Commentary on the Minor Prophets

CHAP. II.

Verse. 1. THen Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God ] i. e. Praised God with this Canticum eucharisticum, this gratulatory song as Tremellius calleth it. That he prayed in the ship, in the sea, in the whales belly, we doubt not; but that he chiefly intendeth to show his thankfulness for the return of prayers, and the sweet support he felt in the whales belly, we do as little doubt; See ver. 2, 6, 7. yea that this was the substance (though now better methodized) of what he prayed and praised in the bowels of the fish, we have cause to believe from this very verse: and therefore also his deliverance is set down ver. 10. after his doxology. The word here rendered prayed signifieth also sometimes, to give thanks, as 1 Sam 2.2. and who knows not that thanksgiving is a special part of prayer? This therefore: Jonah having prayed, and perceiving that he was heard, and by the goodness of God preserved safe in body, and sound in mind, he grows strong in faith, giving glory to God: and being fully persuaded that he should yet walk before him again in the land of the living.

out of the fishes belly ] where though he might seem buried alive, and free among the dead, yet he enjoyed God's gracious presence, and those strong consolations, that made him live in the very mouth of death, and say in effect as blessed Bradford did, I thank God more of this prison and of this dark dungeon then of any parlor, yea then of any pleasure that ever I had. For in it I find God my most sweet God always.

Verse 2. And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction ] His lips did not move in affliction, like a creaking door or a new cart-wheel, with murmuring and mutinying against God and men: he set not his mouth against heaven (as the howling wolf when hunger-bit) neither did his tongue walk through the earth, cursing the day of his birth, and cutting deep into the sides of such as were means of his misery. But putting his mouth in the dust, if so be there might be hope, he cried by reason of his affliction. The time of affliction is the time of supplication: no time like that for granting of suites Zech. 13.9. God's afflicted may have what they will of him then, such are his fatherly compassions to his sick children: he reserveth his best comforts for the worst times, and then speaketh to the hearts of his people, when he hath brought them into the wilderness Hos. 2.13. This Jonah experimented, and therefore said, I cried out of mine affliction unto the Lord.

And he heard me ] How else am I alive amidst so many deaths? here's a visible answer, a real return: Oh blessed be God who hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me Psal. 66.20. Surely as the cloud, which riseth out of the earth many times in them and insensible vapors, falleth down in great and abundant showers: so our prayers, which ascend weak and narrow, return with a full and enlarged answer. This was but a pitiful poor prayer that Jonah here made, as appears ver. 4. and so was that of David Psal. 31.22. For I said in mine hast I am cut off from before thine eyes: Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications, when I cried unto thee. It would be wide with us, if God should answer the best of us according to our prayers, yea though well watered with tears: since Ipsae lacrymae sixth lacrymabiles &c. we had need to weep over our tears, sigh over our sobs, mourn over our griefs &c. Jonah was so taken with this kindness from the Lord his God, that he repeats it and celebrates it a second time.

out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice ] The whales belly he calleth hells-belly, because horrid and hideous, deep and dismal. Thence he cried as David did De profundis, and was heard and delivered. Yea had hell itself closed her mouth upon a praying Jonah, it could not long have held him: but must have vomited him up. A Mandamus from God will do it at any time, Psa. 44.4. and what cannot faithful Prayer have of God? there is a certain omnipotency in it, said Luther.

Verse 3. For thou hadst cast me into the deep ] A graphicall description of his woeful condition, which yet he remembereth now as waters that are past and is thankful to his Almighty Deliverer. See the like in David Psa. 116.3. and learn of these and other Saints, to acknowledge the uttermost extremity of a calamity, after we are delivered out of it. For hereby thy judgment will be the better instructed and the more convinced: thine heart also will be the more enlarged to admire, and thy mouth the wider opened to celebrate the power, wisdom, and mercy of God in thy deliverance. As if this be not done, God will be provoked either to inflict heavier judgments, or else to cease to smite thee anymore with the stripes of a father, and to give thee up for a lost child.

for thou hadst cast me into the deep ] Not the mariners, but Thou didst it: and therefore there was no averting or avoiding it. Thou hadst cast me with a force, as a stone out of a sling, or as that mighty Angel Rev. 18.21. that took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence &c.

In the midst of the seas ] Heb: in the heart of the sea's: so Mat. 12.40. So shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. And Deut. 4.11. we read of the heart of heaven that is, the middle of it, as the heart sitteth in the midst of the body as king of that Isle of Man. Now if it were so grievous to be cast into the main Sea, what shall it be to be hurled into hell, by such an hand, and with such a force into that bottomeless gulf, whence nothing was ever yet boyed up again?

and the floods compassed me about ] Aquarum confluges The Sea, whence all floods or rivers issue, and whereto they return ( Homer calleth the Ocean 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a river by the figure Miôsis ) Danaus here noteth that out of that gulf of the Sea, which of Plato is called Tartarus, that is, hell, the waters do flow into the veins of the earth (as it is Eccles. 1.7.) losing their saltness in the passage. Here Jonah cried out as Psa. 69.1.2. Save me, O God: for the waters are come in unto my soul. I fink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into the deep waters, where the floods overflow me. It was only his faith that held him up by the chin: and, like blown bleathers, bore him aloft all waters.

all thy billows and thy waves passed over me ] All: so it seemed to Jonah, that God had poured out all his displeasure upon him: but he suf • ereth not his whole wrath to arise against his people: neither remembereth iniquity forever. Thy billows or surges, not the seas but thine. God seemed to fight against Jonah with his own hand. David likewise in a desertion complains that all God's waves and floods were gone over him Ps. 42.7. In this case (for it may be any ones case) let us do as Paul and his company did (in that dismal tempest Act. 27. when they saw neither sun nor star for diverse days and nights together) cast anchor of hope, even beyond hope: and then wait and wish for day. God will appear at length, and all shall clear up: he will deliver our souls from the nethermost hell.

Vers. 4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, ] Thus those straits brought him to these disputes of despair, as they did likewise David, Psal. 31.22. the Church in the Lamentations Chap. 4.22. and others, apt enough in affliction to have hard conceits of God, and heavy conceits of themselves. Whiles men look at things present, whiles they live by sense only, it must needs be with them as with an house without pillars, tottering with every blast; or as a ship without anchor, tossed with every wave. They must therefore thrust Hagar out of doors, and set up Sarah; silence their reason, and exalt Faith, as did Jonas here; Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight: Here you may take him up for a dead man; here he inclineth somewhat to that of Cain, Gen. 4.13, 14. and surely they that go down to this pit (of despair, as Hezekiah speaketh of the grave) cannot hope for God's truth, as long as there they stay.

yet I will look again toward thine holy Temple ] Here he recollects and recovers himself: as the same soul may successively doubt and believe, not simultaneously: and faith, where it is right, will at length outwrestle diffidence, and make a man more then a conqueror, even a Triumpher. When sense saith such a thing will not be, Reason saith, It cannot be, Faith gets above and saith, Yea, but it shall be: what talk you to me of Impossibilities, I shall yet (as low as I am, and as forlorn) look again towards God's holy Temple of heaven; yea, that here on earth, where God is sincerely served, and whereto the precious are annexed. Faith is by one fitly compared to the cork upon the net: though the lead on the one sinks it down, yet the cork on the other keeps it up in the water. The faithful soon check themselves for their doubtings and despondency, as Jonah here; as David chides David, Psal. 43.5 and as Paul saith of himself and his fellows, that they were staggering, but not wholly sticking, 2 Cor. 4.8.

Vers. 5. The waters compassed me about even to the soul ] that is, usque ad animae deliquium, till I labored for life, and was as good as gone.

The depth closed me round about ] see the Note on verse. 3. and further observe, that God's dear children may fall into desperate and deadly dangers, see Psal. 18.3. and 88.3. & 116.3. And this for 1. prevention, 2. purgation, 3. probation, 4. preparations to further both mercies and duties. Let us not therefore censure our selves or others as hated of God, because greatly distressed; but encourage ourselves in them, as did David at Ziklag, 1 Sach. 30.6. The right of the Lord shall change all this.

The weeds were wrapped about mine head ] Alga as Alligando. The weeds which the fish had devoured, or whereunto the fish, wherein I was, had dived and lain down amongst them. Or this might befall Jonah in the bottom of the sea, before the fish had swallowed him: for weeds easily wrap about those that swim, or are drowned.

Vers. 6. I went down to the bottoms of the montains ] that is, of the promontories, or rocks of the sea, where the waters are deepest. Thus Mercer after Kimchi. The channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered, Psal. 18.15. The mountains are said to be under water, Prov. 8.25. because their foundations are there placed.

the earth with her bars was about me for over ] As if resolved there to keep me close prisoner; that though the fish had disgorged me, yet I should never have got to land. The shores are set by God as bars to keep the sea within his bounds, Job 38.8, 10, 11. Jer. 5.22. Here then all the creatures seemed to set against poor Jonas, and (which was more then all) the Creator too: so that he might sigh and say, as in the Poet,

Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption ] i. e. from the place where I was likely to have lain and rotted. Cum duplicantur lateres, venit Moses: when things are at the worst God appeareth, as it were out of an engine. In the mount will the Lord be seen Ezek. 37.11. &c. 2 King. 19.3. he stays so long sometimes that he hardly finds faith on earth Luk. 18. and yet comes at last to the relief of his poor people: viz. when they are ripe and ready for it. He is a God of judgment, he knows how and when to deal forth his favors: and even waiteth to be gracious Isaiah 30.22. See Esa. 28.24, 25, 27, 28.

O Lord my God ] sc. by the mean and merit of thy son, in whom alone it is, that thou Lord art my God, and that I can call thee Abba Father. It is well observed by an Interpreter, that in this short history of Jonah are all things contained, which may make to the sound and saving knowledge of God and his will, of ourselves also and our duties.

Verse 7. When my soul fainted within me, I remembered the Lord ] And could say as the Church in Isaiah when at lowest, Doubtless thou art our Father, our Redeemer, thy Name is from everlasting. As there is in the creatures an instinct of nature to do their kind: so there is of grace in the Saints, to run to God. Yea in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee: the desire of our soul is to thy Name, and to the remembrance of thee: with my soul have I desired thee in the night: yea with my spirit within me will I seek thee early &c. Esa. 26.8, 9. Oh Lord, saith Habacuc, art not thou from everlasting my God and mine holy One. It was a bold question, but God approves and assents to it in a gracious answer, ere they went further; We shall not die (say they obruptly) O Lord thou hast ordained them (the Chaldeans) for judgment: but us only for chastisement. Here was the triumph of their faith, and this was that which held up Jonas his hope though with wonderful difficulty, held head above water. He remembered the years of the right hand of the most High Psal. 77.10. he called to mind his songs in the night season ver. 6. his former experience, a just ground of his present confidence. He remembered the Lord, his Power and Goodness, those two pillars, the Jachin and the Boaz that support Faith; and this fetched him again when ready to faint. I had even fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, Psal. 27.13.

and my prayer came in unto thee ] q. d. Though I was so faint I could scarce utter a prayer, yet thou harknedst and heardest, as Mal. 3.16. thou madest hard shift to hear, (as I may say) thine ears were in my prayers, as S. Peter hath it, 1 Pet. 3.12. thou felst my breathing, when no voice could be heard, Lam. 3.56. thou heldest not thy peace at my tears, Psal. 39.12. quando fletu agerem non afflatu, yea thou heardest the voice of mine affliction, Gen. 16.11.

Into thine holy Temple. ] Whether we take it of the Temple at Jerusalem (a type of Christ) Jonah's prayer was accepted for Christ's-sake: and proved to no less purpose, though made in the Whales belly, then if he had been pouring it out in God's holy Temple. Or, if we understand it of Heaven, the habitation of God's holiness, and of his glory, his orisons were come up thither, for a memorial before the Almighty, Act. 10.4. and like pillars of incense pierced into his presence, Can. 3.6. neither would they away without their errand, but lay at God's feet, til he should command deliverance out of Zion

Verse 8. They that observe lying vanities ] That listen to sense and reason in matters of God, and make provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof, as Jonah had done to his cost, till, having paid for his learning, he descried them all to be but lying vanities, or most vain vanities, empty Nothings.

forsake their own mercy. ] Are miserable by their own election, because sinners (in a special manner) against their own souls, as were Corab and his complices, Num. 16.38. as was Pope Silvester, who gave his soul to the Devil for seven years enjoyment of the Popedom: and as are all those willful wicked persons, that refusing to be reformed, and hating to be healed, choose to spend the span of this life after the ways of their own hearts, though they thereby perish forever. These are those fools of the people, that prefer an apple before Paradise, a mess of pottage before the inheritance of heaven, their swine before their Savior, turning their backs upon those blessed and bleeding embracements of his, and cruelly cutting the throats of their own poor souls, by an impenitent continuance in sin: so losing, for a few bitter-sweet pleasures, or paltry profits in this vale of tears, for an inch of time, that fullness of felicity at God's right hand, thorough all eternity. It is written of them who tame the Tiger, that when they have taken away the young one, knowing that presently they shall be pursued by the old Tygresse, they set looking-glasses in the way by which they flee: whereunto when she cometh and seeth some representation of herself, she lingreth about them a good space, deceived by the shadow, and detained in a vain hope to recover the young again: Mean-while the hunter most speedily posteth away with his prey. Semblably dealeth Satan with the men of this world (saith mine Author) He casts before them the deceitful lusts of profit, pleasure, and preferment (the worldlings Trinity ) those lying vanities, being none other then shadows and semblances of good: yet are men so delighted with these, that they dote about them, having no care to pursue the enemy, for recovery of that image of God, the Divine nature, that Satan hath beguiled them of. He setteth them to the tree of knowledge, that they may not taste of the tree of life. He putteth out their eyes with the dust of covetousness, and shutteth their ears against the instructions of life, lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their hearts, and should be converted, and God should heal them, Mat. 13.15. In all which there is not anything more to be lamented then this, that people should love to have it so, Jer. 6.31. be active in their own utter undoing, Hos. 13.9. wittingly and willingly forsake God the fountain of living waters (their own mercies, as he is here called, and elsewhere, Psal. 144.2.) and hew themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, Jer. 2.13.

Verse 9. But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving, ] q. d. Let others do as they think good: let them make a match with mischief till they have enough of it. Let them walk till they have wearied themselves, in the ways of their hearts, and in the sight of their eyes: but let them know (I speak it by woeful experience) that for all these things, God will bring them to judgment, Eccles. 11.9. The best that can come of sin is Repentance: and that's not in man's power, but in God's gift, 2 Tim. 2.25. If he had not melted mine hard heart, and brought me back to himself with a strong hand, I had pined away in mine iniquities, and perished forever. But now having been so miraculously delivered from so great a death, I will sacrifice unto the Lord with the voice of thanksgiving. I will set up my note and sing aloud unto God my Savior, who hath thus beyond all desert, delivered such a miserable wretch, rebel, and runagate as myself.

I will sacrifice ] Heb. I will slay, sc. those birds and beasts in use for feasts and sacrifices at Jerusalem. with the voice of thanksgiving. ] Heb. of confession, that is, I will confess and acknowledge God to be what he is, to do what he doth, and to give what he giveth. Now to offer a sacrifice, at such a confession, or thanksgiving, added much to the solemnity thereof; and made it more, honorable in itself, and more acceptable to God. To these gratulatory sacrifices the word slaying is attributed, as here: to show, that even in gratulation, expiation must be made: and that by the blood and sacrifice of Christ all our offerings are accepted in heaven.

