Commentary on Proverbs Ecclesiastes Song of Songs Isaiah Jeremiah Lamentations Ezekiel Daniel

CHAP. LXV.

Ver. 1. I Am sought of them that asked not for me] I am sought, that is, I am found, as Eccles. 3.6. Or, I am sought to by those that asked not of me, viz. by the Gentiles who knew me not, inquired not of me. See Rom. 10.20, 21. where the Apostle (then whom we cannot have a better Interpreter) expoundeth this verse of the calling of the Gentiles; and the next verse, of the rejection of the Jews: and herein Isaiah was very bold, saith St. Paul: so bold, say Origen and others, that for this cause, among others, he was sawn asunder by his unworthy Country-men. See on chap. 1.10.

I am found of them that sought me not] The first act of our Coversion then (the infusion of the sap) is of God: our will prevents it not, but follows it. See 2 Cor. 3.5. Rom. 8.7. Joh. 6.44. 1 Cor. 12.3. Deut. 29.3, 4. Psal. 36.10. Note this against the Patrons of Nature, Free-will men, Papists especially, who not only ascribe the beginning of salvation to themselves in coworking with God in their first conversion, but also the end and the accomplishment of it, by works of condignity, meritorious of eternal life.

I said, Behold me, behold me] We are not easily arroused out of that dead Lethargy into which sin and Satan hath cast us: hence this Lo I, Lo I. And here we have both God's answer to the Churches prayer, chap. 64. and the scope of the whole book (as Oecolampadius observeth) set down in the perclose: viz. the coming in of the Gentiles, and the casting off of the Jews, for their many and mighty sins, Amos 5.12.

Ver. 2. I have spread out my hands] A Preachers use to do, or as those that invite and beckon others to themselves with the hand: See Mat. 11.28.

Unto a rebellious people] Whose destruction therefore is of themselves, since they will not be ruled, reclaimed.

After their own thoughts] Which were evil, only evil, continually so. A Toad may as easily spet a cordial, as a natural man think a good thought.

Ver. 3. A people that provoketh me — to my face] As it were for the nouce, in despite and defiance of me. Siquis me in faciem depalmaret, vix indignius essem laturus: I could almost as well bear a blow on the face.

And burneth incense upon altars of brick] Erected on the house-tops, 2 King. 33.12. Zeph. 1.5. they should have offered on the golden altar only, Exod. 30.

Ver. 4. Which remain among the graves] Which use Necromancy and consult with devils, (as Saul did and died for it) contrary to Deut. 18.11. See chap. 8.19. Mark. 5.5. with the Notes. This they had learned of the Heathens, with whom it was common, as Tertullian teacheth.

And lodge in the monuments] As believing that there they should dream dreams divinatory, or have revelations in the night. By such ill arts as these, Timothy Herulus made himself Bishop of Alexandria, Anno 467. and Boniface 8. gulled Celestine 5. of the Popedom, Anno 1295. Some render it, that lodge with the kept ones, i. e. with their Idols, which they were fain to keep, for fear they should be stolen.

That eat swine's-flesh] Which was flatly forbidden, Lev. 11.7. and which those Martyrs in the Maccabees would rather die than do. But these belly-gods, who like swine, had their souls only to keep their bodies from putrifying? securely violated this plain law: gratifying their lusts, and making their gut their God.

And broth of abominable things is in their vessels] They had animos in patinis, catinis, calicibus, &c. Therein they kept the broth of their swine's-flesh which they offered, and in offering eat of. But what saith one from this text? men must not only abhor the Devils beef, but his broth too; all occasions, appearances.

Ver. 5. Which say, Stand by thyself, come not near to me] These Jews were all manner of naughts (and therefore worthily rejected by God) Necromancers, Idolaters, Epicures, gross hypocrites, as here their words (full of pride and contempt of others) show them to be. Such were the Pharisees with their Sanctior sum quam tu: the Monks and Mass-Priests among the Papists, and the Brownists with their broad leaves of formal profession amongst us. From Mat. 18.19. because Christ promiseth not doing for them that ask, except they agree on earth, Brownists peremptorily conclude, that they ought not to pray with them that do not consent with them in their opinions: nor will they pray with their own wives and children, though never so pious, if they do not meet in the same center of conceits.

