals return to their merciful father, and he will meet them half-way, and receive them with all sweetness. Tantum velis, & Deus tibi praeoccurret. Do as those Jer. 3.17. Alexanders Macedenonians being sensible of his displeasure laid by their arms put on their mourning attire, came trooping to his tent, where for almost three days they remained with loud cries and abunance of tears testifying their remorse for offending him, beseeching his pardon which at last they gained. And Guicciardin tells us, that Lewis 12. of France (when he entered Genoa in his triumphant chariot with his sword naked) resolved to make a prey of their riches, and an example of many of the chief amongst them, and to leave the rest to his soldiers mercies. But being met first by the chief, afterward by the multitude, making great lamentation for their folly, with abundance of tears and cries, his wrath was appeased toward them. The like we read of Henry 7. Emperor toward the citizens of Cremona; of our Edward the third, toward the Inhabitants of Calais. And in Cades conspiracy here, after that 26. of the chief rebels were executed, the multitude naked in their shirts met the king on Black-heath, humbly praying mercy: which they obtained.

Verse 13. For • o, He that formeth the mountains &c. ] q. d. If my mercy move thee not to an humble submission, let my Majesty: and for that end consider and tremble at my Nomen Majestativum my transcendent excellencies, as they are here displayed, descried, and described (for thy learning) with a great deal of solemnity and state; to the end that thou mayest not expect evils, but prevent them (as Demosthenes counseled his countrymen.)

He that formeth the mountains ] At first (doubtless) with the rest of the Universe: (though some held they were cast up by Noah's flood) see Psal. 90.1, 2. by his mere Fiat without tool or toil Isaiah. 40.28. This the blind Heathens saw, and thus hieroglyphically set forth: In Thebe a town of Egypt they worshipped a God, whom they acknowledged to be immortal: And how painted they him? In the likeness of a man blowing an egg out of his mouth: to signify that he made the round world by his word.

and createth the wind ] The worlds besom (as Rupertus calleth it) wherewith God sweepeth his great house, and whereby he setteth forth his inexpressible power. See for this Psal. 18.11. and 148.8. Job. 28.25. Ier. 10.12. Senec: lib. 5. Nat: quaest. cap. 18. And although we cannot tell whence it cometh, or whither it goeth Job. 3.8. yet can we (with Cruciger ) contemplate the footsteps of God in this and other creatures: saying with Paul, that God is so near unto us, that he may be almost felt with our hands.

and declareth unto man what is his thought ] what language he hath in his heart, what he talketh within himself, as the rich fool did Luk. 12.17. Jesus knew the Pharisees thoughts: yea thou understandest my thoughts afar off saith David Psal. 139.2, even before I conceive them. Jerome and Theodotion refer the affix to God, The Seventy read thus, Who declareth unto man his Christ sensu pio et egregio saith Mercer, sed alieno: for Ma-sicho they read Meshichio; perperam.

that maketh the morning darkness ] As he did at Sodom whereon the Sun shon bright in the morning; but ere night there was a dismal change. So in Egypt Exod. 10.22. so in Jury at Christ's death Mat. 27.45. Let this learn us to bless God for the light both natural Gen. 1.4. and supernatural 2 Cor. 4.4.5. and to pray; that our Gospel-sun may not set at noon-tide, nor our light be put out in obscure darkness: but rather that he would make our darkness, morning (for so the words may be read here) by clearing up those truths to us, that yet lie in part undiscovered: Oh cry after Christ, as the poor man in the Gospel, Lord, that mine eyes might be opened! Oh that thou wouldest give me sight and light! Sun of righteousness shine upon my dark soul.

and treadeth upon the high places of the earth ] As being Higher then the highest, Excelsus super Excelsos Eccles. 5.8. terrible to all the kings of the 〈◊〉 those dread soveraignes) Psal. 76.12. the most high God Gen. 14.18. and 22. that hath heaven for his throne, and earth for his foot-stool: yea those highest places of the earth, the tops of mountains, and rocks inaccessible. But who is this King of glory?

The Lord, the God of Hosts is his name. ] Give therefore unto the Lord (O ye mighty) give unto the Lord, glory and strength: Give unto the Lord the glory due to his name, worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, &c. Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at his footstool: for he is holy.

CHAP. V.

Verse 1. HEar ye this word ] A new sermon, as appeareth by this new Oyer: not unlike that of S. Paul, Act. 13.16. Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience: or rather, that of Diogenes, who cried out at Athens, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hear O ye men. And when as (thereupon) a great sort of people resorted to him, expecting some great matter, he looked about him, and said, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I called men, and not varlets. They were no better surely that our Prophet had to deal with; Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evil-doers, children that were corrupters: they had forsaken the Lord, provoked the Holy One of Israel, they had increased revolt. Hence this onerosa prophetia, this word, this weighty word, this burdensome prophecy.

which I take up against you, ] Heb. lift up, being scarce able to stand under the burden of it. See the Note on Mal. 1.1. And it is against you, not for you: but that's your own fault: for do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? Mic. 2.7. Excellently Austin, Adversarius est nobis, quandiu sumus & ipsi nobis, &c. The word of God is adversary to none, but such as are adversaries to themselves: neither doth it condemn any, but those that shall be assuredly condemned by the Lord, except they repent. But we have in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, saith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 10.6. and if any man will hurt God's faithful witnesses, for discharging their duties, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed, Rev 11.5. for Elisha hath his sword as well as Jehu and Hazael, 1 King. 19.17. And when Elisha unsheatheth and brandisheth his sword, it is a fair warning that the sword of Jehu and Hazael are at hand. See Hos. 6.5. Jer. 1.18.

even a lamentation. ] Heb. a very bitter lamentation, Ezek. 19.14. like those of Jeremy for Judah, or of the mourners in Jerusalem, Ezech. 9.4. or of Christ weeping over that city, Luke 19.41, 42. Or of Paul bewailing his wretched countrymen, Rom. 9.3. and 10.1. or of the two witnesses clothed in sackloth, Rev. 11.3. the habit of mourners: or of Athanasius, who by his tears (as by the bleeding of a chaste vine) sought to cure the leprosy, and prevent the misery of that tainted age. Heu, heu, Domine Deus, was the cry of the ancient Christians. Flete nefas magnum, nam toto flebitis orbe. Their books are like that in Ezekiel written on both sides, and there was written therein, lamentations, and mourning, and woe, Ezek. 2.10. This of Amos was a sad song, a doleful ditty, a lamentable prophesy of Israel's utter destruction, as it followeth in the second verse, where (Prophet-like) he speaketh of it as already done, notwithstanding their present prosperity and tranquility. And have not England's Turtles groaned out for a great while, the sad and lamentable tunes of woe and misery to this sinful nation: and plainly foretold what we have felt already, and have yet cause enough to fear. Ah! great be the plagues that hang over England, (said Mr. Philpot Martyr long since) Happy shall that person be, whom the Lord shall take out of this world, not to see them, &c. And the like said Rogers our pr • to-martyr Bradford, Ridley, Lever, &c. besides the concurrent predictions of God's faithful servants a-late, whose hearts and tongues he hath so guided, as that they all as one man, have denounced heavy judgments, and taken up loud lamentations against us. Now, as before great storms, cocks crow loud and thick: so is it here; and so it should be, Exod. 32.31, 32. Jer. 18.20. Joel 2.17. else God will be displeased, Ezech. 13.5. & 22.30, 31.

Verse 2. The virgin of Israel is fallen, ] i. e. Though of the spouse of God, she be become the devils adulteress, Jer. 3.1. Hos. 1.2. yet she will needs be counted and called a virgin still: as Sardis, she hath a name to live, but is dead: as the Romish crew cry themselves up the only Church Catholic, and therein (like Oysterwives) do much out-cry us. But what saith the Lord by his Prophet Jeremiah, chap. 18.13? Ask ye now among the Heathen; who hath heard such things? The Virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. And the Virgin of Rome may well say as Quartilla the strumpet in Petronius doth, Iunonem meam iratam habeam, si unquam me meminerim virginem fuisse. I can hardly remember myself a maid. Israel may also be called a virgin, because she yet subsisted and flourished in her first liberty and splendor, till taken and deflowered, as it were, by the Assyrian. And in this sense we read of the virgin of Babylon, Isaiah 47.1. of Egypt, Jer. 46.12. of Zidon, Isaiah 23.12. and now of Venice, whose Motto is, Intacta maneo, I am still a maid: as having never yet fallen into the enemies power. Tournay, a town in France, was ever counted so invincible, that this sentence was engraven over one of the gates, Jannes ton me perdu ton pucellage, Thou hast never lost thy maidenhead. Yet was it yielded up to our King Henry 8. with 10000. pound sterling, for the citizens redemption. The Virgin of Israel sped not so well.

She is fallen, ] That is, she shall fall, surely, suddenly, utterly.

she shall no more rise, ] i. e. return out of captivity, and be restored to her pristine splendor: yet some think otherwise.

she is forsaken upon her land, ] Projecta est, prostrata jacet, she is thrown hard upon her ground, and as it were dashed against it, like an earthen pot against a rock: and all this, because she had left off righteousness in the earth, Verse 7. Those that forsake God, shall be forsaken of him, 2 Chron. 15.2.

there is none to raise her up. ] God will not; and then, man cannot. Behold, saith Bildad, God will not cast away a perfect man; neither will he take the ungodly by the hand, Job 8.20. he will bring them into trouble, and there leave them, Ezek. 22.20. & 29.5. His own he will not leave: or if he do, yet forsake them he will not, Heb. 13.5. and if men do, he will relieve them the rather. Because they called thee an outcast saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after; therefore I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord, Jer. 30.17.

Verse 3. The city that went out by a thousand, ] i. e. that had a thousand inhabitants passing to and fro thorough the gates (See Gen. 34.24. and 23.10. for men love not to be cooped up, or confined to a place, as the Duke of Venice is, but to be travelling and trading) Or, that can send out a thousand, fit to bear arms.

Shall leave an hundred, ] Here's a woeful decimation, purporting a very great paucity of people: such as was threatened, Deut. 28.62. a tenth man only shall be left, if that. Behold the severity of God, and betray not the lives of others, by an impenitent continuance in sin. Turn to God, if but for your poor brethren's sake, that are in danger, or in durance. Hezekiab's reason to repent is very remarkable, 2 Chron. 30.9. For if ye turn again to the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find compassion before them that lead them captive, so that they shall come again into this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye return unto him.

Shall leave ten. ] Not take ten in an hundred and leave the rest, as the Roman Generals used to do in the Army, in case of a mutiny. This was fulfilled in that three years siege of Samaria, 2 King. 18.10. as afterwards the like fell out at Jerusalem, which could hardly be repeopled in Nehemiah's time, and at this day is but thinly inhabited: there being not an hundred households of Jews to be found there. In our Countries, of the abundance of people cometh dearth, which maketh many male-contents to mutter: but in many parts of Turkey, for want of men to manure the ground: most of the poor being enforced with victuals and other necessaries to follow their great Armies, in their long expeditions: of whom scarce one of ten (saith mine Author) ever return home again, there by the way perishing, if not by the enemies sword; yet by the wants, intemperateness of the air, or immoderate pains-taking.

Verse 4. For thus saith the Lord, ] Or, Truly thus saith the Lord: Notwithstanding the former terrible sentence, which the Prophet could not denounce with dry eyes: but takes up a lamentation, though less concerned in it, and might well say, as One did in another case:

All God's threatenings (for most part) are conditional, Ier, 18.7. and 26.2 sc. if men repent not. As if they do, they may live in his sight, and be accounted worthy (such is God's great goodness) to escape all those things, that shall befall the impenitent, Luke 21.36. The Gospel is post naufragium tabula, and hath its reward too, Heb. 11.6. sc. of grace and mercy. Do this and live, saith the Law. Seek the Lord, and live, saith the Gospel. He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him, (and that is the force of the Hebrew word here used, which signifieth to euquire, to make serious search, and scrutiny, to seek him out, (as the Seventy have it) when he is with-drawn; to seek him as a Student doth sciences, a worldling gold, a hungry man meat, &c. as a man studiously turns over a Commentary, to find out the sense of a Text, Isaiah 34.16. Do this, saith God, and ye shall live: not only have your lives for a prey, but live merrily, happily. Now we live, saith the Apostle: that is, we rejoice; and Thus shall ye say to him that liveth: that is, hath a comfortable life, and a confluence of blessings. But besides all this, ye shall live forever: and aterna vita, vera vita, eternal life is the only life properly so called. Life (in what sense soever taken) is a sweet mercy: A living dog is better then a dead Lion, saith Solomon: and Joseph is yet alive, saith Jacob, (he doth not say, Joseph is Lord of Egypt ) I will get down, and see him before I die. But eternal life is (by a specialty and with an accent) the gift of God through Jesus Christ our Lord: and this gift he will freely bestow on all that so seek him as not to be satisfied without him: as Moses, who would not be put off with an Angel, but said, If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence, Exod. 33.15. and as Luther, who when great gifts were sent him, refused them, and said, Valde protestatus sum, me nolle sic satiari à D • o. I deeply protested, that I would not be satisfied with these low things; but that I would have God, or nothing. This was one of those brave Apophthegmes of his, concerning which One well saith; A man would fetch them upon his knees from Rome, or Jerusalem, rather then be without them.