I will pay that I have vowed, ] Not my general vow only as a Covenanter, to devote myself to his fear and service all my days; but those particular, personal, voluntary vows made in my distress: such as was that of Jacob, Gen. 28.20. Hannah, 1 Sam. 1.11. David, Psal. 132.1, 2 &c. In affliction men are wondrous apt to promise great matters, if they may but be delivered. See Psal. 78.36. Pliny in an Epistle to one of his friends, that desired rules from him how to order his life aright; I will, saith he, give you one rule, that shall be instead of a thousand. Ut tales esse perseveremus sani, quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi. That you be sure to be the same when well, that you vowed to be when you were sick. But this is few men's care. See Jer. 34.10, 11. Sons of Belial break these bonds (as Sampson did the green withes) and cast away those cords from them; if they could at least. being worse herein then those Mariners, chap. 1, then Saul, that made great conscience of violating his vow, 1 Sam. 14. then Turks and Papists, who are superstitiously strict this way Jonah knew it to be as bad, if not worse, then perjury, to vow and not to perform, Num. 30.3. and that God is the avenger of all such, Deut. 23.21. He therefore, not merely for fear of punishment, but chiefly for hatred of that sin saith, I will pay that I have vowed, ] The Hebrew word Ashallemah seemeth to imply two things. First, that his vow, till paid, was incomplete, it was an imperfect thing; the better part of it was yet wanting. Next, that till that chare were done, he could not be at peace within himself, he could not be quiet: for vows are debts: and debts, till they be paid, are a burden to an honest mind, and do much disease it.

Salvation is of the Lord. ] Salus omnimoda, as the Hebrew word (having one letter more then ordinary in it) importeth: all manner of salvation full, and plentiful deliverance, is of the Lord; who is therefore called, the God of salvation, unto whom belong the issues from death, Psal. 68.20. A quo vera salus non aliunde venit. This Jonah speaketh, as he doth all else in this holy Canticle, not by reading, or by rote, but out of his own feeling, and good experience: his whole discourse was dig'd out of his own breast, as it is said of that most excellent 119. Psalm, that it is made up altogether of experiments; and it therefore hath verba non legenda sed vivenda, words not so much to be read, as lived, as One said once of it. Dives thought that if one went from the dead to warn his wicked brethren, they would never be able to resist such powerful Rhetoric. Behold, here is Jonah raised from the dead, as it were, and warning people to arise, and stand up from dead courses and companies, that Christ may give them light: why do they not then get up and be doing at it, that the Lord may be with them? Shall not the men of Nineveh rise up in judgment with this evil generation, and condemn them, because they repented at the preaching of Jonas: but these do not, though they have many Jonas's, that both preach and practice, non verbis solum praedicantes sed & exemplis, as Eusebius saith Origen did, that live sermons and not teach them only?

Verse 10. And the Lord spake unto the fish, [He spake the word and it was done: He is the great Centurion of the world, that saith to his creature, Do this, and he doth it. Yea, he is the great, great Induperator, to whom everything saith. Iussa sequi tam velle mihi quàm posse necesse esse. I am wholly at thy beck, and check. Jonah spake to God, and God to the fish. It may be said of faithful prayer, that it can do whatsoever God himself can do: since he is pleased to yield himself overcome by the prayers of his people, and to say unto them cordially, as Zedekiah did to his Courtiers colloguingly. The king is not he that can deny you anything. Prayer is of that power, that it can open the doors of Leviathan, as we see here, (which yet is reckoned as a thing not feisible, Job 41.14.) yea of the all-devouring grave, Heb. 11.35. If the Lord, pricked on by the prayers of his people, set in hand to save them, and shall say to the North, Give up; and to the South, Keep not back, bring my sons from far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth, Isaiah 43.6. they shall come amain, and none shall be able to hinder them: Come therefore (with those good souls in Hosea, who had smarted for their folly, as well as Jonah) and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us: he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. A time we must have to be in the fire, in the fishes belly, as in God's Nurturing-house; but he will take care that we be not there overlong: what's two or three days to eternity? Hold out faith and patience: Yet a very little, little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry.

and it vomited up Jonah upon the dry land. ] And here Death was defeated and wiped: it was much more so, when it had swallowed up Christ; and little dreamt that itself should have been thereby swallowed up in victory. But then was fulfilled that of the Prophet, O death, I will be thy death. And as there so here in a proportion, and as a type, omnia jam inversa, saith Mercer, all things are turned toother way. Before the fish was an instrument of death; now, of life, and serves Jonah for a ship to bring him to dry land. This fish useth not to come near the shore, but to sport in the great waters: howbeit now he must, by special command, vomit up Jonah upon the dry land. Why then should it be thought a thing incredible with any, that God should raise the dead? The Sea shall surely give up the dead that were in it: and death and hell deliver up the dead that were in them: and they shall be judged every man according to his works, Rev. 20.13. This, some of the Heathens believed: as Zoroastres, Theopompus, and Plato. And the Stoics opinion was, that the world should one day be dissolved by fire or water: and all things brought to a better state, or to the first golden age again. But we have a more sure word of Prophesy: and this that is here recorded may serve as an image and type of our preservation in the grave, and our resurrection from the dead, by one and the same Almighty power of God.

CHAP. III.

Verse 1. AND the word of the Lord came unto Jonah the second time. ] Jonah is a sinner, but not a cast-away. God lays him not by as a broken vessel, treads him not to the dung-hill, as unsavory salt: but receives him upon his return by repentance, and restores him to his former employment, gives him yet a name, and a nail in his house; yea sends him a second time on his message to Nineveh; and counting him faithful puts him again into the ministry, who was before a runagate, a rebel, &c. But he obtained mercy, &c. 1 Tim. 1.13. as did likewise the Apostles, after that they had basely deserted our Savior at his passion; and Peter after he had denied him. See John. 20.22, 23. and 21.15, 16, 17. The poenitent are as good as innocent. Return ye backsliding children (saith the Father of mercies) and I will heal your backslidings, Ier. 3.22. The Shulamite returning, is as lovely in Christ's eye as before: and all is as well as ever betwixt them, Cant. 6.4. There is a natural Novatianisme in the timorous conscience of convinced sinners, to doubt and question pardon for sins of Apostasy and falling after repentance: But had they known the gift of God, and who it is that saith to them. Be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee, they would have conceived strong consolation.

Verse 2. Arise go unto Nineveh, ] Begin again, and take better heed: as the Nazarite was to do, that had defiled the head of his consecration, Numb. 6.9, 12.

unto Nineveh that great city ] See the Note on Chap. 1.2. There was no city since, by the estimation of Diodorus, had the like compass of ground or starelinesse of walls; the height thereof being an hundred foot, the breadth able to receive three carts a-row, adorned with fifteen hundred turrets. Some think (as Annius & Berosus ) that those three cities spoken of, Gen. 10. Rehoboth, Calah and Resen were all included in Nineveh, and they conceive it thus: that when Nimrod had built Babylon, Ninus, disdaining his government, went into the fields of Ashur, and there erected a city after his own name. Raphael Volaterranus saith, it was eight years in building, ten thousand men working at it. Quintilian saith, that great Milan, ancient Ravenna, brave Bouonia, noble Naples, and other great cities of Italy are but towers to Rome: but what was Rome to Nineveh? and yet Lipsius hath written a treatise of Rome's greatness, and when the Emperor Constantine came to Rome, and beheld the companies that entertained him, he repeated a saying of Cineas the Epirote, that he had seen so many kings as citizens: but viewing the building of the city, he thought naturam vires omnes in urbem unam effudisse, that nature had shown the utmost of what she could do, in that one great city. See more on verse. 3.

and preach unto it the preaching ] Heb. Proclaim unto it (or, against it) the proclamation that I say to thee, that I have formerly put into thy mouth, and do now so again, sc: that their wickedness is come up before me, and I am even upon the way toward them to punish it grievously. Flagitium & flagellum sunt sicut acus & filum, Who ever waxed fierce against God and prospered? Job 9.4. This wicked men must be boldly told, Esa. 3.11. however they take it; neither may God's ministers steal away the word, Jer. 22.30. or keep back from the people any part of God's counsel, Act. 20.27. handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commend themselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God, 2 Cor. 4.2. as becometh his Ambassadors.

Vers. 3. So Jonah arose, and went unto Nineveh ] He went not home first, to bid them farewell, as Luk. 9.61. neither went he another way, as once: it was enough of that once, and he had learned obedience by the things that he had suffered. To Nineveh he goes, though a mere and a mean stranger, unknown, unregarded, and with an harsh message; such as he might fear would cost him his life from that fierce and furious people. But Jonah feareth nothing now but disobedience: and seems to say, as afterwards Luther did, Inveniar sane superbus, excors & modo impij, filentij non arguar, Let me be called and counted proud, mad, anything, everything that naught is, so that I be not found guilty of sinful silence, and of betraying the trust committed unto me, by a dastardly deserting the cause of God. Jonah was now of another spirit, and fulfilled after God, as Caleb, Num. 14.24. for why? he had now received not a spirit of fear, and of bondage, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, 2 Tim. 1.7. his spirit of grace had sanctified to him his afflictions, which else would have been but as hammers to cold iron; as they were to Pharaoh, Ahaz, the railing thief, &c. Ibn-Ezra saith that as soon as ever the whale had vomited up Jonah, he got up and took the direct way to Nineveh: that if God should command him thither again he might be ready, and show his forwardness. It is a very good sign, when men are the better for what they suffer: when thereby the iniquity of Jacob is purged, and this is all the fruit the taking away of their sin, Isaiah 27.9.

according to the word of the Lord ] His call and command which Jonah had formerly cast behind him, Sed Piscator ictus sapit, There shall be only fear to make you understand the hearing, Isaiah 28.19. Isaiah stood off till frighted; but then he offers his service: Here I am, send me, Chap. 6.8.

now Nineveh was an exceeding great city ] Heb. a great city of God, or to God; which some interpreted dear to God, and such as he would not destroy. Others a city not idolatrous, though otherwise vicious: Others, a city which God himself accounted great, and looked upon as such. But if to a great mind nothing is great, as Seneca saith, what can be great to him who is great, Ps. 77.13. greater, Job. 33.12. greatest, Ps. 95.3. greatness itself, Ps. 145.3. and to whom all nations are but as the drop of a bucket, or dust of the balance? behold, he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing, Isaiah 40.15. Oecolampadius applieth it to the Church of the Gentiles, that city of the living God. They do best that take it, as we read it, for an exceeding great city: like as elsewhere tal mountains and cedars, are called mountains of God, Psal. 36.7. and cedars of God, Psal. 80. &c. and excellent wrestlings, are wrestlings of God, Gen. 30.8. See Gen. 23.6. So the Greeks and Latins call great things divine: God being the measure of all true greatness: Nineveh as it was a very great city (of fifty miles compass as Herodotus and Diodorus ) so Jonah is often told so; that he might come to it well prepared and resolved: since he was to have a great task, and an hard tug of it. See Vers. 2. and Chap. 1.2.

Of their days journey ] Not such a journey as a traveler could dispatch in no less time; but suh as a Preacher pedetentim obaembulando by leisurely walking, might in three days go thorough: See Vers. 4. This is added to set forth further the greatness of the city.

Vers. 4. And Jonah began to enter into the city ] Having seen God, he now fears no colors, dreads no danger; as neither did Moses, Michaiah, Isaiah, Chap. 6. Paul, Act. 21. Luther going to Wormes, &c. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, 2 Cor. 5.18. we forewarn them to flee from the wrath to come, Mat. 3.7. we pull them out of the fire of hell, as firebrands, Jude 2.3.

a days journey ] One of the three days, Vers. 3. Not all the three in one day, for haste, as Jerome would have it.

and he cried and said, ] Not fearfully muttering his message, but delivering it with a courage, Boanerges like, able almost to make his hearers hearts fall down, and hairs stand upright, as One saith of Master Perkins.

Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown ] The word properly noteth a sudden, inevitable, and perpetual destruction, such as was that of Sodom and her Sisters, Gen 19.25. Ier. 20.16. Es. 13.19. Am. 4.11. Now we must not think that Jonah said no more then is here set down: that he expressed no condition, such as was that, Rev. 2.5. Except ye repent, or that like a mad man he ran up and down the city (as one did once about Jerusalem, and another lately about London ) repeating and thundering out these words only, inconditis & ineptis clamoribus, with harsh and hoarse outcries. God therefore threateneth that he may not punish, and all his threats are conditional, Ier. 18.8. if they repent, he will also. This, if Jonah expressed not, yet the Ninevites understood; for else they would never have repented but despaired (as Judas with his poenitentia Iscariotica ) and defied Jonah as an evil messenger sent against them. They might well enough think that if God had not meant them mercy, he would never have forewarned them, never have given them forty days respite: the Septuagint cannot be refused for rendering it three days (though some have attempted it) It is probable that Jonah omitted nothing that pertained to the preaching of repentance, though here we have it set down in some only. The Hebrews tell us, that the Mariners also went to Nineveh; and telling what had befallen Jonah at sea, confirmed his doctrine, and sentence against the Ninevites, who thereupon repented. But these, as they affirm without reason, so they may be dismissed without refutation.

Vers. 5. So the people of Nineveh believed God ] See the mighty power of God's holy word. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, 2 Cor. 10.4. to the laying flat those walls of Jericho, making the devil fall as lightning from the heaven of men's hearts, Luk. 10.18. These Ninevites though rich, great, peaceable, prosperous, profane above measure, (as great cities use to be) &c. yet, at the preaching of Jonah they believed God, and repented of their evil ways: whether truly and seriously I have not to say. There is an historical faith, an assent to the truth of what God speaketh, and trembling thereat, Jam. 2.19. there is also a natural and moral repentance wrought by natural conscience: such as was that of Pharaohs, Saul, Ahab, Alexander the Great; when, having killed Clitus, he was troubled in conscience, and sent to all kind of Philosophers (as it were to so many Ministers) to know what he might do, to appease his conscience, and satisfy for his sin. There are very good Authors that hold this conversion of the Ninevites to have been sound and serious (and for this they allege that of our Savior, Mat. 12.41.) flowing from a lively faith in God, which is the root of all the rest of the graces, the very womb wherein they are received; the fountain also and foundation of all good works, as the Apostle Peter hinteth when he saith, 2 Pet. 1.5. add to your faith virtue, which is nothing else but faith exercised.

and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth ] These were the fruits of their faith, and, though but bodily exercise • and external performances, yet they might serve both to evidence, and to increase their inward humiliation. True it is, that hypocrites and heathens may do all this and more, as Ahab, those Psa. 78.34, 36. and Isa. 58.3. The Romans in a strait ad Deos populum & vota convertunt, commanded the whole people with their wives and little ones to pray and pacify the gods, to fill all the temples, and the women to sweep and rub the pavements thereof with the hairs of their heads &c.

from the greatest &c. ] See the Note on Joel. 2.16.

