Twenty-One Sermons on Amos 1

whom he may devour.

When he hath his prey in pursuit, he roareth. So roareth the ravening Lion, Psal. 22.14. and so roar those Lions ready to devour, Ecclus. 51 4.

Af • er he hath gotten his prey he roareth. Isaiah 31.4. The young Lion roareth on his prey. And above in this Chapter, verse. 4. Will a Lion roar in the forest when he hath no prey?

So, the Lion roareth before he hath his prey, when he hath it in pursuit, and after he hath gotten it. But of all, his roaring is most terrible, when he is hungry and in the pursuit of his prey 〈◊〉 albeit when he is devouring his prey he roareth very terribly, as Bolducus in his Comment upon Job, cap. 4. hath out of Aristotle, Pliny, and Aelian observed; making the Lion so roaring to be the express image of ravenous rich men and mighty oppressors.

From this fearful roaring of the Lion, one of the four Evangelists, Saint Mark is hieroglyphically figured by the image of a Lion, because as a Lion in the wilderness sends forth a terrible voice, so Saint Mark in the beginning of his Gospel, mightily thundereth out vocem clamantis in deserto, the voice of one crying in the wilderness. It is the observation of Saint Ambrose upon Luke, of Remigius upon Mark, and of Eucherius.

The Lion hath roared, who will not fear?] Frequent and familiar are the comparisons drawn from the Lion in holy Scripture. The Lion for his good properties is a symbol of good men, yea of Christ himself; but for his bad, of bad men, yea of the Devil. Habet Leo virtutem, habet & saeuitiam, sai • h Gregory, Moral. 5. cap. 17. The Lion hath courage, and he hath cruelty. For his courage he betokeneth Christ; for his cruelty the Devil. So Augustine Serm. 46. de diuersis: Christus Leo propter fortitudinem, Diabolus propter feritatem: Christ and the Devil may both be called Lions, Christ for his fortitude, the Devil for his fierceness.

Christ may be called a Lion, not only for his invincible courage and fortitude, but also for his great might and power in defending his flock from bodily and spiritual enemies: so is he the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Revel. 5.5. that same victorious Lion, our true Shilo and Messias, who is Non minus belluo animarum ad illas saluandas, quàm Diabolus ad perdendas, as Salmeron speaketh in his eighth Dispute. upon the first Epistle of Peter: Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, doth no less greedily hunt after souls to save them, than the Devil doth to destroy them. Christ's a Lion.

So are Kings and mighty Princes that rule over others called Lions. Judah is a Lions whelp, —He stooped down, he couched as a Lion, and as an old Lion; who shall rouse him up? Gen. 49.9. where David, Solomon, and other Kings, that were lineally descended from the Tribe of Judah, are compared to the roaring Lion, because through the fame of their Empire, they were a terror to many of their neighbor Nations. Kings and Princes are Lions.

Every godly person is a Lion. So saith the Holy Ghost, Prov. 28.1. The righteous are bold as a Lion. They are bold in all their afflictions, how great soever they be, and their boldness is, not from any trust in themselves, but by the faith they have in God: and they are bold as a Lion, fearing nothing. For as a Lion feareth no other beasts, so the righteous fear not whatsoever crosses may befall them. They know that all things work together for good to them that love God: they know that without the will of God, no ill can betide them: they know if they lose this life, they shall find a better: and for this cause in their greatest extremities are they quiet in mind, ever giving a fiat to the will of God; God's will be done. The righteous man for his boldness is a Lion.

The wicked man, every tyrant and violent oppressor is a Lion. A Lion for cruelty. David avoucheth it, Psal. 10.9, 10. He lieth in wait secretly as a Lion in his den, he lieth in wait to catch the poor, he doth catch the poor when he draweth him into his net. He coucheth and humbleth himself that the poor may fall by his authority. So the wicked man for his cruelty is a Lion.

So Nero, tyrannizing and oppressing Nero; Nero, that was the bloody persecutor of the Christians in the infancy of the Church, is called a Lion, 1 Tim. 4.17. I was delivered, saith Paul, from the mouth of the Lion. Its no doubt, saith Justinian, but that Paul pointeth at the cruelty and immanity of Nero. The like Metaphor I meet with, Prov. 28.15. As a roaring Lion, so is a wicked ruler over the poor people. Its plain, Every tyrant and violent oppressor is a Lion.

And the Devil himself is a Lion. You know Saint Peter stiles him so, 1 Epist. chap. 5.8. Your adversary the Devil as a roaring Lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour. For as the Lion delighteth in blood, gapeth over his prey, and roareth hideously: so doth the Devil; than whom, saith Fen-ardentius, Nihil truculentius, nihil tetrius, nihil terribilius, nihil infestius hominibus; There is nothing more fierce, more cruel, more spiteful, more malicious against men, than the Devil is. He thirsteth after the blood of men, to spill it; he gapeth over the souls of men, to devour them, he is a roaring Lion.

Thus have you heard, that the Lion, for some properties of his is a symbol of good men, yea, and of Christ himself; and for some a symbol of bad men, yea and of the Devil, himself.

Now the Lion in my Text is God; and that he is so, it is the joint agreement of Expositors.

Upon those words of Daniel 6.22. My God hath sent his Angel, and hath shut the Lions mouths, in Midras tehilim in the Hebrew exposition of the Psalms, at the 64. Psalm, there is a remarkable sentence for our present purpose, Venit Leo, & liberauit Leonem de ore Leonis: A Lion came and delivered a Lion from the mouth of a Lion. Venit Leo, a Lion came; this Lion is God, holy and blessed, as it is said in the third of Amos, Leo rugijt, the Lion hath roared, who will not fear? the Lord God hath spoken, who will not prophesy? A Lion came, Et liberauit leonem, and he delivered a Lion, this other Lion is Daniel, who came from Judah, as it is said, Gen. 49. Catulus Leonis Judah, Judah is a Lions whelp. A Lion came and delivered a Lion, de ore Leonis, from the mouth of a Lion: this third Lion is Nebuchadnezzar, as its said, Ierem. 4. Ascendit Leo de cubili suo; the Lion is come up from his thicket. By this exposition of the Hebrews the Lion in my Text is God.

So is he in the understanding of Saint Jerome; so Lyranus takes him to be; so doth Hugo de S. Charo; so doth Dionysius Carthusianus; so many others; most of the moderne. The Glossator saith, that because Amos, whilst he lived a shepherds life stood in fear of the Lion, therefore he here compareth the fear of the Lord to the roaring of the Lion.

I am not ignorant, that some by this roaring in my Text do understand the Devil, and by the Lord God here speaking Christ our Savior; that, as the Devil is heard of the reprobate to their condemnation, so Christ is heard of the Elect to their salvation. But this opinion being singular, I pass it by, and following the current of Interpreters, do take this roaring Lion here to betoken God, to this sense: If at the roaring of the Lion all the beasts of the forest do tremble; how much more shall men tremble if God roar against them by his Prophets? The stoutest courage of man, Mascula virtus, the manliest prowess upon the earth, when it hath girded up her loins with strength, and decked it self with greatest glory, what can it avail where the fortitude of God is set against it? Pitchers that are fashioned of clay, how is it possible they should not break and fall asunder, if ever they come to encounter the brass of God's unspeakable Majesty? The Lion hath roared, who will not fear? The Lord God hath spoken, and commanded us to cry aloud, and spare not, to lift up our voices like trumpets, and to show his people their transgressions, who dares be silent?

And thus f • om the similitude, the Lion roaring, I am come to the application thereof, God speaking: The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy? Wherein I note,

• 1 Who speaketh.
• 2 How he speaketh.
• 3 What is the sequel of his speech.

He that speaketh is the Lord God.

He speaketh after diverse manners.

And if he speak, man must prophesy.

The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

The Lord God! He is Adonai Jehovah. They are the very names wherewith God was named in the precedent verse; and were there discoursed upon at large. I will not now trouble you with any tedious repetition of what was then delivered. Only be pleased to remember, that the first of these two names, Adonai, betokeneth the Majesty of God, his sustentation of all things, and his dominion over all: the second, Jehovah, his essence, his existing or being. The first, Adonai, is with Calvin, Occolampadius, and Brenz, Dominator, ruler or Governor; with the rest, its Dominus, Lord. The second Iehouth, is retained by Junius; its Jehovah with Calvin, Mercer, and Vatablus; with the rest, its Deus, God.

The first, Adonai, Ruler, Governor, or Lord, putteth us in mind that God alone is absolutely Lord, Ruler, and Governor of all things; yea, and our Lord. Our Lord, not only by the common right of creation; for thereby he is the Lord of all created things in Heaven and Earth, yea and of the very Devils. Nor is he our Lord only by the right of his universal providence, or government; for thereby he ruleth over sin and death, and sets them bounds. But our Lord he is by the right of redemption; for thereby he hath made us, through Christ, a peculiar people unto himself, zealous of good works. Such is the use of this first name, Adonai.

The second, Jehovah, or Jehovah, which we now translate God, may be our remembrancer, that of himself, and by himself he ever was, is and shall be; that of him all creatures have their being; and that he giveth a real being to all his promises and, threats. This same Jehovah, Adonai, Jehovah, God Almighty, is he that speaketh.

But how speaketh He? How to men, himself being incorporeal, without the instruments of speech?

First, God speaketh unto men, either by himself immediately, or by some messenger. This messenger is either an Angel, or a man. If a man, then is he either a Prophet, or a Priest; the Priest, that hath in the breast-plate of iudgemement the Vrim and the Thummim.

Again, God speaketh unto men by a voice, either sensible or spiritual; if with a sensibl • voice, then he striketh the outward ears; if with a spiritual, then the inward: as well the left ear, which is the Fantasy, as the right, which is the Understanding.

Thirdly, God speaketh unto men, either sleeping or waking. So Serarius Quaest. 1. in cap. 1. Ioshuae.

What the ancient Fathers have thought of this point touching God his speaking unto man, I have long since delivered out of this place in my third Lecture upon the first Chapter of this Prophecy. What was Saint Basils opinion, what Saint Augustine's, what Saint Gregory's, you then heard.

Later Writers have reduced all the speakings of God to two heads; Deeds and Words.

Christophorus à Castro upon the first of Zacharias, Et factis loquitur Deus & verbis, God speaketh both by Deeds and by words. Franciscus Ribera upon the same Chapter, Deus ita rebus, vt verbis loquitur; God speaketh as well by things as by words.

A learned and a very orthodox Divine, David Pareus, in his Commentary upon Genesis at the third Chapter, well liking of Saint Gregory's opinion, thus resolveth upon the point: God speaketh either by himself, or by some Angelical creature.

By himself God speaketh, when by the sole force of internal inspiration the heart is opened: or God speaketh by himself, when the heart is taught concerning the word of God, without words or syllables. This speech of God is sine strepitu sermo, a speech without any noise. It pierceth our ears, and yet hath no sound. Such was the speech of God unto the Apostles, at what time they were filled with the Holy Ghost, Act. 2.2. Suddenly there came a sound from Heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it fill • d all the house, where they were sitting: and there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and it su • e upon each of them. Per ignem quidem Dominus apparuit, sed persemet ipsum locutionem interius fecit: By the fire indeed God appeared, but by himself he spake in secret, within, to the heart of the Apostles Neither was that fire God, nor was that sound God, but God by those outward things, the fire and the sound, Expressit hoc, quod interiùs gessit, he shown what he did within, and that he spake to the heart. Those outward things, the fire and the sound, were only for signification, to show that the Apostles hearts were taught by an invisible fire, and a voice without a sound. Foris fuit ignis, qui apparuit, sed intùs, qui scientiam dedit: the fire, that appeared, was without; but the fire that gave them knowledge, was within. So may you judge of the sound: the sound that was heard was without; but the sound that smote their hearts, was within. So God's speech, is a speech to the heart without words, without a sound.

Such was that speech to Philip, Act. 8.29. Go near, and join thyself to yonder Chariot. It was the Spirit said so to Philip. Bede expounds it of inward speech. In cord spiritus Philippo loquebatur, The Spirit said to Philip in his heart. The Spirit of God may then be said to speak unto us, when by a secret or hidden power, it intimateth unto our hearts, what we are to do. The Spirit said unto Philip, that is, Philip was by the Spirit of God inwardly moved to draw near, and join himself to the Chariot, wherein that Ethiopian Eunuch sat reading the Prophesy of Isaiah.