Verse 5. But seek not Bethel, &c.] Make not lies your refuge, idols your Oracles: they that observe lying vanities, do (by their own election) forsake their own mercies ( Jon. 2.8.) But I (saith the Prophet, who had now paid for his learning, and was yet under the lash) will sacrifice to thee alone, will seek thy face and favor, not at Bethel, or Gilgal, but in the place where thine honor dwelleth: not at Hull, Shechem, or Loretto, but in the true Reformed Churches, in the beauties of holiness, in the midst of those seven golden candlesticks, in the hearts and houses of his faithful people; concerning whom He hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, &c, 2 Cor. 6.16. and when they walk within their houses with a perfect heart, I will come unto them, Psal. 101.2. I will there command my blessing, even life for evermore, Psal. 133.3. See chap. 4.4. and Hos. 4.15. with the Notes.

For Gilgal shall surely go into captivity, ] An elegant agnomination in the Original, such as the Prophets are full of, and this plain Prophet, among the rest. See chap. 8.2. Ministers may sometimes rhetoricate: and it had need to be an elaborate speech, that shall work upon the conscience.

and Bethel shall come to naught. ] Heb. shall be Aven, as elsewhere it is called Beth-aven, Hos. 4.11. and 10.5. Against Beersheba he saith nothing: because that name afforded him not the like elegancy, as Mercer thinketh: or because that city belonged to Judah, and so was not destroyed with the ten tribes, as Hier • m holdeth. Seek not these places saith the Prophet, for help and succor in distress: but say as Jer. 3.23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from these hills: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

Verse 6 Seek ye the Lord, and ye shall live, ] See verse 4. Sic eadem saepe surdis & obstinatis inculcantur. The oft pressing of a duty imports; 1. The excellency. 2. The necessity. 3. The difficulty of doing it: else what need so many words? Perquam durum est, sed ita lex scripta est, saith the Civilian. Hard or not hard, it must be done, or men are undone. lest he break out like fire ] Lest he go through you and burn you together Isaiah. 27.4. lest ye be utterly burnt with fire in the same place 2 Sam. 23.7. that is in hell (as some expound it) which the Prophet calleth tormenting Tophet, Isaiah. 30,33. and Plato calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a fierylake: so terrible, saith Bellarmine, that one glimpse of it were enough to make a man not only turn Christian and sober, but Anchorite and Monk: to live after the strictest rule that may be.

Verse 7. Ye who turn judgment to wormwood ] Ye Grandees and governors of the people, that turn the sweetest thing into the sourest, (as corruptie optimi pessima ) right into wrong-dealing; that follow the administration of Justice as a trade only, with an unquenchable, and unconscionable desire of gain; not caring what becomes of righteousness, but leaving it off in the earth, or rather not leaving it at all upon earth (Terras Astraea reliquit) but chasing it out of the world as much as in you lieth: whiles you cast it down to the ground, and tread it underfoot Dan. 8.12. whilst you oppress the just, crush the needy &c. chap. 4.1. See the Note there. Some read the text by way of exclamation thus; O ye that turn judgment &c. q. d. What strange creatures are you? what monsters of men? what public scourges? what scabs? Isaiah. 5.7. God looked for judgment, but behold oppression (In the Original it is, behold a scab ) for righteousness, but behold a cry: such a cry, as entereth into the ears of the Lord of Sabbath.

Verse 8. Seek him that maketh the seven stars ] Once again, seek him: that is, Return to him by true repentance: and by faith take hold of his strength, that ye may make peace, and ye shall make peace with him Isaiah. 27.5. To stand out it bootes not: since it is He that made Bootes and Orion &c. that is, of infinite power: and doth whatsoever he will in heaven and earth; who only doth wondrous things Psal. 72.18. See chap. 4.12.13. Chimah and Chesil, that is Pleiades and Orion are twice mentioned together in Job. Noted stars they are, and known to shepherds and such like; Am • s, likely, was but such an Astronomer, as heardsmen use to be. Those that writ of these stars tell us, that Chimah comes of Chamah, to love ardently; because of the fellowship and working together that appears in them. They be seven stars that have all one name: because they all help one another in their work, which is to bring the spring; and like seven sisters or lovers, so are they joined together in one constellation, and in one company. We see (saith One) that God will have the sweetest works in nature to be performed by mutual help. The best time of the year cometh with these seven stars (hence we read of their sweet influence Job. 38.11.) and the best time of our life cometh, when we enter into true love and fellowship. As for Orion, it is the starr (saith the same Author) that brings winter: and his bonds cannot be loosed. It binds the earth with frost and cold, that the fruits thereof might be seasoned and made kindly against the Spring: neither can the Spring come till Orion have prepared the way. God will have us suffer before we reign. The word Chesil here used signifies in the Chaldee, to perfect: because by suffering and offering violence to ourselves we enter into perfection. Luk. 13.32. If we would have a pleasant Spring of graces in our hearts, we must first have a nipping winter: the spirit of mortification must be like the cold starr Orion to nip our quick motions in the head, and to bind all our unclean desires, and burning lusts that they stir not in us: and unless we do thus, the seven stars of Comfort shall never appear to us.

and turneth the shadow of death: that is, the thickest, darkness, into the morning ] into the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 14.18. This severing of night from day, and day from night, this mutual and orderly succession and course of the night after the day, and the day after the night, the lengthening and shortening of the days in summer and winter, the wonderful eclipses, and other occurrence of that nature, are works of God's power, and providence, not to be slighted but improved to true repentance. We are to mark the countenance of the sky, and to discern the face of heaven: that every day and night winketh at us, and beckneth to us, to remember the wisdom, power, justice, and mercy of God lined out unto us in the brows of the firmament. The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament showeth his handy-work. The creatures are Regij professores, saith One, Catholic preachers saith Another, real Postills of the Divinity, saith a third. Clemens Alexandrinus saith, that the World is Dei scriptura, the first Bible that God made for the instruction of man. Antonius Eremita told a Philosopher (who objected to him his want of books) that the Universe was to him instead of a well-furnished library, everywhere ready at hand. Hugo affirmeth, that everything uttereth these three words, Accipe, Redde, Fuge, Receive mercy, Return duty, Shun sin, together with that hell that it hales at the heels of it. Much a man may learn out of the book of Nature, with its three leaves Heaven, Earth, and Sea: but there he must not rest. For, as where the Naturalist ends, the Physician begins: so where Nature fails and can go no further, there Scripture succeeds and gives more grace I am. 4.6. Psal. 19.1, 2, 7, 8. The Chaldee Paraphrast takes this text allegorically: as if the sense were; God changeth his hand towards the sons of men at his pleasure, prospering them one while, crossing them another: so that they walk in darkness and have no light Isaiah. 50.10. yea they walk through the vale of the shadow of death Psal. 23.4. Not through a dark entry or church-yard in the night time, but a valley, a large, long vast place: not of darkness only but of death; and not bare death, but the shadow of death, that is the darkest and most dismal side of death, in its most hideous and horrid representations. And yet if God be with his David's in this sad condition, no hurt shall befall them, butmuch good.

That calleth for the waters of the sea ] that is, for great armyes, saith the Chaldee. But better take it literally, of the generation of rain, the chief author whereof is God: the material cause is the sea sending up vapors: The Instrumental cause is the Sun, by the beams whereof God draws the vapors upwards, sends for them, as it were, into the middle region of the air, there thickeneth them into clouds, and then resolveth them into rain This Kimchi illustrateth by the simile of a boiling pot whereout vapors and fumes ascending to the colder potlid are turned into drops of water. See Gen. 2.6.

The waters of the sea ] 1 King. 18.44. A little cloud arose out of the sea like a man's hand. And presently the Prophet said to Ahab, Prepare thy charet and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not. And it came to pass in the mean while that the heaven was black with clouds &c.

The Naturalists observe that it snowes not in the sea, because it sends up hot vapors, which presently dissolve the snow.

the Lord is his name ] His memorial Hos. 12.5. See the Note there: He is not an idol to be dallied with and deluded.

Verse 9. That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong ] Victorem à victo superari saepe videmus. God can quickly change the scene, turn the scales Ier. 37.10. though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire. In a bloody fight between Amurath the third King of Turks, and Lazarus Despot of Servia many thousands fell on both sides. In conclusion the Turks had the victory, and Lazarus was slain. Amurath, after that great victory with some few of his chief captains, taking view of the dead bodies, which without number lay on heaps in the field like mountains, a Christian soldier sore wounded and all blood seeing him, in staggering manner arose (as if it had been from death) out of an heap of slain men, and making toward him, for want of strength fell down diverse times by the way as he came, as if he had been a drunken man. At length drawing nigh unto him, when they which guarded the kings person would have stayed him, he was by Amurath himself commanded to come nearer, supposing that he would have craved his life of him. Thus this half-dead Christian pressing nearer unto him, as if he would, for honor sake, have kissed his feet, suddenly stabbed him in the bottom of his belly with a short dagger which he had under his coat; of which wound that great king and conqueror presently died. The name of this man was Miles Cobelite, who, before sore wounded, was shortly after in the presence of Bajazet ( Amuraths son) cut into small pieces: So in that memorable fight between the Swissers and the Dolph • n near to Basil, when Burcardus monk a noble-man and a great soldier, grew proud of the victory, and put up his helmet that he might behold what a • laughter they had made: one of the half-dead Swissers rising up upon his knees, threw a stone at him, which hitting right gave him his deaths-wound. At the battle of Agincourt, where our Henry 5. won the day, the French were so confident of a victory, that they sent to king. Henry, to know what ransom he would give, and &c. Henry comforting his army with a speech, resolved to open his way over the enemies bosom, or else to die. After which, such was the courage of the English, notwithstanding their great wants, as he that ere while could scarcely bend his bow, is able now to draw his yard-long arrow to the very head.

so that the spoiled (or spoil) shall come against the fortress ] And take it by assault. Deus loca, quantumvis valida, vasta facit. There is no strength against the Lord.