Verse 6. For word came unto the k • ng of Nineveh ] I can hardly believe that this was Sardanapalus (as some will carry it) but some other better Prince, that ( Vespasian -like) was patientissimus veri, one that had those about him that would tell him the truth of things, and he was content to hear it, and submit to it. Like enough it is, that this was but harsh news to him at first hearing: but when he had well considered it, and taken advise upon it, he set upon a reformation. Our Chroniclers tell us of a poor Hermit that came to Richard the first Anno 1195. and, preaching to him the words of eternal life, bad him be mindful of the subversion of Sodom, and to abstain from things unlawful. Otherwise, said He, the deserved vengeance of God will come upon thee. The Hermit being gone, the king at first seemed to sl • ght his words. But afterwards falling sick, he more seriously bethought himself: and waxing sound in soul as well as body, he grew more devout and charitable to the poor, rising early and not departing from the church till divine service were finished &c. If the king of Nineveh had ever heard of Jonah his being in the wh • les belly, it might well be some inducement to him to believe his preaching, it might do him no less good then John Friths book called A preparation to the cross, brought in a fish's-belly to the University of Cambridge a little before the Commencement, did to some good people here, that had hearts to make use of it. One grave Divine gave this Note upon it in a sermon before the Parliament, above twenty years since, That such a book, should be brought in such a manner, and to such a place, and at such a time, when by reason of people's confluence out of all parts notice might be given to all places of the land, in mine apprehension it can be construed for no less then a divine warning, and to have this voice with it, England prepare for the cross.

he arose from his throne ] Laid aside his state, as the great Turk also doth, at this day, when he entereth into his temple to pray. Jer. 13.18 Say unto the King and to the Queen Humble yourselves, sit down: for your principalities shall come down, even to the crown of your glory. This great king could not but know himself to be a great sinner: and that his sins had done much hurt. 1. by Imputation: for plectuntur Achivi, the people oft pay for their Rulers follyes, as in David's days, 2 Sam. 24. 2. by Imitation: for Magnates are Magnetes, they draw many by their example: and as bad humors flow from the head to the body; so do bad Rulers corrupt the rest. This conscious, and (as some think) conscicucious King therefore riseth up from his throne, (as Eglon that unwieldy king of Moab had once done to hear God's message by Ehud ) & qui paulo ante sedebat superbus in folio, nunc jacet humilis in solo, he lieth low, and putteth his mouth in the dust Lam. 3.29. laying aside all cogitation and pride of his kingly majesty: together with all soft and sumptuous raiment (that nest of pride, as One calleth it.)

he laid his robe from him ] Paludamentum suum, saith Tremellius; but that's a cloak which the Roman Emperors used to put on when they went forth to battle, and therefore not so proper here (as Piscator thinks) since there was no visible enemy, which makes the Ninevites repentance the more remarkable. Mercer rendereth it Chlamydem suam, his imperial cloak; the Chaldee his precious garments. The word signifieth his sumptuous and gorgeous attire, his cloak of State, no less costly (perhaps) then that of Alcishenes the Sybarite, sold to the Carthagians by Dionysius for 120. talents: or that of Demetrius of Macedon, which none of his successors would wear propter invidiosam impendij magnificentiam for the exceeding great costliness thereof. This robe or purple and other ornaments the King of Nineveh laid aside, as was fit, in this day of restraint, as a fast-day is fitly called. So the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb, where they had made a golden calf Exod. 33.6. For the Lord had said to Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, ye are a stiffnecked people: I will come up into the midst of thee, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee. ver. 5. that I may determine how to dispose of thee: and this is spoken after the manner of men, who judge by the outward actions as Gen. 18.21. and 22, 12. for otherwise, God knoweth all his works from the beginning of the world Act. 15.18. But he speaketh this here as if he would hereby judge of their repentance, whether it were true or false. The Prophet Isaiah objects it to those of his time for a foul fault, Behold in the day of your fast, ye find your pleasure chap. 58.3.

and covered him with sack-cloth ] And so, as Chrysostom hath it, quod non poterat diadema, id saccus obtinuit: sicut ferrum potest quod aurum non potest. Sackcloth could prevail more then silk: as iron can do what gold cannot.

and sat in ashes ] In cinere Illo, so Vatablus rendereth it: in that ashes wherein he used to sit, when he most mourned. Our sorrow for sin should be the deepest of all sorrows Zech. 12.11, 12, 13. See the Note there.

Verse 7. And he caused it to be proclaimed ] by sound of trumpet as Joel 2.12. or otherwise as 2 Chron. 20.3, 4, 18, 19, 20. and 22, 6, 7. at which times he that obeyeth not, is culpable before God and man Lev. 23.29.

by the decree of the King and his Nobles ] who all unanimously consenting to so good a work, iis quibus praeerant, praeibant became a president to their inferiors; who looked upon them (no doubt) as their looking-glasses, by which most men dressed themselves. When Crispus the chief Ruler of the Synagogue believed, many Corinthians believed also Act. 18.8. The Primitive Christians were wont to pray that their emperors might have good counselors. Of a certain Prince in Germany it was said, that Esset alius, si esset apud alios, He would havs been a far better man, had he had better servants and officers about him.

let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste anything ] The whole action of Fasting hath it's name both in Hebrew and Greek, from abstinence and forbearance of meats and drinks: à toto if it may be, at least à tanto & à tali, as Dan. 10.2, 3. and as it might be here, till the forty days were expired; besides, that one or more solemn days of total fasting, wherein neither man nor beast &c. But why is the beast abridged of sustenance? both to testify and increase the people's humiliation by their lowings and bellowings. Alexander the great, at the death of his favourite Ephestion, clipped his horses and mules hair, and cut them short, in token of his great grief: he pulled down also the battlements of the walls, that they might seem to mourn with him. So Virgil speaking of the general grief for Caesar's death saith.

Let them not feed, nor drink water ] But what they get of themselves without man's care, who is to be wholly intent and taken up in God's service; and so to begin the heavenly life here, the sweetness whereof makes him forbear both meat and thirst. Besides, they took pride in their palfryes, covering them with purple and rich trappings. See Judge. 8.26. they catered for the flesh by fatting cattle and other creatures to please their palate. This they were now forbidden to do by an edict from the king, who interesseth himself in matters of religion; as did also Artexerxes Ezra. 7.26. (for which Ezra seeth cause to bless God) and Nebuchadnezzar Dan. 3.29. which the scripture commendeth, and recordeth as a work of his repentance.

Verse 8. But let man and beast be covered with sack-loath ] Let all best means be used for the humbling of the heart: without which, what is an humbling day but a religious incongruity (saith One) and a very high provocation: like Zimri 's act when all the Congregation were weeping before the door of the Tabernacle? The beasts covered with sack-cloth were as an house hangd with blacks, to move men to mourn the more. Chrysostom tells us of a custom in his time, (and it is still in use amongst us) that when great men were buried, their horses followed the hearse clothed in black; as seeming to mourn for their masters. The coarsest weeds are fittest for fasting-days: to show that but for shame, we would have none, as having forfeited all: and that we look upon our better apparel, but as finer covers of the foulest shame.

and cry mightily unto God ] Cry with a courage; Let the beasts roar lustily and rend the clouds as it were with their clamours: want of food will make them do so. And as God can so speak, as that the brute beasts shall understand him, Joel. 2.11. Am. 5.8. and 9.4. John. 2. ult. so can they, after a sort, so speak or moan, that he can understand them Joel. 1.20. Hos. 2.21. Ps. 147.9. he heareth the young ravens that cry unto him, though but with a hoarse and harsh note: whence also they have their name in Hebrew. Much more will He hear men that cry unto him, if they cry mightily with intention of spirit, and extension or rather contention of speech: if they set up their note, as the noise of many waters Rev. 19.6. if they thunder and threaten heaven, as Nazianzen saith his sister Gorgonia did: if they bounce hard at heaven gates, and resolve to wring mercy from God by an holy violence, as Tertullian saith the good people of his time did. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much: but then it must be the working, stirring, labourfull prayer, as the word signifieth; that strives and struggles, and strains every vein in the heart (as Elias seemed to do by that posture in prayer of putting his head betwixt his legs 1 King. 18.42.) that sets awork all the faculties of the soul, and all the graces of the spirit: that stirs up dust as Jacob did: maketh a man sweat, as our Savior; who being in an agony prayed the more earnestly Luk. 22.44. not without strong crying and tears, and was heard in that he feared Heb. 5.7. For such a prayer when a man cries to God 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 mightily or with all his strength, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 it availeth much, it can do anything; as Paul using the same words saith, I can do all things through Christ who streng theneth me Philip. 4.13.

Yea let them turn everyone from his evil way &c. ] For else Prayer profits not, Humiliation is to no purpose without Reformation; Repentance for sin, without repentance from sin: there must be fruits meet for repentance, answerable to amendment of life, tantamount as repentance, and that weigh just as much as it: for, Optima & aptissima poenitentia est nova vita, saith Luther, the best and truest repentance is a new life: and if gods people will humble themselves, and pray and seek his face, and withal turn from their evil ways, then he will do much for them 2 Chron. 7.14.

and from the violence that is in their hands ] Heb. In the hollow of their hands, where it lay hid as it were, but not from God, who here bids them turn from their wrong-dealing and rapacity. This was their special sin, (ut in magnis imperijs & emporiis magnae sunt rapinae) therefore are they charged to relinquish it. It is a speech, saith Mercer, like to that of our Savior, Go tell my Disciples and Peter &c. Tell them all, but be sure you tell Peter. So here: turn from all your evil ways: but especially from the violence that is in your hands. See Es. 59.6. Ezech. 23.27. Psal. 7.4. The Hebrews understand this text of restitution to be made of evillgotten goods, or wrongfully detained from the right owners. This say they, must be done: or the party can be no more renewed by repentance, then a man could be legally purified by the washing of water, when he continued to hold in his hand an unclean thing. That of Austin is well known, The sin is not remitted, till that which hath been ill-gotten from another be restored. And that of Father Latimer, Restore, or else you will cough in hell, and the Devils will laugh at you. Gravell in the kidneys will not grate so upon you, as a little guiltiness in this kind will do upon your consciences. The same Latimer tells us in a sermon of his afore K. Edw: 6. that the first day that he preached about Restitution, there came one and gave him twenty pounds to restore: the next time another, and brought him in thirty pounds: another time another gave him two hundred pounds ten shillings. The Law for restitution see Num. 5.6, 7. the party must not only confess but restore, or he is not a true convert. And this will well appear when death comes to draw the curtain, and look in upon a man. Hence our Henry the 7. in his last will and testament, after the disposition of his soul and body, he willed restitution should be made of all such monies as had unjustly been levied by his officers. And the like we read of Selymus the grand Signiour in the Turkish history.

Verse 9. Who can tell if God will turn and repent ] This is the speech of one that doubteth, and yet despaireth not: like that of David praying for his sick child, Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live 2 Sam. 12.22. We are staggering, saith Saint Paul, but not wholly sticking 2 Cor. 4.8. They that go down to the pit (of despair, as well as of the grave Es. 38.18.) cannot hope for thy truth: but are hurried headlong into hell, as the Gergesites swine were into the sea. The Prophet Jonah was peremptory, that by such a day Nineveh should be destroyed: These men therefore had good reason to doubt, if not of the pardon of their sins, yet of the saving of their city. All their hope is, that this that Jonah denounced was not God's absolute decree, but only his threatening, and that conditional too; viz. except they repented. This if they could do, and heartily, they knew not but that mercy might be yet had. Keep hope in heart, or the work will go on heavily Psal. 43. ult. Hope is the daughter of Faith: but such as is a staff to her aged mother. See the Note on Joel. 2.14. Of God repenting I have spoken elsewhere.

Verse 10. And God saw their works ] i. e. He noted and noticed them to others. Or, he saw them, that is, he approved of them. Videre Dei, est approbare. Let God but see Repentance (as a rainbow) appearing in our hearts and lives, and he will never drown us in destruction. But unless God sees turning, he sees no work in a fast, saith One upon this very Text. God may say to impenitent fasters, saith Another, as Isaac did to his father, Behold the fire and wood, but where is the lamb? Or as Jacob did concerning Joseph, Here's the coat, but where's the child? Get thee behind, said Jehu to the messengers, what hast thou to do with peace? Confessions and humiliations are our messengers: but if the heart be not broken, if the life be not amended, what peace? The Talmudists note here, that God is not said to have seen their sack-cloth and ashes, but their repentance and works, those fruits of their faith; truth in the inward parts, which God eyeth with singular delight Ier. 5.3. as the work of his own spirit Eph. 8.9. Certum est nos facere quod facimus; sed ill facit ut facimus, and he is pleased to call his grace in us, our works, for our encouragement in well-doing: and freely to crown it in us, without any merit on our part.

That they turned from their evil way ] To which they were by nature and ill custom so wedded and wedged, that they could never have been loosened, but by an extraordinary touch from the hand of heaven. The conversion of a sinner from the evil of his way is God's own handy-work Jer. 31.18. 2 Tim. 2.25. Ezech. 6.9. Plato went three times into Sicily to convert Dionysius the tyrant, and could do no good on him. Polemo, of a drunkard, by hearing Xenocrates, is said to have become a Philosopher: But what saith Ambrose to him? Si resipuit à vino &c. If he repented of his drunkenness, yet he continued an Infidel; he was still temulentus sacrilegio drunk with superstition: He recovered of one disease, and died of another, as Benhadad did: he gave but the half turn, and therefore turned at length, and nevertheless into hell. We conceive better of these Ninevites: though foam are of opinion, that their repentance was but feigned and forced, as was that of Pharaoh and Ahab, as appears (say they) by the sequent history, by their dealing against the Jews, and by Nahum.

and God repented ] This was mutatio Rei non Dei, as is above noted.

CHAP. IIII.

Verse 1. BUt it displeased Jonah exceedingly ] Mirablilis homo profecto fuit Jonas, saith Winckleman here, as strange a man was Jonas of an honest man, as you shall lightly hear of. Well might David caution Psa. 37.8. Cease from anger and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. A fretfull man is easily drawn to evil. David was (once at least) displeased at God's dealing: which was no whit for his credit, or comfort 2 Sam. 6.8. Discontented he was, not at God's lenity, as Jonah, but at God's severity, against Uzziah: and that all the people's joy should be dashed and damped with such a sad and sudden di • aster. How much better minded was he when dumb, not once opening his mouth, because God did it, Psal. 39.9? The Greeks give this Rule, Either say nothing, or say that which is better then nothing. O that you would altogether hold your peace, and it should be your wisdom, said Job to his friends, Job 13.5. Silence sometimes comes to be a virtue; and never more then when a man is causelessly displeased. Prima semper irarum tela maledicta sunt, saith Salust. Angry people are apt to let fly, to mutter, and mutiny against God and man; as here. Reason should say to choler, that which the Nurse saith to the child. Weep not, and you shall have it. But either it doth not: or if it do, yet the ear (which tasteth words, as the mouth doth meat) is oft so filled with gall (some creatures have fell. in aure ) that nothing can relish with it. See Exod. 6.9. If Moses his anger was pure, free from guile, and gall, Exod. 32.19. yet Jonah's was not so. It is surely very difficult to kindle and keep quick this fire, without all smoke of sin. Be angry, and sin not, is, saith One, the easiest charge, under the hardest condition that can be. Men, for most part, know not what they do in their anger; this raiseth such a smoke. Put fire to wet straw and filthy stuff, and it will smoke and smutch you quickly; yea scorch you and scald you, when once it breaks out. Levite. 13.5. we read of a leprosy breaking out of a burning: seldom do passions burn but there is a leprosy breaking out of that burning. It blistereth out at the lips: hence the Hebrews have but one and the same word for Anger and foaming at the mouth, Esth. 1.18. Zach. 1.7. They have also a Proverb, that a man's disposition is much discovered, Bechos, bechis, becagnab; by his cup, by his purse, and by his passion: at which time, and in which cases. A fool uttereth all his mind, Prov. 29.11. ( all his wrath, say the Seventy) and that suddenly, rashly, as the Hebrew intimateth: but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards, Prov. 29.11. Ahasuerus when he felt himself enraged against Haman, walked into his garden, Esth. 7.7. And Platarch tells of one Archytas, that, displeased with his servants for their sloth, he flung from them, saying, Valete quoniam vobis irascor, I will leave you; for that I am angry with you. The very first insurrections of inordinate Passions are to be crushed, the first smoke of them to be smothered, which else will fume up into the head, and gather into so thick a cloud, as we shall lose the sight of ourselves, and what is best to be done: Cease therefore from rash anger and stint strife betime. The beginning of it, saith Solomon, is as when one letteth out water: therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with, Prov. 17.14. Storms rise out of little gusts: and the highest winds are, at first, but a small vapor. Had Jonah stopped, or stepped back, when he felt himself first stirred, he had not so shamefully over-shot himself, nor heaped up so many sins, as he did in the following intercourse with Almighty God. He was naturally hot, and hasty: and so were those two brethren the sounes of thunder; they had quick and hot spirits, Luke 9.55. Now, where there is much untowardness of nature, there Grace is the more easily overborn: sour wines need much sweetening. God's best children, though engrafted into the true vine, yet carry they about them a relish of the old stock still. It is thought by very good Divines, that Jonah feeling his own weakness in giving place to anger, thought to strive against it, and so addressed himself to prayer, verse 2. but transported by his passions of grief and rash anger, while by prayer he thought to have overcome them, they overcame him, and his prayer too: so true is that of the Apostle; The wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, Jam. 1.20.