A like speech was that to Peter, Act. 10.19. Behold three men seek thee. It was the Spirit said so to Peter. And here Bede, In mente haec ab spiritu, non in aure carnis audiuit: Peter heard these words from the Spirit, in mente, in his understanding, non in aure carnis, not by his fleshly ear. The Spirit said unto Peter, that is, Peter was by the Spirit of God inwardly moved to depart from Joppa, and go to Cesarea to preach to the Gentiles, to Cornelius and his company.

From this inward speaking of God by his holy Spirit in the hearts of men without either words or sound, we may note thus much for our present comfort, that whensoever we are inwardly moved, and do feel our hearts touched with an earnest desire, either to offer up our private requests to God, or to come to the place of public prayer, or to hear the preaching of the word, or to receive the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, or to do any good work, we may be assured, that God by his holy Spirit, God by himself speaketh unto us.

Thus you see, how God speaketh unto us by himself. He speaketh unto us also by his creatures. By his creatures Angelical, and others. And he doth it after diverse manners.

1 Verbis, by words. By words only; as when nothing is seen, but a voice only is heard: as John. 12.28. When Christ prayed, Father glorify thy name, immediately there came a voice from Heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. Here was Vox Patris, the voice of God the Father, yet ministerio Angelorum formata, it was formed by the ministry of Angels.

2 God speaketh Rebus, by things; By things only, as when no voice is heard, but some thing only is objected to the senses. An example of this kind of God's speaking is that vision of Ezekiel, chap. 1.4. He saw a whirl-wind come out of the North, with a great cloud, and a fire infolding it self; and in the midst of the fire the color of Amber. All this he saw; but here is no mention of any voice at all. And yet the Prophet saith, Omnino fuit verbum Iehouae ad Ezechielem; the Word of the Lord came expressly unto Ezekiel. The word of the Lord came, and I looked, and behold a whirlwind. Here was res sine verbo, a thing but no voice.

3 God speaketh Verbis simul & rebus, both by words and things: as when there is both a voice heard, and also some thing objected to the senses. So He spake to Adam presently after his fall, when he heard the voice of God walking in the Garden, and saying, Adam where art thou? Gen. 3.8.

4 God speaketh, Imaginibus cordis oculis extensis, by some images, shapes, or semblances exhibited to our inward eyes, the eyes of our hearts. So Jacob in his dream saw a ladder set upon the earth, the top whereof reached to Heaven, and the Angels of God ascended and descended on it, Gen. 28.12. So Peter in a trance saw Heaven opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at the four corners, and let down to the earth, wherein were all manner of four footed beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air, Act. 10.10. So Paul in a vision in the night saw a man of Macedonia standing by him, and praying his help: Come over into Macedonia, and help us, Act. 16.9.

5 God speaketh imaginibus & ante corporeos oculos ad tempus ex aëre assumptis; he speaketh by some images, shapes, or semblances, for a time assumed from the air, and exhibited to our bodily eyes. So he spake to Abraham in the plains of M ••• re, Gen. 18.2. Three men, saith the Text, stood by Abraham; yet were they not three men that stood by him, but three Angels in the shape of men, with true bodies for the time; palpable and tractable bodies for the time. One of the three more eminent than the rest, to whom Abraham did reverence above the rest, with whom he talked, calling him Lord, verse. 3. who is also called Jehovah, verse. 17. was Christ the second person in the Trinity. And so God spake unto Lot, by Angels in the likeness of men, Gen. 19. Two Angels they were, verse. 1. Men they are called, verse. 10. Angels, and yet men. Angels in nature, and men in their habit. By them God spake to Lot of the destruction of Sodom.

6 God speaketh Coelestibus substantijs, by celestial substances. By Celestial substances I mean not only the Heavens with the works therein, but also the two superior elements, the fire and the air. So at the Baptism of Christ, D • nube vox sonuit, a voice was heard out of a cloud, as it was also at his transfiguration upon the mount, This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

7 God speaketh terrenis substantijs, by terrestrial substances. So to reprove the dullness of Balaam, In ore Asina humana verba formauit, he enabled Balaam's own Ass to speak, Num. 22.28. Saint Peter, 2 Ep. 2.16. thus delivers it; The dumb beast speaking with man's voice forbade the madness of the Prophet.

Once more, God speaketh simul & terrenis, & coelestibus substantijs, both by terrestrial and celestial substances: as when he spake to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush, Exod. 3.2.4. The fire I call the celestial, the bush the terrestrial substance.

Last of all, God speaketh by his Angels, when Secretâ eorum praesentiâ, by a secret presence of theirs he infuseth the power of his influence to the hearts of men: and thus may you understand that, Zach. 1.9. Angelus qui loquebatur in me, the Angel of the Lord that spake in me said unto me. The Angel that spake in me, to my heart.

And thus you see, how God of old at sundry times and in diverse manners did speak to man. He spake either by himself, or by his Creatures. By his Creatures many ways: sometimes by words, sometimes by things, sometimes by both words and things; sometimes by shapes exhibited to the eyes of the heart, sometimes by apparitions to the eyes of the body; sometime by celestial substances, sometimes by terrestrial, sometimes by both celestial and terrestrial: and last of all, by some secret presence of an Angel within man to the heart of man.

Thus from time to time hath God been used to speak. Now f • lloweth the sequel of his speech, Quis non prophetabi • ? Who can but prophesy? If the Lord God hath spoken, frendent quasi Leunculas, grinding his teeth as a lusty young Lion, against his people even ready to be devoured, Quis non prophetabit? What Prophet is there that dares contain himself from prophesying? that dares keep silence from denouncing the revengeful threats of God? The Lord God hath spoken, Quis non prophetabit? Who will not prophesy?

Who will not? Anselmus Laudunensis, the Author of the Interlineary Gloss, saith, Panci viri sunt, few such men there are: Hugo Cardinalis; Nullus, vel rarus est; There is not a man, or scarce a man that dares hold his peace, if God bid him prophesy.

Moses may go about to excuse himself, that he be not sent to Pharaoh; O my Lord, I am not eloquent, but am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue; I pray thee send some other; but his excuses will not be received.

Isaiah may complain, Woe is me, I am undone, because I am a man of polluted lips: yet so he cannot put off his commission.

Jeremiah may cry out, Ah, Lord God, behold I cannot speak, for I am a child. Yet must he follow his calling. Say not, saith the Lord, I am a child; for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee, thou shalt speak.

Ezekiel is sent unto a people stiff of forehead, and hard of heart, a people that would not hearken unto him, by whom he might well fear to lose his life: yet might he not withdraw himself. Behold, saith the Lord, I have made thy face strong against their faces, and thy forehead strong against their foreheads. As an Adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead. Fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a rebellious house.

Amos, this our Amos, now our Prophet Amos, once no Prophet, nor a Prophets son, but an heardman, and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit, taken by the Lord, as he was following the flock, receives his commission from the Lord; Go, Prophesy unto my people Israel. So he goeth, and prophesieth.

The Lord God hath spoken, who can but prophesy?

Who can but prophesy? The observation is, The office of prophesying when God enjoineth it, is not to be declined.

The proposition holds true, as well of the Prophets of the New Testament, as of the Old. The Prophets of the New Testament are the Ministers thereof: who though they have not the gift of prediction, to foretell things to come, yet are they called Prophets, Mat. 10.41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the name of a Prophet, shall receive a Prophets reward.

Prophets they are called.

First, because their function, sacred and Ecclesiastical, is in place and stead of the Prophetical office of the Old Testament.

Secondly, because their office is to expound and interpret the writings of the Prophets.

Thirdly, because they are to preach what is written in the Scriptures of the Prophets, of the day of judgment, of the rewards of good men, and of the torments prepared for the wicked in the life to come. Of such Prophets speaketh Gregory 2. part. Pastoralis Curae cap. 4. Prophetae in sacro eloquio nonnunquam Doctors vocantur, qui dum fugitiua esse praesentia indicant, quae futura sunt manifestant. Doctors or teachers are oftentimes in holy language called Prophets, because while they declare things present to be fugitive and transitory, they do manifest the things that are to come. Thus are Doctors or Teachers, the Ministers of the New Testament, Prophets in their kind; and the observation even now made concerning the office of prophesying reacheth them.

Its not to be declined. He that hath once begun to run in this race, must run on with perseverance, even unto the end. He that hath put his hand to this Plough, may not look back, lest he prove unfit for the Kingdom of God. In this race and course of life we are to contend and strive with the whole earth. Though we be despised, despighted, hated, cursed of every man, because we preach what the Lord hath bidden us, and proclaim his vengeance against sinners, yet will we not be discouraged. Our hand against every man, and every man's hand against us: Our tongue against every vice, and every tongue walketh & rangeth at liberty through our actions. The Disciple is not above his Master, nor the Servant above his Lord. If our Master and Lord, Christ Jesus, have suffered such things, we his Disciples and servants must possess our souls in patience. If we be thought too clamorous against the disorders of common life, if too busy, if too severe in striking at offenses; forgive us this fault. A necessity is laid upon us: The Lord God hath spoken, and we cannot but prophesy.

Is a necessity laid upon us? That's not all. For a Woe is due unto us if we preach not. Vae mihi, saith Paul, 1 Cor. 9.16. Woe is me if I preach not the Gospel. If I preach not the Gospel! What then shall become of the Law? We must preach both, as the Gospel so the Law. As we are to publish the tidings of joy to those that rejoice in our message, so are we to denounce the terrors of judgment to those that contemn it. As we are to preach liberty to captives, so are we to threaten captivity to libertines. As we are to pipe to those that will dance after us, so are we to sound a trumpet of war to those that will resist us. As we are to build an Ark for those that will be saved, so are we to pour out a flood of maledictions against those that will be damned. Finally, as we are to open the doors to those that knock and are penitent, so are we to stand in the doors with a flaming sword in our mouths, against those that are obstinate.

Thus you see a necessity is laid upon us to preach unto you; to preach not the Gospel only, but the Law too. Yet is not this necessity, necessitas coactionis, a necessity of coaction, constraint or compulsion, but necessitas obligationis & mandati diuini, a necessity of obligation and divine Commandment. It is our vocation and conscience that imposeth this necessity upon us. If then we preach unto you, we have not whereof to glory or boast our selves. For we do no more than we are of duty to do. Now if we of duty preach unto you, then are you of duty likewise to hear us: and a necessity of hearing is laid upon you: I say not, a necessity of coaction, constraint or compulsion, but a necessity of obligation and divine Commandment. A necessity is laid upon you to hear the word of God, God commandeth you to hear it. And Vae vobis, Woe unto you if you refuse to hear it. Yet when you hear, take heed how you hear.

Quid juvat auditus verbi, si non datur vsus? What advantage is it to you to hear the Word of God, if you make no good use thereof? Ideo audis, vt agas. Therefore you hear, that you may put in practice what you hear. Sweetly Saint Augustine upon Psal. 104. Valde male digerit is, qui been audit, & non been operatur: Surely he very ill digesteth, that heareth well, and works not well.

Now gracious Father, we most humbly beseech thee to open our hearts, and to unlock the ears of our understanding, that whether we preach, or hear thy Word, we may preach it and hear it profitably, that we may observe, learn, and embrace such things as are necessary to the confirming of our weak faith, and the amendment of our sinful lives. Amen.

THE Eleuenth Lecture.

THe equity of God's judgments is such, that if strangers see them, they cannot but approve them. It appeareth to be so, by this passage of Amos his second Sermon to or against the people of Israel. This passage is an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or an Exornation, pertaining to the proposition, which was in the second verse of this Chapter. It amplifieth the iniquity of the Israelites from the testification of foreign Nations, thus: You, you of Israel, your sins are so notorious, so gross, so palpable, that the Philistines and Egyptians may behold them; since you of yourselves are not touched with a conscience of your evil deeds; them, the Philistines and Egyptians I call as witnesses and Judges of your impurity and uncleanness. This is the scope of the words now read unto you.

The parts are two:

• An Accusation, verse. 9. and 10.
• A Commination, verse. 11.