Verse 10. They hate him that rebuketh in the gate ] In domo judicij, saith the Chaldee: for the gate was the place of judgment, verse 12.15. Deut. 17.5, 12, 15. Those then that did not approve and applaud the oppressions and wrong-dealings of the Judges, and rich bribers, but cried out against such, and took the same liberty to rebuke them that they did to commit them, these were hated cane pejus & angue, worse then any toad. Thus Ahab hated Micaiah, the Sodomites Lot, the Jews Jeremy, their successors Christ, the Baptist Steven, Paul, &c. thus those of Geneva hated Farellus their faithful minister, tried him for his life, banished him out of their territories: Thus afterwards some of them hated Calvin, calling him Cain: yea calling their dogs Calvin, in derision and detestation of him. And thus Bishop Ridley lamenting the state of England, even of thy greatest Magistrates saith He, some (the Kings highness excepted) evermore unkindly and ungently against those that went about most busily and wholesomely to cure their sore backs, spurned privily, and would not spare to speak evil of them, even to the Prince himself: and yet would they toward the same preachers outwardly bear a jolly countenance, and fair face. As for Latimer, Lever, Bradford, Knox, their tongues were so sharp, they ripped in so deep in their galled backs to have purged them, no doubt, of their filthy matter, that was festered in their hearts, of insatiable covetousness, of filthy carnallity and voluptuousness, of intolerable ambition and pride, of ungodly lothsomenesse to hear poor men's cases, and to hear God's word. And these men, of all others, these Magistrates then could never abide &c. Thus He, and much more to the same purpose. They were then sick of a Noli me tangere, and so (alas) they are still. How few Vespasians to be found, of whom Quintilian testifieth that he was patientissimus veri, One that would patiently hear the naked truth of things: not toothless truths only, but such as touched to the quick? How few David's that loved Nathan the better ever after (for dealing so plainly and faithful with him) and made him of his cabbinet-council? How few Q. Elisabeths, who called oft for her Deering by whom she was barely told of her faults: though the Bishops (those Court-parasites) would never suffer him to preach more before her? The Q. of Navarre would not hearken to such ministers as disliked that fatal French match (that gave opportunity afterwards to the Parisian Massacre) in regard of the diversity of religions: but inclined rather to those that smoothed her up, and told her that it would lay the foundation of a lasting and most happy peace. And generally of those French Reformed churches it was observed, that for some years before that bloody massacre, they affected a frothy flashy kind of Preaching: and cared not for that that came home to the conscience. See my common place of Admonition.

and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly ] Auget orationem, saith Drusius: The Prophet groweth in his expression of their wickedness: for to abhor is more then to hate; See Prov. 6.16. Hatred (as they say of the Crocodile ) groweth as long as it liveth: Sin is of an encroaching nature. If a Serpent devour a Serpent (saith the Proverb) he becometh a Dragon. Hatred of the truth, as runner the elder it is the stronger: the Pharisees for instance; who did not only inwardly swell and boil with hellish hatred of Christ, his works, and doctrine: but also outwardly belched out against him the basest blasphemies: and in their pertinacious working, constantly persecuted him, even to the most reproachful death of the cross. This is merces mundi, the worlds wages to God's faithful witnesses. They make a man an offender for a word, (yea for speaking uprightly) and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of naught, Isaiah 29.21. An expectas ut Quintilianus ametur? said He: Dost thou think that plain-dealing Quintilian should be loved? It is not likely. To preach, saith Luther, the truth, which is according to godliness, is nothing else but to derive the rage of the whole world upon a man's self.

Verse 11. Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor, ] Panting after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, Chap. 2.7. See there, and Psal. 109.16. Some render,, Ye fire the poor; others, ye plunder them: so the Chaldee, and Jerome. The Seventy have it, Ye smite them with fists. But better, Ye foot it upon them, and make them sell their commodities under-foot (as we phrase it) to pay your heavy taxes, and satisfy your greedy covetousness.

and ye take from him burdens of wheat, ] Heb. the finest wheat, and best winnowed: these ye force him to make money of, for your use; glad to feed upon the offall-wheat himself.

Ye have built houses of h • wen stone, ] squared and polished, thinking to flourish, and frollick: but the screech-owls of woe crying aloud from the stones, out of those walls, shall mar your mirth, Hab. 2.11.

but ye shall not dwell in them, ] For either ye shall be prevented by death, and sent to dwell with devils: or be carried away captive, and a stranger possess your new-buildings, Deut. 28.30.

Ye have planted pleasant vineyards, ] As He in the History, that having a cup of new-wine in his hand, expressed out of the grapes of his new-planted vineyard, was set upon and slain by a wild-boar, before he could drink it, and gave occasion to that proverb, Multa cadunt inter caelicem supremaque labra; Many things fall betwixt the cup and the lip, betwixt the chin and the chalice. Hereunto agreeth that story in Mr. Burroughs upon Hosea. I had, saith he, certain information, from a reverend Minister, that in his own town there was a wretched worldling, who had a great crop of corn. A good honest neighbor of his walking by his field, saith, Neighbor you have a very fine crop of corn if God bless it: yea, saith he, I will have a good crop, speaking contemptuously: and before he could come to get it into the barn, it was so blasted, that the corn of the whole crop was not worth six pence. God hath many ways to defeat the wicked man's expectation, and the hope of unjust men perisheth, Prov. 11.7. Etiam spes valentissima perit, so some render that text, he shall die or miscarry, in the very height of his hopes and expectations.

Verse 12. For I know your manifold transgressions, and your mighty sins, ] I know them, and can easily set them in an order before your eyes, Psal. 50.21. bring them out (as they did the vessels of the Sanctuary) by number and by weight: make you answer for all with flames about your ears, lay open your many transgressions, and mighty sins; The Hebrew hath it, your bony, or big-boned sins: huge, heinous, and monstrous, capable of all manner of aggravations. All these I know, saith God, they are all in Print in heaven, and I will one day read them aloud in the ears of all the world. Fac ergo confitendo propitium, quem taeciendo non facis nescium, saith Austin. Make therefore God thy friend, by confessing thy sins to him, which thou caust not by any means conceal from him.

they afflict the just, ] they pinch and distress him by their oppressions, which are often here laid in their dish, as an abomination to the Lord; for he is merciful. See Chap. 2.6.

they take a bribe, ] A ransom to blind their eyes, as 1 Sam. 12.3. or a pacification of their pretended displeasure against heinous crimes brought before them. Olim didici quid sint munera, said a worthy man, Once I have learned long since, how dangerous a thing it is for men in place to meddle with gifts. A public person as he should have nothing to lose, so nothing to get: he should be above all price, or sale, &c.

they turn aside the poor in the gate. ] that is, in the place of Judicature: This makes many that go to law, to be at length of Themistocles his mind; who professed that if two ways were shown him, one to hell, and the other to the bar, he would choose that which went to hell, and forsake the other. Another said, that he wondered much at two sorts of men: viz. those that go to sea, and those that go to law: not so much that they did so at first, but that, after trial, they would ever go a second time.

Verse 13. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence, ] According to that old and good rule, Either keep silence, or speak that which is better then silence. There is a time to keep silence, and a time to speak, Eccles. 3.7. and it is a singular skill to time a word, Isaiah 50.4. to set it upon its circumferences, Prov. 25.11. so to speak, and so to do, as those that shall be judged by the law of liberty, I am. 2.12. He that would be able to speak right and forcible words, must first learn how and when to keep silence. It is not good casting pearls before swine: nor pulling a Bear, or mad dog by the ear. 'It is the true ambition of a Christian, to study to be quiet, to meddle with his own business, to affect rather quietness from the wicked world, then acquaintance with it, and to pass thorough it with as little noise and notice as he can. Not but that God's faithful servants must cry aloud, and not spare; lifting up their voices like a trumpet, &c. Isaiah 58.1. and casting away the inverse trumpets of Furius Fulvus, which sounded a retrait, when they should have sounded an alarm. But this must be done with godly discretion. Zeal should eat us up, but not eat up our widome, (saith One) nor should policy eat up our zeal. The Apostles professed that they could not but speak the things that they had heard and seen: they must either vent or burst. And yet holy Paul, (who was full of the spirit of judgment and of burning, Isaiah 4.4. (though he preached at Ephesus (where he lived two years and more together) that they be no gods that are made with hands: yet he made no particular invective against their great goddess Diana, whereon they so impotently doated, Act. 19.26, 37. He that hath a good mixture of zeal and prudence, is like a ship well ballasted, that sails with a prosperous gale: but zeal without discretion, is like fire on the chimney-top; or like mettle in a blind horse; or the devil in the demoniac, that cast him sometimes into the fire, and sometimes into the water. What a storm of persecution raised Bishop Abdias in Persepolis, by his intemperate zeal, not bridled with discretion; as the Poets fable that Minerva put a golden bridle upon Pegasus, lest he should fly too fast? And it was some disadvantage to Paul, when in the Council (though provoked and unjustly smitten) he called the high-priest whited wall: he was glad to excuse it by his ignorance. We may not be too bold, or too forward to speak in a good matter, to such as hate him that rebuketh in the gate: and abhor him that speaketh uprightly, verse 10.

for it is an evil time. ] by reason of an evil and adulterous generation, that make it so. It is a day of evil, as Psal. 41.1. that is, of difficulty and danger, to those that dare speak out: Such as were Tiberius his times. That Tiger laid hold with his teeth on all the brave spirits that could speak their minds fitly, and durst do it freely. He put to death a certain Poet, which in a Tragedie had inveighed against Agamemnon; suspecting himself to be intended. Freedom of speech used by the Waldenses in blaming and reproving the vices, dissolute manners, life, and actions of great ones, made them looked upon and persecuted as heretics, and enemies to the Sea Apostolic, as Manichees, Catharists, what not?

Verse 14. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live, ] See verse 4. and 6. Oh Seek, seek, seek, saith our Prphet: as some of the Martyrs cried out, Pray, pray, pray; Mr. Sanders, and Mrs. Askew, repeated those words two several times together, Mr. Marsh once, adding, Never more need. To seek God, is to seek good, and to find life: for with him is the fountain of life, Psal. 36.9. To seek evil, is to seek the devil, who is that evil one: it is as Solomon saith in a like case, a vanity tossed to and fro of them that seek death, Prov. 21.6.

and so the Lord the God of Hosts shall be with you, ] to assist and accept you in seeking good: to protect and provide for you in shunning evil. Deal courageously therefore, and God shall be with the good, 2 Chron. 19. ult. as your seven-fold shield, and exceeding great reward, Gen. 15.1. See the note there.

as ye have spoken, ] Ut praedicatis & jactitatis, as ye boast and bear yourselves bold upon: saying as Mic. 2.11. Is not the Lord amongst us? none evil can come upon us. But that's as you make it: for ye are upon your behavior. The fault is not in God, but wholly in yourselves, if ye live not happily, reign not everlastingly.

God is far from men's hearts; and therefore far from their help: for can two walk together, except they be agreed? Chap. 3.3.

Verse 15. Hate the evil, and love the good, ] God doth so: you must also, or else never look for his gracious presence with you: for idem velle, atque idem nolle, ea demum vera est Amicitia; True friends do both will and nill the same things. Minutius Felix saith, that he and his friend Octavius did so. The like did Basil and Nazianzen, Jonathan and David:

All God's people, as they partake of the Divine nature, so they live the life of God, Ephes 4. and have the same both sympathies and antipathies (as I may so speak) abhorring that which is evil, cleaving to that which is good, Rom. 12.9. God, they know, hateth evil worse then he hateth the devil: for he hateth the devil for sins sake, and not sin for the devils sake: so do they, looking upon sin as the most loathsome thing in the world, the very vomit of the devil, which (so far as they are regenerate) they do infinitely loath to lick up. And for that which is good, whether things or persons, these they heartily love: not only with a love of Desire, as Psal. 42.1, 2. but also of Complacencie, as Psal. 73.25, 26. herein resembling Almighty God; not as an image doth a man, in outward lineaments only, but as a son doth his father, in nature and disposition; being daily more and more conformed to the heavenly pattern, and transformed into the same image from glory, to glory, by his Spirit.

and establish judgment in the gate. ] which hitherto ye have not done, verse. 10, 12. Perform the duties of your own particular places: be good Justicers as well as good men. It is said of Galba and of our Rich. 3. that they were bad men, but good Princes: but I hardly think it. Some good parts they might have, and some good acts they might do; but good Princes they could not be, unless they did hate the evil and love the good: but so doth not any bad man, for want of better principles. Make the tree good and the fruits will be good: and the contrary; Evil men may be some way useful to the Public, and do good offices for the Church, and yet perish, because not in a good manner, upon a good motive, and for a good end, Rev. 12.16. the earth helped the Woman: and yet, chap. 16.1. the vials of God's wrath were poured out upon the earth. A good Magistrate, as he sits in God's place, (the judgment-seat is called the Holy place, Eccles. 8.10.) so he loving what God loveth, and hating where God hateth, can boldly write over it, that Distich, that is said to be written over the Tribunal in Zant, in letters of gold;

It may be that the Lord. ] Or, out of doubt, the Lord God of Hosts will be gracious, &c. He is surely ready, were men but ripe, and right for mercy: it sticks only on their part, and not on his: he waiteth to be gracious, Isaiah 30.18. Oh unworthy we, that cause him so to do. Currat poenitentia, ne praecurrat sententia. They are but a remnant that shall have mercy: a few that shall find favor: Oh labor to be of those few that shall enter into life, Luke 13.24.