Verse 2. And he prayed unto the Lord, ] i. e. He thought to have done so; but by the deceitfulness of his own heart, he quarrelled with God; and instead of wrestling with him, as Jacob, he wrangled with him. The words seem to be rather a brawl then a prayer; which should ever proceed from a sedate and settled spirit, and hold conformity with the will of God. Could Jonah be in case to pray, when he had neither right conceptions of God, nor bowels of mercy to men: but that millions of people must perish rather then he be held a false Prophet? Say there were something in it of peace for God's glory, which he thought would suffer; as if God were either mutable, or impotent. Say that there were in this outburst, something of affection to God's people, who had then no greater enemy to fear, then these Ninevites; whom therefore Jonah would have had destroyed according to his prediction: yet cannot he be excused for falling so foul upon God, and upbrayding Him with that which is his greatest glory, Exod. 33.28, 19. with Exod. 34.6, 7. The truth is, nothing makes a man eccentrick in his motions, so much as head-strong passions, and private respects. He that brings these into God's presence, shall do him but little good service. The soul is then only well carried, when neither so becalmed that it moves not when it should, nor yet tossed with tempests to move disorderly, as did Jonah here, and Job, in that peevish prayer of his, chap. 6.8, 9. See also Jer. 20.7, 8.

I pray thee, O Lord, was not this my saying, &c.] that is, my thought: for whether he worded it thus with God till now, it appeareth not: but God heareth the language of men's hearts: and their silence to him is a speaking evidence.

when I was yet in my country. ] And had Jonah so soon forgotten what God had done for him, since he came thence? Oh what a grave is oblivion! and what a strange passage is that (and yet how common?) Then believed they his words, they sang his praise. They soon forgot his works, they waited not for his counsel, Psal. 106.12, 13. Jonah did not surely wait for God's counsel, but anteverted it. Idcirco anteverti, saith he in the next words, ( Therefore I fled before ) and thought he had said well, spoke very good reason. It is the property of lust and passion, so to blear the understanding of a man, that he shall think he hath reason to be mad, and that there is great sense in sinning. Dogs in a chafe bark at their own masters: so do people in their passions let fly at their best friends. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their tongue walketh thorough the earth, Psal. 73.9. Jonah in his heat here, justifieth his former flight, which he had so sorely smarted for, Et quasi quidam Aristarchus, he taketh upon him to censure God for his superabundant goodness, which is above all praise.

For I knew that thou art a gracious God, and merciful, &c.] This He knew to be God's name, Exod. 34.6, 7. but withal he should have remembered, what was the last letter in that Name; viz. that he will by no means clear the guilty. See Nahum 1.2, 3. The same fire hath burning heat and cheerful light. Gracious is the Lord, but yet righteous, saith David, Psal. 116.5. his mercy goes ever bounded by his truth. This Jonah should have considered; and therefore trembled thus to have upbraided God with that mercy by which himself subsisted: and but for which he had been long since in hell, for his tergiversation and peevishness. But mercy rejoiceth against judgment, and runneth as a spring, without ceasing. It is not like those pools about Jerusalem that might be dried up with the tramplings of horse and horse-men. The grace of God was exceeding abundant, 1 Tim. 1.14. It hath abounded to flowing-over, as the Sea doth above the hugest rocks. See this in the present instance. Jonah addeth sin to sin, and doth enough to undo himself forever: so that a man would wonder how God could forbear killing him, as he had like to have done Moses, when he met him in the Inn. But He is God, and not man: he contents himself to admonish Jonah of his fault, as a friend and familiar, velut cum eo colludens, jesting with him, as it were, and by an outward sign, showing him how grievously he had offended. Concerning these Attributes of God here recited, see the Note on Joel 2.13. and say with Austin, Laudent alij pietatem: Dei ego misericordium. Let no spider suck poison out of this sweetest flower: nor out of a blind zeal make ill use of it, as Jonah doth, for a cloke of his rebellion: lest abused mercy turn into fury.

Verse 3. Threfore now, O Lord, take I beseech thee my life from me, ] A pitiful peevish prayer, such as was that of Job, and that of Jeremy above noted: to which may be added Sarah's hasty wish for God to arbitrate betwixt her and her husband: Moses his quibling with God, till at length he was angry, Exod. 4.10, 14. Elijah's desire to die out of discontent, &c. What a deal of filth, and of flesh, clogs and cleaves to our best performances? Hence David so prays for his prayers, and Nehemiah for pardon of his reformations. Anger is ever an evil counselor; but when it creeps into our prays, it corrupts them worse then vinegar doth the vessel wherein it standeth. Submit yourselves therefore to God (as Jonah should have done) resist this devil (of pride and passion) and he will flee from you: as by giving place to impatiency ye give place to the Devil, Eph. 4.26. who else (by his vile injections, or at least by his vain impertinencies) will so fly-blow and mar our duties that we may well wonder, they are not cast back as dirt into our faces. Sure it is that if the holy Ghost had not his hand in our prayers, there would not be the least goodness in them: no not uprightness and truth, without which Christ would never present them, or the Father accept them.

for it is better for me to die then to live ] sc. in that disgrace that I shall now undergo of being a false prophet, not henceforth to be believed. Lo, this was it that troubled the man so much, as it did likewise Moses, Exod. 4.1. They will not believe me; for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee. But God should have been trusted by them for that, and his call obeyed howsoever, without consults or disputes; careless of their own credit, so that God might be exalted. True it is, that a man had better die with honor, then live in disgrace, truly so called. It were better for me to die, saith holy Paul, then that any man should make my glorying void. Provident we must be (but not over-tender ) to preserve our reputation: learning of the unjust steward by lawful (though he did by unlawful) means to do it: for our Savior noted this defect in the children of light, that herein they were not oft so wise as they should be, Luke 16.8. But Jonah was too heady and hasty in this wish of his death; because his credit, as he thought, was cracked, and he shoulld be looked upon as a liar. But was the Euge of a good conscience nothing to him? was God's approbation of no value, nor the good esteem of his faithful people? It was enough for Demetrius, that he had a good report of the truth 3 John. 12. what ever the world held or said of him. What is the honor of the world but a puff of stinking breath? and why should any Jonah be so ambitious of it, as that without it he cannot find in his heart to live. Life is better then honor. Joseph is yet alive, saith Jacob. To have heard that Joseph lived a servant would have joyed him, more then to hear that he died honourably. The greater blessing obscureth the less. He is not worthy of honor, that is not thankful for life. St. Paul's desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ, which is far far the better Phil. 1.3. was much different from this of Jonah

Vers. 4. Doest thou do well to be angry? ] Or what? art thou very angry? Nunquid recte? Summon the sobriety of thy senses before thine own judgment: and see whether there be a cause. Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own? Is thine eye evil because I am good? Shall I not show mercy on whom I will show mercy? Or enviest thou these poor Ninevites their preservation, for my sake? Cannot I provide for mine own glory, and for thine authority by other means and ways then thou imaginest? Have patience Jonah, and rest better satisfied with my dispensation. Be swift to bear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. For, I wot well, the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. This thou wilt see and say as much, when come to thyself, for now thou art quite off; and being transported as thou art,

Jerome seeks to excuse Jonah's anger: but God here condemneth it, as not well: and Jonah himself, partly by not answering again, and partly by recording the story, seems to say of himself as Father Latimer doth in another case; I have used in mine earnest matters to say, Yea, by Saint Mary, which indeed is not well. Anger is not altogether unlawful, so it be well carried; It is, saith one, a tender virtue: and as it is not evil to marry, but good to be wary, so here. Let a man ask himself this question, Do I will to be thus angry? and is mine indignation rightly regulated for principle, object, measure, end? If it be not, the spirit of God will be grieved in the good soul, and sensibly stir, Eph. 4.30, 31. yea, thou shalt hear the correcting voice thereof within thee, saying, Dost thou well to be thus angry? Should not all bitterness and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil-speaking be put away, with all malice? And should ye not be kind one to another, and 〈◊〉 hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you? Eph. 4.31, 32.

Vers. 5. So Jonah went out of the city, ] As not yet knowing what God might do, though he found him inclinable to show them mercy upon their repentance. Or he might think haply, that these Ninevites were only sermon-sick, penitent indeed for the present, but it was too good to hold long: these seemingly righteous men would soon fall from their righteousness, and then be destroyed, though for present somewhat favored of God. Mercer reads the text in the preterpluperfect tense, and makes it an hysteron proteron thus, exierat autem Jonas; but Jonas had gone out of the city, sc. before he had shown himself so hot and hasty against God, and brawled with him as above. Others think, that when he saw which way the squares were like to go, he flung out of the city in a great pelt: and if God had fetched him again with a flewet on the ear (as Queen Elizabeth did the Earl of Essex her favourite, when being crossed by her of his will • he uncivilly turned his back as it were in contempt) he had done him no wrong: But God is longsuffering, &c. He considereth whereof we are made, and with what strong corruptions we are beset. He knows that sin hath a strong heart, and will not easily be done to death: that nothing cleaves more pertinaciously, or is more inexpugnable then a strong lust; whether it be worldliness, wantonness, passionatenesse, pride, ambition, revenge, or the like: these Jebusites will not easily be driven out; these sturdy rebels will hardly be subdued; these stick closest, as a shirt doth to a leprous body; and cannot be done off but with great ado. Now if Jonah be of a choleric constitution, and soon kindled; if this evil of his nature have been confirmed by custom (a second nature) if Satan stir up the coals, and say to him as the people did to Pilate, Do as thou ever hast done: God graciously considereth all this, and beareth with his evil manners.

and sat on the east-side of the city ] Quite out of the precincts; where he might see their ruin, and not suffer with them. Faux after he had laid his train, and ser it awork to fire the powder at such an hour, was to have retired himself into Georges fields, and there to have beheld the sport. That Jonah was so uncharitable as to wish and wait the overthrow of Nineveh, and not that they would rather return and live, admits of no excuse. But that expecting its overthrow (according to that God had threatened by him) he secured himself by separating from those sinners against their own souls, was well and wisely done of him. See Esa. 48.20. and 52.11. 2 Cor. 6.17. Rev. 16.4. Lot did so from Sodom, the people from Core and his complices, John and his disciples from Cerinthus the heretic: he sprung out of the Bath from that blasphemer, lest he should be punished with him: so the Church of Jerusalem packed away to Pella, &c.

and there made him a booth ] A sorry something, wherein to repose himself, till the indignation were over-past. Ministers as good soldiers of Jesus Christ must suffer hardship, be content to dwell in tents, or to lie in huts, till they come to the heavenly palace, where they shall have a better building, 2 Cor. 5.1. yea, a throne in that city of pearl, whose master builder is God, Heb. 11.13. Mean while let them not seek great things for themselves: but as the Turks never build sumptuously for their own private uses, but content themselves with simple cottages how mean soever, good enough say they, for the short time of our pilgrimage here: so much more should Christians, & especially Ministers; whose reward (how little soever upon earth) is great in heaven. Let them live upon reversions: and though their dwelling be but mean, a booth or little better, yet they shall have stately mansions above: and in the mean time, if they can but say as that Heathen did, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , God dwells here with me, this house of mine is a little Church, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; oh how happy are they in that behalf, even above the great Turk with his Seraglio, (which is two miles in compass) yea, with his whole Empire, which (saith Luther ) is but a crust cast by the great house-keeper of the world to his dogs.

and sat under it in the shadow ] Having food and reyment saith the Apostle, let us therewith be content. Where the word rendered raiment signifieth any covering over head, if it be but an haircloth. Some say it signifies domicilium an house: others say that houses are not named, for that they were not anywhere to fix: but to be ready to run from place to place, and to leave house and all behind them: or as soldiers burn their huts when the siege is ended, that they may go home to their houses; being discontentedly contented in the mean while: so should we, glad to hover and cover under the shadow of the Almighty by the grace of faith, quae te pullastrum, Christum gallinum facit, which makes Christ the hen, and thee the chicken saith Luther.

till he might see what would become of the city ] whether God would not ratify his word by raining down hell from heaven upon it, as once he did upon sinful Sodom: or overwhelm it with the river Tigris, as once he did some part of it, saith Diodorus Siculus, so that twenty furlongs of the town-wall were thrown down by it. And the Prophet Nahum threateneth, that with an over-flowing flood God would make an end of the place thereof, chap. 1.8.

Verse 6. And the Lord God prepared a gourd ] sc. after that his booth was dried up, and the leaves withered, God by his providence, and not without a miracle (because without seed, and so suddenly) furnished Jonah with this gourd or ivybush, or white vine, or the plant called Palma Christi, or Pentadactylon, because it resembleth a man's hand with five fingers: something it was, but what, is not certainly known. Kimchi thus describeth it: Est herba longis & altis frondibus umbrosa. It is an herb or plant that yieldeth good shade with its long and large leaves. And many years before him, one Rabba son of Hanna said, that it grows by the waters side, is commonly set for shade-sake, before tavern doors: and that oil is made of the seeds of it.

and made it to come up over Jonah ] Not only to refresh him, (who having been so lately in the whales-belly was haply more tender-skinned then before, and not so well able to endure the heat of the Sun) but also to make way to that reproof he afterwards gave him ver. 10. Hoc enim exierno signo, saith Mercer, for by this outward sign, God sporting with him, as it were, clearly convinceth him of his impatiency, & admonisheth him of his duty: & this He thinketh was not done till the forty days wore over.

to deliver him from his grief ] from his headache, caused by the heat of the Sun; which yet he cursed not as the scorched Atlantes are said to do. Or to exhilarate and refresh his spirits after his self-vexing: for the hasty man never wants woe, and the envious person, because he cannot come at another man's heart, feedeth upon his own. Now though God chide him for his fault, yet as a father he tendereth his infirmity, and taketh care that the spirit fail not before him and the soul that he had made. And it is as if he should say: Jonah goeth on frowardly in the way of his heart; I have seen his ways and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him Isaiah 57.16, 17, 18 As it is a rule in Physic, still to maintain nature.

so Jonah was exceeding glad ] Heb. rejoiced with great joy, that is, supra modum, he was excessive in all his passions, which speaks him a weak man. Some think he rejoiced the more in the gourd, as conceiving that God thereby voted with him, and for him. This was also Leah's error, when rejoicing in that whereof she should have repented rather, she said Gen. 30.18. God hath given me my hire, because I have given my maiden to my husband, and she hath borne me a fist son. So much mistaken are the best sometimes: and so bladder-like, is man's soul; that filled with earthly vanityes though but wind, and gone with a wind, it grows great, and swells in pride and folly: but if pricked with the least pin of piercing grief, it shriveleth to nothing.