These are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day] i. e. A continual offense to me, as smoke is to the nose and eyes, Prov. 10.20. and shall be perpetually tormented by me in the hottest fire of hell; whereof hypocrites are the free-holders, and other sinners are but tenants as it were to them; whiles they are said to have their portion with the Devil and hypocrites. Some think he hinteth at their smoking and sacrificing in their gardens and groves, ver. 3.

Ver. 6. Behold it is written before me] Heb. before my face, as your sins were committed to my face, ver. 3. which therefore I shall surely remember and punish.

But will recompense, even recompense] Certo, cito, penitus, surely, severely, suddenly: you may write upon it.

Ver. 7. Your iniquities and the iniquities of your Fathers together] Your vain conversation received by tradition from your Fathers, 1 Pet. 1.18. whom you have striven to out-sin. See Gen. 15.16. Mat. 23.32, 35, 36. and 27.25. 1 Thes. 2.15, 16.

And blasphemed me upon the hills] Or, reproached or dishonored me: displeasing service is double dishonor; because men dishonor God in that wherein they pretend (or presume at least) to please him. Such are all Popish will worshippers: neither will it help them to plead the example of their fore-Fathers: for here that of the Prophet Ezekiel, chap. 20. should take place, Walk ye not in the ways of your Fathers.

Therefore will I measure — into their bosom] Or Lap, very largely. See Psal. 79.12. Luk. 6.38. I will pay them home, for the new and the old together.

Ver. 8. Thus saith the Lord] This he saith in effect, I will not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but still reserve a seed, a remnant: and this he setteth forth by a fine and fit comparison; even as the husbandman, if he find any wine in the cluster, that is, any life or sap in the vine, cutteth it not down utterly.

So will I do for my servants sake] Few though they be, even as one cluster of grapes upon a vine, yet because they are botri mustei, clusters full of new and sweet wine, full of the juice of piety, they shall be preserved.

Ver. 9. And I will bring forth a seed out of Jacob] The good husband keeps some of his corn for seed: which though it be not much, yet it will come to much.

And mine elect shall inherit it] i. e. Reinhabit the land; a type of the last conversion of the Jews to Christ, Rom. 11.25, 26.

Ver. 10. And Sharon shall be a fold of flocks] The fieldlings shall be folds; and I will feed them daily and daintily, Psal. 23.1. with my graces and blessings. Sharon is a very sweet and fruitful quarter reaching from Cesarea of Palestine to Joppa: Achor is also a very rich vale near Jericho Northward, Josh. 3.16. their first footing in the promised land. By both these they are assured, that they shall want for nothing, and least of all for the Word of God, the food of their souls.

Ver. 11. But ye are they that forsake the Lord] Or, As for you, that have forsaken the Lord, to observe lying vanities, and so are miserable by your own election, Jo • . 2.8. you shall be yet more miserable at the great day of Judgment especially, of which some take this following part of the Chapter to be meant and intended. Then these improbi & reprobi shall be sure to smoke for it: then they shall return and discern betwixt the righteous and the wicked: yea the Judge himself shall show them a manifest difference, as ver. 13, 14, 15, &c.

That forget my holy mountain] i. e. My Temple and pure worship, which ye slight and neglect, q. d. there is no new wine in your cluster, but rather gall and deadly poison: therefore it shall be otherwise with you.

That prepare a table for that troop] As the Israelites feasted before the Lord, Deut. 16.14, 15. so in an apish imitation did the heathens before their Idols, Judge. 9.27. Ezek. 18.6, 7. 1 Cor. 8.10. and of them these superstitious Jews had learned to do the like, in the days of Ahaz and Manasseh, who degenerated into his Grand-Father Ahaz, as if there had been no intervention of an Hezekiah.

For that troop] So the Prophet speaketh, as pointing to their Idols, whereof they had great store. Gad (here used) and Menni (rendered Number here likewise) some interpret Fortune and Fate; others, Jupiter and Mercury. The Septuagint for to that Number, hath to the Devil. Oecolampadius thinks the Prophet alludeth to the Pythagorean numbers: and especially to the number of four, which they superstitiously observed. Others say, the Jews symbolized with the Heathens in drinking to their Idols by number: to such an Idol they would drink so many cups, and that was called a Drink-offering to that Number. Hence Antiphanes in Athenaeus saith,

Ver. 12. Therefore I will number you to the sword] Est elegans Paronomasia: I will give you up to the sword by number and tale; to the end that none of you may escape. God usually retaliateth, and proportioneth number to number: so, choice to choice, chap. 66.3, 4. jealousy to jealousy, provocation to provocation, Deut. 32.21. device to device, Mic. 2.1, 3. frowardness to frowadrness, Psal. 18.26.