Verse 16. Therefore the Lord God of Hosts, the Lord, saith thus, ] Therefore? wherefore? because neither promises of mercy, nor menaces of misery, will work upon you, stand forth, and hear your doom, your sentence of condemnation, and it beginneth, as is usual, In nomine Dei: neither can you say, as that Martyr did, when wrongfully sentenced, ye begin in a wrong name. To assure the matter, the Prophet here heapeth up three Majesticall names of God: that they might tremble and turn, considering the greatness of Him with whom they here have to do, being glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders Exod. 15.11.

wailing shall be in all streets &c. ] A general outcry, as once in Egypt, when in every house there was a dead corps: or, as at the taking and sacking of Troy there was

And they shall say in all the high-ways, Alas, Alas, ] Man is a creature apt to overgrieve for crosses: and to fill the air with moans and complaints of his misery. The latin word Aeger for a sick person, is judged to come from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the doleful expression of his grief. The Greek word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is as much as 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Not ever. We are soon weary of suffering, and would fain see an end of it: and therefore cry out for help. The Hebrew word here used Ho, Ho, is the same with our Oh, Oh; it is dolentis particula, it is ejulantis, the broken speech of one in great dolour and durance. Nature need not to be taught to tell her own tale, when in distress, then men are apt to be eloquent, even beyond truth: they add, they multiply, they rise in their discourse, like him in the Poet, I am thrice miserable, nay ten times, nay an hundred, ten hundred times: whereas they should correct their excessive complaint; with that other 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Alas, Alas: but why Alas? Nothing hath befallen us but what is human, common to men, and our betters.

and they shall call the husbandman to mourning ] For the marring of his corn by the enemy, or by the vermin. Others read it thus, The husbandmen shall send for those that are skillful in lamentation, to mourning, and wailing.

and such as are skillful of lamentation ] An ordinary practice in those Eastern parts (as now also in Jreland) to hire artificial mourners at funerals to sing doleful ditties. Ut qui conducti plorant in funere. See Jer. 9.17. Mat. 9.23. with the Note. Of the lawfulness of this custom the Prophet speaketh not. Many things are mentioned in scripture and made use of, but not approved, as Usury Mat. 25.27. dancing Mat. 11.17. Theft, 1 Thess. 5.2. injustice Luk. 16.1. the Isthmian games, 1 Cor. 9.24. &c.

Verse 17. And in all vineyards shall be wailing ] where used to be great jollity and revel-riot in time of vintage Psal. 4.8. The calamity shall be common, the scourge over-flowing: and all sorts shall have their share See Joel. 1.5, 11, 13.

for I will pass through thee saith the Lord ] as a fire in a thick wood I am. 3.5. or dry stubble Joel. 2.5. Nah. 1.10. I will go thorough them, I will burn them together Isaiah. 27.4. make a short work with them Rom. 9.28. So fearful a thing it is to fall into the punishing hands of the living God Heb. 10.31. to stand in his way, when his sword is in commission, and He saith to it, Sword go thorough the land, cut off man and beast from it Ezek. 14.17. Let this be thought on by those secure ones that live, as if they were out of the reach of God's rod: for what if the sword contemn even the rod? and be drenched in the gall of these sturdy rebels? what then?

Verse 18. Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord ] The day of his visitation when he will go thorough us, as you Prophets would make believe. Where is the promise of his coming? Let him make speed and hasten his work, that we may see it. Let him increase his army and come down Judge. 9.29. Such jeering and daring spirits there are still abroad. But do they provoke the Lord to anger? are they stronger then he? The great and terrible day of the Lord will come time enough to their cost; they need not accelerate it. Can they stand to his trial? or abide the thunder of his power?

to what end is it for you ] when God shall answer you, as he did a far better man, out of the whirlwind and say, Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up now thy loins like a man &c. Where then shall the ungodly and the wicked appear? what hills will they call upon to fall on them, when the elements shall fall upon them like scalding lead, or burning bell-metal; and yet all this be but the beginning of their sorrows? Now therefore be not ye mockers, lest your bands be made strong, Isaiah. 28.22. God can easily hamper you, if he once take you in hand.

the day of the Lord is darkness and not light ] No interchange of light: an evil, an only evil, without mixture of mercy Ezech. 7.5. a black and dismal day of one mischief upon another, in a continued series. Affliction shall not rise up the second time Nah. 1.9. but ye shall totally and finally be destroyed: wrath shall come upon you to the utmost, 2 Thes. 2. This is illustrated in the next verse by an apt Similitude.

Verse 19. As if a man did sly from a lion &c. ] And so by running from his death, should run to it: by seeking to shun the shelves should split against a rock, Incidit in Scyllam &c. as Nicodemus Frischline (that famous Poet, Orator, and Philosopher) endeavoring to escape out of close prison, by casting himself out at a window, the rope broke, and he perished by falling headlong upon a rock: So fareth it with those that fear not God. Aliud ex alio malum, One mischief treadeth on the heels of another, as Job's messengers. The clouds return after the rain Eccle. 12.2. as in April -weather, one shower is unburthened, another is brewed: and deep calleth upon deep at the noise of the water -spouts Psal. 42.7. Evil shall hunt the violent man to destroy him Psal. 140.11. your sins shall find out, out as a blood-hound, Num. 32.23. as it did that Popish Priest in London, who having escaped the fall of Black-friers Anno. 1623. (where Drury had his brains knocked out of his head, together with his sermon) and taking water, with a purpose to sails into Flanders, was cast away (together with some others) under London-bridge; the boat being overturned. And as Philip the second King of Spain, who going from the Low-countries into Spain by sea, fell into a storm in which almost all the Fleet was wracked, his housholdstuff of very great valve lost, and himself hardly escaped: He said he was delivered by the singular providence of God to root out Lutheranism, which he presently began to do. But the hand of God was upon him in an extraordinary manner: for beside the invincible Armado here defeated, to his great heart-break (for his pretended patience was but as the fever called Epialis wherein men are cold without, but hot as fire within) he fell into that most loathsome lowsy disease, called Phthiriasis, whereof at length he died.

and a Bear met him ] A Bear robbed of her whelps (which she licketh into form, and loveth above measure) is a very fierce and fell creature. To meet her in such a rage is to meet death in the very face: and yet that danger may be sooner shifted and shunned, then the heavy wrath of God avoided or averted, without true and timely repentance: there is no way to run from him but by running penitently to him: as in a tempest at Sea, it is very dangerous to strike to the shore: the safest way is to have sea-room, and to keep in the Maine still.

or went into the house ] To shelter himself from the Bear: as every creature in danger runneth to its harbor Prov. 30.26. Psal. 104.18.

and leaned his hand on the walls ] As being breathless in running, and glad to stay himself on what he can next lay hold on. Man, like the vine, must have somewhat to lean on: if it be but a broken reed, or bulging wall Psal. 62.3. he shifts and sharks in every by-corner for comfort, as the Papists (stung by the Friers sermons) do by pardons and pennances, which are but palliate cures.

for a serpent bites them ] the guilt of sin abiding, biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Verse 20. Shall not the day of the Lord be darkness &c. ] q. d. How say ye now: when thus beset with mischief on all hands, such as ye can neither avoid nor abide, must ye not needs subscribe to the truth of what I said verse 18. and do here again repeat (that you may the better observe it) with greater emphasis, and earnestness? you shall not have the least glimmering of comfort, ease, direction or good counsel. To what end then should you desire this dreadful day of the Lord? Are you in hast to be undone.

Verse 21. I hate, I despise your feast-days ] wherewith ye think to stop my mouth, and to make me your debtor: saying as that Roman Emperor when his enemy came against him, Non sic Deos coluimus ut ill nos vinceret, we have not so served the God's, that they should serve us no better, then to give the enemy the better of us. The feast-days, and solemn assemblies you so much bind upon are yours and not mine: I never commanded them ( viz as you now use them) neither came they ever into my mind. So far am I therefore from accepting your sacrifices, as that I hate, I despise, I will not smell: an elegant Asyndeton, importing God's utter distaste of what they did (The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination: how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked mind? Prov. 21.27.) and assuring a sudden vengeance, as in that quick and smart passage, Go, preach, baptize, He that believeth not shall be damned, Mark. 16.16. Willworship and out-sidenesse in religion is very odious to the Almighty: and stinks worse in his nostrils, then any ill vapor from the vilest dunghill doth in ours: or as those poisonous smells that ascended up once from the five cities of the plain, and brought down from him a counterpoyson of fire and brimstone. Rome also (that spiritual Sodom ) shall be destroyed in like sort, with a terrible fire Rev. 17.16. and 18, 8, 9. for her detestable will-worships, superstitions and Idolatries, which no other nitre can possibly purge. Rev. 13.18. the whole number of the Beast, whatsoever is numbered to belong unto him, is but the number of a man, human inventions and will-wisdom; men will have it so: and this is the sum of all Popish religion. When the wit of man will be over-pleasing God with better devises then his own, will needs despite him with seeming honors, it turns to madness, and ends in mischief.

Verse 22. Though ye offer me burnt offerings &c. ] So long as ye stick in the bark, please yourselves in the external performance, rest in the work done, think to expiate your sins by your duties, and to set off with God for your bad deeds by your good, and to get a license thereby to live as you list: though ye offer me burnt-offerings (which were wholly burnt in sacrifice to God, and so were ordinarily most acceptable.)

I will not accept them ] Nor shall you be a button the better for them, but the worse. Isaiah. 66.3. yea though ye added wine, oil, and incense, that there might be a savor of rest in it. The very Heathens could say, that God's favor is not to be gained by multitude of sacrifices, but by the integrity of those that offer them.

neither will I regard (or look at) the peace-offerings of your fat beasts ] whether sheep or oxen, or another distinct creature, bigger then an ox called in the Arabic dialect gamus, as Ibn-Ezra affirmeth, the French call it Buffle, and we the Buffe or wild-Ox: All would not do; God would neither see nor hear, as it followeth.

Verse 23. Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs ] No more pleasing to me then the grunting of an hog, or the braying of an asse, because hatelesse, heartless: for as every sound is not music, so neither is ever musical sound melodious to God. The voice which is made in the mouth is nothing so sweet to our ears, as that which comes from the depth of the breast. Sing with grace in your hearts, is the best tune to all the Psalms: which are therefore called spiritual songs Col. 3.16. both because they are indicted by the Spirit, that are to be sung with the Spirit, 1 Cor. 14.15. and because they being so sung, do mak us more spiritual in the use of them: whilst we sing David's Psalms with David's heart.

for I will not hear the melody of thy viol ] Or of thine organe, harp, citterne, Inte, bag-pipe, for so some render it, with respect to the Etymology of the word Nebel. The Greek rendereth it Of the Psalteries: what need we trouble ourselves much about those things whereof we can neither have proof nor profit: at least not profit enough to pay for the pains? God will not hear either their voice or instrument-music, because the heart was wanting. Non vox sed votum, non Musica chordula, sed Cor. The deeper and hollower the belly of the lute or violl is, the pleasanter is the sound: the fleeter, the more grating and harsh in our ears: think the same of God: and see how exceeding offensive to all his senses, yea to his very soul hypocrisy is Isaiah. 1.11, 12, 13. &c.

Verse 24. But let judgment run down ] Heb. roll down freely, plentifully, and plainly, ut devolutus monte praecipiti torrens, as the great billows of the sea, or as waves rolling over rocks, so let judgment and equity be constantly and vigorously administered and executed.

and righteousness as a mighty stream ] that comes with a force, and bears down all before it. Fiat justitia, ruat orbis, Let justice be done what ever come of it. The Sun might as soon be turned out of his course, as Fabricius out of the track of Truth and Justice, saith the Historian. How much better might this have been said of Job, Moses, Phineas, Nehemiah's, &c. famous in their generations for brandishing the sword of justice against the friends of Baal, Balaam, and Batchus, for turning the wheel over all such roaring monsters, such lewd and lawless Belialists, as, hardened with impunity, dare oppose with crest and breast whosoever or whatsoever standeth in the way of their wicked lusts and practices. Oh this was better then burnt-offerings without this: this was that Actual, Magisterial, and Majesticall kind of devotion, that pleased God far better then an ox that hath horns and hoofs.

Verse 25. Have ye offered unto me sacrifices &c. ] i. e. To me only, and not to other God's also? did ye not begin betime to play the idolaters? and do ye not fill up the measure of your fathers? Mat. 23.32. They sojourned in Egypt, and brought thence a golden calf: Jeroboam sojourned there, and brought home two; which were no sooner up but you were down upon your knees, where still you continue at your mawmet-worship. Is it not even so, o house of Israel? And was it not even so in the wilderness, where and when I bore with your evil manners about the time of forty years Act. 13.18. (for full forty it was not, but 38. only and some few months) and was provoked by you ten times Num. 14.22. when I had but newly brought you out of Egypt chap. 3.1, 2. So that your Idolatry is hereditary; and therefore the more ingrained and to be abhorred. God alone is to be worshipped Exod. 20.2, 3. 1 King. 18.21. truly that there be no halting, and totally that there be no halving. Be the God's of the heathen good-fellows, saith One: the true God is a jealous God, and will not share his glory with another. For indeed he is the One Deut. 6.4. and Only God, Psal. 86.10. besides whom Psal. 18.32. without whom 1 Sam. 2.2. and beyond whom 1 King 8.6. there is none other Deut. 4.39. nor any like him 2 Sam. 7.22. nor any with him Isaiah. 44.24. he is the only Lord, and besides Him there is none other Joel. 2.27.