Verse 7. But God prepared a worm ] All occurrences are to be ascribed not to Nature, Fate, or Fortune, but to God: who as he is Great in great things, so is he not little in the least. He prepared first the gourd, and then the worm, and then the wind. He was the great doer in all. He so attempereth all, that his people shall have their times and their turns of joy and sorrow. These two are tied together, said the Heathen, with chains of Adamant: hence also Ageronia 's altar in the temple of Volupia. See the circle God usually goes in with his, Psal. 30.5, 6, 7. &c. to teach them that all outward comforts are but as grass or flower of the field, which he can soon blast or corrode by some worm of his providing. Moneo te iterumque iterum{que} monebo, saith Lactantius, I warn thee therefore, & will do it again & again, that thou look not upon those earthly delights as either great or true to those that trust them: but as things that are not only deceitful, because doubtful but also deadly, because delicious. There is a worm lies couchant in every gourd to smite it, a teredo to wast it, besides the worm of conscience bred in that froath and filth, for a perpetual torment.

and it smote the gourd that it withered ] Plants have also their wounds, diseases and death, saith Pliny. The gourd being gnawed at the root, and robbed of its moistness withered. Sic transit gloria mundi. But the righteous shall flourish like a palmtree tree (not like this palm-crist ) Psal. 92.12. Now the palm-tree though it have many weights at the top, and many snakes or worms at the root, yet it still says, Nec premor nec perimor, I am neither born down, nor dried up: but as Noah's olive drowned, kept its verdure; and as Moses bush fired but not consumed; so fareth it with the righteous, persecuted but not forsaken &c. 2 Cor. 4.8, 9. and at death a crown of life awaites him, Quanta perennis erit, an immarcescible crown, an inheritance undefiled and that withereth not, Pet. 1.4. that suffereth no Marasmus, but is reserved fresh and green for you in heaven; like the palm-tree which Pliny saith never loseth his leaf nor fruit: or like that Persian tree, whereof Theophrastus saith, that at the same time it doth bud, blossom and bear fruit.

Verse 8. God prepared a vehement East-wind ] The winds then blow not where they list, at random I mean, and without rule: but are both raised and laid again by God at his pleasure. He prepared, and sent out of his treasures, this

violent East-wind • Heb: silent: so called either because it silenceth all other winds with its vehemency: or because when it blows, men are made silent or deaf with its dinn, so that their tale cannot be heard. There are that by silent here understand a still, low, gentle East-wind, that cooled not the heat of the air inflamed by the Sun, but rather added to it, and set it on: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Greeks interpret it: and this suites well with that which followeth.

and the Sun beat upon the head of Jonah] Ussit & laesit Psal. 121. So the Poet,

Chrysostom cannot but wonder, that whereas all fire naturally tendeth upwards, the Sun should shoot his beams downwards, and affect these lower bodies with his light and heat. Whereby if he be troublesome to any Jonah, it is because God will have it so (for he is a servant, as his name in Hebrew importeth) without whom neither Sun shineth nor rain falleth Mat. 5.45. and who by afflictions (set forth in Scripture by the heat of the Sun) bringeth back his stragglers Psal. 119.97.

that he fainted ] Though the head of man bath a manisold guard upon it, as being overlaid first with hair, skin and flesh, like the three-fold covering of the Tabernacle; and then encompassed with a skull of bones like boards of Cedar; and afterwards with diverse skins like silken curtains: and lastly enclosed with the yellow skin which Solomon calleth the golden ewer Eccle. 12.6.

yet Jonah fainted and wished in himself to die ] Ita ut ab animo suo peteret mori, he required of his soul to go out of his body, Egredere ô anima mea, as Hilarion said, but in a better sense he called for death, as his due: being, belike, of Seneca 's mind, that Nature hath bestowed this benefit on men, that they may bereave themselves of life, whensoever they please: not considering that God is Lord of lise and death, neither may any one lay down his life but when He calleth for it: as a soldier may not leave his station, but at the command of his captain.

it is better for me to die then to live ] Not so Jonah, unlessed you were in a better mind. You should rather say as Martinus on his sick-bed did, Domine si adhuc populo tuo sum necessarius, Lord if I may yet be serviceable to thee, and useful to thy people, I refuse not life and labor. Or as Mr. Bolton on his death-bed desirous to be dissolved, when he was told by some standers by, that though it was better for him to die then to live, Yet the Church of God would miss him: He thus sweetly replied with David 2 Sam. 15.25, 26. If I shall find faevour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again &c. but, if otherwise, loc here I am, let him do what seemeth good in his eyes. A good man is born for the benefit of many, as Bucer's Physicians said to him: neither may he desire to die out of discontent, as Jonah did for a trifle, wherein he was crossed; and rather then which to have been deprived of, Nineveh that great city, by his consent, should have been destroyed. That he never after this would return to his own country, but was so sick of the fret that he died of the sullens, as some Hebrews say, I cannot believe. See the Note on ver. 3.

Ver. 9. Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd? ] What? so soon blown up for a thing of nothing? Tantaene animis coelestibusira?

Knew not Jonah that to be angry without a cause, was to be in danger of the judgment? Mat. 5.22. that it was a mortal sin, and not venial, as Papists falsely conclude from that text; which sets not forth a different punishment of rash anger, but a diverse degree of punishment? that it is the murder of the heart, as our Savior there shows, and the sountaine of the murder both of the tongue, and of the hand? will he be like the foolish be, who loseth her life to get revenge? See the Note on ver. 4.

and he said ] Before he said nothing when reproved for his rash anger ver. 4. and that was best. Now he chats against God, laying the reins in the neck of his unruly passions, and running riot. Who can understand his er • ours? and who can tell how oft a servant of God may fall into a foul sin, if strongly inclined thereto by nature, or violently tempted by Satan and his instruments? Of Judah indeed it is expressly noted, that he knew his daughter -in law Tamar again no more Gen. 38.26. But what shall we say to Lots double incest? to Samson's going down again to Gaza Judge. 16? to Abraham's twice denying his wife? to John's twice adoring the Angel Rev. 19.10. and 22.8? Let him that standeth, take heed lest he fall: and let God's people see that there be no way of wickedness found in them, that they allow not, wallow not in this guzzle: since hereby they loose not their jus haereditarium, but yet their jus aptitudinale, not their title but yet their fitness to God's kingdom: and perhaps, their fullness of reward there 2 John 8.

and he said, I do well to be angry, even unto death ] A fearful out-burst: resist passion at the first rising up: else who knows whither it may transport us? Passions, saith One, like heavy bodies down steep hills, once in motion move themselves: and know no ground but the bottom. Jonah (saith Another upon this text) slights admonition, riseth up in an animosity against it to a desperate degree of anger: such wild beasts are surious passions when we give them the reins. Thus He, Surely as the Lion beateth himself with his own tail: and as sullen birds in a cage beat themselves to death, so could Jonah in this rage find in his heart to do: and he shames not to tell God as much. It was therefore no ill wish of him that desired God to deliver him from that naughty man Himself, from headlong and headstrong passions, which may not only dissweeten a man's life but shorten it. The Emperor Nerva died of a sever contracted by anger. Valentinian by an irruption of blood. Wenceslaus King of Bohemia in a rage against his cup bearer fell presently into a palsy, whereof he died. What disease Jonah died of I know not: but this I know, that in his heat he did and said enough here in this text, to have made Almighty God resolve as he did once against those muttering Mutineeres in the wilderness, As truly as I live, saith the Lord, as ye have spoken in mine ears, so will I do to you: Thou shalt surely die Jonah; out of thine own mouth will I judge thee &c. But God chose rather to glorify himself in Jonah 's salvation, then in his deserved destruction. Dat igitur poenitentiam, & post à indulgentiam (as that father prayed) He therefore first giveth him repentance, and then pardon, as appeareth partly by his recording of these passages, and so shaming himself, as it were, before all the world: and partly also by his closing up his Prophesy with silence: not striving with God for the last word, as Peter did with Christ, and would needs carry it, till the event of things confuted him, and he was glad to seek a corner to cry in Mat. 26.35. with 75.

Verse 10. Then said the Lord ] He did not roar upon Jonah, nor run upon him with a drawn sword, even on his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers: but gently said unto him, that he might the more admire his own impotency and God's lenity; both which he studiously describeth all along this Prophesy; a good sign of his sound repentance.

Thou hast had pity on the gourd ] Here is the end scope and application of the parable; whereby it appeareth that God prepared not the gourd so much for the ease and use of Jonah 's body, as for a medicine to his soul, convincing him of the iniquity both of his ways and wishes, by an argument drawn from the less to the greater: and confuting him by a comparison. Thou, a sinful and wretched man, hast had pity Or spared, and art sorry it perished. The gourd a sorry shrub, a mean mushrome, and none of thine neither, but as lent thee: Alas master, said they it was but borrowed.

for the which thou hast not labored ] And so canst not be so fast-affected to it. For all men love their own works rather then other men's, as parents and poets, saith Aristotle: proving thereby, that those which have received their riches from their parents are more liberal, then they which have gotten them by their own labor.

neither madest it grow ] Thou hast neither planted nor watered it, or any way added to it, by thine industry: for that also was no part of thy pains but mine. Not that God laboreth about his creatures; for he doth all his work without tool or toile Esa. 40.28 but this, as many other things in Scripture, are spoken after the manner of men, and so must be taken.

which came up in a night ] Heb: was the son of a night, not without a miracle? though Pliny speak of the quick and wonderful growth of this shrub.

and perished in a night ] Cito oriens, cito itidem moriens, quickly come, and as quickly gone; a fit emblem of earths happiness. Surely man walketh in a vain show; faeneâ quadam foelicitate temporaliter florens: they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. They are but Hemerobij: their life is but a day (and such a day too, as no man is sure to have twelve hours to it) as this gourd was but of one days continuance, a it came up in a night, so it perished the next; cito crevit, cito decrevit, repent prolatus, repent sublatus, of very small continuance.

Verse 11. And should not I spare Nineveh] I who am all-bowels: I who am a sin-pardoning God Neh. 9.31. none like me for that Mic. 7 18. I, who am the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort 2 Cor. 1.4. whose property and practice it is to comfort those that are cast down 2 Cor. 7.6. I, who am so transcendently gracious, that thou hast even hit me in the teeth with it ver. 2. should not I be affected with the destruction of Nineveh?

that great city ] See Notes on chap. 1.2. and chap. 3.3, 4. yea I will spare it, since it is ten thousand times more worth then that gourd of thine so much pitied.

wherein are more then sixscore thousand Persons ] more then twelve myriads of innocent infants that cannot discern &c. but live a kind of sensitive life, as not yet come to the use of reason, and are therefore matched and mentioned with beasts. And also much cattle (a part of my care) which have had their share, as they could, in the common humiliation; and shall therefore share in the common preservation. And hast thou an heart to repine at this, and not to be set down with so good reason? Jonah is now sad and silenced: and although we hear no further of him, yet methinks I see him (Job. lik) laying his hand upon his mouth in an humble yeeldance: yea putting his mouth in the dust, and saying Once have I spoken, but I will not answer: yea twice, but I will proceed no further. Teach me, and I will hold my tongue: for thou hast caused me to understand wherein I have erred. How forcible are right words &c.

CHAP. I.

Verse 1. T He word of the Lord &c. ] See the Note on Hos. 1.1. to Micah the Morasthite to distinguish him from Micaiah the son of Imlah, who prophesied in Ahab's days, above an hundred years before this. Micah the Morasthite, so called from the place of his birth or abode which is made famous by him (as Abdera was by Democritus, Hippo by Austin ) and not He by it; Ambrose saith hi • name signifieth, Quis iste? who's this? who? (saith that Father in answer) Not one of the common sort, but an elect vessel to carry God's name to his people. Jerome from his title Morasthite interpreted, calleth him Cohaeredem Christi Coheire with Christ, of whom and his kingdom he sweetly Prophecieth: and may therefore be called the Evangelical Prophet; as was Isaiah, his contemporary with whom he hath many things common: and this one thing above him, that he nameth Bethlehem Christ's birth-place chap. 5.2. for the which (as well as for his boldness Ier. 26.18.) he was famous in the Church Mat. 2.6. John. 7.42.

in the days of Jotham, Ahaz. Hezekiah ] Ahaz standeth between Jotham and Hezekiah, as thistle or thorn between two lillyes or roses. Manasseh comes after, and degenerates into his grandfather Ahaz. To his time Micah attained not, much less to Josiah's, as Isidore hath it: for betwixt Jotham and Josiah were an hundred and twenty years at least. It is probable that Micah Prophesied forty years, if not more: wherein he saw many changes, and met with many molestations: had cause enough to cry out with his Colleague, Who hath believed our report? My leanness, my leanness &c. Yet held he on his course; as being of Latimers mind, who speaking in one of his sermons of a minister that gave this answer why he left off preaching? viz. because he saw he did no good; this saith Latimer, is a naughty, a very naughty answer.

which he saw ] sc. with the eyes of his mind, for the use of the Church; whereto this prophesy comes commended, first as the word of the Lord, and secondly, as extraordinarily revealed to this Prophet.

concerning Samaria and Jerusalem ] Samaria seemeth to be first named because most guilty before God. They are yoked together, because there was scrace ever a better ( Aholah and Aholibah sisters in sin) and one the much worse for the others neighbourhood. Jerusalem would take it in high scorn (likely) to be matched with Samaria (so much slighted and shunned by her Ion. 4.9.) as Papists now do to be set by Protestants, Turks by Christians (the word of a mussulman bears down all other testimony amongst them) But this Prophet is very bold (as it is said of Isaiah his coaetaneus Rom. 10.20) binds them both up in one bundle, and spareth not to show Judah their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.

Verse 2. Hear, all ye people, ] He beginneth as Isaiah, in a lofty and stately style, pouring himself out in a golden flood of words (as Tully speaketh of Aristotle's Politicks) and calling for utmost attention and affection: as knowing that he had to do with men more deaf then sea-monsters, and more dull then the very earth they trod on; which is therefore here commanded to hearken, since men (that habitable part of God's earth Pro. 8.31) will not hear and give ear: wherein they are worse then the insensible creatures Psal. 119.91.

and let the Lord God be witness against you ] Here he turneth his speech to the refractary Jews: speaking to God as a righteous judge and swift witness, Judex, Judex, vindex, against them if they hearkened not to his message, nisi pareant, ideoque pereant.

the Lord from his holy temple ] that is, let him testify from heaven Psal. 11.4, that he is displeased with you, and that I have carefully sought your souls-health. Or, from his temple at Jerusalem wherein ye glory, and where ye think ye have him as fast bound to you, as the Tyrians had their idol Apollo, whom they chained and nailed to a post, that he might not forsake them, when Alexander besieged their town, and took it. The Heathens had a trick when they besieged a city, to call the Tutelar gods out of it by a certain charm, as believing that it could not otherwise be taken. In a like sense whereunto some have interpreted the following verses here.