And ye shall all bow down to the slaughter] As you used to bow down to your Idols.

Because when I called ye did not answer] See on Prov. 1.24.

But did evil before mine eyes] Did evil things as you could, Jer. 3.5. with both hands earnestly, Mic. 7.3.

Ver. 13. Behold my servants shall eat, but ye shall be hungry] Lepidas antitheses ponit. You have spent your meat and drink upon Idols; therefore ye shall fast another while, yea you shall feed upon the fierce wrath of God in hell, and drink deep of that cup of his, that hath eternity to the bottom.

But ye shall be ashamed] Your hopes and hearts failing you together, ye shall pine away in your iniquities, Ezek. 24.23.

Ver. 14. Behold my servants shall sing] In the transgression of an evil man there is a snare, or a cord to strangle his joys with: but the righteous doth sing and rejoice, Prov. 29.6. See the Note there.

And shall howl] When ye come to Hell especially, where is wailing, and yelling, and gnashing of teeth.

Ver. 15. And ye shall leave your name for a curse] So that when mine Elect shall denounce my curse against any one, they shall say, God make thee such another as was such a cursed caytiff. See Jer. 24.9. & 29.22. & 34.9. See Zach. 8.13. with the Note. Judaeus sim si fallo, say the Turks at this day: As hard-hearted and unhappy as a Jew, say we.

And call his servants by another name] Jews inwardly, Israelites indeed, Christians, a chosen Generation, a royal Priest-hood, an holy Nation, a peculiar People, 1 Pet. 2.9. The wicked, when they die, go out in a snuff, leave a stench behind them, as they say the Devil doth, when he goeth out of a room: but when the Saints depart, they leave a sweet smell behind them, as those lamps do that are fed with aromatical oil. Yea it is more then probable, that in the next world, we shall look upon Bradford, and such, with thoughts of extraordinary love and sweetness, through all eternity; as Bonner and such, with execration and everlasting detestation.

Ver. 16. That he who blesseth himself in the earth, &c.] Or, that blesseth, either himself or any other.

Shall bless himself in the God of truth] Heb. shall bless in the God of Amen, that is, say some, in Christ who is Amen the faithful and true witness, Rev. 3.14. in whom all the Promises are Yea and Amen, 2 Cor. 1.20. and who was wont often to say Amen, Amen. Others render it thus, Benedicat sibi per Deum firmi, shall bless himself by the God of the firm or faithful people, founded and rooted in God, so as that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against them.

Shall swear by the God of truth] Or, by the God of the firm and faithful people, as before.

Because the former troubles are forgotten] Rememberd no otherwise then as waters that are past. See Zach. 10.6. with the Note.

Ver. 17. For behold I create new Heavens and a new Earth] I am making of a new world, that is, Gospel-times, called a new Creation, 2 Cor. 5.17. and the world to come, Heb. 2.5. Heaven aforehand, Matth. 3.2. The consummation hereof we are to expect at the last day, 2 Pet. 3.13. Rev. 21.1, 5. when the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind, because the Lord, who made Heaven and Earth, shall bless his people out of Zion, Psal. 134.3.

Ver. 18. But be glad and rejoice forever] what can ye be less then everlastingly merry when you consider your Gospel-privileges? which are such as may well swallow up all discontents, and make you more then Conquerors, and that is, Triumphers.

For behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing] Creo talem Jerusalem ut sit ei nomen Tripudium, & populus ejus vocetur Gaudium. Hence it appeareth that these things are not to be taken according to the letter: but of Jerusalem which is above, that mother of us all.

Ver. 19. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem] Well may Jerusalem then rejoice in in God: who as in all her afflictions he is afflicted, so he taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his people.

And the voice of weeping] See chap. 35.11. & 51.12. Rev. 21.4.

Ver. 20. There shall be no more thence an infant of days] This verse (as some others) had been easy, had not Commentatours made it so knotty. There shall be no more thence, that is, from Jerusalem, ver. 19. an infant of days or a child for days, viz. that shall so die by an untimely death: for longevity is the blessing here promised.