The Accusation is delivered by an Apostrophe, by a turning of the speech from the Israelites to others, verse. 9. Others are called upon to make a proclamation, in these words, Proclaime in the Palaces of Ashdod, and in the Palaces of the Land of Egypt, and say: the tenor of their proclamation is in these, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

The sins pointed at in this proclamation are two, Crueltie and Covetousness. Cruelty in their great tumults; Covetousness in their oppressions. Both are amplified verse. 10. from two places, à genere, & à specie. First from the general, They know not to do right. Secondly from the special, They treasure up violence and robbery in their Palaces. Their violence argueth their cruelty, their robbery is a demonstration of their Covetousness. The truth hereof is not to be questioned. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Neum Jehovah, the Lord hath said it. For they know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their Palaces.

We have a large field for discourse to travel in: we will begin at the gate or first entrance into it, which is, the injunction for the proclamation: Proclaime in the Palaces of Ashdod, and in the Palaces of the Land of Egypt, and say.

At the entrance into this field the Hebrew word is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Haschmignu, and is as much, as, make to hear. The old Interpreter puts for it, Auditum facite, make a hearing; so doth Saint Jerome: these keep near unto the word. The Septuagint with their 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , are not far from the meaning, nor is Oecolampadius with his annunciate, for which our countryman Tauerner hath Preach: Preach in the Palaces at Ashdod.

Brenz with his Clamate; Gwalther with his Diuulgate; Vat • blus. Marcer, Drusius, and others, with their Promulgate, are all for the Proclamation: Cry, Diuulge, Publish, or Proclaime.

Proclaime. Where? In Ashdod, and in the Land of Egypt. First in Ashdod.

P • laestina, the Country of the Philistines, was divided into five Provinces, Dutchies, or Lordships, mentioned Josh. 13.3. the Provinces of Azz • h, of Ashdod, of Askelon, of Gath, of Ezron. Those five, the chief and most famous Cities of Palastina are recorded also, 1 Sam. 6.17. where the Philistines are said to have returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord, five golden E •• rods; one for Ashdod, one for Azzab, one for Askelon, one for G • th, and one for Ekron.

Ashdod! In the first division of the holy Land, it was in the lot of the Tribe of Judah, and is so described, Josh. 15.47. Afterward it tell to the lot of the Tribe of the Children of Dan, who had their inheritance, as the Children of Simeon had, within the inheritance of the Children of Judah; & is accordingly described by Adrichom and Schrot in their tables of the Holy Land.

The more familiar name of it is Azotus. In it were left Giants, those that were called Enakim. It is to this day a famous City of Palaestina. So saith Eusebius lib. de locis Hebraicis. Another learned Author writing of the Hebrew places in the Acts of the Apostles, saith, Azotus, is a famous town of Palaestina, called in Hebrew Ashdod, and is one of the five cities of the Allophyli of the Philistines.

For the Etymology of the word, Saint Jerome saith, it signifieth as much as ignis vberis, or ignis patrui, the fire of an vdder, or of an uncle. The words are in his Commentary upon Amos, chap. 1. where he refuteth those that say, it is ignis generationis, the fire of generation. And well: for they mistake Resch for D • leth; taking it for Aschdor, when it is Aschdod. The Author of the book De nominibus Hebraicis upon Joshua, saith, Asdod is dissolutio, vel effusio, sieve incendium, a dissolution, or an effusion, or a burning. A little after, ignis patrui mei, vel incendia, my uncles fire or burnings. Ignis patrui, so I read with Drusius observe. 6. 8. not Gens patrui, as it is in the old books by the like mistake of Resch for Daleth. Buntingus in his Itinerarie upon the Old Testament, saith it is, Ignis dilectus, a beloved fire. There is no agreement between these Etymologiz • rs.

The more familiar and Greek name of this City, Azotus, is by Stephanus in his book of Cities derived from Az • , a woman, that was the Foundresse of this City. But I rather think that Azotus is so called from the Hebrew Asdod by the change of some letters; Azotus for Asdotus, as Ez • as for Esdras, and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in the D • ricke Dialect.

This same City Asdod, or Azotus, was made famous by the Ark of the Lord brought thither, whē it was taken by the Philistines; and by the house of the Idol Dagon there, 1 Sam. 5.2. This is that Azotus, where Philip the Deacon was found after he had baptized the Ethiopian Eunuch, Act. 8.40. And this that Asdod, whereof you heard in my thirteenth Sermon upon the first Chapter of this book, upon the eight verse, these words, I will cut off the inhabitant from Asdod.

Yet I take it not, that Ashdod is here put so precisely for the City, but that it may by a Synecdoche comprehend the whole region or Country of the Philistines. Commonly it is so understood by Ancients, Saint Jerome, Remigius, Albertus, Rupertus, Hugo, Lyra, Isidorus, and by moderne Writers, Montanus, Christophorus à Castro, Petrus Lusitanus, and others.

But I must from Ashdod, and go on to the Land of Egypt: for there is this proclamation likewise to be made. Proclaime in Ashdod, and in the Land of Egypt.

To this Land of Egypt we came twice before in our view of this Prophecy; and therefore need not at this time stand long upon it. Yet may we not leave it altogether vnsaluted. It is here called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Eretz Mitzrajim, the L • nd of Mitzrajim.

Saint Jerome Comment, in Isaiah. cap. 18. saith, that with the Hebrews an Egyptian man and an Egyptian woman and the Country of Egypt have all one name Mefraim: for so Drusius readeth out of a Manuscript of Saint Jerome's Works, Apud Ebraeos & Aegyptius, & Aegyptus, & Aegyptia, vno vocabulo nuncupantur, M • sraim. But this cannot be so. For the Egyptian man, he is Mesri, the woman Mesrith, the Country only Mesraim. And if by the name of Mesraim, the Egyptians be sometime signified, it is by a figure of speech, as when Judah is put for the Jews, or Ephraim for the Ephraimites.

Josephus in his first book of the Antiquities of the Jews, cap. 7. saith, that Egypt was called Mesr • , and the Egyptians M • sraei: he alludeth to the Hebrew name Mitzraj • m. And Egypt was so called from Mitzrajim one of the sons of Chum, his second son, as we find him, Gen. 10.6. He first inhabited that part of Africa, which was afterward called Egypt, from Aegyptus, son of Beli • s, King of that Land. Now because this same Mitzrajim was one of the sons of Cham, the Land of Mitzrajim, or of Egypt, is in the Psalms of David entitled the Land of Cham; as Psalm. 105.23. Jacob was a stranger in the Land of Cham; and in other places. And for the same reason is Cham put for Egypt. Psal. 78 51. He smote all the first borne in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Cham. The latter part of that verse being an exposition of the former, makes it manifest, that Cham is there put for Mitzrajim, or Egypt.

Enough for this time of Egypt. The Palaces of both Ashdod and Egypt are here specified: not barely the houses, as the Vulgar Latin here readeth, but the Palaces: to show, that this proclamation was to be made not in obscure houses, or poor Cottages, but in their Princes Courts. And quod in aulis principum diuulgatur, latere non potest; what is published in Princes Courts, it will abroad There is the greatest confluence of honorable persons and men of note; who have evermore some about them, that will not spare to tell abroad what is either said or done by the Princes themselves in their most secret closets. Their very vices cannot be hid. So Honorius the Emperor in the Panegyricke tells his son Theodosius,

Whatsoever thou doest, it is known abroad; nor can any place be of sufficient secrecy to conceal the vices of Kings.

Now if Kings secrets done in Court, if their secret vices be made known; much more shall it be known, that is proclaimed in Court. And therefore is the Proclamation here enjoined to be made in the Palaces of Palaestina and Egypt, in their Princes Courts, that the same thereof flying abroad into all the coasts of those dominions, the rest of the people might understand thereof, and bear witness to the judgments of God, which he executeth upon his people for their sins, that they are very just.

By this injunction for the Proclamation now expounded, you see, that Heathens, the Philistines and Egyptians, aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel, and utter enemies to that State, are invited to be spectators of the evils which God in judgment was to bring upon that his people, the Israelitish Nation. And this was to make the evils, which the Israelites were to suffer, the more grievous unto them. Hence ariseth this observation:

This is it the Lord saith to Jerusalem, Ezech. 5.8. Behold, I, even I, will execute judgment, in the midst of thee, in the sight of the nations thine enemies. In the sight of thine enemies will I do it.

It could not be but an exceeding great grief to the Virgin daughter of Zion; that the Lord had caused her enemy to rejoice over her, and had set up the horn of her adversaries, Lament. 2.17.

The reproach and ignominy that cometh from an enemy in time of misery is to some far more grievous than death it self, who rather choose to die, though it be by their own hands, or the hands of a friend, than they will endure dishonor from an enemy. Examples of such a resolution there are many in profane Histories, as in Plutarch of Cat • Minor, Antonius and Cleopatra; in Tacitus of Thraseas: These of the Heathen killed themselves through impatiency, as not being able to endure the reproach and shame, which they feared, the one from Caesar, two of them from Augustus, the fourth from Nero.

Nor is the Sacred story void of examples of this kind.

Abimelech son of Ierubbaal, he, whom the Shechemites made their King, when at an assault of his given to the tower of Theber he had his scull broken by a piece of a Milstone which a certain woman had cast upon his head, he called hastily unto a young man his armor-bearer, and said unto him, Draw my sword, and slay me, that men say not of me, A woman slew him. And his young-man thrust him thorough, and he died, Judge. 9.54. Such was the end of that ambitious and cruel tyrant. He is slain of a woman, and when he sees he is to die, he is desirous to blot out that infamy: he will not have it said of him, that a woman slew him. That a woman, of the enemies side, slew him, he will not by any means have it said of him: Kill him rather than it should be said, A woman slew him.

Such was the impatience of Saul, Saul, he that was the first King of the Israelites, when the Philistines had gotten the day against him, had slain three of his sons, Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua, and himself was wounded by their archers, he thus spake unto his Armor-bearer, Draw thy sword and thrust me thorough therewith, lest these uncircumcised come, and thrust me thorough and mock me. Which vile act his Armor-bearer refusing, Saul became his own executioner, took his own sword and slew himself, 1 Sam. 31.4. He takes his own sword and slays himself. And why so? Lest, saith he, these uncircumcised Philistines come and thrust me thorough, and mock me. See, he will die, that he may not die: he will be thrust thorough, that he may not be thrust thorough; he will kill himself, that the Philistines may not kill him. He will not endure to come within the power of his enemies.

I commend not Saul for his valor in killing himself, nor Abimelech for his in causing his Armor-bearer to thrust him thorough. It was not valor in them, but cowardice, or impatiency. For if they could with patience have borne and endured their troubles, they would not have hastened their own death.

Self-killing is a sin so grievous, that scarce there is anymore heinous before the Lord. Many reasons may be alleged to show the unlawfulness of this fact; and I hold it not amiss to bring a few, especially in the iniquity of these times, wherein wretchedness hath so fearfully prevailed in some persons, and almost daily doth prevail, that they dare plunge themselves into this pit of terrible destruction.

My first reason shall be; because it is forbidden in that Commandment, Thou shalt not kill. In that Commandment is forbidden the killing of any man without lawful authority. But no man hath authority over himself, because no man is superior to himself: and therefore no man may kill himself: Out of S. Augustine lib. 1. de Ciuit. Dei, cap. 20. I thus frame the reason: Thou shalt not kill, that is the Law. The Law is not, thou shalt not kill thy neighbor, limiting it as it were to some, but indefinitely; Thou shalt not kill, extending it largely to all: and therefore a man may not kill himself.

My second reason I take from that other Law, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. It is given in the Old: and is oft repeated in the New Testament; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Where the love of our selves, is made measure for the love of our neighbors. Thou oughtest to love thy neighbor, but as thou lovest thyself. The example of thy charity is drawn from thyself at home. Thy soul, thy preservation, the good wished to thyself, should be the true direction of thy deeds unto thy neighbor. But it is unlawful for thee to lay bloody or murthering hands upon thy neighbor; and therefore thou mayest not make away thyself. It is more unnatural for thee to shed thine own blood, than thy neighbors. Thy neighbors thou mayest not shed, much less mayest thou shed thine own.

Thirdly, for a man to kill himself, it is an injury to the Common-wealth wherein he liveth; for thereby he maimeth the Common-wealth, and cutteth off one of her members. The King thereby shall want a man, when he hath use of him. This is an injury to the State, & therefore a man may not kill himself.

Fourthly, our life is given us of God. God hath placed us in this world, as in a watch or standing, from whence we may not stir a foot, till God call us and command us to remove.