Verse 3. For behold the Lord cometh out of his place ] that is, say they out of Judea and his temple there, leaving it to the Chaldeans and Assyrians. See Ezech. 3.12. and chapters 9.10, and 11. where God makes divers removes from the Cherubims to the threshold, from thence to the East-gate, from thence to mount Olivet, quite out of the city chap. 11.23 and when God was gone, then followed the fatal calamity, in the ruin of the city. But by God's coming forth out of his place here, I conceive is meant his descending from heaven to do justice on this hypocritical nation, Isaiah 26.21, and because hypocritis nihil stupidius hypocrites resting on their external performances and privileges will hardly be persuaded of any evil toward them Mic. 3.11. Is not the Lord, say they amongst us? none evil can come upon us; therefore we have hear an emphatical Ecce, Behold the Lord cometh: he is even upon the way already, and will be here with the first. He will come down as once at Sodom, when their sin was very grievous Gen. 18.20. when they were overcharged with the superfluity of naughtiness; God came from heaven to give their land a vomit; And so he would do here: for Unregenerate Israel was to God as Ethiopia Am. 9.7. as the Rulers of Sodom, and people of Gomorrah Isaiah 1.10.

and tread upon the high-places of the earth ] the High and mighty Ones, that having gotten on the top of their hillocks as so many Ants, think themselves so much the better and safer, repose confidence in their high places and strong-holds, as Nebuchadnezzar did in his Babel, Edom in his clifts of the rocks, munitions of rocks, Obad. 3. the rich fool in his heaps and hoards Luk. 12. these, with their false confidences, God will tread down in his anger, and trample them in his fury, as the mire of the streets: he will bring down their strength to the earth, and lay their honor in the dust. Isa. 63.3, 6.

Verse 4. And the mountains shall be molten under him ] This is to the self-same sense: Though men swell in their own eyes, to the hugenesse of so many mountains: and though gotten upon their hill of ice, they think they shall never be moved, Psal. 30.6, 7. yet when God with his devouring fire, and everlasting burnings comes in presence, these craggy mountains shall soon dissolve and melt as wax, they shall be as waters, poured down a descent, they shall flow as a land-flood, &c. By which similitudes, and familiar comparisons is notably set forth the irresistible wrath of God for the affrighting of hard-hearted sinners, that they may take hold of his strength, and make peace with him, Isaiah 27.5.

The valleys also shall be cleft. ] The poorer sort also shall have their share in the common calamity. God will neither spare the high for their might, nor the base for their meanness, but Lord's and losels together, shall be as wax before the fire, &c. ] Wax is a poor fence against fire, sticks and stubble against a strong torrent: so human force, against divine judgments.

Verse 5. For the transgression of Jacob is all this, ] Lest they should think, either that these things were threatened in terrorem only, and would never be inflicted: or else that they had not deserved such severity, but that God should pour out his wrath rather upon the Heathen that knew him not, and upon the families that called not on his name. The Prophet here showeth that Jacob was become a just object of God's indignation, by his transgressions or rebellions, and the whole house of Israel by their sins: there was a general defection, and therefore they must expect a general destruction. I or why? the just Lord is in the midst thereof: he will not do iniquity, he will not acquit the guilty: morning by morning doth he bring his judgments to light, he faileth not: but the unjust knoweth no shame, will take no warning, which is a just both presage and desert of his ruin.

What is the transgression of Jacob? ] say they in a chatting way; like these miscreants in Malachi, that so worded it with God, chap. 1. and 3.

Is it not Samaria? ] saith the Prophet, in answer to that daring demand of theirs. So, what are the high-places of Judah? ] viz. the superstitions and carnal confidences thereof? Is it not Jerusalem? saith the Prophet. Are not their capital cities become their capital sins? Read we not of the calf of Samaria, Hos. 8.5. and did not her kings set up idols at Dan and Bethel, and Gilgal. and Beersheba? As for Jerusalem, had she not turned the very Temple into an high-place, by resting in her ceremonial services, and sacrifices? Did not some of her best kings wink at the high-places? And Ahaz, that stigmaticall Beli • list, shut up God's Temple, and set up strange worships? How then could these frontlesse fellows ask, What is the transgression, &c? and What are the high-places &c? The Prophet goes not behind the door to tell them, that the best of them were no better then a rabble of rebels against heaven: and their chieftains were most in fault, though they least liked to hear of it. Samaria is a very Poneropolis, and Jerusalem is little better: they both are even transformed into sins image: the Prophet here speaks of them, as if they were not only sinful, but sin itself; as Tully saith of one Tubulus a Roman Preter, that he was so desperately wicked, ut ejus nomen non hominis sed vitij esse videre •• r; that he passed not for a man, but for a Vice, so flagitious were his practices: or as Austin saith of this present evil world, That it is nothing else but a sty of filthy hogs, or a kennel of mad dogs.

Verse 6. Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, ] i.e. like as when stones are gathered out of a field, they are laid together on heaps: so I will take course that where Samaria now is, there shall be nothing to be seen, but heaps of stones and rubbish. God is the true 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : for thou hast made of a city an heap, of a defensed city a ruin, a palace of strangers to be no city, it shall never be built, Isaiah 25.2. Of Rome it was long since prophesied:

O that God would hasten that day: Scipio foresaw it, and wept, sc. when he saw Carthage set all on a light fire by himself. In the greatness of the Turkish Empire are swallowed up many kingdoms and countries: besides all those Churches and places so much spoken of in Scripture, the Romans only excepted: yet no doubt for their many and mighty sins, Time shall triumph over this so great a Monarchy, when it shall but then live by fame, as others now do. Jam seges est ubi Troia fuit. Though thou build thy walls as high as heaven (said the Oracle to wicked Phocas ) yet sin that lieth at the foundation, will one day over-turn them.

and as plantings of a vineyard, ] that is, it shall be made a place fit for the planting of vines: it shall be utterly rased and harased. A Lapide observeth the fitness of the expression here used, in that Samaria was scituate on an hill that bore vines: and before it was a city, it had been a vineyard: God threateneth to make it so again, and so to stain the pride of all its glory: see what a trouble-town sin is. Surely did people but know what it will once cost them, and cause to them, they durst not but be innocent.

and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, ] that is, into a by corner. Elapidation is necessary to a vine-yard, Isaiah 5.2. there being no possession that requireth more pains and care, as Cato hath observed.

and I will discover the foundation thereof. ] I will not leave a stone upon a stone, nor any footstep of so stately a city, that hath so long time been a cage of unclean birds, an Augean stable of abominable idolatries. God, as he hath loving respects to the places of his servants birth and abode, Psal. 87.6. Isaiah 49.16. so he sets the marks of his wrath upon those places where foul sins have been perpetrated, as upon our Abbeys and Monasteries, whose very foundations are laid naked.

Verse 7. And all the graven images thereof, ] Upon these the jealous God will execute vengeance: so to show his hatred of idolatry. The stones of the altars he will make as chalk-stones, that are beaten in sunder: the groves and the images shall not stand up, Isaiah 27.9. As for those that worship them, and repent not of the works of their hands, Rev. 9.20. they shall smart surely for their idolatries, as did those of old in the wilderness: and the more ingenuous of their posterity acknowledge at this day, that there is no punishment befalleth them, in which there is not still an ounce of that golden calf. True it is, that the Samaritan superstition which was grosser at first, (and for which they were carried captive by the Assyrian ) was afterwards refined by Manasseh a Jew-priest, that in Alexanders time made a defection to him, and brought many Jews with him: but that saved them not from utter destruction.

and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with fire, ] Her rewards given her by her sweet-hearts, Hos. 2.5, 12. and 9.1. her vowed presents and memories, (as Papists now call them) her monies and donaries shall be set on a light fire. God will confute their vain confidences, as he did those Popish rebels of Norfolk in Edward the sixths time, who brought into the battle the Pix under his canopie, and with all his trinkets, crosses, banners, candlesticks, memories, &c. which in the end could neither help themselves, nor save their friends from the hands of their enemies.

for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot, &c.] Ill gotten goods thrive not. Few harlots are found to be rich. Indeed we read of Phryne, a notable strumpet, that she offered to rebuild the walls of Thebes on condition that this might be engraven on them; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , & Alexander pulled them down, and Phryne set them up again, but it would not be accepted. Flora also the Roman harlot was very rich: and so is the whore of Babylon at this day, by her trading with the merchants of the earth: but this will not hold long, Rev. 18.10. In one hour shall her judgment come: and in one hour so great riches shall come to nothing, verse 17. England was wont to be counted and called the Popes Ass; for bearing his burdens: and his puteus inexhaustus, his pit of treasure, whence he drew at pleasure. Polydor Virgil was sometime Collectour of his Peter-pence here, &c. But Henry 8. casheered and cast him out hence; depriving him of his harlot-hire. And well he had done, had he not given occasion to those that came after to complain. Possidebant Papistae, possident jam Rapistae, &c.

Verse 8. Therefore I will wail and howl, ] Good men are usually more deeply affected with the wretched estate of wicked persons, then they themselves are. Thus Samuel mourned for Saul's rejection; Daniel was astonied and troubled at the import of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, chap. 4.19. Habakkuks belly trembled, and his lips quivered at the consideration of the judgments that were to come upon the Chaldeans. Do we so (saith Mr. Perkins ) at other men's smartings.

I will go stripped, ] tàm mente quàm vest, renting off my garments, and casting them from me, as if bereft of my wits: Pro demente vel insano quidam accipiunt, saith Calvin here. See Isaiah 59.15. with the margent, and Isaiah 20.2.

I will make a wailing like the dragons, ] which sucking the Elephants blood, till he fall down dead upon them, and oppress them with his huge bulk, make an horrible howling: so horrible (saith Palacius out of Pliny and Solinus ) that they amaze, yea kill those that hear it. Fides sit penes autores.

and mourning as the owls, ] Heb. as the daughters of the owl, or of the ostrich: young ostriches cast off by their dams, Job 39 14. Lam. 4.3. and hungerbit howl pitifully, as do also the young ravens for like cause, Psal. 147.9. Of the ravens of Arabia it is recorded, that full gorged, they have a tuneable sweet record: but empty, screech horribly. By these similitudes here used, the Prophet would express his grief to be inexpressible.

Verse 9. For her wound is incurable, ] Or, she is grievously sick of her wounds; Or, her wounds are full of anguish, neither is there any to pour in balm of Gilead, to allay it: any to lick it whole, as the Lady Elinor did her husband Prince Edwards wound, traitorously given him in the holy land, by an Assassine, with a poisoned knife.

for it is come unto Judah, ] viz. Samaria's wound and Plague is come, i. e. shall shortly come, though now they live, as if out of the reach of God's rod, or as if they had a protection.

he is come unto the gate of my people. ] Sennacherib (fleshed with former successes at Samaria, which had been carried captive by his father) came up to the very gate of Jerusalem, as an over-flowing scourage: and thought to have cut off all the Jews at once: as if they had had all but one neck. He came up over all his channels, and went over all his banks. He passed thorough Judah, and over-flowed, reaching even to the neck: and that stretching out of his wings filled the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel, Isaiah 8.8. But Immanuel soon took a course with him, Isaiah 37.33. so that though he came to the gates, yet he entered not into the city: nor shot an arrow there, nor cast a bank against it. Look upon Zion, saith that Prophet, the city of our solemnities, and see if Jerusalem be not still a quiet habitation, Isaiah 33.20. Walk about Zion, saith the Psalmist, and go round about her, tell the towers thereof. See if any be missing since Sennacherib came up against them. Mark ye well her bulwarks: are they diminished? consider her palaces: are they at all defaced? Psal. 48.12, 13. What if Jerusalem be wicked? yet Sennacherib is insolent. If therefore Jerusalem shall be smitten with the rod of Sennacherib's fear, Sennacherib shall be smitten with the sword of God's revenges, who of all things cannot endure a presumptuous and self-confident vaunter: but will deal with his people, not according to his ordinary rule, but according to his Prerogative. Surely Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the Lord of hosts, though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel, Ier. 51.5.

Verse 10. Declare ye it not at Gath, weep ye not at all, ] sc. in their sight and hearing, (though at home, weep your fill, verse 8.) lest the daughters of those uncircumcised triumph, 2 Sam. 1.20. lest out of your tragedies they compose comedies; and ye become their music, whilst they revel in your ruins, and make themselves merry in your misery.

In the house of Aphrah, roll thyself in the dust. ] An elegant Agnomination in the original: q. d. Dust thyself in the house of dust. Aphrah had its name from its dustinesse; as Paris is called Lutetia à luto, from its dirtinesse: and as Hiram called the twenty cities of Galilee given him by Solomon, Cabul, that is dirty, or displeasing, 1 King. 9.13. Fitly was this city called Aphrah, or Dusty, saith the Prophet: for it shall be reduced to dust, and the inhabitants occasioned to roll themselves in the dust, in token of extreme sorrow. See Lam. 2.10. Some think Aphrah is put for Ephraim: others, better understand it for a particular city; either that in the tribe of Manasseh, Gideon's city, Judge. 6.11. or that other in the tribe of Benjamin, Josh. 18.23. not far from Jerusalem.

Verse 11. Passe ye away, thou inhabitant of Sapphire, ] Or, thou that dwellest fairly, as it were in a city set with Sapphires, see Isaiah 54.11. such as was Susa in Persia, and Antioch in Syria, a city so sweet and specious, that Mahomet never durst come into it, lest he should be there detained by the pleasure of the place. Sapphire here (say some) may allude to Samaria, that instead of her fairness shall be exposed to ignominy and nakedness: they shall be carried away, young and old, naked and bare-foot, even with their buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Samaria, Isaiah 20.4. So the Popes champions dealt by the Waldenses in France, those ancient Protestants. One great city of theirs they took, and put to the sword sixty thousand. To another they they gave quarter for life; but so, as that both the men and the women should depart stark naked ( partibus illis quae honest nominari non possunt, sanctorum illorum cruciatorum oculis expositis ) and show all.

The inhabitants of Zaanan ] Loci pecorosi, saith Junius, the country of flocks. Some make it to allude to Zion. Others say, it signifieth an out-let: and make it to be as a gate to the kingdom of Judah. These came not forth of their gate in the mourning of Bethezel, or of the place over-anent, to condole with them, as having their hands full at home, and matter enough of mourning for their own misery.

He shall receive of you his standing ] The enemy shall stand and stay amongst you, till he hath subdued you, and made a clear conquest: he shall not give you over, till he have done the deed.

Verse 12. For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good, ] Or, shall grieve for the good, viz. that he hath lost in the common calamity; grieve till he • be heart-sick, as Amos 6.6. or wait till he faint, for hope deferred maketh the heart sick, Prov. 13.12. The name of this city is Maroth, that is, bitternesses; and bitter things shall befall her: see Ruth 1.20. because together with the good of Piety, which she ought to have waited upon, she hath lost the good of Prosperity, which in vain she hath waited for. The expectation of the wicked is wrath, Prov. 11.23.

But evil came down from the Lord. ] It is He that sends and sets the enemy awork: as Titus acknowledged, at the last destruction of Jerusalem, that he only lent his hands to the divine justice. It was God that stirred up enemies to revolted Solomon. And Joh descried God's hand on the arms of the Sabean robbers.