Verse 26. But ye have born the tabernacle of your Moloch ] That Idols were wont to be carried upon men's shoulders we may see Isaiah. 46.7. Baruch. 6.3. and 2.5. That Moloch or Malcom was the abomination of the Ammonites, (who called him their king, as the Israelites called the true God Es. 44.6. and 33, 22.) See 1 King. 11.5. that the Israelites should do thus in the wilderness (where they had God's tabernacle erected) carrying about them privily some portable chapels or pictures of these Idols (as some hold they did, and Josephus seems to say as much) was monstrous wickedness, and the guise of men given up to a reprobate sense.

and Chiun your images ] that is, your notable image, the plural for the singular, as oft; especially in names of dignity. Jerome here for Chiun hath Rephan; confer Act. 7.43. and the Commentatours thereon. Ibn-Ezra thinks that by Chiun is meant the planet Saturn, called chivan in the Arabic. And other Hebrews by the starr of your God (that is, the starr which is your God. See Isaiah. 21.9.) understand Mereury.

Verse 17. Therefore will cause you ] Idolatry is a land-desolating sin.

beyond Damascus ] and not only so, but also beyond Babylon Act. 7 by the way of Damascus, by Tiglath Pileser sent for by Ahaz, for that purpose Es. 8.4. King. 15.29.

CHAP. VI.

Verse 1. WOe to them that are at ease in Zion ] that lie sleeping on both sides, and slighting the former menaces, as Leviathan doth the ironweapons Job. 41.27. that live as if ye were out of the reach of God's rod: and as for all your enemies, ye puff at them, saying: We shall not be moved, we shall never be in adversity, Psal. 10.5, 6. To these sleepers in Zion, God here sends forth his summons (the word Hoi signifieth as well Heus as Vae, Ho, as Woe, Isaiah 55.1. Zach. 2.6. Ho, ho, come forth) that were quiet and still, Zach. 1.11. lulled asleep by Satan, or rather cast into a dead lethargy: Sampson -like their enemies are upon them, and they fast asleep the while: Ishbosheth -like they stretch themselves upon their beds of ivory, till they lose, not their precious lives only, but their immortal souls. Security ushereth in destruction: those that are at ease in Zion, shall be raised by a dreadful Woe rung in their ears, that shall make their hearts fall down, and their hairs stand upright. In the froth of carnal security and sensual delights is bred that worm of conscience that never dieth, Mar. 9. and here begins to grub and gnaw: like as while the Crocodile sleepeth with open mouth, the Ichneumon, or Indian Rat shoots himself into his bowels: after which he never is at ease, as having his entrails daily devoured: so that one while he will be in the water, and anon after on the land, till life fails him.

and trust in the mountain of Samaria, ] Are carnally confident and secure, as good David also was, when gotten upon his strong mountain, Psal. 30.6, 7. but was soon confuted: Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled. The best are apt by rest, to contract rust: and being full-fed to wax wanton, Deut. 32.15. To affect more mundi delicias quam Christi divitias, as One saith, the worlds dainties then Christ's comforts: to trust in uncertain riches, then to rely upon the living God, who giveth them all things richly to enjoy. This must be looked to: for it hath a woe hanging at the heels of it, Jer. 17.5, 6. Psal. 52.7, 9.

which are named chief of the Nations, ] Heb. expressly named, declared, notified, celebrated, chief, ] the head, or first fruits; the head and height, Principium, id est, praecipuum gentium: So Amalec is called the first of the Nations, Numb. 24.20. haply they held themselves so: as the Egyptians afterwards boasted much of their Antiquity, and the Chinois at this day do of their excellency, and perspicuity above other Nations. Many wicked ones are of great renown in this world, Psal. 73.4, 6. and stand much upon their titles and terms of honor: who yet in the next generation shall be utterly forgotten, Psal. 109.13. for that their names are not written in heaven, Rev. 17.8. and look how much they have glorified themselves, and lived deliciously, so much torment and ignominy shall be given them, Rev. 18.7.

To whom the house of Israel came. ] The whole house of Israel, viz. the two tribes to Zion, the ten to Samaria, Vel sacrorum causà, vel judiciorum, saith Drusius, as to places of worship, and besies, courts of Justice. Others sense it thus, The house of Israel came unto them, that is, the Israelites invaded those nations, that once held Zion and Samaria, and succeeded them therein: not by any strength of their own, but by God's mighty hand and out-stretched arm, which they (ungrateful wretches) acknowledge not: but came in for themselves, so Ribera rendereth it, Quasi sibi tantum nati, se solos esse aliquid, as if they were the only proprietaries, the sole owners of all; and owed no service to any chief-Lord. Such insolency grows from security. See Job 21.23.

Verse 2. Passe ye unto Calneh and see, ] Take a voyage to, and a view of those most famous bordering cities, Calneh, or Selencia in Mesopotamia on the East, (whereof see Gen. 10.10. the beginning of Nimrods Kingdom) Hamath the great, or Antiochia, (now Aleppo, a famous Mart-town) on the North. Then go down Southward to Gath of the Philistines, which was of all the five satrapies potissima & potentissima, and is therefore called Metheg-Ammah, 2 Sam. 8.1. with 1 Chron. 18.1. because, being a town of great strength, it was, as it were, the bridle, whereby the whole country about was kept in awe: It was afterwards known by the name of Diocaesarea. Away to these neighbouring cities, and see in them, as in so many Optick-glasses, how much more God hath done for you then for them in every respect; the greater is your guilt, and the deeper will be your judgment in the end, for abuse of these rich mercies (of a fertile soil, a large Empire, &c.) to security, oppression, and other detestable vices and villainies.

be they better then these kingdoms? ] sc. of Judah, and Israel? which were certainly multis nominibus laudatissima, very fruitful and pleasant countries, Deut. 8.7, 8, 9. Numb. 14.7, 8. whatsoever Strabo spitefully reporteth to the contrary, being therein worse then Rabshakeh, Isaiah 36.17.

Or their border greater then your border,? ] sc. till the Babylonians, Syrians, and Assyrians took part of your country from you, and cooped you up, cut you short. And now that you are so straitened for room, doth not the Lord recompense you in multitudes of people? Judea was not above 200. miles long, and 50. miles broad, say Geographers: and yet what huge armies brought they into the field? Observe then saith the Prophet, the great things that God hath done for you above other Nations, and walk accordingly: or else take lessons out of their losses, and damages, and know that the case will be your own, Aliorum perditio vestra sit cautio: Learn by other men's harms, to beware.

Verse 3. Ye that put far away the evil day, ] Woe to you that would do so, if you could; that fondly persuade yourselves there is no such danger in evil-doing, as the Prophets pretend: but that all shall be hail and well with you, though ye walk in the imagination of your hearts, to add drunkenness to thirst, Deut. 29.19. and to heap up sin as high as heaven, Rev. 18.5. This cursed security and hope of impunity, is the source of much wickedness in the world. See Prov. 7.19, 20. Matth. 24.48. with the Notes. It is a sad thing when men shall say, as Ezek. 12.27. The vision that he seeth is for many days to come: and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. This Atheistical conceit accelerates the judgment, verse. 28. Therefore say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God, there shall none of my words be prolonged anymore: but the word which I have spoken shall be done, saith the Lord God. Tarditatemque supplicij, gravitate compensabo.

and cause the seat of violence to come near. ] Amotâ Justitiae sellâ: setting aside the care of justice, together with the fear of God, for whom ye ought to have reserved the chief room in all your public meetings, as the Ethiopian Judges are said to do. Atque vi an geritur res, might overcomes right: and robberies are daily done by authority. See Psal. 94.20. The throne of iniquity shall not have fellowship with God: neither will he take the wicked by the hand, whatever those corrupt Vice-gods do, (as we may in the worst sense, best term them) whose judgment now of a long-time lingreth not, and their damnation slumbereth not. The evil day that they put far away, will suddenly surprise them, and then what will they do when God riseth up? and when he visiteth, what will they answer him? Job 31.14.

Verse 4. That lie upon beds of ivory, ] which was a commodity far fet (even out of India ) and dear bought; precious, and sumptuous. The wealthier sort used to deck their houses with such kind of beds decked with ivory ( lectis eburatis, as Plautus phraseth it) as Esth. 1.6. with gold and silver: hence their houses are called houses of ivory, chap. 3.15. and 1 King. 22.39. See Plin. lib. 33. cap. 11. Herat. l. 2. Sat. 6. Here then is condemned their luxury, and abuse of God's good gifts, with neglect of the weal-public, and contempt of judgments threatened.

and stretch themselves upon their couches, ] Pandiculantur in suis cubilibus, so Rabbi Solomon. Others render it, redundantibus ac diffluentibus. Woe to them that delight in over-long and large coverlets, curtains, &c, superfluously hanging down on all sides upon the very ground; so Kimchi. The Seventy and Vulgar render it, Woe to those that wantonnize upon their couches, melting in sensual pleasures. Compare 1 Tim. 5.6. Jam. 5.5. God grudgeth not his people an honest affluence, Psal. 23.4. but granteth them all things richly to enjoy, 1 Tim. 6.17. Howbeit he requireth them to be sober and watch: not making provision for the flesh, to live after the lusts thereof, but walking decently as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, &c. Rom. 13.13, 14.

and eat the lambs out of the flock, ] E grege, id est, egregios ac optimos, the very best and fattest morsels, pampering their paunches; swinish belly-gods.

and the calves out of the midst of the stall. ] The French call them high-grasseveals. Nothing would down with them but tid bits, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , dainty and goodly, Rev. 18.9. Those Abbey-lubbers of the Romish Synagogue are compared to fed horses, pampered in their cloisters (as war-horses in their stalls or stables) and prepared unto battle, Rev. 9.7. Lawfull it is, I grant, at sometimes to eat of the fat, and drink of the sweet, and to please the appetite, Deut. 4.26. to gratify it with what it liketh and lusteth after. But yet it must still be remembered, that it is a sin to feed without fear; and a shame for a servant of God, to be a slave to his palate. Eat such things as are set before you, saith Christ to his disciples, be it never so homely, if wholesome, Luke 10.8. And Gen. 9.3. after, Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, it is added, even as the green herb have I given you all things, that is, soberly and without curiosity, to take and make use of such meats as are at hand, as Dr. Willet interprets it. And this, Nature seems to teach man, in giving him so narrow a mouth, throat, and belly: whereas to swine she hath given a wide mouth, a very thick neck, a large belly, and but a very little brains: that they might the sooner grow fat, and take no other thought but for the belly saith Bodine.

Verse 5. That chant (or quaver ) to the sound of the viol, ] That sing division with much variation of their voices, and many distinctions of diverse tones, modulations fractions. The Hebrew root-word signifieth the single grains of grapes, that remain after the vintage: or the particular berries, Lev. 19.10. Our word parting, answereth to the Hebrew peret. It is their wanton and unseasonable music (emasculating, dissolving, and drawing out their spirits) that they are here threatened for. This abuse of Music (given to men for better purposes) is elsewhere condemned, chap. 5.23. Isaiah 5.12. Exod. 32.18. Eccles. 2.8. God made not man more avium minurire to sport on earth, as Leviathan doth in the sea: to spend his whole time (as the people of Tombutum in Africa are said to do) in singing and dancing: and, when he is cast out of one paradise, to make himself another. It is charged as a foul fault upon those sensualists in St. James, that they had lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton, Jam, 5.5.

and invent to themselves instruments of music, like David. ] Whose example, likely they pleaded, to patronize their fidlings, and chaunting of ribald songs. But his music and theirs agreed like harp and harrow, as the proverb is. Two may do the same thing, and yet it not be the same; because not from the same principles, and for the same purposes: as we see in Cain and Abel, the Pharisee and the Publican, David and these singsters, who did nothing less then help forward their devotion by Music, as did David: and as did our late holy Esty, who when he sat and heard a sweet consort of Music, seemed upon this occasion carried up for the time beforehand, to the place of his rest, saying very passionately; What music may we think there is in heaven?