Josephus a noble Captain in the war of the Jews, after the loss of the City Iotapata, which Vespasian the Roman General took, being assembled with diverse of his soldiers in a cave, where for a while they lay hid from the fury of the Enemy, when they would take no way, but that they would kill one the other, rather than they would be taken by their enemies the Romans, useth unto them a very pathetical speech, as Egesippus lib. 3. de excidio-Hierosolymitano hath recorded it; Thesaurum nobis optimum Deus dedit, The Almighty God hath given unto us our life, as a most precious treasury: he hath shut it and sealed it up in this earthen vessel, and given it us to be kept, till himself do ask for it again. And were it not a fault now, as on the one side to deny it, when he shall require it again: so on the other side to spell, and cast this treasure forth, which was thus committed to us, before he do demand it? If we should kill our selves, Quis nos admittet ad illa sanctarum animarum consortia? Who is he, that shall admit us into the company of good souls? Shall it not be said to us, as once it was said to Adam, where art thou? so, where are ye? Where are ye, who contrary to my commandment are come, from whence yet you should not, because yet I have not loosed you from the bonds of your bodies.

Where are ye? Where? The same Josephus in the same speech of his, as himself hath delivered it, lib. 3. de bello Iudaico cap. 14. will tell you, where it is most likely they are; Quorum manus in seipsos insanierunt, eorum animas tenebrosior Orcus suscipit; the souls of them who have killed themselves are descended into Hell. And so much Saint Jerome seems to affirm in an Epistle of his to Paula concerning the death of her daughter Blaesilla, where he makes God thus to speak, Nullam animam recipio, quae me nolente separatur à corpore, I will receive no soul, which against my will goeth out of the body to which I have committed it.

Beloved, without God's exceeding mercy, whereof no man can presume, nay great and mighty prejudice is to the contrary, it will be very ill with them, who do adventure to slay themselves.

Let then those of the Heathen, whom even now I mentioned, Cato Vticensis, Antony, Cleopatra and Thraseas; let Abimelech and Saul, let others be famous for killing themselves; let it be said of them, that it was not blood, but honor that gushed out of their sides, yet are they not warrants for us Christians to do the like. We have a better Master Christ Jesus, the Righteous: He hath taught us a better lesson; namely, that adversity and bitter affliction must be borne with patience: that in our miseries and calamities, we are to expect what end God will make, and not to hasten the issue in our selves. Major animus merito dicendus est, qui vitam aerumnosam magis potest ferre, quàm fugere, August. de Ciuit. Dei lib. 1. cap. 22. He is worthily said to have true fortitude, that can with patience bear the sorrows which are assigned and allotted out for his portion; whereas he that fearfully flieth from them, is no better than a coward. Quis enim ignorat foemineae timiditatis esse, & muliebris formidinis, ne moriare, mori velle? Josephus in that his Oration now cited out of Hegesippus: Who knows it not to be effeminate timorousness and woman-like faint-heartedness, to be willing to die, that thou die not, to kill thyself, that another kill thee not.

So is it, beloved. This same 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this same 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this same self-killing, at the best, is no better than the badge of an abject and a base mind. None of the Saints in their greatest miseries, nor Joseph, nor Job, nor David, nor Daniel, nor other, thought of any such way to rid themselves out of trouble. No. Though they felt the sharpness of poverty, the sting of infamy, the pains of diseases, and the horror of death, yet their courage quailed not, but they spurned aside all manner of despair. And for the sweetness they found in the favor and grace of God, they were well content not only to be deprived of all worldly delights, and earthly pleasures, but also to embrace the rod of their heavenly Father, and patiently to endure the weight of the cross laid on them.

These, beloved, these are fit patterns for our imitation. Wherefore, let us not be dismayed with any cross or affliction. Let not the extremity of the pain, nor the sharpness of the misery, nor the continuance of the sickness, daunt our courage, no, though these calamities befall us in the sight of our enemies. Nay, though we be given up into the hands of our enemies, who will triumph and rejoice at our downfall, yet will we not offer violent hands unto our selves; we will not cut asunder that which God hath joined, we will not seek for ease by shortening of our lives. Whatsoever ill shall betide me, I will say with Jeremiah, Chap. 10.19. Truly this is my grief, and I will bear it.

And my grief will be the more, if in time of misery, mine enemy insult and triumph over me. This is a case, that hath much troubled God's holy ones, as in part you have already heard. It much troubled holy David. And therefore he prayeth against it, Psal. 13.4. Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God: and why? Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice, when I am moved. The like eiaculation he hath, Psal. 38.16. and his reason there is the same; Lest mine enemies should rejoice over me; who, when my foot slippeth, do magnify themselves against me.

The same David, upon the news of the death of King Saul and Jonathan his son, willing to prevent the opprobrious and disgraceful insultations and upbraidings of the enemy, gives a charge for secrecy, as much as might be, 2 Sam. 1.20. Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph.

The little flock of the righteous, the holy Church her self, is sensible of the insolency of an enemy, Micah. 7.8. O thou enemy of mine, rejoice not at my fall; for I shall get up again.

Upon these particulars, and the like, dependeth the truth of the observation propounded:

Will they be the more grievous unto us, if our enemies be made privy unto them? What is the reason? The reason is; because it is a property of wicked men, enemies to piety, wonderfully to insult over the godly that are afflicted, and the more these are afflicted, the more insolent are they. Great was the insolency of those enemies of David, of whom he complaineth Psal. 35.15. In mine adversity they rejoiced, and gathered themselves together; yea, the very abjects, [the off-scouring of the people] gathered themselves together against me; made mowes at me, and ceased not.

As great was that of Nabal, in his answer to David's messengers, 1 Sam. 25.10. Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? There be many servants nowadays that break away every man from his Master. Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, when I know not whence they be? Churlish Nabal; he is not content only not to give anything to David, but also raileth at him, and reuileth him.

And was not the insolency of Shimei of as high a strain? Shimei, a man of the family of the house of Saul, comes forth from Bahurim, and curseth still as he comes, meets David, casts stones at him, and reuileth him; Come out, come out thou man of blood, and thou man of Belial, 2 Sam. 16.7. See, see; it is the property of the wicked exceedingly to insult over the Godly, when they are in misery: and for this cause will our miseries be the more grievous unto us, if the wicked take notice of them.

Now the uses which we are to make of this observation, are these.

First, it showeth, how vile our nature is, that hath no more remorse in it towards them that are in misery.

Secondly, it teacheth us when we are in misery to look for no better from profane persons, than insultation and rejoicing, and therefore in that case to arm our selves with patience.

Thirdly, we may learn from hence how to behave our selves towards our enemies, when they are fallen under the cross, we may not triumph over them. We must do unto them, as we would be done unto: this is the Law and the Prophets. But when we are in misery, we would not have our enemies insult over us: and therefore neither must we insult over them, when they are in misery.

This is that the Lord so severely commandeth in the Prophecy of Obadiah, verse. 11, 12. Look not, rejoice not, speak not proudly in the day of thy brother, in the day of his peregrination, in the day of his perdition, in the day of his anguish, in the day of his ruin, in the day of his calamity, in the day of his tribulation. And this is that, whereto Solomon exhorteth, Prov. 24.17. Rejoice not, when thine enemy falleth; and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth. So Ecclesiasticus admonisheth, Chap 7.11. Laugh no man to scorn in the bitterness of his soul. Holy Job, Chap. 31.29. in the Catalogue of his comforts, reckoneth up this for one; that he never rejoiced at the hurt of his enemy, nor was ever glad that any harm happened unto him, nor ever-suffered his mouth to do such a sin as to wish him evil.

And now (beloved) if neither the precept of the Lord, nor the exhortation of Solomon, nor the admonition of the wise son of Sirach, nor the example of holy Job, can move us to the performance of this Christian duty, namely, not to rejoice at any that are in adversity: What shall I say? Will the fear of punishment any whit amend us? Then remember we what the Wiseman saith, Prov. 17.5. He that rejoiceth at the harm of another, shall not himself escape unpunished.

And thus much be spoken by occasion of the injunction for the proclamation, these words, Proclaime in the palaces of Ashdod, and in the palaces of the Land of Egypt, and say. Now followeth the tenor of the Proclamation, in these: Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

Wherein three things are principally to be observed:

• One is, the calling of an assembly.
• Secondly, the place for the assembly.
• Thirdly, the end of their meeting.

The calling of the Assembly is first. You that are the Prophets of the Lord, dicite, say plainly and with a loud voice; say to the Princes of Palaestina and of Egypt, Congregamini, Be ye gathered together; assemble yourselves, Come and meet together upon the mountains of Samaria.

The mountains of Samaria, are the place for this assembly. Samaria, for the most common use of the name, is the City registered, 1 King. 16.24. to be built by King Omrie, upon a mountain purchased by him of one Semer, called in the allegory, Ezech 23.4 Aholah, sister to Aholibah, named to be the head of Ephraim, Isaiah. 7.9. It was a royal city of Israel, the Metropolis, the mother city of that kingdom. From it the coast adjoining, situate betwixt Galilee and Judea, was named Samaria, and is accordingly described by Cosmographers, Ptolemy, Ortelias, Maginus and others: and from hence the kingdom of Israel came to be called the kingdom of Samaria, as 2 King. 17.24. Where the King of Assyria is said to have brought nations out of Babylon, and other places of his dominions, and to have seated them in the cities of Samaria, that is, in the cities of the kingdom of Israel.

Thus may Samaria be either the whole Province, or the chief City thereof. And so may the mountains of Samaria be either the whole Province, because the whole was mountainous, as Josephus affirmeth, Lib. 3. de bello Iudaice, cap. 2. or they may betoken the chief City thereof, because it was seated on a mountain. And then our Prophet saith, the mountains of Samaria, as we say in Latin, flumen Euphratis, Urbs Romae, and herba Lapathi. As we say, the River of Euphrates for Euphrates, the City of Rome, for Rome, the herb of Patience, for Patience: so may our Prophet here say, the Mountains of Samaria, for Samaria. That by these Mountains of Samaria the whole Province is to be understood, it is the opinion of Saint Jerome's, Remigius, Rupertus, with some other, with whom agreeth Petrus Lusitanus. Yet to Castrus it seemeth more probable, that the very City be here meant, as in the midst whereof many detestable villainies and enormities were acted. But both expositions may well take place. For if the chief city of the Country were so flagitious, the rest of the Country could not be blameless.

Thus have we the place for this assembly. But what is the end of their meetings? It is to behold the great tumults in the midst of Samaria, and the oppressed in the midst thereof. Et videte, And behold.

You, the Princes of Palastina and Egypt having gathered yourselves together upon the mountains of Samaria, Videte, Look about you. It will be a pleasant spectacle for you to see the great disorder of a people, whom you have a long time hated. Videte, look about you therefore, Behold, see, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Mehumoth rabboth, Whats that? Insanias multas, saith the old Interpreter; so Saint Jerome; See their many madnesses, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , say the Septuagint, many miraculous and strange demeanors: Oecolampadius saith, Stupenda multa, many prodigious deportments. Drusius, Strages multas, many slaughters: Calvin, Concussiones multas, many concussions, violent and public extortions. Vatablus and Mercer, Contritiones multas, many Contritions, brusings, or cursings of the afflicted. Junius and Piscator, Vexationes plurimas, very many vexations: Gwalther, Tumultus multos, many tumults: Brenz, Tumultus magnos, great tumults; Great tumults! Its our translation. See; See then, many madnesses, strange and prodigious behaviors, slaughters, concussions, contritions, very many vexations, many and great tumults. All these see.

In medio ejus, in the midst of Samaria. Yet is not this all, you are there to see. For see also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Gnaschukim, the oppressed in the midst thereof. For the oppressed Calvin hath Oppressiones, the oppressions; it is the marginal reading in our now-Bible. Brenz hath Calumnias; so hath Oecolampadius; Saint Jerome, and the Vulgar Latin, Calumniam patientes. Their meaning is, that in Samaria, in the midst thereof, in penetralibus eius, in the in most parts thereof, there were many that were calumniated, were accused falsely, were appeached wrongfully, were charged maliciously, were reproached unjustly, were reviled injuriously. Such doing was there in Samaria, not only in the country abroad, but also within the walls thereof. Every where did cruelty advance it self, and so did Covetousness.