Nor an old man that hath not filled his days] That hath not lived his utmost, satur dierum, as Abraham.

For the child shall die an hundred years old] i. e. He that is now a child, shall live till he be so many year old. Note this against those that otherwise understand the words, and have therehence fished out many frivolous crotchets, too long here to be related.

But the sinner being an hundred year old shall be accursed] And the more accursed, because so long-lived, and yet dieth in his sin; going down to the grave with his bones full of the sins of his youth. See Eccles. 8.12, 13. with the Notes.

Ver. 21. And they shall build houses and inhabit them] The contrary whereunto is threatened against the wicked, Deut. 28.30, &c. God's people are freed from the curse of the Law; from the hurt, if not from the smart of afflictions.

Ver. 22. They shall not build, and another inhabit] They shall not provide for posterity alone, but live a long while to take benefit of their own labors.

For as the days of a tree, are the days of my people] i. e. Robusti atque diuturni, they shall be hearty, healthy, and long-lasting, as Psal. 52.10. & 92.13. even as if they had eaten of that tree of life in Paradise.

Ver. 23. They shall not labor in vain] As wicked men shall, Levite. 26. Deut. 28. Hag. 1.6. See the Note there.

Nor bring forth for trouble] Bring forth children to the murderer, Hos. 9.13. to the great grief and trouble of their poor parents.

Ver. 24. And it shall come to pass, that before they call I will answer] Mirabilis certe promissio, a wonderful promise verily, saith Scultetus. The prayers of the Saints do sooner pierce from their hearts to heaven, then they can find way from their hearts to their mouths. So David found it, Psal. 32.5. and Daniel, chap. 10.12. and that Prodigal, Luke. 15.18, 20. Our Savior, who came out of the bosom of the Father, gives two reasons: 1. The Father himself loveth you, Joh. 16.27. and love is liberal. 2. The Father knoweth before ye ask, that ye have need of all these things, Mat. 6.32.

And while they are yet speaking, I will hear] Thus he heard those praying Israelites at the meet at Mizpah, 1 Sam. 7. David, Psal. 6.8, 9. Daniel, chap 9.21. Cornelius, Acts 10.3. and his company, ver. 44. Luther when he came leaping out out of his study (where he had been praying) with Vicimus, Vicimus, in his mouth; the day is ours, we shall carry the cause.

Ver. 25. The wolf and the Lamb shall feed together] Heb. as one: See chap. 11.6. There shall be an holy harmony of hearts, and all good agreement among Christ's Subjects; when they come to heaven especially.

And dust shall be the serpents meat] He shall be held in to his first condemnation, Gen. 3.14. The Devil also that old serpent, shall be limited to the heel of the Saints; the head he shall not touch: he shall be tied up to his own meat, viz. that unquenchable fire prepared for him and his angels from the beginning.

They shall not hurt, &c.] See on chap. 11.9.

CHAP. LXVI.

Ver. 1. THus saith the Lord] The same he saith in effect here in this last Chapter, that he had done in the first; rejecting the Jews vain confidence in their Temple, and Sacrifices: and showing that he was neither confined to their Temple, nor contented with their Sacrifices, so long as the hidden man of the heart and the spiritual worship was wanting: so long as they neglected his Laws, and served their own lusts, ver. 3.

Heaven is my throne] Caelum est solium meum: there do I manifest the most glorious and visible signs of my presence: there I am in a special manner worshipped according to mine exccellent gre • tnesse: and there my Courtiers have a more ardent zeal for me, then those flatterers had for Darius, Dan. 6.7.

The earth is my footstool] So it should be ours: since God hath in Christ put all things under our feet, Psal. 8.6. The earth hath its name in Hebrew from treading upon, and Terra à terendo: these earthly things should be trampled on, as base and bootless.

Where is the house that ye build unto me?] q. d. An house indeed I commanded to be built for me, but not to hold me, or there to keep me coopt up as in a cell; that you should there hence conclude, The Temple, God's house, shall never perish: therefore neither shall we. You must know that I am intra, & extra, & supra, & circa, & infra omnia within and without, and above, and about, and beneath all things.