Verse 13. O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the charet to the swift beast, ] To the Camel, or Dromedary, saith Calvin, which is a very swift beast, (we call a • low body Dromedary, per Antiphrasin ) or to the post-horses Angarijs, as Junius: he means, Make haft away. Shalmaneser is already at Samaria, and Sennacherib will be • re long at Lachish, Isaiah 36.2. Hannibal ad portas, begone with all possible speed: hast, hast, hast.

She is the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion, ] Not partner only, but Author, and Ring-leader. Such are all haeresiarchs, and inventers of evil things, Rom. •• 30. These shall drink deep of God's wrath here, and be cast alive into the burning 〈◊〉 , Rev. 19.20. Some apply the words to the confederacy of Lachish with Jerusalem against king Amaziah, 2 King. 14.19. slain at this city.

for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. ] The often-change of person in this verse is remarkable. The chief sin that Lachish stands charged with is, that being near to Beersheba, she had learned her manner, Amos 8.14. that is, her rites, and religions, instituted by Jeroboam, and transmitted them to Jerusalem. Superstition soon spreads, and is catching: like the Jerusalem-Artichoke, it quickly over-runs the ground, and chokes the Heart.

Verse 14. Therefore shall thou give presents, &c. ] And so seek to make thee friends among the Philistines: but such carnal confederacies never prosper. The Greek Churches, Anno 1438. afraid of the Turks, sent and subjected themselves to the Bishop of Rome, that they might have the help of the Latin Churches: but shortly after, they were destroyed, their Empire subdued, and swallowed up by the Ottoman greatness, &c. How much better were it to send a Lamb to the Ruler of the earth, Isaiah 16.1? to bring presents unto Him that ought to be feared, Psal. 76.11? even to God, who cutteth off the spirits of Princes, and is terrible to the Kings of the earth? verse 12. Was he not so to Sennacherib whom Lachish here feared, and fled from? to Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, Xerxes, who after he had ••• ted over two millions of men into Greece, and beaten the Hellespont (for battering his bridge of boats over it) with three hundred stripes, was defeated, routed, and forced to flee back in a poor fishers boat, to save his own life?

The houses of Achzib (that is of a lie) shall be a lie to the kings of Israel. ] Or have been a lie to the kings of Israel: never true to those that trusted them: And wilt thou confederate with them, and confide in them?

Verse 15. Yet will I bring an heir unto thee, ] Or, a Possessour, who shall lay claim to thee, as by right of inheritance. This heir was the Assyrian, and those Colonies brought by him into the cities of Israel, 2 King. 17.34. These took upon them as heirs and owners of the country, till turned out afterwards by Josiah King of Judah, 2 King. 23.4, 8. Here is another elegant allusion, (as this Chapter is full of them) for Mareshah signifieth an Inheritance, or Possession. And if it were Mi • ah's own country, (as many think) we may see the Prophets integrity, in not bearing with his best friends: but taking the same liberty to tell them of their sins, and dangers, that they did to commit the one, and to incur the other. Physician heal thyself, said they to our Savior, Luke 4.23. that is, thine own country, as it is there explained.

He shall come unto Adullam, the glory of Israel. ] Haply so called, because David was once there hid and harboured: and the place thereby renowned. Or, because it was a strong-hold, wherein Israel gloried and trusted, but in vain: since the enemy should come to it, and surprise it. Some think poor Adullam is called the glory of Israel ironically, and by way of scorn. Some read it thus, O glory of Israel, (to wit, then lost and overthrown) and they make it to be a deep sigh of the Prophet, fet from the bottom of his heart; whereby he witnesseth that he is greatly sorry for the ruin of the Israelites: that he might move them also to mourn in like manner. This he further presseth them to in the next words.

Verse 16. Make thee bald and poll thee, ] i. e. Make most bitter lamentation: he alludes to a custom among the Easterlings, of tearing off the hair of their heads and beards, in times of great heaviness. See Job 1.20. Isaiah 15.2 Jer. 7.29. Ezr. 9 3. In other cases baldness was forbidden Israel, (lest they should symbolize with Heathens) but in case of sorrow for sin, they were called to it, Isaiah 22.12.

for thy delicate children, ] To whom thou hast been rather a parricide then a parent: dealing by them, as that fall • e School-master in Italy, that brought forth his scholars to Hannibal.

as the Eagl • , ] when he is old, and loseth his feathers; and with them, not only his beauty, but also his swiftness and courage.

CHAP. II.

Verse 1. WO to them that devise iniquity, ] Or, labor, affliction, vanity, a lie. The Hebrew word Aven, is of large use; applied to all kind of sin, which causeth pain, sorrow, and misery: and here in particular to covetousness, that root of all evil to a man's self, and others, 1 Tim. 6.9, 10. Our Prophet flings a Woe at it, as doth likewise Habakkuk, chap. 2.9. calling it an evil covetousness, as the Prophet Isaiah tells us, that for the uniquity of his covetousness, God was wroth with Israel and smote him, Isaiah 57.17. The world counts it a light offense: and casts a cloak of good husbandry over it, 1 Thes. 2.5. But this disguise will serve such, no better, then that which Ahab once put on and perished. Let no man deceive you with vain words, (those plastered words, 2 Pet. 2.3. used by hells Proctors ) for because of these things ( sc. fornication, covetousness, &c. those peccadillo's as they are counted) cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience, Ephes. 5.6. For why? They devise iniquity, cogitant quasi coagitant, they plot and plow mischief, being men of wicked devices, Prov. 14.2. talking eftsoons to themselves, as that covetous caitif did, Luk. 12.17. beating their brains about their worldly projects, and resting no more, no not upon their beds by night (a time and place appointed for rest, when men should together with their clothes put off their cares, and compose themselves to sleep; that nurse of nature, and sweet parenthesis ) then one doth upon a rack, or bed of thorns.

Thus they work evil upon their beds, ] They work hard at it, having the devil for their task-master, who shall therefore also be their pay-master. He hath their souls here as in a sling, 1 Sam. 25.29. violently tossed about and restless: they are his drudges and dromedaries, driven about by him at his pleasure 2 Tim. 2.26. wholly acted and agitated by him Eph. 2.2. having as many Lord's as lusts, wherewith their hearts are night and day exercised, 2 Pet. 2.14. without intermission. See this in Felix, who at the same instant trembled and coveted a bribe: in Ahab, who sick of Naboth's vineyard, laid him down upon his bed, but rested not. His heart did more afflict and vex itself with greedy longing for that bit of earth, then the vast and spacious compass of a kingdom could counter-comfort.

when the morning is light they practice it ] And so they lose no time, being up and at it by peep of day; when others are fast asleep, and so more easily surprised and circumvented by them. The morning is the most precious part of the day: and should be employed to better purpose. But wickedness proceedeth from the wicked, as saith the proverb of the Ancients 1 Sam. 24.13. and as they like not to have God in their heads Psal. 10.4. nor hearts Psal. 14.1. so neither in their words Psal. 12.4. nor ways Tit. 1.16. but the contrary: Surely Satan is rightly called the God of this world; because as God at first did but speak the word and it was done, so if the devil do but hold up his finger, give the least hint, they are ready pressed to practisey.

because it is in the power of their hand ] The Vulgar hath it, Because their hand is against God: and indeed the same word El signifieth God and Power. The Seventy render it, Because they have not lifted up their hands to God (an exercise proper and fit for the morning Psal. 5.4.) The Tigurine, Quia viribus pollent, They have strength enough to do it. Their hand is to power (so the Original hath it) that is, saith Calvin, quantum possunt, tantum advent, they dare do their utmost, they will try what they can do: their hand is ever ready to rake and scrape together commodity; neither can they be hindered either by the fear of God, or any respect to righteousness.

Ver. 2. And they covet fields, and take them by violence ] See here the several degrees of sin; and what descents covetous men dig to hell, and beware betimes. Surely as the plot of all diseases lies in the humors of the body; so of all sin in the lust of the soul. The Heathen could say,

Covetousness is called the lust of the eyes 1 John. 2.16. because from looking comes lusting, from lusting, acting, (hence lusts of the soul are called deeds of the body Rom. 8.13.) yea acting with violence, they covet and take, they rob and ravish Psal. 10. there is neither equity nor honesty to be had at their hands: but as they take away fields, houses, heritages shamelessly; so they bear them away boldly, and think to scape scot-free; because it is facinus majoris abollae, the fact of a great one, whose hand is to power, as ver. 1.

and houses, and take them away ] though a man's house be his castle (as we say) yet it cannot secure him from these cormorants. Scribes and Pharisees devoured widows houses Mat. 23.17 where was a concurrence of covetousness and cruelty (for these seldom go sundered) besides the putid hypocrisy of doing this under a pretence of long prayers. A poor man in his house, is like a snail in his shell: crush that, and you kill him.

so they oppress (or defraud) a man and his house ] Either by fraud or force, by craft or cruelty they ruin a man, (a well-set man virum validum ) and his family, his whole progeny; which might not be done to the unreasonable creatures Deut. 22.6. This is to be like Uladus that cruel Prince of Valachia: whose manner was, together with the offender to execute the whole family; yea sometimes the whole kindred.

Ver. 3. Behold against this family do I devise an evil ] They had devised iniquity ver. 1. and now he deviseth their misery. God usually retaliates, and proportions provocation to provocation Deut. 32.21. frowardness to frowardness Psal. 18.26. contrariety to contrariety Lev. 26.18, 21. and device to device, as here. He loves to pay sinners home in their own coin; and to make them know by sad experience and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter to forsake the Lord and his fear Jer. 2.19. Woe be to that man against whom the Almighty sets himself to devise an evil: such an one shall find, that thought is not free (as that pestilent, proverb would make it) either from the notice of God's holy eye, the censure of his mouth, or the stroke of his hand. See Ier. 4.14. and 6.39. Rev. 2.23. Deut. 29.19. And this, Nature itself had some notion of, as appeareth by his censure who judged that Antiochus did therefore die loathsomely, because he had but an intent to burn Diana 's temple. Fecit quisque quantum voluit, saith Seneca: and • ncesta est, & sine stupro, quae stuprum cupit saith the same Author. Vain thoughts are very sins, and expose men to punishment: these shall either excuse or accuse at the last day Rom. 2.15. Mean-while, God is devising what to do to them: he is preparing his bow and making ready his arrows upon the string, even a Tophet of the most tormenting temper will shortly swallow them up, without true and timely Repentance.

From which ye shall not remove your necks ] It shall so halter and hamper you, that like fishes taken in an evil net, and as birds caught in a snare, so shall ye be snared in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon you Eccles. 9.12. ye shall never be able either to avoid it, or to abide it. But as the bird in a gin, the fish on the hook, the more it strives, the more it sticks: and as the bullock under the yoke, the more he wriggles, the more he galles: so shall it be here. Your fair necks, that would not bear the easy yoke of God's obedience, shall be ridden on by the enemy and bound to your two furrows Hos. 10.10, 11. yea a yoke of iron shall be put upon thee, until thou be destroyed Deut. 28.48.

neither shall ye go haughtily ] Heb. Romah; and hence haply Roma had its name, from its height and haughtiness: according to that of the Poet

The meaning here is, God would deject and darken them, so as that they shall utterly lose their former renown and splendor. He will thrust them down, as it were with a thump on the back, and there hold them. See Ezech. 21.26, 27. the scene shall be changed, and the haughty abased.

for this time is evil ] Both sinfully and penally evil The Apostle seemeth to allude to this text, when he saith, R • deem the time, because the days are evil: and Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof, that is, the misery of it, saith Christ Mat. 6.34. And again, Those very days shall be affliction (so the Greek text hath it) Mark 13.19. as if the time were turned into affliction: because of that evil, that only evil without mixture of mercy Ezech. 7.5. here foretold, and therefore foretold, that it might have been prevented.

Verse 4. In that day shall one take up a parable &c. ] In that day, that doleful, and dismal day of their calamity.

shall One ] Any one that is moved at your misery, and would work you to a sense of your sin the mother of your misery:

shall take up a parable ] tristem & querulam sad and sorrowful.

and lament with a doleful lamentation ] Heb. with a lamentation of lamentations, or with heigh-ho upon heigh-ho, as the word seems to signify.

we be uttterly spoiled ] Plundered to the life, laid naked to the very foundation, chap. 1.6. put into such a condition, as that there is neither hope of better, nor place of worse.

he hath changed the portion of my people ] that is God, or the Assyrian by God's appointment, hath taken away our country, and given it to strangers. The Pope took upon him in Henry the 8. days to give England Primo occupaturo to him that could first win it This brutum fulmen came to nothing: But when God's people changed their glory for that which profited not, Ier. 2 11. he soon changed their portion; he caused that good land to spew them out, he turned their weal into woe, and brought wrath upon them to the utmost. Neither profited it them anymore to have been called God's people, then it did Dives in flames, that Abraham called him Son; or Judas, that Christ called him Friend.

how hath he removed it from me? ] This is Lamentation-like indeed. See Lam. 1.1. and 2.1. and 4.1. all beginning with the same word, How. The speech is concise and abrupt, meet for mourners. There is an elegancy in the original not to be Englished. How uncertain are all things here! God sits upon the circle of the earth, and shakes out the inhabitants qt pleasure, as by a canvas. Persons and things are said to be in heaven, but on earth: on the outside of it only, where they have no firm footing. Dionysius was driven out of his kingdom: which yet he thought was tied to him with chains of adamant, saith the Historian.

turning away (from us as a loathsome object, being so incorrigibly flagitious) he hath divided our fields ] sc. to the enemy for a reward: like as he gave Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar for his pains at Tyre. Or thus, Instead of restoring (which now we are hopeless of) he hath divided our fields, our fertile and fat country to those that will be sure to hold their own in it; as the Gauls and Goths did in Italy, after they had once tasted the sweetness of it. Vatablus rendereth the text thus: How hath he taken from me those fields of ours which he seemed ready to restore? he hath even divided them, sc. to others.

Verse 5. Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot ] Fields were divided with cords of old, and inheritances also, See Psal. 16.5. and 105.11. and 78.55. 2 Sam. 8.2. This hope is henceforth cut off from revolted Israel: the ten tribes never returned, the other two did, and some few of the ten amongst them. Whether upon their conversion to Christ they shall be restored to the promised land, Time (the mother of Truth) will make manifest.

In the congregation of the Lord ] So you were once, but now nothing less. A Congregation ye are still, but of malignants: a rabble of rebels conspiring against heaven. A name ye have to live, but ye are dead: ye cry out Templum Domini, The Temple of the Lord are we: but in truth ye are no better then those Egyptian temples, beautiful without, but within nothing to be seen but a cat, rat, or some such despicable creature. Here they are called the Congregation of the Lord by an irony, as the Cardinal of Ravenna is so called by way of derision.