And thus have I expounded the Proclamation; the words thereof; in which the Philistines and Egyptians, Gentes extra Oeconomiam Dei, profane Nations, are cited to be witnesses, yea and Judges too, of the impurity and uncleanness, that was in the Lord's own people, the people of Israel. My observation is,

Such a comparison is that, Ierem. 2.10. Passe over the Isles of Chittim, and see, and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be any such thing. Hath any Nation changed their God's, which are yet no God's? But my people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit. It is a vehement expostulation, and in the paraphrase may be thus: You, my people of the Jewish Nation, pass ye over unto Chittim, to the Macedonians and Cyprians, see of what Religion and constancy they are: and send ye unto Kedar, to the Hagar • ns, observe them, mark them diligently. Can you find, think you, any Nations so like yourselves? so inconstant, so mut • ble? Is there any Nation in the whole world, that so rashly changeth her God's? God's! God's of the Nations! They are no God's, but Idols, the froth and skumme of man's brain. And yet are the Nations constant in the worship of these their false God's, their no God's. But you, you of the Jewish Nation, mine own people; you have changed your Glory. Me, the true, faithful, and everliving God, in whom alone you should have gloried, Mee have you changed for a thing of naught. Be astonished, O ye Heavens, at this: be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord.

A like comparison is that brought by our Savior in the Gospel, Matth. 12.41. Where from the example of the Ninevites, he inferreth the condemnation of the Jews. The men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. The Ninevites were Gentiles and Barbarians; the Jews were God's own people: the Preacher to the Ninevites was Jonah, a mere man and a stranger, but Christ God and man, of the line and race of David, was the Preacher to the Jews: Jonah his preaching continued bur for three days, and the Ninevites repented; Christ preached for three years together, and the Jews blasphemed. Therefore shall the men of Nineveh rise up in judgment with the Jews, and shall condemn them.

Saint Paul likewise presseth the example of the Gentiles, the more to accuse the Corinthians of grievous sin among them, 1 Cor. 5.1. It is reported commonly, that there is fornication among you, and such fornication, as is not so much as named among the Gentiles. The Gentiles, who know not God, nor have heard of the faith of Christ, will not commit so foul a sin: and will you, Christians, you who hope for salvation by faith in Christ, will you defile yourselves with such abomination? For the love of God, for the love of your own souls, fly from fornication.

And thus have you the confirmation of my second observation, which was:

The use of this observation may be, to teach us, who profess the faith of Christ, that the glorious name of Christianity is but vain and idle, if a man's life through his corrupt and dissolute behavior, be not answerable.

Saint Augustine in his time propounded this question to an Auditory of his, in his second Sermon upon the thirtieth Psalm: Quam multos putatis, fratres mei, velle esse Christianos, sed offendi malos moribus Christianorum? My brethren, how many, think ye, there are, that would willingly become Christians, but that they take exception at the evil lives of the Christians?

Long after him great Gregory, Moral. lib. 25. cap. 10. complained: Nonnulli fidem medulliter tenent, sed viuere fideliter nullatenùs curant; Many there are that make profession of the faith of a Christian, but they take no care at any hand to live the life of a Christian.

The life of a Christian, if you take it in its full perfection, is not such a kind of life, as the Christians use to live at this day in the world; but such a life, as our Savior Christ lived, such as his Disciples lived, such as the holy Martyrs under the Primitive Church did live: a life that is a continual cross and death of the whole man; whereby man thus mortified and annihilated, is fit to be transformed into the similitude and likeness of God.

But where is the Christian, that nowadays liveth such a life? Hath not dissimulation and hypocrisy in a manner covered the face of the Earth? Christi nomen auditis, you hear the name of Christ, but where shall you see the man that liveth the life of Christ? Crepamus Euangelium, we cry, the Gospel, the Gospel; but where is he that yieldeth obedience to the Gospel? Doctrinam fidei ebuccinamus, we trumpet out the Doctrine of faith, but the discipline of a Christian life we exterminate, we banish. Multa passim fides absque operibus, everywhere there is much speech of the efficacy of faith without works; but where is the man that showeth me his faith by his works?

Beloved, what shall I say more? If we have a delight to be called the people of God, if we take any joy in the name of a Christian, let it be our care to live as it becometh the people of God, as it becometh Christians. If we shall so lead our lives, that our lives shall be to the unbelieving Atheist, and blind Papist, a horror and a scandal, shall they not both, Atheist and Papist, rise up in judgment with us and condemn us? If under the cloak of Christian liberty, we live petulantly, lasciuiously, dissolutely, in gluttony, in drunkenness, in chambering, in wantonness, in whoredom, in luxuriousness, in strife, in maliciousness, in cruelty, in covetousness, and in other like enormities, shall they not both, Atheist and Papist, rise up in judgment with us, and condemn us?

Wherefore (dearly beloved) these enormities and the like, let them not once be named amongst us, as it becometh Saints. But put we on, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, the bowels of mercies, kindness, sanctimony and holiness of life, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, (if any man hath a quarrel against any) even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us. O! Let us thus do, and our souls shall live. And that all of us may do thus, God Almighty grant us of his grace for his well-beloved Son JESUS CHRIST his sake.

THE Twelfth Lecture.

MEn are as fishes of the Sea, that have no ruler over them: it is the complaint of the Prophet Habakkuk, Chap. 1.14. Fishes of the Sea! It is their property to devour one another: the stronger and the greater devour the weaker and the less; so saith the Emperor Justin the second, in Cedrenus his Annals. Saint Ambrose in his Hexameron, lib. 5. cap. 5. showeth this to be true in two kinds of fishes; in the Scarus, which some call the Guilt-head or Golden-eye, which cheweth like a beast; and in the Silurus, the Sheath-fish, or Whale of the river. Among these, Minor esca majoris est, the lesser is food for the greater, and the greater is set upon by a stronger than he, and becometh his food. So fares it with men. Great men set upon their inferiors, and mightier than they upon them. Such men, men for quality like fishes, devourers one of another, cruel and covetous men, bore the sway in Samaria. It is plain by this passage of Amos his second Sermon to the Kingdom of the ten Tribes, the people of Israel. Of this passage there are two parts:

• An Accusation, verse. 9, 10.
• A Commination, verse. 11.

In the ninth verse, a part of the accusation, two things have been observed:

An injunction for a proclamation: Publish in the palaces, &c.

The proclamation it self, Assemble yourselves, &c.

In the proclamation two sins were controlled:

Cruelty and Covetousness.

Their Cruelty appeared in their great tumults; their Covetousness in their oppressions. I gave a touch at both in my last Sermon. I now go on with the tenth verse, wherein these two enormities; Cruelty and Covetousness, are amplified by two Topickes; à genere, and à specie. From the Genus thus, They know not to do right: and thus from the Species, They store up violence and robbery in their palaces. That so it is God is witness, for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Neum Jehovah, the Lord hath said it.

I begin with the amplification from the Genus; They know not to do right. Saint Jerome readeth according to the Hebrew, Nescierunt, they have not known. So do they who have either non nouerunt, as Calvin, Gwalther, and Brenz; or non norunt, as Vatablus, Mercer, and Piscator: They have not known. Tremellius and Junius have, vt ignorent, how they are ignorant; Drusius hath, Nam nesciunt, for they know not. There is our translation. They have not known, or they are ignorant, and know not, Facere rectum, to do right. So all save Jonathan, who in his Paraphrase hath Facere legem, to do the Law. The meaning is good; for whosoever knoweth not to do according to the Law of God, he knoweth not to do right.

They know not to do right] Omnino rectum facere nesciunt, saith Saint Jerome; they have no knowledge at all to do what right is; no knowledge to do any good at all. So then, they of Samaria, the people of Israel, are accused of Ignorance. Ignorance of the Law of God, and of doing thereafter, is here laid unto their charge. It yieldeth unto us this observation:

It is so. I prove it:

1. Because it is against the Commandment.

2. Because God expressly reproveth it.

My third proof shall be from the foulness of this ignorance.

First, it is against the Commandment, against the first Commandment, which is, Thou shalt have none other God's but me, Exod. 20.3. The Commandment is negative. And the rule is, In the negative the affirmative must be understood, and in the affirmative the negative. Thou shalt have none other God's but me, that's the negative; the affirmative to be understood is, Thou shalt have me alone for thy God: where our knowledge of God is commanded. We are to acknowledge him, that is, we are to know and confess him to be such a God, as he hath revealed himself to be in his word, and in his Creatures. Now as in this affirmative part the knowledge of God is commanded, so in the negative is the ignorance of God forbidden. This ignorance of God, is not only not to know, but also to doubt of such things as God hath revealed in his word. And such is the ignorance of God that is forbidden in that first Commandment.

It is likewise forbidden, if Polanus deceive not, in the 32. Psalm, verse. 9. Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding.

Its forbidden in the Epistle to the Ephes. cap. 4.17, 18. Walk not from henceforth as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Walk not on in ignorance; For as the knowledge of God is the true life of the soul; so on the other side, the ignorance of God is the death of the soul.

Hence is that of Saint Paul, 1 Thes. 4.13. I would not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. It seemeth the Thessalonians were in great heaviness, and mourned out of measure when they beheld the persecution of the Church among them. In this their heaviness and mourning they grew towards mistrust, and to be like the Heathen, which had no hope. This abuse of theirs grew of ignorance, for that they knew not the happy estate of such as die in the Lord. Saint Paul to reform this their error, saith, Brethren, I would not have you ignorant concerning them which are asleep. Be ye not ignorant what is become of them; what God hath done for them. God hath tried them as gold, and made them worthy for himself. Its ignorance that makes you heavy, because you know not what is become of the dead. Be ye not ignorant concerning them, and your heaviness will be turned into joy. And let this suffice to have been spoken to show, that in respect of the Commandment, Ignorance of God, and his holy Will, is damnable, and to be avoided.

So is it in regard that God hath expressly reproved it. There is a sharp reproof of it, Isaiah 1.3. The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his masters Crib, but Israel hath not known, my people hath not understood. Quid stolidius boue, quid stupidius asino? What is more foolish than the Ox, what more stupid than the Ass? Yet those brute beasts do know them, by whom they are fed and nourished; but Israel, the Lord's own people, know not the Lord their God. Not much unlike is that, Ierem. 8.7. The Stork in the air knoweth her appointed times, and the Turtle, and the Crane, and the Swallow observe the time of their coming, but my people knoweth not the judgment of the Lord. My people, Israel, is more ignorant of my judgments, than those birds are of their appointed seasons. Both these reproofs are comparative. In the first, is Israel compared unto beasts; in the second, to birds. Beasts and birds have more knowledge than Israel.

But the reproof is absolute, Ierem. 4.22. My people is foolish, they have not known me: they are foolish children, and have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge. As absolute is that, Ierem. 9.3. They proceed from evil to worse, and have not known me, saith the Lord. They have no understanding, they have no knowledge, they have not known me, saith the Lord. These, and the like reproofs of the ignorance of God, from God's own mouth, may serve for my second proof, that the ignorance of God is damnable, and to be avoided.

My third proof I take from the foulness of this ignorance. The foulness thereof I discover in one position. The position is; The ignorance of God, and of the things revealed in his holy Word, is a punishment of sin, a cause of sin, and sin in it self. The position hath three branches. I shall endeavor to speak of each in their order.

The first branch is: Our ignorance of God and of things revealed in his holy Word, is a punishment of sin. It is a punishment of that sin, which by the default of our first Father, Adam, was from him derived down to us; and that is original sin; by reason whereof we are all borne blind: blind in our understanding, blind in our will, and blind in our affections. There is no faculty of our soul which is not disabled by this sin.

The chiefest faculties of our soul are three, Men's, Voluntas, Affections; the Understanding, the Will, and the Affections. Men's, Our understanding is by this sin disabled: For it labors with a defect, or want of light or knowledge, and with a want of sanctity or holiness; that quality, by which light or knowledge in the understanding should be seasoned, as indeed it was at man's first creation.

That in the often repetition of the names of light and knowledge I seem not tedious, may it please you to take what I shall speak of the one, as spokē of the other also. For between light & knowledge in the understanding. I put no essential difference.

Now I note in the understanding a twofold light; the one natural, the other Spiritual.

The Natural is defective and wanting, not universally, but in part only. For notwithstanding our first fathers fall, there do yet remain in the unregenerate man, certain general notions of good and evil things commanded or forbidden in the Law of God. And these notions are such, that they make man inexcusable, since they are both maimed and corrupted. The defect or want of this Natural light is proved, Rom. 1.21. When they knew God, they glorified him not as God. They knew God, there is the light of their understanding: they glorified him not as God; there is the defect and want of that light, the maim, the corruption of it.