This the Heathens knew; Empedocles said, that God was a circle the center whereof is everywhere, the circumference nowhere. This the Turks acknowledge, by building their Mosches or Temples open at the top: to show that God is nowhere circumscriptively and definitively: but repletively everywhere. He is higher then Heaven, saith Bernard, deeper then Hell, larger then Earth, broader then the Sea: he is nowhere, and yet evrywhere, ye he is everywhere alpresent. The Heavens have a large place, but they have one part here, and another there: but the Lord is totally present wheresoever present: not commensurable by any place whatsoever.

Ver. 2. For all those things hath my hand made] And could not I then have made myself an house without your help, if I had lifted or needed? Required I a Temple for any other use or purpose but for the furtherance of your faith in Christ, and love one to another? These things have I made, yet these all I regard not, in comparison: but

To this man will I look] viz. With special intimation of my care and kindness, q, d. To thee be it spoken, I have an eye to thee.

Even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit] Sept. Humble and quiet, Vera Sabbata agens, that being poor in spirit hath a Sabbath of spirit, comforting himself in the Lord his God: to such God looketh. He cannot look upwards, saith One, because he hath none above him: nor on either side, because he hath none equal unto him: therefore he is said to look down, and that also upon the humble and broken-hearted, with singular delight and complacency.

And trembleth as my Word] viz. With a filial fear flowing from faith in Christ, trembling at the threatenings before they come into execution. This is a point of singular prudence: for God therefore threateneth that he may not inflict punishment: but they that tremble not in hearing, shall be crushed to pieces in feeling, said that Martyr. What then will be the end of such as hear the menaces of God's mouth no otherwise, then they do the stories of foreign wars, or the predictions of a Prognostication, which they think may come to pass, and it may be not?

Ver. 3. He that killeth an Ox, is as if he slew a Man] Unless, together with his Ox, he kill his corruptions, and lay fast hold upon Christ (who himself wa sacrificed for us, 1 Cor. 5.7.) by a lively faith. Heathens sacrificed men to Saturn: dogs also and swine and other unclean creatures to their other dunghill-dieties. Mass-priests do the like by their cruelty, hypocrisy, idolatry, impudency, luxury: their prayers therefore, fastings, pennances, pilgrimages, &c. are disaccepted.

He that sacrificeth a Lamb] Unless withal he sacrifice his lusts, and look to the Lamb of God, slain from the beginning of the world, &c.

As if he cut off a dogs neck] Heb. as if he necked a dog, that is, decolled him, beheaded him for sacrifice: this was absolutely forbidden, Deut. 23.18. The Athenians also suffered not a dog to enter into their Tower dedicated to Minerva, for his heat in Venery and ill savor, saith Plutarch.

He that offereth an oblation] Unless withal he present his body for a sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God, as Rom. 12.1.

Is as if he offered swine's blood] Blood was not to be offered at all in an oblation or meat-offering, but meal, oil, wine, Levite. 2. much less swine's blood. See Levite. 11.7.

He that burneth incense] In honor of me, unless his heart ascend up withal in those pillars of sweet smoke, as Manoah's Angel did in the smoke of the sacrifice.

Is as if he blessed an Idol] i. e. Gave thanks to an Idol (called here by a name that signifieth vanity or vexation ) as if he were a God: in doing whereof, God holdeth himself less dishonored, then by their hypocritical services performed to himself, Ezek. 20.39.

Yea they have chosen their own ways] Which must needs be naught: Nemo sibi de suo palpet: Are ye not carnal and walk as men, saith Paul; that is, as naughty men? Horreo quicquid de meo est, ut meus sim.

Ver. 4. I also will choose their delusions] As they have had their will, so will I have mine another while. I will make them to perish by their mockeries, idque ex lege talionis, See chap. 65.11.12. They thought to cozen me by an outside-service: but it shall appear that they have cozened themselves, when I bring upon them mercedem multiplicis petulantiae corum (as Piscator rendereth it) the reward of their manyfold petulancies, and illusions.

And will bring their fear upon them] Inducam nivem super eos qui timuerunt à pruina. They have feared the coming of the Chaldees, and come they shall. So their posterity feared the Romans, Joh. 11. and they felt their fury. See Prov. 10.24. with the Note.

Because when I called, &c.] See chap. 65.12.