Verse 6. That drink wine in bowles, ] Non in scyphis, cyathis, aut calicibus, not in cups, pots, or chalices, but in vessels of price, and of largest receipt, that they may be counted and called (as young Cicero was) Tricongii, such as can drink whole-ones, and no small-ones neither. (The Seventy and the Chaldee render it, In phials, others in goblets ) Diotimus of Athens, for his excellive drinking, was termed 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Tun-dish. Alexander the Great gloried that he could drink down any man: and one time inviting many to supper, he provided a crown of 180 pound to be given to those that drank most: and forty one of the company killed themselves with drinking to get that crown. Darius king of Persia, caused this to be engraven upon his tomb; I was able to drink much wine, and to bear it bravely. Was not this to glory in his shame? had he no way else to show his valor? Did he never take notice of that Persian law; that it should not be lawful for their King to be drunk but only once a year, when they sacrificed to the Sun, whom they took to be the greatest of the gods? How much better Bathsheba, in her Lemuels-lesson. It is not for Kings, Lemuel, it is not for Kings to drink wine, nor for Princes, strong-drink: lest they drink and forget the law, &c. Prov. 31.4. And if not for kings, much less is it for others to be drunk with wine wherein is excess, Eph. 5.18. lest with Nabal, and the rich glutton, they drink deep of the wine of God's wrath: and have the full vials of his vengeance poured upon them forever.

and anoint themselves with the chief ointments, ] After the manner of the Jewish Nation, whereof see 2 Sam. 12.20. Eccles. 9.8. Luk. 7.38, 46. Psal. 23.5. and 104.15. Mat. 6.17. They spare for no cost, or pains to please all their senses. And such a prodigal pleasure-monger was that rich citizens son, mentioned in the second part of the Theatre of God's judgments: who to please all his five senses at once, allowed to the delight of every several sense a several hundred pound. For which end 1. He bespake a curious fair room richly hangd, and furnished with the most exquisite pictures, to please the eye. 2. He had all the choicest Music that could be heard of, to give content to the ear. 3. He had all the Aromatickes and odoriferous perfumes, to delight his cent in smelling. 4. All the Candies, Preserves, Junkets, even to the stretching of the Apothecaries or Confectionaries art, to please his taft. 5. And lastly, a beautiful and fair strumpet lodged with him in a soft bed, and the daintiest linen that could be compassed to accommodate his touch: and all these this Epicure (more then ever Sardanapalus did) enjoyed at one instant. He spent thirty thousand pounds in three years, and swore after all, that if he had ten times more then ever he had, he would spend it all to live one week like a God, though he were sure to be damned in hell the next day after.

they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph ] i. e. of the Israelites Psal. 80.2. and 77.16. Amos. 5.6. Joseph is mentioned and put for all the rest, because he was famous amongst his brethren, vel ob mala quae pendit, vel ob bona quae rependit, both for the evils that he suffered, and for the good turns that he returned. Time was when poor Joseph was ill handled by his merciless brethren; and could not be heard, though he used many entreaties, Gen. 37.23, any 42, 21. They when they had cast him into the pit, there to pine and perish with hunger, sat down to eat, and so to ease themselves of any remorse of conscience, that might be wrought in them. They should have been sick at heart (as the word here signifieth) for the affliction (the confraction, the breaking to shivers ) (of Joseph: poor Reuben was so, as far as he durst show it: and Joseph forgot not his kindness, when he came to his greatness. God (who is all bowels) will never forget those that forget not his afflicted; but commiserate and relieve them, as they have opportunity and ability.

Verse 7. Therefore now shall they go captive with the first ] Heb. in the head of those that go captive: as they have been first in the degrees of honor, and of sin, so shall they be now of punishment, according to that saying of the Centurist • , Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia. This they shall have of God's hand, they shall lie down in sorrow: yea many sorrows shall be to these wicked ones, Psal. 32.10. these merciless men shall not have the least mercy shown them, I am. 2.13. God will surely set off all hearts from such (as he did from Haman, for whom in his misery not one man openeth his mouth once to intercede) and he will punish magnum luxum magno luctu, as One saith, great luxury with great necessity.

and the banquet of them that stretched themselves ] They shall neither have mind nor money to make feasts, that were wont to lay on in all sorts of superfluities. That prodigal above-mentioned was by a just hand of God reduced to extreme penury, and cast off by all his former acquaintance. That luxurious Roman Apicius (the expenses of whose kitchen amounted to more then two millions of gold,) having eaten up his estate, and fearing poverty poysoued himself: leaving behind him ten books, of direction how to furnish and set forth a feast with all manner of varieties, which now he could sooner talk of then take of. The word here rendered banquet is taken for a funeral feast Jer. 16.5. and so some think the sense here is; they shall be carried captive into a far country, and there be deprived of the honor of burials; which is a judgment elsewhere threatened Jer. 22.18, 19. Ibn-Ezra rendereth it, facesset canticum the song of the wanton shall be set packing: and for this he alledgeth, that in the Arabic dialect, the root word here used, signifieth to lift up the voice, either for joy or grief; The Seventy render it, the neighing of horses: as noting their immoderate lust according to Jer. 5.8. And this sense Ribera commendeth.

Verse 8. The Lord God hath sworn by himself ] Heb. by his soul, which is himself: since whatsoever is in God, is God. So chap. 4.2. Gen 22.16. Heb. 6.16.17. Or, He hath sworn by his soul, that is Serie & ex animo Seriously and heartily. Among the Heathens ex animi sui sententia was instead of an oath.

saith the Lord God of hosts ] who hath power enough in his hand to perform what he hath so solemnly assured.

I abhor the excellency (or, the pomp and pride ) of Jacob ] So Basil speaking of the Western Church, Odi fastum istius Ecclesiae saith He, I hate their pride. This he elsewhere calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Western brow (from the fore-head, that seat of pride and arrogancy) which at length occasioned that lamentable separation of the Eastern or Greek church from communion with the Latin: the other four Patriarchs dividing themselves from the bishop of Rome. Pride is an odious evil; fitly compared by One to a great swelling in the body, which unfits it for any good service: and is apt to putrefy, and break, and run with loathsome and foul matter: so doth Pride disable the soul from doing duty, and at last breaks forth into odious deeds, abominable to God and Man. There are that by Excellency or Glory here understand their glorious Temple, and other privileges, wherein they so much gloried. See Psal. 47.5. But Mercer thinks it rather meant of the ten tribes then of the two, whose crown of pride is elsewhere taxed Isaiah. 28.1. Hos. 7.10. The pride of Israel testifieth to his face, it breaketh out in his forehead, as a great master-pock.

therefore will I deliver up the city with all that is therein ] Heb. with the fullness thereof: both persons and things are all forfeited, and shall be seized by the enemy; be the city of Samaria never so rich a Cargazon, so full a Magazine of Men and means, I will shut them up (so the word signifieth) after a strait siege, into the enemies hand, who shall make a spoil of them.

Verse 9. And it shall come to pass, if there remain, ten men &c. ] that is many, as Zech. 8.23. Levite. 26.26. because ten is the utmost of single number q. d. Though a considerable company escape the enemy, yet pestilence or some other destruction shall put an end to them.

they shall die ] See this fulfilled 2 King. 17.5. In which common calamity what an happiness had they, that belonging to the election of grace could confidently say as Hab. 1 12. Art not thou from everlasting, O Lord my God, mine holy One? We shall not die (or if we do, death may kill us but cannot hurt us) O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgment, and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction. The wicked are killed with death Rev. 2.23. undone by it: to them it is no other but a trap-door to hell; as to the Saints it is as the valley of Achor, a door of hope, the very daybreak of eternal brightness.

Verse 10. And a man's uncle shall take him up ] Him, that is everyone of the ten a fore-mentioned, being now dead of the plague, shall his uncle or dearest friend take up on his own shoulders, for want of the ordinary mercenary officers (called by the Latins Vespillones, Libitinarii, Pollinctores ) their best friends shall be forced to bury or burn their dead corpses. So Seneca in Oedipo.

To bring out the bones out of the house ] for burial as 1 Sam. 31.15 the flesh being first burnt. Bones are a part of a man's body; and therefore to be committed to the earth, or laid up in a safe place as Joseph's were Exod. 13.19. Josh. 24.32. and with his, the rest of the Patriarchs doubtless Act. 7.16 This is one of the dues of the dead 1. In honor of God who made man's body with admirable art Psal. 139.5. and as it were by the book verse 14.15, 16.2. Next because the dead body was sometime a Temple of the Holy Ghost, and an instrument of many holy actions 1 Cor. 3.16, 17. and 2 Cor. 6.16. 3. because it shall be raised one day and conformed to Christ's glorious body the Standard Philip. 2.21. We know, saith the same Apostle, that when Christ, our life, shall appear, we shall appear with him in glory: like as in the transfiguration, that body of Moses which was hid in the valley of Moab, appeared with Christ in the hill of Tabor.

and shall say unto him that is by the sides of the house ] To him that burneth the dead, as afore, that assisteth a man's uncle to interr him. The Jews did not usually burn but bury: yet sometimes they did Jer. 34. and 1 Kings. 31. and at this time they were forced by the raging pestilence to do it (as Jerome here noteth) for the preventing of stench and further infection.

Is there yet any with thee? ] sc. left alive: or hath death made a clean riddance? Or thus: Are there yet anymore dead corpses, which I may carry forth for the burial?

and he shall say No: ] Or, And he shall say An end, a total consumption: they are all dead, and gone. A sad verdict.

then shall he say, Hold thy tongue ] sc. bear it patiently, fret not, murmur not, 'tis God's doing Psal. 39.9. Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God Zeph. 1.7.

for we may not make mention of the Name of the Lord ] This is vox desperantis the voice of despair and despondensy: and it is as if he had said: it is bootless to pray; for God is set to plague us, and will not be pacified; Surely there is no hope: but we are all Free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave whom God remembereth no more, Psal. 88.5. neither helpeth it us to remember or mention him anymore. Men under sharp afflictions are apt to think that there is left them neither hope of better nor place of worse, as the Church in the Lamentations. Others sense it otherwise: but to me this seemeth the likeliest.

Verse 11. For behold the Lord commandeth ] Calamities, and they come: the Chaldeans, and they are at hand with their battle-axes, but it is he that gives them their commission, and biddeth them Fall on.

and he will smite the great house with breaches &c ] i. e. he will destroy rich and poor together; pale death will knock at both their houses with an even foot, as in time of plague, earthquake or the like Epidemical evil. The grave is the Congregation house of all living Job. 30.23. whereinto men chop oft before they think: as a man that walks in the snow may into a marle-pit. The mortal scyth is master of the royal scepter: and it mowes down the lilies of the crown, as well as the grass of the field. Death is the only king against whom there is no rising up, as Augur phraseth the most absolute predominance Prov. 30.31. it levelleth Lord's and Losels, and lays all wast: breaking down the greater houses and cleaving the lesser, with an utter extermination of all. Search you therefore, search you, O nation not desired; before the decree come forth &c. Zeph. 2.1, 2. After-wit here helps not: repentance, though true may come too late in respect of temporal judgments, as in Moses Deut. 1.37. and David 2 Sam. 12.10.

Verse 12. Shallhorses run upon the rock? ] Is it possible they should do so, and not first break their hoofs, and then their necks? will the rider therefore venture there? were it not matchless madness in him?

will one plow there with oxen? ] Sure he will conceive it too hard a tug, and too vain a labor. Jerome rendereth it Bubalis, with wild-oxen: which, not accustomed to the yoke, are like to make but wild work where-ever they are plowed with. Now as there is no good horse-racing upon a rock, nor fit plowing there: so neither must you ever hope to escape unpunished, or to keep up your Commonwealth unshattered, so long as ye deal thus preposterously, perversely, and absurdly, Prov. 14.14. That of Virgil is not much unlike:

for ye have turned judgment into gall, &c.] Or, into poison: the Chaldee rendereth it, into the head of hurtful serpents. The word seemeth to signify the poison of serpents, which is in the head. See Hos. 10.4. with the Note.

and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock. ] Or, Wormwood, as if ye were a kin to that Star in the Revelation that is styled Wormwood, that great Antichrist, who would make the world believe, that he hath power de injustitia facere justitiam, ex nihilo aliquid, ex virtute vitium, that is, of injustice to make justice, of nothing to make something, of virtue vice, to dispence with any of the ten Commandments, to make new articles of the Creed, to dispose of all kingdoms at his pleasure, and what not? Pope John 23 saith, that he may grant a dispensation against the law of Nature and of Nations, against St. Paul, and St. Peter, against the four Gospels, &c. The Council of Constance comes in with a Non-obstante against Christ's own institution, with-holding the cup from the Sacrament: and the like for priests marriages, prayers in a known tongue, singing of Psalms, &c. When the Cardinals meet to choose a Pope, they make a vow, whosoever is chosen, he shall swear to such Articles as they make. And Sleydan telleth us, that the Pope is no sooner chosen, but he breaks them all, and checks their insolencies, as if they went about to limit his power, to whom all power is given both in heaven and earth, both in spirituals and temporals. And indeed, he is called the Beast, in respect of his civil power, and the false-prophet in respect of his spiritual: and the Star Wormwood, because being himself in the gall of bitterness, and bond of perdition, he turneth all judgment into gall, and the fruit of righteousness into wormwood. See Chap. 5.7.