The spiritual light of the understanding, that is likewise defective and wanting, not as the natural light in part only, but universally. This is proved, 1 Cor. 2.14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The natural man, man of himself in his pure naturals, ruled only by nature, reason, and sense, without grace, without the Spirit of God, man unregenerate, is altogether destitute of the spiritual light of the understanding.

Besides this want of light in the understanding, whether natural or spiritual, there is also carentia sanctitatis, a want of holiness, wherewith the forenamed light ought now to be, as once it was, seasoned. The want of this holiness is manifested, Rom. 8.7. where you shall find, that whatsoever light or knowledge is in man, it is all unclean, impure, and profane; the Apostles words are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. Not subject to the Law of God, nor can be subject to it! What! Can man exempt himself from subjection unto God? No: be he never so rebellious, he must abide under God's dominion. But the meaning of the Apostle is, to note such a rebellion of man's corrupt nature, as is not subject according unto order, as gives not orderly subjection unto God. Thus there is in man a want of that holiness wherewith the light of his understanding should be seasoned.

What I have now delivered de mente, concerning the mind or understanding, which is a speculative faculty of the soul, the same may be spoken De voluntate & affectionibus, of the will and affections, which are practical faculties of the same. And therefore as in the understanding there is a defect of light and sanctity, so is there in the will and affections, even the absence of created holiness. Nor is there in these faculties of the soul only an absence of light, knowledge, and sanctity; but also the presence of their contrary qualities, as darkness, ignorance, and sinfulness.

If the light be put out, darkness comes in place; if knowledge be departed, ignorance succeeds; if holiness be lost, sinfulness will domineer. Proofes hereof there are many in holy Scripture. But in this sunshine I need not light a candle. I have said enough to show, that ignorance of God and his will is in all the powers and faculties of the soul of man, a punishment of sin, of original sin. But this punishment of sin is general, its common to all men, for as much as all men have sinned in Adam.

I add further, that Ignorance is also a punishment of actual sin. Sometimes its so. Then it is so, when a man for some particular offense is more and more blinded, and deprived of the knowledge of God and his truth. So God punished the Gentiles with ignorance, Rom. 1.24. Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, therefore God gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies between themselves. So they became vain in their imaginations; and professing themselves wise, they became fools. And so God punished the wicked among the Thessalonians, 2 Thes. 2.10. Because they received not the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God did send them strong delusions, that they should believe lies. Thus is ignorance the punishment also of actual sin. And now is the first branch of my position clear:

Ignorance is a punishment of sin; evermore of Original, and sometimes of Actual sin.

The next branch is: Our ignorance of God and his truth is a cause of sin.

Ignorance is a cause of sin. For whosoever knoweth not God, he cannot worship God, he cannot but serve strange God's. We see that in the Galatians, chap. 4.8. who therefore did service to them who by nature were not God's, because they knew not the true God, Rom. 3.11. The like collection is made from some words in the fourteenth Psalm, that therefore men seek not God because they know him not. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh God. In both places Saint Paul makes Ignorance to be the mother of superstition and idolatry. Men know not God; therefore they seek not God, but serve strange God's. Thus is ignorance a cause of sin, I say, a cause of sin, as one sin may be a cause of another. And one sin may be a cause of another diverse ways.

1 One sin is the cause of another, in as much as for a sin committed, the grace and presence of the Holy Spirit leaveth and forsaketh us. It being departed, we cannot but run into foul and filthy sins. If our stay by which alone we are supported in the way of godliness be taken from us, how shall we stand?

2 One sin is the cause of another, in as much as God punisheth sin with sin; as when God gave up the Gentiles to their own hearts lusts, to uncleanness, to defile their own bodies between themselves, Rom. 1.24. as even now you heard.

3 One sin is the cause of another, in as much as by committing of any sin, we are drawn on again to do the like, and to ingeminate and double action upon action, until at length we make the sin habitual unto us.

4 One sin is the cause of another, in as much as it cannot be, that a sin should be committed without attendants. In which sense the Apostle, 1 Tim. 6.10. saith of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; he saith that Covetousness, or the love of money, is the root of all evil. They that will be rich, saith he, fall into temptation and snares, and into many foolish and noisome lusts, which draw men into perdition and destruction; for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some lusted after, they erred from the faith, and pierced themselves thorough with many sorrows.

5 One sin is the cause of another, in as much as for one, the other is committed. Pilate for ambition condemned Christ, Judas for money betrayed his Master, and Balaam for a like reward cursed God's people. So many ways may one sin be said to be the cause of another.

Now our ignorance of God is a cause of sin the fourth way, namely as it is not without attendants. You heard even now that Paul makes it to be the mother of superstition and idolatry. I may say it is the mother of all heresies and errors. To this purpose Saint Jerome in a proeme of his to the Virgin Eustochium before his Commentaries upon Isaiah saith, that the ignorance of the Scriptures, is the ignorance of Christ. If, saith he, according to the Apostle Paul, Christ be the power of God, and the wisdom of God, and he that knoweth not the Scriptures, knoweth not the power of God, nor his wisdom, Ignoratio Scripturarum ignoratio Christi est; the ignorance of the Scriptures, is the ignorance of Christ. It is so worthy a saying, that it is put into the body of the Canon Law, Dist. 38. C. Si iuxta. Thus much for the second branch of my position, wherein I affirmed, that Ignorance is a cause of sin.

The third branch is: Our ignorance of God, and his truth, is in it self sin. Here the Schoolmen do distinguish. There is one kind of ignorance in such men as may know and will not: another in such as may know and care not; a third in such as would know, but cannot. The first is an ignorance by willfulness, the second by negligence, the third by necessity. The first and second they hold for sins: the third they excuse, yea they deny it to be a sin.

To their judgment concerning the two former kinds, we give our assent. It is a malicious sin, a sin of commission, a very heinous sin, when men may know and will not. It is a negligent sin, a sin of omission, yet a grievous sin, when men may know and care not. But their opinion touching the third kind we allow not. What if a man would know, and cannot, is he therefore simply and absolutely excused? No; he is not. Its a truth, and all the powers of Hell shall not be able to prevail against it: whosoever knoweth not what he ought to know by the Law of God, he is holden in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he transgresseth the Law of God. And every transgression of the Law of God is sin. This truth is sealed by the holy Spirit in the mouth of Saint John, 1 Epist. chap. 3.4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Every transgression of the Law is sin.

The Text of Scripture which they allege for their opinion is, John. 15.22. There saith Christ, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they should not have had sin, but now have they no cloak for their sin.

My answer is: These words make nothing for them. For Christ by saying so, doth not absolutely excuse the Jews from sin upon the condition that they had not been able to have heard Christ. The excuse which Christ fitteth to them serves only to excuse them from the greatness and grievousness of sin, as if he had thus said, If I had not come and spoken unto them, they should not have had sin; sin, that is, so grievous sin as now they have, since they have heard me, and yet do continue in their obstinacy, refusing to give assent to the truth, which I have told them from my Father. They should not have had sin; Sin in comparison they should not have had. Their sin of ignorance should have been none in respect of their sin which now they have.

The place may receive light from Christ's own mouth, Luk. 12.47. Our Savior there affirmeth, that the servant which knoweth his masters will and doth it not, shall be beaten with many stripes; with more stripes than he shall that knoweth not his masters will, and therefore doth it not. Where we are put in mind of two sorts of sinners: Some there are that know the will of their Lord; and some that know it not. Both are sinners, and are to be beaten for their sins; they with more stripes; these with fewer. And these to whom fewer stripes are assigned, are of three sorts. For either they know not their Lord's will, because they will not know it: or they know it not, because they care not to know it; or they know it not, because they cannot know it.

They which know not their Lord's will because they will not know it, their ignorance is, as the Schoolmen call it, Ignorantia affectata, an affected ignorance. These shut their ears when God calleth, and being housed in their security, will not step to the door to see if the Sun shine. This ignorance resideth rather in their will and affections, than in their understanding part. These are willfully ignorant, saith Peter, 2 Ep. 3.5. They know but will not know, and they run with broad eyes unto destruction.

They which know not their Lord's will because they care not to know it, their ignorance is Ignorantia crassa vel supina; a gross, idle, reckless, and negligent ignorance. And they that are thus ignorant, do also trace the high way to the pit of destruction: and there shall they be sure to be beaten with many stripes.

They which know not their Lord's will, because they cannot know it, their ignorance is called Ignorantia inuincibilis, an invincible ignorance, and its called invincible, saith Biel, not because it is simply so, but because it remaineth, after a man hath done all he can to remove it: and this ignorance, saith he, doth simply excuse a man from sin, Non solùm in tanto, sed in toto, it excuseth wholly from sin. So he and the rest of the school.

But by their leaves it is their error; and stands convicted by that laying of our Savior already produced, The servant that doth not his Masters will, by reason he knows it not, shall be beaten with stripes, though fewer.

But say an ignorance is invincible, an ignorance of necessity, an ignorance that a man would, but cannot remove: shall not such an ignorance excuse? No, it shall not, For all men are bound by the Commandment to know God. That some men know him not, nor can know him, it is not God's fault, but the fault of their own parents, and consequently their own fault. Adam had the perfect knowledge of God imprinted in his nature: but through his own default he lost the same for himself and his posterity. A man may not for this complain against God's justice, since that our first sin hath deserved a greater punishment. I say then, that this invincible ignorance cannot excuse à toto; it may à tanto. It may be some excuse for the degree and measure of the sin, but not for the sin it self. And this may serve for the illustration of the third part of my position, wherein I affirmed, that our ignorance of God and his truth is of it self sin. Now the whole together stands good: Our ignorance of God, and of the things revealed in his holy word, whether it be an affected and a willful ignorance, or a negligent and careless ignorance, or an invincible and a necessary ignorance, is an effect and punishment of sin, it is a cause of sin, and is in it self sin. It was bred by transgression, it doth breed transgression, and is no less than transgression of its own nature. So foul a thing is ignorance. And therefore in this respect also its true, that Ignorance of God and his revealed will is a sin that is damnable and to be avoided.

My observation thus established; Let us now see what profit may from hence redound unto us.

First, this may serve to warn all Ministers of the Word, that they be careful to root out ignorance out of the minds of the people, and to plant the knowledge of God among them. The Minister that neglects his duty, and either through insufficiency or idleness, suffereth the people to go on in the ways of darkness to their perdition, he becometh accessory, yea a principal cause of their destruction.

Secondly, this may teach us all to detest this ignorance of God and his revealed will, and to seek by all means to know God. They that content themselves to live in their ignorance, and voluntarily submit themselves to be led by blind guides, such as cannot inform them in the ways of the Lord, their estate is lamentable. Beloved, it is every man's duty to have care of his own soul, though others should neglect it. You shall do well to account this one thing necessary, to be instructed in the knowledge of God's truth, and prefer it before your worldly affairs. Should you want this precious pearl of God's Word, you would rather sell all you have to purchase it, than content yourselves to be without it. Now you have it brought home unto you, will you not make the best of it?

Thirdly, it may serve to reprove a Popish practice, by which they endeavor by all means possible to keep the people in blindness and ignorance, by taking away from them the light of God's Word both read and preached; that so keeping them blind-folded, they may do with them at their pleasure, and like carrion Crowes having picked out their eyes, may make a prey of them.

What else mean they, when they teach, that Ignorance is the mother of devotion? I know that N. D. in his Wardword denieth this to be taught by any Catholic. He saith it is forged by some Minister of ours, and laid upon them. But he seemeth to have been past shame in denying that, which is so openly known. A Dean of Paul's, Doctor Cole by name, one chosen not only to maintain the assertions of the Papists against the Protestants in a disputation at Westminster, but appointed by the Bishops and other his Collegues, to be the mouth for them all; whose speech in the end, they all being asked, did avow to be the mind and saying of them all: even he in that honorable assembly of the Council and Nobles, and frequent concourse of the Commons, did with great vehemency maintain this position in these words: I say, Ignorance is the mother of devotion. See, this Popish Doctor, appointed by the consent of Popish Bishops and other his Collegues to be their mouth, and avouched, to have spoken nothing, but what was the mind and saying of them all, saith peremptorily, that Ignorance is the mother of devotion; yet the Author of the Wardword shamelessly denieth, that the Papists have any such assertion.