Verse 6. Prophesy ye not, say they, to them that prophesy ] Prodigious impudency, thus to silence the Prophets, or else to prescribe to them, according to the other reading of the text, Prophesy not, as they prophesy, for they are too tart: therefore Drop not ye who thus drop vinegar and nitre, who vex our galled consciences, no less then the cruel Spaniards do the poor Indians naked bodies, which, for a sport they do day by day drop with burning bacon: But let these drop that can smooth us up, that can utter toothless truths, that will drop oil into our ears, and give us silken words; these be Prophets for our turns &c. God cannot please some hearers, unless he speak tinkling and tickling words. Now, these must get their ears healed (as Demosthenes advised his countrymen of Greece ) ere they can be in case to hear with profit. They must learn of Bees, to pasl • by roses and violets, and sit upon Time; to heed, I mean, sound rebukes rather then smooth supparasitations. There are that note a jeer it the term Drop. It is well known that the word Preached is oft compared to rain Deut. 32.2. Isaiah. 55.10.11. The Prophets therefore are here in derision called Droppers or Distillers, and forbidden to do their office; or at least, to drop in that sort. Thu their successors in evil the Pharisees (who were likewise coverous) derided Christ; And thus their predecessors also in Isaiah 's time put a scost upon him, and his preaching, cap. 28.10. where the sound of the words in the Original carries a taunt as scornful people, by the tone of their voice, and riming words, gibe and jeer at those whom they vilify.

they shall not prophesy to them ] q. d. You shall have your wish; my droppers shall give over dropping, and be no further troublesome, nor take shame anymore by prophesying to such a perverse people, so shamelessly so lawlesly wicked.

that they shall not take shame ] Or, shall they not take shame? q. d. though they will not hear of it, that shame shall be their promotion, and confusion their portion, yea they shall surely feel and find it so.

Verse 7. O thou that art named the house of Jacob] That hast a name to live but art dead Rev. 3.1. that art called a Jew, and makest thy boast of God Rom. 2.17. that hast a form of knowledge Rom. 2.20. and a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5. a semblance of sanctimony Luke 8.18. acting religion, playing devotion, as if it were a neme only; or as if it were enough to be named the house of Jacob, or to have his voice, though the hands are the hands of Esau, the practice nothing suitable to the profession. Thus many amongst us content themselves with the bare name of Christians: as if many a ship hath not been called Safe-guard or Goodspeed, which yet hath fallen into the hands of Pirates. The devil will surely sweep, and hell swallow all such Nominalists: such shall find that an empty title yields but an empty comfort at the last. What was Dives the better for this, that Abraham called him son, or Judas that Christ called him friend, or the rebellious Jews that God styleth them his people? Doth he not elsewhere disclaim them, and call them a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity; the people of his wrath and of his curse? May not all Formalists fear Jacob's fear? Gen. 27.12. My father peradventure will feel me, and I shall seem to him as a deceiver: and I shall bring a curse upon me, and not a blessing. Our heavenly Father will surely feel us in our addresses: and if he find us but complementing, and contenting ourselves to be called the house of Jacob, he will confute our vain confidences, and cut us out of the roll; as he did Dan and Ephraim, who were named the house of Jacob, and yet for their wickedness are passed by in the reckoning up of the twelve tribes, Rev. 7. as if they were soldiers put out of pay, and cashiered.

Is the spirit of the Lord straitened ] or shortened? Is he a penny-father? hath he but one blessing? Is there not with him the residue of the spirit? plenteous redemption, an exceeding abundant goodness even to a superpleonasme? Where then is the fault that you are no more Jacob -like, plain-hearted and perswasible; that ye refuse to be reformed, hate to be healed, saying to me, Depart, and to my Prophets, Drop not, &c. Neither curse ye nor bless ye, as he said to Balaam? wherein if they should hearken to you, and be ruled by you, yea, should you straitly threaten them with bonds to speak henceforth to no man in my name, as Act. 4.17. yet my word is not bound, 2 Tim. 2.9. but runs and is glorified: my spirit is not straitened, but is free and not fettered. I tell you, that if these (Prophets) should hold their peace, and not drop, the stones would immediately cry out: which against change of weather do stand with great drops of water to confute your unyeeldingnesse. Turn ye therefore now at my reproof; behold, I will turn out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you, Prov. 1.23. I will do it howsoever; yea, in despite of you I will do it, as some sense the foregoing verse, reading it thus (and the original will bear it) Drop ye not, but they shall drop.

Are these his doings?) i.e. Such as God doth approve of, or rather, are these Jacob's doings? tread you in the steps of your father Jacob? did he ever silence the Prophets, and withstand those that were sent unto him? Did he not rather lie low, put his mouth in the dust and cry out, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. Good is the word of the Lord which ye have spoken, &c. And whereas ye will be apt enough to reply that Jacob had no other cause: for the Prophets never spake but good and comfortable things to him, it is answered in the next words.

Do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly? ] Heb. upright; that pondereth his paths by the weights of my word, and turneth not to the right hand nor to the left, Pro. 4.26, 27. but walketh exactly, accurately, and precisely, Eph. 5.15. keeping within my precincts, &c. Do not my words do good to such, and speak they not peace to him? David felt it as sweet as honey, Ps. 119.103. But as honey causeth pain to exulcerate parts, though of itself it be sweet and medicinal: so doth the word of God to exulcerate consciences. Children, though they love to lick in honey, yet they will not endure to have it come near their lips, when they have sore mouths: so is it here. Excellently saith Saint Austin, Adversarius est nobis, quamdiu sumus & ipsi nobis, &c. The word of God is adversary to none, but such as are their own greatest adversaries, &c. It may well be compared to Moses rod, which whiles he held it in his hand, it flourished and brought forth almonds; but being cast on the ground it turned into a serpent. Did it not take hold of those refractaries, Zech. 1.6. that would not take hold of God's covenant, and choose the things that pleased him, Isaiah. 56.4? Doth it not still sting wicked people with unquestionable conviction and horror; when as great peace have they which love God's law, and nothing shall offend them?

Vers. 8. Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy ] Heb. yesterday, no longer ago; to all their former flagitious practices they have now newly added this of execrable rapine and robbery, which is still fresh, and as it were flagrant in mine eyes. Although the truth is, that God looketh upon former sins as presently committed: for as there is no beginning of eternity, so neither is there any succession. But let men take heed how they heap up sin, lest they heap up wrath: for although God may bear with people for one or two out-strayes, yet when once it comes to three transgressions and to four, he will not turn away the punishment, Am. 1.2. and one new sin may set many old awork in the conscience; making it like Ezekiel's scroul, wherein was written lamentations, and mourning, and woe. Surely I have seen yesterday the blood of Naboth, and the blood of his sons, saith the Lord, 2 Kin. 9.26. The word signifieth last night, though it were done some while before. See the word yesterday so used by the Apostle Hebraizing with his Hebrews, Chap. 15.8. Some read the text thus, He that was yesterday my people is risen up on the other side as against an enemy, viz. raging against God, and ranging against all men, biting all they come aneer as mad dogs. See Isaiah. 9.21. 1 Thess. 2.15. they please not God, but rise up in rebellion against him; and are contrary to all men, being rather Ishmaelites then Israelites, Gen. 16.12. and therefore not rightly named the house of Jacob (that plain man, Gen. 25.27. without welt or gard, guile or gall) nor could the word of the Lord do good unto them, so long as their deeds were evil, and they loved darkness rather then light.

Ye pull off the robe with the garment ] Robbing and pillaging passengers with greatest inhumanity: not leaving them a rag to cover them, or a cross to bless them with, as the proverb is. This was common in Scotland and Africa, saith Da ••• here. It was in England also, till the days of king Alfred, who first divided the land into shires, and then the subjects into tenths or Tithings; every of which severally should give bond for the good a bearing of each other, &c. By this course men were not careful only of their own actions, but had an eye to all the nine, for which they stood bound; as the nine had over each. Insomuch that a poor girl might travel safely with a bag of gold in her hand, and none durst meddle with her.

from men that pass by securely, as men averse from war ] There are a sort of such as delight in war, Psal. 68.30. that make a sport of it, as Abner, 2 Sam. 2.14. that take more pleasure in it then in an Empire, as Justin saith of Pyrrhus king of 〈◊〉 . David was none such; and yet he wanted not for courage. His motto was, •• m for peace, or (as the Hebrew hath it) I am peace. He had seen the woe of war, and knew well the lawlesnesse of it. The law is no more, saith the Church in 〈◊〉 L • mentations, Chap. 2.9. Inter arma silent leges, saith the Heathen, The noise 〈◊〉 drowns the voice of laws. A reverend man hath well observed, that as those three commandments, Thou shalt not kill, Thoss shalt not commit adultery, Thou 〈…〉 are ranked together in the law: so they are commonly violated together by unruly soldiers, Isaiah. 13.16. Their children also shall be dashed in pieces before their eyes, their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. These are the miseries of war. But what meant these miscreants to shed the blood of war in peace, 1 Kin. 2.5. to strip the innocent and therefore fearless passenger of his raiment as those thieves did him, that went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, dreading no such danger? neither to rob him only, but to ravish him too, Ps. 10. that they might sinned all precious substance, and fill their houses with spoil? And what meant the corrupt Rulers to suffer it so to be, and not to brandish the sword of justice against such stigmatical Belialists.

Vers. 9. The women of my people ] Or, the wives; once wives, but now widows, and therefore calamatious, friendless, comfortless; as a vine whose root is uncovered, as a wandering bird, or a nest forsaken, Isai. 16.2.

have ye cast out from their pleasant houses ] where they had long lived with their husbands in love, peace, and much sweetness, as good Naboth's wife had: This was barbarous cruelty. God had taken order in the law, that none should harm a bird sitting upon her own nest, how much less a daughter of Abraham? Widows and Orphans are his clients, Ps. 146.9.

from their children have ye taken away my glory ] i. e. My maintenance and that livelihood that I had allowed them for their better education, which might have redounded to my great glory. Whereas now, being by you bereft both of friends and means, gomunt, fremunt, vobis maledicunt, clamantque vindictam in coelum, saith Montanus, they groan, they moan, they curse you, they cry to me for vengeance. &c.

Vers. 10. Arise ye and depart ] Veteres migrate coloni, make up your fardles and prepare for a deportation: here's no longer being for you, unless ye were better. Behold the land is defiled; therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants Lev. 18.25.

This is not your rest ] As you falsely fancy, and vainly vaunt: binding upon the promise, but not performing the condition. It is the guise of graceless men to stuff themselves with promises, till they have made them a pillow for sin: Et sic prasumendo sperant, & sperando pereunt, they presume till they perish, as he did who died with this desperate saying in his mouth, Spes & fortuna Valete, Farewell life and hope together.

Because it is polluted ] sc. by your sin, which is of so sullying a nature, that it defileth also the very visible heavens, which are therefore to be purged by the fire of the last day: like as those vessels that held the sin-offering were either to be broken if earthen, or to pass the fire if of better metal: they must not think to rest that let sin lie unrepented of in the conscience. But as a man that hath used himself to drink poison, at the 1. & 2. time he may do well, but the last it overcomes and destroys himself: so the next sin, though less, may set all the former aworking. And as two poisons met in the stomach make a man restless; so sin and wrath met in the conscience, raise a great garboile there. Neither must they think to dwell in God's good land, that will not live by God's good laws, Esa. 1.19. Ps. 107.39, 40. they walk upon fireworks every moment ready to be blown up: brimstone also is sca •• ered upon their habitations, that if the fire of God's wrath do but lightly touch it, they are suddenly consumed. Eusebius telleth us of Dioclesian, that bloody persecutor of the Church, that giving over the Empire, he decreed to lead the rest of his life quietly: but he escaped not so. For after that, his house was wholly consumed with lightning, and a flame of fire that fell from heaven, he hiding himself for fear of the lightning died within a little after.

it shall destroy you even with a sore destruction ] Dissipatione roboratâ, saith Calvin, Perditione praecisâ, saith Tremellius. The land longs for a vomit to spew you out, and it shall do it effectually. Poison given in wine works more furiously then in water. Woe be to that people or person whom God will destroy with a violent destruction. This he doth not willingly, or from his heart, Lam. 3.35. but men's sins compel him to it. Surely as many a fowl is shot with an arrow feathered from her own boyd: and as of the blackbirds slime is made the lime whereby he is taken: so out of the dung of men's sins doth God make his limetwigs (his judgments I mean) to take them withal. Long they might rest, would they but let him rest: but pollution is the forerunner of perdition.

Verse 11. If a man walking in the spirit, &c. ] Si vir ventosus, so Junius rendereth it, if a windy and false man lie, saying, &c. Let a man but feed them with vain hopes and frothy fancies, let him but make fair weather before them when the storm of God's wrath is ready to break out upon them; let him promise them plenty of all things, and prophesy to them of wine and strong drink: as the Popish Priests in Gersons time publicly preached to the people, that if any one would hear a Mass, he should not on that day be struck blind, nor die suddenly, nor want sufficient sustenance, &c. These call themselves the Spirituality, or men of the Spirit, (as Hosea hath it) as if all others to them were carnal, and destitute of the spirit. They also (after the manner of those false prophets of old) take to themselves big-swoln titles, and as they increase in their pretended holiness, so they proceed in their titles from Padre benedicto to Padre Angelo, then Archangelo, Cherubino, and lastly Cerephino, which is the top of perfection. But what is all this more then a light flask, or a pillar of smoke, which the higher it mounteth, the sooner it vanisheth? And what are all such vain boasters but gloriae animalia, popularis aurae mancipia vilia ac Jerome calls Crates the Philosopher? may it not fitly be said of them as Hos. 9.7. The Prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad: and as Ezek. 13.3. Surely these are foolish prophets that follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing. O Israel, they Prophets are like the foxes in the desert, &c. A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land. The Prophets prophesy falsely, and the Priests bear rule by their means, and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? Jer. 5.31. All will be naught no doubt. There is not a more dangerous creature then a parasitical Prophet. Ezekiel calleth them the devils dirt-daubers, chap. 13.10. his upholsters, for they sow pillows, &c. And these are Prophets for this people, fit lettice for such lips, dignum patellâ operculum: a singular plague of God upon the men of this world, who deserve to be deceived: for why? they have desired it, and it best pleaseth their vitiated palates. Most people, having first flattered themselves, are well content to be soothed up by others: and I cannot but accord him that saith, If there were Judges ordained for flattery, they would have no doings: there being so very few that will complain, that they are flattered.

Verse 12. I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee, ] An Evangelical promise (saith Diodate, after Others) of gathering together the Universal Church under the kingdom of Christ, contrary to the precedent dispersion, verse. 10. Assembling I will assemble, and gathering, gather them, sc. into the bosom of the Church, called therefore Ecclesia (as culled and collected out of the world) and Church, or Kirk, of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : because it belongs to the Lord Christ, who gathereth his together, as the hen doth her chickens: and died not for that Nation of Jews only, but that also he might gather together into one, the children of God that were scattered abroad, Joh. 11.51, 52. Here, He is called the breaker up: and his Apostles likewise those that have broken up, and have passed thorough the gate, &c. doing great exploits, and subduing souls to the ohedience of the faith; as here in Britain, where Caesar himself could not break thorough, but

as Pompey in Lucan upbraids him. Hence Tertullian saith, Christ brake into those places of Britanny that the Romans could never come at. He is that King against whom there is no rising up, Prov. 30.31. He is Jehovah on the head of his people, or in the fore-front of them, as their Captain General, to lead them on, and bring them off safely in all encounters. Habent ista amplissimam promissionem, saith Gualther here: this is an excellent promise, and carrieth in it a most sweet consolation. But I rather think it to be a continuation of the former threatening: I will surely assemble them, sc to the slaughter. I will gather them together, sc. that they may be broken in pieces: I will put them (or pen them up) together as the sheep of Bozrah, that are fat, and fit, and appointed for the slaughter. See Isaiah 34.6. Bozrah was a rich pasture country in Edom, from whence most fat sheep, and meet for meat were sent to the shambles.