Verse 13. Ye which rejoice in a thing of naught ] In the creature, saith à Lapide, which is a mere Nothing: in your wealth and strength (called horns in the next clause) which are an uncertainty, an obscurity, as the Apostle deemed them 1 Tim. 6.17. and have no solid subsistence, saith Solomon, Prov. 23.5. though the foolish world call them substance, and goods: Indeed it is only opinion that sets the price upon them, as when gold is raised from twenty shillings to two and twenty, the gold is the same: estimation only raiseth it. It is said of the people of the East-Indies in the Isle Zeiilon that having an apes tooth got from them, which was a consecrated thing by them, they offered an incredible mass of treasure to recover it. Such things of naught, are highly prized and pursued by the worlds 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by worthless persons, such as Anthiocus was in all his state Dan. 11.21. and Agrippa in all his pomp (or as the Greek hath it, in all his phantasy or vain show) and as these voluptuaries in the text, who had their wine and their music, fat calves, and choicest ointments wherein they held themselves happy verse. 4.5, 6. but the Prophet telleth them that in rejoicing in these low things, they rejoiced in a thing of naught: they fed altogether upon ashes, a deceived heart had turned them aside, so that they could not deliver themselves from these empty vanities, nor say (as wise men would have done,) Is there not a lie in my right hand. Isaiah 44.20.

Which say, Have we not taken to us horns, ] yet, no doubt: but such as God by his Carpenters can soon cut off, Zech. 1.20, 21, or without them, by his own bare hand, Psal. 75.11. But what an arrogant brag is here? Have we not taken? and to us? and horns? and by our own strength? Hic Deus nihil fecit, Here God did nothing; they were all the doers: so small a wind blows up bubble,

It is a notable witty expression of Luther; By men's boasting of what they have done, saith He, Hac ego feci, haec ego feci, This and that I have done, they become nothing else but faeces, that is dregs: if themselves were anything, they would not thus rejoice in a thing of nothing: they would not crack in this sort.

Verse 14. But behold, I will raise up against you a nation, &c.] which shall be a cooler to your courage, a rebater to your swelth, a means to take you a link lower, and to stain the glory of your pride. I tell you not what a nation it is, that you may imagine the worst: but you will find their quiver is an open sepulcher, they are all mighty men, and no less merciless, Jer. 5.16, 17.

and they shall afflict you (or crush you) from the entering in of Hamath unto the river of the wilderness ] from one end of your land to the other; that as ye have filled it from corner to corner with your uncleannesses Ezra. 9.11. so there may pass over it an overflowing scourge to wash the foul face of it, as once the old world. Hamath was before noted to be Antiochia, which was one of the bounds of the land of Israel to the North-East.

the river of the wilderness ] is else where called the river of Egypt, as some will have it, See Num. 34.5, 8. Deut. 3.17. Josh. 13.3. and 15.47. 1 Chron. 13.35. where the wilderness was Joel. 1.20. I cannot but concur with Kimchi, who by the river of the valleys here, understandeth the dead sea, comparing this text with 2 King. 14.25. & Deut. 3.17. It being common in Scripture to call lakes and great rivers by the name of Seas, Luke 5.1. with Num. 34.11. The dead sea also is in Human Authors called the lake Asphaltites the lake of Palestine, of Sodom, &c. It lieth to the South-west: and is elsewhere made the bound of the Promised land, Num. 34.3. Josh. 15.2.

CHAP. VII.

Verse 1. THus hath the Lord God shown unto me, ] sc. in a Prophetical vision: this being the first of those five that follow, to the end of the Prophesy: all foretelling the evils that should befall this people, to whom Amos is again sent, as Ahijah was to Jeroboams wife with heavy tidings, and as Ezekiel was afterwards to his rebellious countrymen, with a roll written full of lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

and behold he formed grasshoppers, ] Or, locusts, fore-runners of famine, Joel 1.4. (See the Note there) or, (as some will) of the Assyrians, whom the divine justice made a scorpion to Israel, as Israel had been a scourge to Judah. When the Israelites were in their flourish, as the grass or wheat is in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter groweth, they had been first mowed by Benhadad, king of Syria: but, growing up again under Jeroboam their king, they were devoured by Pul and his Army, as by so many greedy locusts.

In the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth, ] For in those fat and fertile countries they used

Now if the latter growth were eaten up too, what else could follow but extreme famine?

It was the latter growth after the kings mowings. ] Or, sheep-shearings, as some read it: but the former is better: and Diodate here noteth, that it is thought that the kings did take the first crop, in esum & usum jumentorum, to keep their war horses, and for other services: leaving the latter mowings for other cattle, who were taught to say, After your Majesty, is good manners.

Verse 2. When they had made an end of eating, ] Not the corn only, but the grass, to the very roots; besides a pestilent stench left behind them; when, I say, they had done their worst. Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift: as is to be seen, Jam. 5.18. upon the prayer of Elias the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit, after three years and a halfs drought; when it might well have been thought that root, and fruits, and all had been dried up, and that prayer had come too late. But that's seldom seen: as all God's people can say experimentally. But what shall we think of Jamblicus, a Heathen Author, who hath such a commendation of prayer, which might well beseem an experienced Christian? He calleth it, Rerum divinarum ducem & lucem, copulam, quâ homines cum Deo conjunguntur, the guide and light of divine duties: the band whereby men are united to God. Nay he proceedeth and saith, that prayer is clavis instar, qua Dei penetralia aperiuntur, instead of a key, wherewith God's cabinet is opened: and much more to the same purpose: All this the Prophet knew full well, and therefore sets to work in good earnest: and as when a cart is in a quagmire, if the horses feel it coming, they will pull the harder, till they have it out: so He.

Then I said, O Lord God forgive, I beseech thee, ] Sin, he knew, was their greatest enemy; the mother of all their misery. Of that therefore he prays for pardon, and then he knew all should be well: as when the sore is healed, the plaster falleth off. Of Christ it is said, that He shall save his people from their sins, Mat. 1.21. as the greatest of evils: and the Church in Hosea chap. 14.2. cries, Take away all iniquity. Feri Domine, feri, saith Luther, nam à peccatis absalutus sum. Smite me as much as thou pleasest, now that thou hast forgiven my sins.

By whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. ] Here is much in few. It is Jacob, thy confederate: and he is down upon all four: and he is but small, low and little, and (as some render it) Quis stabit Jacobo? Behold, He whom thou lovest is sick, John. 11.3. They that are thine by covenant, are at a very great under: trodden on by the bulls of Basan, as a poor shrub of the wilderness, so the Psalmists word imports, Psal. 102.17. Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, (that knows not whether he had best help or not?) or as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us; and we are called by thy Name: leave us not. Thus the Prophets indeed prayed for their unkind countrymen: so did Paul, Athanasius, Luther. I have obtained of God, said He, that never whilst I live shall the Pope prevail against my country: when I am gone, let those pray that can pray. And indeed, he was no sooner gone, but all Germany was on a flame: as when Austin's head was laid, Hippo was soon surprised by the enemy; and when Pareus's, Heidelburg.

Verse 3. The Lord repented for this: it shall not be, saith the Lord. ] Here was mutatio rei, non Dei: facti, non consilij: a change not of God's will, but of his work; therefore (by way of explication) it followeth, it shall not be saith the Lord. To speak properly, there can be no repentance in God, 1 Sam. 15.20. but this is spoken after the manner of men: and it notably setteth forth the power of faithful prayer, able after a sort, to alter God's mind, and to transfuse a dead Palsy into the hands of Omnipotencie, Exod. 32.10. where God is fain to be-speak his own freedom: and Moses is represented as the great Chancellor of heaven.

Verse 4. And behold the Lord God, ] whose Asterisk, or starry Note this behold is, saith Tarnovius, stirring up to attention. Another compareth it to an hand in the margent of a book, pointing to some notable thing. Another to the sounding of a trumpet before some proclamation: or to the ringing of a bell before the sermon of some famous Preacher.

the Lord God called to contend by fire, ] that is, by parching heat and drought, causing dearth, as Joel 1.19. For which purpose, God called his Angels, those ministering spirits that execute his judgments upon the wicked (as they did once upon Sodom) to contend for him (a metaphor from civil courts) to plead for him by fire, to destroy the perverse Israelites by fire and brimstone, as they had done Sodom and Gomorrah (so some interpret it according to the letter) or by the woe of war, compared to fire, 2 King. 14.26. Isaiah 26.11. as being a misery which all words (how wide soever) want compass to express: Or, by immoderate heat and drought, as afore: so great, that it devoured the great deep, ] as that fire of the Lord in Elijah's time licked up the water that was in the treuch, 1 King. 18.38. See Isaiah 51.10.

and did eat up a part. ] Or, it devoured also the field: Not only the waters, in and under the earth, that serve to make it fruitful, but a part of the earth itself: which was altogether above and against the common course of nature. Some render it, and did eat up that part, or that field, sc. that mentioned verse 1. the Kings field; that as the King had chiefly offended, so he should be principally punished. Other, interpret it by chap. 4.7. One piece was rained upon, and the piece whereon it rained not, withered.

Verse 5. Then said I, O Lord God, cease I beseech thee. ] See verse 2. and persevering in prayer for the public, remember to plead, not merit but misery, Psal. 79.8, 9. and with all humility to acknowledge that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed: because his compassions fail not, Lam. 3.22.

Verse 6. The Lord repented for this, ] As he is gracious, Exod. 22.27. and quickly repenteth him of the evil, Joel 2.13. Redire nos, non perire desiderat. I said, I would scatter them into corners, &c. Deut. 32.26, 27. Mercy could not behold such strange wrath and cruelty, and not weep herself even sick, as it were.

this also shall not be, saith the Lord. ] So ready is he to yield himself overcome by the suits of his servants.

See verse 3.

Verse 7. This he shown me, and behold, ] See verse 4.

The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line, &c.] Here he was set, or stood firm, (as the word signifieth) as not to be removed from his purpose, by any entreaties: he was fully resolved upon their ruin, and it should be done exactly, ad amussim, by line and by rule, as it were, and with so much justice, and most exquisite diligence, that against it should lie no manner of exception. It is said of the Areopagites in Athens, that their sentence was so upright, that none could ever say he was unjustly condemned of them. How much more true is this of the righteous judgment of God, who must needs therefore be justified and every mouth stopped? Mat. 22.12. And he was speechless, because self-condemned Tit. 3.11. and had not what to request.

with a plumb-line in his hand ] To show that he would accurately examine their actions, and punish their pravities. (See Lam. 2.8. and 2 King. 21.13.) not sparing them as heretofore. A heavy sentence surely Psal. 130.3.

Verse 8. Behold I will set a plumb-line ] I will call them to a strict account and show them no favor Jer 16.13. I will now actually execute my justice which I have hitherto suspended; and pay them home for the new and the old; bringing upon them an evil, an only evil, without mixture of mercy Ezech. 7.5.

I will not again pass by them anymore ] A metaphor from men that pass by such things as they slight and count inconsiderable: winking at small faults as not worthy to be reckoned upon. Hence Mic. 7.18. God is said to pardon iniquity and pass by transgression: as elsewhere he is said to bind them up in a bundle, to seal them up in a bag, to cast them behind his back, to remove them as far as the East is from the West, so that he beholdeth no sin in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel Num. 23.21. The Church, privy to her own infirmities, calleth herself black Cant. 1.5. but Christ calleth her fair all over chap. 4.7. She saith, God hath punished us less then our sins, Ezra 9.13. He saith, She hath received double for her sins Isa. 40.1. Too much saith God; too little, saith She. O beautiful contention? But this is a privilege proper to the communion of Saints, with whom God will not deal according to the rigor of his law (as he doth with the wicked) but according to his prerogative.