All the harm I wish them, is, that they had no such. But it appeareth by the whole practice and policy of that side, that they are fully persuaded, that without deep Ignorance of the people, it is not possible for their Church to stand. Therefore as B. Jewel in his Reply to Master Harding, Art. 37. hath well observed, they chase the simple from the Scriptures; they drown them in ignorance, and suffer them utterly to know nothing; neither the profession they made in Baptism; nor the meaning of the holy Mysteries; nor the price of Christ's blood; nor wherein, nor by whom they may be saved: nor what they desi • e of God, either when they pray together in the Church, or when they privately pray alone. Verily it is with them, as it was with the Scribes and Pharisees, those Hypocrites, unto whom a woe is denounced by our Savior, Matth. 23.13. They shut up the Kingdom of Heaven b • fore men. For they nei • her go in themselves, neither do they suffer them that would, to enter. For all the fair shows they make, for all they curiously paint over this rotten post with the colors of their devotion; yet the truth is, by depriving the people of knowledge, they deprive them also of salvation, and make them subject to utter destruction: and so by consequent they make themselves guilty of the sin and ruin of the people of both which they have been the principal causes.

I have purposely been liberal in setting before you the amplification from the Genus: nor need I beg pardon for prolixity. It was necessary for this Text; no less for these times. Now followeth the amplification from the Species; who store up violence and robbery in their palaces.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Haotzerim in the original is from the root 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Atzar, which signifieth to treasure up, to hoard up, to store up, to lay up as in a store house. And accordingly run the translations: the Greek, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , who treasure up. So the old Latin, Thesaurizantes; Drusius, qui thesauirzant; Tremellius, Piscator, and Buxtorfius, qui thesauros faciunt: all these are for the gathering or making of treasures. Vatablus and Mercer have, qui recondunt, who lay up: Targum hath Implentes cellaria sua, filling their Cellars or storehouses. Our English translation is for storing up. But what is it that is thus treasured, laid or stored up?

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chamas vaschod. Chamas with the Greeks is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Unrighteousness; with the old Interpreter, Iniquitas, its Iniquity; with Calvin, Oecolampadius, and Gwalther Rapina, its Rauine; with Brenz Iniuria, its Injury; with Tremellius, Drusius, and Piscator, Violentia, its Violence; and so it is with us. So, see stored up in the first place, Unrighteousness, Iniquity, Rauine, Injury, and Violence. Next is,

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Schod: and that is likewise diversely translated: with the Greeks it is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Misery; with the old Latin it is Rapina, Rauine; with Calvin and Gwalther, Praeda, a prey, booty, or spoil; with Brenz, Deuastatio; with Tremellius and Piscator, Vastatio; with Drusius and Oecolampadius, Vastitas, a wasting, a spoiling, a ransacking; with Vatablus and Mercer, Direptio, a polling, pilling, or robbing; with us it is Robbery. So, see stored up in the second place, Misery, R • uine, Preyes, Booties, Spoiles, Wasting, Ransacking, Polling, Pi • ling, Robbery.

But where is all this to be seen? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in their places, so the Septuagint: in aedibus suis, in their houses, so the Vulgar: in palatijs suis, in their palaces, so all the rest; and this last best agreeth with the Hebrew. Thus have you the exposition of these words from their diverse readings.

The manner of speech which our Prophet here useth would be observed: They store up violence and robbery in their palaces.] But how can violence and robbery be stored up? In their effects they may. By violence and robbery understand the effects of violence and robbery; goods, riches, and treasures gotten by violence and robbery; and these were too familiarly stored up.

They store or treasure up violence and robbery, that is, they gather together treasures of violence and robbery. And we say, treasures of violence and robbery, as Solomon saith, treasures of iniquity, Prov. 10.2. The treasures of iniquity profit not. By treasures of iniquity, he meaneth such treasures as wicked men do get by wicked means, contra jus fasque, against right and reason. The like phrase our Savior useth, Luk. 16.9. Make to yourselves De mammona iniquitatis, of the Mammon of unrighteousness, or of the riches of unrighteousness. By the mammon or riches of unrighteousness, he meaneth such riches as unrighteous men do get by unrighteous or unlawful means.

So here may we call the treasures of violence and robbery, such treasures as violent and cruel men, such as covetous men and robbers do gather together by pilling, by polling, by robbing, by wasting, by spoiling, by ransacking the poor, fatherless, widows, and other distressed persons. And these riches thus gathered together they lay up in palatijs suis.

In their palaces] By mentioning their palaces our Prophet here taxeth and twiteth the great ones of Israel, as if they had built stately and sumptuous houses, Ex pauperum sanguine, saith Mercer, of the blood of the poor; yea saith Quadratus, Ex pauperum visceribus, of the very bowels of the poor; Ex bonis rapto partis, by goods gotten from the poor by catching and by pillage. And he further intimateth that all this covetous and cruel dealing against the poor was from their great ones, Kings, Princes, Nobles, and Magistrates, whose duty it was, not only nor to have committed such enormities, but also to have defended the poor from all such violence and wrong: as Petrus Lusitanus hath well observed.

Here then are the rulers of Samaria accused of violence and robbery, just as the rulers of Jerusalem are, Isaiah 1.23. Thy Princes are rebellious and companions of thieves: Everyone loveth gifts and followeth after rewards: they judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Whence my observation is:

What? can Magistrates be robbers? Yes, they can be and are so, if they deal unjustly. Sweetly Saint Augustine, De Ciuitate Dei, lib. 4. cap. 4. Remotâ iustitiâ, quid sunt regna, nisi magna latrocinta? Away with justice, and what are Kingdoms but mighty robbings?

Elegantly and truly did the pirate reply to Alexander the great. Alexander asked him, Quid ei videretur, vt mare haberet infestum? What he meant to be so troublesome at Sea to rob all that passed by? The Pirat freely and stoutly replied; Quid tibi vt orbem terrarum? Nay, what mean you Alexander, to be so troublesome to rob all the world? What I do, I do it but with one ship, Et latro vocor, and must be called a thief: you do the like with a fleet, with a number of ships, and you must be called Emperor. The only difference between us is: I rob out of necessity to supply my wants; you out of your immeasurable covetousness.

Of Magistrates in Courts of Justice, if they be corrupt, Saint Cyprian Ep. 2. ad Donatum gives this censure: Qui sedet crimina vindicaturus, admittit, & vt reus innocens pereat, fit nocens judex. It is significantly Englished by Democritus Junior: See a Lamb executed and a Wolf pronounce sentence; Latro arraigned, and Fur sit on the bench; the Judge severely punish others, and do worse himself. Such Judges may justly be noted for men of violence and robbery. But my speech is not to such, for they hear me not.

It is to you, beloved. Shall I say, that among you there are men of violence and robbery? I avow it not; yet flatter not yourselves. He that filcheth or pilfereth, the least pin, point or stick of wood from his neighbor, he that moveth ancient bounds, the ancient bounds which his fathers have made, with a purpose to encroach upon his neighbors land; he that stealeth another man's wife, child or servant; he that committeth sacrilege in detaining the rights of the Church; he that transgresseth thus, or thus, he may go for a man of violence and robbery.

Dearely beloved, if any of you hath been overtaken with these or the like transgressions, look into your own hearts; examine yourselves in what measure you have or do transgress. For we must not fear to tell you, you do offend. And if your conscience tell you, your offense is great, run not headlong into Hell without returning. Vita non est nisi in Conuersione, saith Saint Bernard; There is no hope of life, but by turning to the Lord. And your turning to the Lord must be by true and unfeigned repentance. So turn unto him; and if thou be a Publican, thou mayest become an Evangelist; if a blasphemer, an Apostle, if a thief and robber, a possessor of Paradise.

And so much be spoken of my second part, the special amplification of cruelty and covetousness, the sins of Samaria, taken from their violence and robberies, treasured up in their palaces.

My third part is the ratification of the whole accusation. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Neum Jehovah, the Lord hath said it. They know not to do right, saith the Lord, who store up violence and robbery in their palace • . Saith the Lord.

See, the Lord • s not idle in the Heavens, as some imagine, but takes notice of what is done here below. He beholdeth the great tumults that are in Samaria, and the oppressions there, their violence and robberies he beholdeth. My observation here shall be that, Job 34.21. The eyes of the Lord are upon the ways of man, and he seeth all his goings.

He seeth all. He seeth our sins in the book of Eternity, before our own hearts conceived them. He seeth our sins in our hearts, as soon as our inventions have given them form. He s • eth our sins in action on the Theater of this earth, quite through the scene of our lives: and he seeth them to our pain, when his wrathful eye takes notice of them, and his hand is lift up to punish them. He seeth them all. There is nothing so secret, nothing so abstracted from the senses of men, Vt creatoris aut lateat cognitionem, aut effugiat potestatem, that it may either lurk from the eye, or escape the hand of God; August. de Ciuit. Dei, lib. 22. cap. 20. As plain is that, Job 34 22. There is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

The Powder-traitors in the mine and Celler, were not unseen to the revenging eye of God. The villains of the cloisters were all naked unto him. As dark as their Vaults were, his all-seeing eye descried their filthiness, and laid waste their habitations. The obscurity of their Cells and Dorters, the thickness of their walls, the closenesse of their Windowes, with the cloak of a strict profession, covering all, could not hide their sins from the eye of Heaven.

Nor can our sins be hid, though done with greatest secrecy. Sin as closely as thou canst, there will be witnesses of thy sin; Videt te angelus malus, videt te angelus bonus, videt & bonis & malis major angelis Deus; Bernard. de conuers. ad Clericos cap. 16. The bad angel sees thee, and the good sees thee, and he that is better than the Angels, far above all principalities and powers, God Almighty, he sees thee.

Wherefore dearly beloved, let our conversation with men be, as in the sight of God. And since in this mortality we cannot but sin, let us endeavor to see our sins, to know them, to confess them, to bewail them, and cry we to God to give us grace to lay hold upon Jesus Christ his Son, that believing we may be saved by his righteousness. Good God pardon our sins, give us faith, change our lives to the better, for thy blessed name and mercies sake; even for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

THE Thirteenth Lecture.

THis third part of this third Chapter, but second Sermon of Amos to the kingdom of the ten Tribes, I styled an 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , an Exornation, pertaining to the proposition delivered in the second verse. It amplifieth the iniquity of the Israelites from the testification of foreign nations: as thus; You, you of Israel, your sins are so notorious, so gross, so palpable, that very strangers, Philistines, and Egyptians, may take notice of them. Since you of yourselves are not touched with a conscience of your evil deeds, them, the Philistines and Egyptians, I call as witnesses and Judges of your impurity and uncleanness. It is the scope of this passage.

The passage consisteth of two parts,

• An Accusation, verse. 9, 10.
• A Commination, verse. 11.

In the ninth verse, a part of the Accusation, two things have been observed:

An Iniunction for a Proclamation, Publish in the palaces at Ashdod, and in the palaces in the Land of Egypt, and say.

The Proclamation it self; Assemble yourselves upon the Mountains of Samaria: and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof, and the oppressed in the midst thereof.

In the Proclamation, two sins were controlled: Cruelty, and Covetousness. Their Cruelty in their great tumults; their Covetousness in their oppressions.

In the tenth verse, the other part of the Accusation, those two enormities, Cruelty and Covetousness, are amplified from two Topickes; à genere, & à specie; from the Genus, thus: They know not to do right. From the Species, thus: They store up violence and robbery in their palaces. That so it is, God is produced for witness, for Neum Jehovah, The Lord hath said it.

These particulars yielded materials for my two former Sermons. Now from the Accusation I proceed to the Commination, verse. 11.

The words are a denunciation of punishment: concerning which we may observe,

• The Cause.
• The Author.
• The Punishment it self.

The Cause is implied in the particle, Therefore.

The Author is the Lord God.

The Punishment, is a conquest by war, and is described,

• 1 By the Siege.
• 2 By the Victory.
• 3 By the Spoile.

An adversary there shall be even round about the Land: there is the Siege, the whole Land beset round about.

And he shall bring down thy strength from thee: there is the Victory, the overthrow of their strong men.

And thy palaces shall be spoiled. The Spoile is at the lust of the conqueror. An adversary there shall be even round about the Land, and he shall bring down thy strength from thee, and thy palaces shall be spoiled.

I have shown you the limits and bounds of my future discourse. I will handle them as they lie in order, beginning with the cause of the punishment, implied in this particle, Therefore.

Therefore] It is a particle befitting a Commination. It hath relation to the former verses, and pointeth to the sins there touched: to the great tumults in the midst of Samaria, and the oppressions there, verse. 9. to the ignorance of God, and his will; to their violence and robbery stored up in their palaces, verse. 10. The relation that this particle hath to those sins, showeth that those sins are the cause of the punishment here denounced: as if our Prophet had thus spoken: Because you, that are the Princes and Potentates of Samaria, do oppress the poor and needy, Therefore will I bring against you mightier than yourselves, that shall oppress and spoil you.

Therefore! The observation is,

In this my Thesis, by evil I understand malum poenae, the evil of punishment, or the evil of affliction. Affliction or punishment, whereof sin is the cause, is twofold, internal or external; either inward or outward. The inward pertaineth to the mind, the outward to the body. For the punishment of sin is to be measured and defined, not only by the torments of the body, or by the mortality of this life, but also by the most grievous affliction of the soul: as by the crookedness, obliquity, and blemish of the soul, by an evil conscience, by the wrath of God which is importable; by the guilt of sin, whereby we are obliged to punishment; by vicious habits whereby we are inclined to a multitude of sins. Foecundum est peccatum; non ibi definite, vbi incipit. Sin is fruitful; if it once begin, it leaves not there; the worst thing of it is behind, even the extreme anguish and horror of the soul.

Again, affliction or punishment, whereof sin is the cause, is either public or private.

Pubike afflictions, I call such whereof many men at once have a sense and feeling: Such are the floods of great waters; the ruin of Cities by earth-quakes; the waste done in them by fire, war, evil beasts, pestilence, famine, tyranny, persecution, the death of good Princes, heresy, schism, every common misery. All these are public.

Private afflictions are such, as private men in their own particular do suffer; as sickness, grief, infamy, poverty, imprisonment, death.

Of all these afflictions or punishments, whether public, or private, or outward, or inward, sin is the cause.

Sin! It is causa 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is efficiens impellen • ; it is the impulsive cause of all afflictions or punishments: it fetcheth down vengeance from the Majesty of Heaven. It brought that same universal deluge upon the whole world, Gen. 7.17. It brought down fire and brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah, Gen. 19.24. It caused the Land of Canaan to spew out her inhabitants, Levite. 18.25. It will make any Land sit mourning like a desolate widow, or a distressed mother, robbed of her children, and spoiled of all her comforts. It is avouched by the Psalmist, Psal. 107.34. A fruitful Land God turneth into barrenness, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. It is that, whereof the Prophet Jeremiah complaineth, Chap. 12.4. How long shall the Land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? Turn to the Prophecy of Micah, Chap. 1.4. Behold there, the mountains melting as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place, for no other cause, but for the transgression of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel.

Thus far for the confirmation of my doctrine:

Saint Augustine Serm. 139. de tempore, thus delivers it: Malorum omnium nostrorum causa peccatum est: Sin is the cause of all our evils. Non enim sine causâ homines mala ista patiuntur; It is not to be imagined that men suffer affliction without cause. God is just; he is omnipotent. Nullo modo ista pateremur, si non mereremur. Surely, no evil could befall us, if we deserved it not. There is not a man that sinneth not; and the least sin that he committeth, deserveth all the misery that can be laid upon him.

This truth may teach us, First, in time of affliction to acknowledge our sins to be the cause thereof, and to profit thereby unto amendment.

Secondly, it may teach us to justify God, whensoever he shall • fflict us, and to bear his visitation with patience. Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins? Lament. 3.39. A man for the punishment of his sins, wherefore doth he complain? Let us search and try our ways, and turn again unto the Lord; we have transgressed, and rebelled against him, and therefore he afflicteth us. My resolution shall be in the words of Micah the Prophet, Chap. 7.9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him.

And let this suffice to have been spoken of my first general, the cause of the punishment here denounced, implied in this particle, Therefore. I proceed to my next general, the Author of this punishment, the Lord God. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God.

Thus saith the Lord] It is a note wherewith the Prophets for the most part do begin their preachings, and prophecyings, to show that they deliver nothing, but what is of divine credit and authority.

Thus saith the Lord] Dicit Dominus, saith the Lord. Dicere, with the Prophets, signifieth consilium certum, certámque sententiam, as Arias Montanus upon this text observeth. To say, signifieth a certain, a determined sentence or judgment: it implieth, not so much any verbal speech, as the strength and efficacy of reason and cogitation. Saith the Lord, that is, the Lord hath in his secret and infallible counsel decreed and determined to effect what is by the Prophet here denounced.

Thus saith Adonai Jehovah, the Lord God. With these two names of God, Adonai Jehovah, we have met twice already in this Chapter, verse 7. and 8. Since they are here again, they are again by us to be saluted: but briefly.

Adonai, the Lord. The name is found in holy Scripture 134. times. It is the observation of the Massorets. Rambam maketh this name to be equivalent to the name Jehovah: so doth the Talmud. Yet is there a difference between them. Adonai is the name of God of his sustentation and dominion; but Jehovah is his name of existing or being. By Adonai we know that God alone is absolutely Lord, Ruler and Governor of all things; yea and our Lord. By Jehovah, that of himself and by himself, He ever was, is, and shall be: that of him all creatures have their being; and that he giveth a real being to all his promises and threats.

Adonai Jehovah, the Lord God, he that is iudex iustissimus, the most just Judge, and suffereth not a sin to pass without due punishment, He is here presented unto you for the Author of the punishment here denounced. The observation is,

And here by evil I understand as in my former observation, the evil of punishment, or the evil of affliction, private or public, internal, or external: God is the Author of all.

It is proved above in this Chap. verse. 6. Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done it? No, there shall be none; no evil of pain, punishment or affliction, but the Lord doth it. This is it, the Lord assumeth to himself, Isaiah. 45.7. I the Lord; I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil; I the Lord do all these things. It is thus in the Paraphrase: I am the Lord; and there is none else. I send into the world light and darkness, prosperity and adversity: I give peace, and with it tranquility and abundance, and I give that which is contrary to peace, evil, war, and misery, and perturbation, and poverty: I, the Lord do all these things.

It is no more than what he takes unto himself, Ier. 18.11. For there also, thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: where by evil understand with Tertullian lib. 2. aduersus Marcionem cap. 24. Mala non peccatoria, sed vltoria, Evil not of sin, but of revengement. In which sense we are to take evil in all those places of holy writ, wherein God either bringeth or threateneth to bring evil upon any. By evil in all such places, as in this my Thesis, we are to understand the evil of revengement, the evil of punishment, or the evil of affliction. Of every such evil God is the Author.

God is the Author of punishment. I say of punishment, non quod poena sit ens quoddam, not as if the evil of punishment had a being, as other things have which God made. For God is improperly said to be the efficient of punishment; since punishment of its own nature, is nothing else than priuatio boni, the privation, or absence, of that we call good; or the with-holding of God's blessings from us. The Father of the Schools thus delivers it: Cum summum bonum perfectissimum sit, mali causa esse non potest, nisi per accidens. God being the chiefest good and most perfect, cannot be the author of evil but by accident.

The author of evil by accident! How is that? Why thus? When God withdraweth from the earth his heavenly benedictions, forbidding the clouds to give their rain, or the Sun his influence, and taking from us our health, our peace, or any other temporal blessing, he is the author of evil. And this may serve for the proof and explanation of my second Doctrine, which was,

The reason hereof is, because nothing is done in the world, but God is the principal doer of it: and therefore no evil can befall us, but God is the author of it.

Is it thus? Hence then in the first place, are they to be reproved, who think, that the Lord doth only suffer many things to be done. He is not only a sufferer, but an orderer, guider, and governor of all things and actions.

Secondly, from hence may be confuted, the vain opinion of Fortune, whereunto many Philosophers and carnal ignorant people use to ascribe those things whereof they see not an apparent cause. What more casual in this world than Lottery? Yet, therein nothing falleth out by fortune, but all is wholly and altogether directed by the infinite and eternal providence of Almighty God: Solomon expressly affirmeth it, Prov. 16.33. The lot is cast into the Lap, but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord.

Thirdly, from hence we learn that all our afflictions are from God; and are therefore by us to be borne with patience. God verily loveth those that are his, and yet notwithstanding he suffereth them to be afflicted, because it is expedient for them so to be: yet in their afflictions he yieldeth them comfort. Saint Paul blesseth God for it, 2 Cor. 1.3. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation. Who comforteth us in all our tribulation; he saith not, who suffereth us not to be afflicted, but who comforteth us, while we are afflicted. It is the observation of S. Chrysostom and Theophylact. God though he suffer us to be afflicted, yet he comforteth us whē we are afflicted. Our afflictions, they are Emendatoriae potiùs, quàm interfectoriae, as Saint Augustine speaketh, lib. 3. de lib. Arbit. cap. 25. They tend rather to amend us, than to destroy us. And sweetly Saint Cyprian. Ep. 8. Deus quem corripit, diligit: quando corripit, ad hoc corripit, vt emendet, ad hoc emendat vt seruet: Whom God correcteth, him he loveth: when he correcteth him, he doth it to amend him, and he amendeth him that he may save him.

And thus much be spoken of my second general, the Author of this punishment, The Lord God. My third followeth, the punishment here denounced; which is a conquest by war; and is described by the Siege, by the victory, and by the spoil. Of the Siege first, for it is the first in order. The words are,

An adversary there shall be even round about the Land] The old Interpreter translates it, Tribulabitur & circuietur terra; the Land shall be troubled and compassed about. Brenz, Obsidebitur & circumdabitur terra, the Land shall be besieged and beset round about.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Tsar in the original is rendered Arctator by Montanus; Tribulator, by Oecolampadius; Aduersarius, by Calvin and Drusius; Hostis, by Tremellius, Piscator, and Gwalther; It is Tribulatio with Vatablus and Mercer; but Angustiae with Jonathan. Well; be it either Arctato • , or Tribulator, or an Adversary, or an Enemy; or be it Tribulation, or be it Anguish; it is not in a little part or corner of the Land, but in circuitu terra, it is in the circuit of the Land, it enuironeth the whole Land. The Septuagint have a reading by themselves, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Tyre shall be made desolate; round about shall thy Land be wasted. Saint Cyril will have them thus to be understood: From Tyre and the Land thereabout the whole country shall by the incursions of robbers be brought to desolation. Tyrus is in Hebrew Tzor; so is it in the first Chapter of this prophecy, verse. 9 It seems the S ptuagint did in this place read Tzor, as also Aquila once did read. But now the common reading of this place is Tzar: and Tzar is an enemy or adversary, and hath other significations, whereof even now you heard. Thus our English translation is cleared, it is good.

An adversary there shall be even round about the Land] This adversary is the Assyrian, the King of Assyria, Salmanassar; He with his armies is to come against the City and Kingdom of Samaria: he shall so beset and beleaguer the whole country round about, that there shall be no escaping for any of the inhabitants. According to this prediction it came to pass some sixty five years after, in the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea son of Elah King of Israel, as it is, 2 King. 17.6.

An adversary there shall be even round about the Land] Now from this circumstance of the Siege of Samaria so long before threatened, ariseth this observation,

Origen lib. 4. contra Celsum, saith, God punisheth no man, but whom he doth first warn, terrify, and advertise of the peril. And surely, herein appeareth God's mercy, that he threateneth before he punisheth, that by his threatening men might learn to amend. He threateneth, saith S. Chrysostom, Hom. 12. in Genes. Vt nobis correctis, minas ad opus minime perducat, that we being amended, his menacing need not take effect.

If this were not the end of God's threatenings, why doth Zephaniah Chap. 2.1, 2. thus exhort the Jews? Gather yourselves together, yea gather together, O Nation not desired. Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you; before the day of the Lord's anger come upon you. Seek ye the Lord, seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be, ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger. He calleth upon the Jewish Nation to return from their evil ways by true repentance. Where behold (saith Saint Jerome ) the clemency of God, Quia non vult infer supplicia, sed tantum terrere passuros, ipse ad poenitentiam prouocat, ne faciat quod minatus est. Because God's will is, rather to terrify them, than to lay punishments upon them, he incites them to repentance, that he be not driven to do, as he hath threatened.

This is that same 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is the goodness, the forbearance, the long suffering of God, whereof Saint Paul speaketh, Rom. 2.4. Despisest thou, O man, the riches of his goodness and forbearance, and long suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?