Verse 9. And the high-places of Isaac shall be desolate ] The Edomites also came of Isaac: but by a Synecdoche the Israelites only are here and ver. 16. to be understood. Like as elsewhere Heber is put for the Israelites only Num. 24.24. and Joseph, for Ephraim Rev. 7.8. Some think that the high places of Isaac are here mentioned, to show that they were erected by the people in an apish imitation either of Beersheba where Isaac worshipped, or of mount Moriah where Isaac should have been offered: And that Isaac is here written with Sin and not tsadi to show that God held himself not adored, but derided by those high-places of irrision, or those ridiculous ultars, which therefore he threateneth to desolate, and lay wast.

and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword ] as a prelude to the utter extermination of all by the Assyrians. See this fulfilled 2 King. 15.10. and chap. 17. Jeroboam was very prosperous and victorious: yet designed to destruction. It is said of wicked men, that foeneâ quadam felicitate temporaliter floreant, they flourish today as grass, and tomorrow are cast into the oven: and as the mettle whereof men make glass is nearest melting when it shineth brightest, so are graceless persons nearest destruction, when at greatest luster. The Turks observing that few of their Visiers die in their beds, have this proverb amongst them, that the greatest man is but as a statue of glass.

Verse 10. Then Amaziah the Priest of Beth-el ] Observing that the prophet had foretold a desolation, and not prayed as before that it might be averted: because he saw God was fully resolved, and their destruction determined.

Amos hath conspired against thee in the land ] Thus Elijah was the Troubler of Israel, Jeremy a feedsman of sedition, Christ an enemy to Caesar, Luther a trumpet of rebellion, all Contra-remonstrants, antimagistraticall. As Athaliah cried Treason, Treason, when herself was the greatest traitor: and as in Nero 's days Sedition was unicum crimen corum qui crimine vacabunt, laid ordinarily to the charge of those that were most free from it, so was it here. Amos bath conspired &c. whereas Amos might well have said as Latimer did,

Religion is an utter enemy to rebellion: and as there are few conscionable Christians, (Prophets especially) that have not passed under this calumniation: so he cannot be rightly esteemed such an one, that deserveth it. But Amazia 's honor and incomes were now at stake: as he well perceived when he heard Amos say, Go not up to Bethe-el &c. the high-places of Isaac shall be destroyed: and hence, his zeal against the Prophet, like as Erasmus told the Electour of Saxony, that the Pope and his shavelings were therefore so sharp set against Luther, because he lifted at the triple crown; and sought to bring down the monks fat paunches.

the land is not able to bear all his words ] his burdensome prophesies (See Mal. 1.1. with the Note) much less can I endure them, or any faithful servant of thine, true to his trust. Such a lying accusation we read of Esth. 3.8. made by haughty Haman against the innocent Jews, that they kept not the kings laws, and that therefore it were good policy to weed them out, as not to be longer endured. So Francis King of France, desiring to excuse to the Protestant-Princes of Germany his cruel persecution of the Lutherans in his Kingdom, wrote to them that he looked upon them all as Anabaptists, and as enemies to civil government: and therefore used such severity against them. This gave occasion to Calvin to write his admirable Institutions, to vindicate our religion from that soul aspersion: the like devilish policy was afterwards used to blanch over that horrid French massacre. For it was given out, that the Protestants had conspired against the King, the Queen-mother, the kings brethren, the king of Navarre, and the Princes of the blood. There was also coin stamped in memory of the matter, in the forepart whereof with the kings picture was this inscription, Virtus in rebels: and on the other side, Pietas excitavit justitiam: Piety hath stirred up justice. Here was a fair glove drawn upon a foul hand: and this they learned of the devil, who was first a slanderer and then a murderer: as those that have a mind to kill another man's dog, make the world believe he was mad first, that they may do it with the better pretext.

Verse 11. For thus Amos saith, Jereboam shall die by the sword &c. ] When did Amos say so? he said indeed that the house of Jeroboam should be smitten with the sword ver. 9. and this Amaziah maliciously transferreth to the person of Jeroboam, the more to enrage him against the Prophet: whom therefore he nameth once and again, to create him the more displeasure. That Jeroboam died by the sword, we read not, but that his son Zechariah was slain, and his house destroyed in the next generation we find 2 King. 15. according to Amos his Prophecy. But to color this calumny, some truth shall be admingled.

and Israel shell surely be led away captive ] This indeed the Prophet had oft affirmed, (though not in any of those three last visions) and it proved too true: but because Amos saith so, he must pass for a traitor against the majesty both of the king and of the people. What an impudent sycophant was this? The king and people are pretended: and what good subject can endure it? but that which irked him was, that his own authority was by this plain-dealing Prophet impaired, and his gain like to be lessened, if the superstition of Bethel were thus decried. It is said of Phlugius and Sidonius (authors of the Interim in Germany) that among other points of Popery therein defended, they spake much for Chrism and extreme unction, ut ipsi discederent unctores, that thereby they might hold fat bishopricks. Such arguments prevail much with all self-seekers, whose covetousness and ambition usually ride without reins, and over whose neck it mattereth not.

Veese 12. Also Amaziah said unto Amos ] After he had maliciously misinformed the king, but prevailed not; so God would have it, in whose heart is the kings hand, & who rebuketh even kings for their sakes, saying, Do my Prophets no harm. O thou Seer ] Faire words; the better to insinuate.

Some think he calleth the Prophet thus by way of jeer, quasi fatidicum aut fanaticum, as a fortune-teller or distracted. Others, that he giveth the Prophet good words, and seemeth to give him good counsel, as fearing the people, with whom Amos was in some credit: and therefore the king was told of a conspiracy against him in the midst of the house of Israel, verse. 10.

Flee-thee away into the land of Judah ] Age. fuge: as a friend wrote to Brenz, when he was in danger to be surprised by the Emperors Agent, Fuge, fuge Brenti cito, citiùs, citissime, Fly for thy life, hast, hast, hast. So the Pharisees (for no great love, be sure, but only to be fairly rid of him) came and said to Christ, Get thee out and depart hence: for Herod will kill thee Luk. 13.31.

into the land of Judah ] This he speaketh scornfully, q. d. we are not good enough for you? you are so strict &c.

and there eat bread, and prophesy there ] Invidiose omnia & contemptim dicit: If you stay hear, you may hap to starve for it. Away therefore into your own country: and there make thee a living by prophesying. He seems to measure Amos by himself: as if he were of those that prophesied, for an handful of harly, and a morsel of bread, Ezek. 13.19. Mic. 3.11. and as a certain Popish Priest confessed concerning himself and his symmists, We preach the gospel said he, tantum ut nos pascat & vestiat, only to pick a living out of it.

Verse 13. But prophesy not anymore at Bethel ] Take heed of that: lest, by diffusing too much light amongst us, thou mar our markets, and hinder the sale of our false wares. This was the naked truth of the business: though something else was pretended, and the kings interest pleaded.

for it is the kings chapel, and the kings court ] Touch these mountains and they will smoke, Truth is a good mistress, but such of her servants as follow her too close at heels, may hap to have their teeth struck out. Ahab hateth Michaiah: and Herod, John Baptist, and the Pope Savanarola, for their plain dealing, laying them fast enough for it. Great ones love it 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 they must hear pleasing things: or, if told of their faults, it must be done with silken words, as She said. They are usually beset with their Aiones and Negones as One hath it, that will say as they say: & mirifica est sympathia inter magnates & parasitos, and there is a wonderful sympathy betwixt kings and court-parasites, as was betwixt Ahab and the false prophets. Few Vespasian • are to be found (of whom as it was said, that he was the only One who was made the better man by being made Emperor, so) Quintilian commendeth him for this, that he was patientissimus veri most patient of truth, though never so sharp. Jeroboam was none such: or at least Amaziah the Priest of Bethel would make the Prophet so believe, when he tells him it is the kings court, an ill air for truth to breath in. Nihil veritate gravius, nihil assentatione suavius.

Verse 14. Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah] With no less courage, I suppose, then Paul and Barnabas used to the stubborn Jews Act, 13.46. or Basil to Valent the Emperor, or Johannes Sarisburiensis to the Pope Anno 154. or Bishop Ridley, when offering to preach before the Lady Mary, and receiving a repulse, he was brought by Sr. Thomas Wharton her servant to the dining place and desired to drink. Which after he had done, he paused a whille looking very sadly: and suddenly brake out into these words. Surely I have done amiss: why so? quoth the knight: for I have drunk, said He, in that place where God's word offered hath been refused: whereas if I had remembered my duty, I had departed immediately and shaken off the dust of my shoes; for a testimony against this house. These words were by the said Bishop spoken with such a vehemency, that some of the hearers afterwards confessed the hairs to stand upright on their heads.

I was no Prophet, neither was I a Prophets son ] Neither born, nor bred a Prophet: neither have I rashly or ambitiously put myself upon this tremend employment: my call thereto was extraordinary. The Prophets scholars were called their sons 2 King. 2.3, 5, 7, 15. Esa. 8.18. Mar. 10.24. 1 Cor. 4.14, 17.

but I was an heardman, and a gatherer of Sicomore fruit ] Of mean condition, and hardly bred; so that I could live with a little, and needed not to turn Prophet ventris causâ, for food sake. When one said to the Philosopher, If you will but please Dionysius, you need not feed upon green herbs, he presently replied, And if you can feed upon green herbs, you need not please Dionysius. Nature is content with a little, grace with less. It is not for a servant of God to be a slave to his palate: Luther made many a meal of a herring.

Verse 15. And the Lord took me, as I followed the flock ] As he took Elisha from the plow-tail, the Apostles from casting and mending their nets &c. Asinos elegit Christus & idiotas, sed • culdvit in prudentes: simulque dona dedit, & ministeria, he called them to the office, and withal he gifted them. He called also learned Nathanael, and Nicodemus, a Master in Israel: lest, if he had called none but such as were simple, (saith John. de Turrecremata ) it should have been thought, they had been deceived, through their simplicity. But it is God's way to choose the foolish things of the world, to confound the wise; and things that are not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence, 1 Cor. 1.27, 28, 29.

and the Lord said unto me, ] He often inculcates the Name of the Lord, to show that there was a necessity of his prophesying: for who can safely disobey such a commander. See chap. 3.8. Aut faciendum, aut patiendum. The Philosopher could tell the Emperor, who challenged him to dispute, that there was no contesting with Him that had twenty Legions at his command.

Go prophesy unto my people Israel. ] Keep within my precincts, and thou shalt be sure of my protection: be true to thy trust, and I will see to thy safety. If thou have not fine manchet (as Bucer said to Bradford, encouraging him to bestow his talent in preaching) yet give the poor people barley-bread, or what ever else the Lord hath committed unto thee. Having therefore such a call from heaven to this work, with what face canst thou hinder me therein? with what countenance will ye appear before the judgment-seat of Christ (said Dr. Taylor Martyr to Stephen Gardener, Lord Chancellor, who had thus saluted him, Art thou come, thou villain? how darest thou look me in the face for shame? knowest thou not who I am, &c?) How dare ye for shame look any Christian man in the face, seeing you have forsaken the truth, denied our Savior Christ and his word, and done contrary to your own oath and writing. And, if I should be afraid of your Lordly looks, why fear you not God, the Lord of us all? who hath sent us on his errand, which we must deliver, and truth be spoken, however it be taken, 1 Cor. 9.16.

Verse 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord, ] Hear, thou despiser and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in thy days, a work which thou wilt in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto thee, Acts 13.41. But whether thou wilt hear, or forbear, believe or otherwise, thy doom is determined, and shall be pronounced. Hear, therefore, and give ear: be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken it. Oh that thou wouldst give glory to the Lord, and confess thy sin! Oh that thou wouldst submit to Divine justice, implore his mercy, and putting thy mouth in the dust, say as once that good man did, Veniat, veniat, verbum Domini, & submittemus, ei sexcenta si nobis essent eolla. Let the Lord speak, for his servant heareth! But because there is little hopes of that, stand forth and hear thy sentence, and the evil that shall befall thee, as sure as the coat is on thy back, or the heart in thy body. For hath the Lord spoken, and shall he not do it?

Thou sayest prophesy not, ] By a bold countermand to that of God in the former verse. Go, prophesy, &c. But we to him that striveth with his maker: let the potsherd strive with the p • tsherds of the earth, let men meddle with their matches, and not with him that is mightier then they.