Ver. 5. Hear the Word of the Lord, ye that tremble, &c.] Here's a word of comfort for you, who being lowly and meek-spirited, are the apter to be trampled on, and abused by the fat bulls of Basan: where the hedge is lowest, those beasts will leap over: and every crow will be pulling off wool from a sheep's sides.

Your brethren] By race, and place, but not by Grace.

That hated you] For like cause as Cain hated Abel, 1 Joh. 3.12. for trembling at God's judgments whilst they do yet hang in the threatenings.

And cast you out] Either out of their company as not fit to be conversed with, chap. 65.5. or out of their Synagogue by excommunications, as fit to be cut off: See 1 Thes. 2.14. Papists at this day do the like: whence that Proverb In nomine Domini incip • t omne malum: Ye begin in a wrong name said that Martyr, when they began the sentence of death against him with In the name of God, Amen.

Let the Lord be glorified] With such like goodly words and specious pretences did those odious hypocrites palliate and varnish over their abominations: they would persecute godly men, and molest them with Church-censures, and say Let the Lord be glorified: So do Papists and other Sectaries deal by the Orthodox. Becket offered (but subdolously) to submit to his Sovereign, salvo honere Dei, so far as might stand with God's glory. The Conspiratours in King Richard the seconds time endorsed all their letters with Glory be to God on high, on earth peace, good-will towards men. The Swenck feldians styled themselves The Confessors of the glory of Christ: and Gentiles the Antitrinitarian, when he was called to answer, said that he was drawn to maintain his cause through touch of conscience; and when he was to die for his blasphemy, he said that he did suffer for the glory of the most high God: so easy a matter it is to draw a fair glove upon a foul hand, &c. Some for Let the Lord be glorified, render it Gravis est Dominus, The Lord is burdensome or heavy: and they parallel it with those sayings in the Gospel, This is an hard saying, Thou art an austere man, We will not have this man to reign over us, &c.

But he shall appear to your joy] Parallel to that, your sorrow shall be turned into joy. How did some of the Martyrs rejoice when excommunicated, degraded, &c.

Ver. 6. A voice of noise from the City] This is a Prophetical description of the last destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple by the Romans.

A voice from the Temple] Wherein they so much gloried, where they had oft heard Christ and his Apostles preaching repentance unto life: but now have their ears filled with hideous and horrid outcries of such as were slain even in the very Temple, which they defended as long as they were able, and till it was fited: That which Josephus reporteth of Jesus the son of Ananis a plain Country-fellow, is very remarkable; viz. that for four years together before the last devastation, he went about the City day and night, crying as he went, in the words of this text almost, A voice from the East, a voice from the West, a voice from the four Winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Temple, a voice against all the people, Woe, woe, woe to Jerusalem: and thus he continued to do till at length roaring out louder then ordinary, Woe to Jerusalem and to me also, he was slain upon the wall with a stone shot out of an Engin, as Josephus reporteth.

That rendereth recompense to his enemies] So they are here called who pretended so much to the glorifying of God, ver. 5. False friends are true enemies.

Ver. 7. Before she travelled, she brought forth] Quum nondum parturiret paperit, understand it of Zion, or of the Church Christian, which receiveth her children, that is, Converts, suddenly on a cluster before she thought to have done, and in far greater numbers then she could ever have believed. That Lady that brought forth as many as a birth as are days in the year was nothing to her: nor those Hebrew women; Exod. 1.10.

She was delivered of a man-child] For the which there is so great joy, Joh. 16.21▪ and which is usually more able and active than a woman-child: so, good and bold Christians, strong in faith; unless he meaneth Christ himself (saith Dioda • ) who is formed by faith in every believers heart; Gal. 4.19.

Ver. 8. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things?] The birth of a man would seem a miracle, were it not so ordinary; miracula assiduitate vilescunt: but the birth of a whole Nation at once, how much more?

Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day?] Yes, if the day be long enough, as among the Hyperboreans, of whom it is written that they sow shortly after the Sun-rising, and reap before the Sun-set: because the whole half year is one continual day with them. But the words here should be rather read, Can a land; or a country be brought forth in one day? a Nation be born at once? Cardinal Pool abused this Scripture in a letter to Pope Julius 3. applying it to the bringing in of Popery again here so universally and suddenly in Queen Mary's days. So he did also another, when at his first return hither from beyond sea, he blasphemously saluted the same Queen Mary with those words of the Angel, Hail Mary full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Ver. 9. Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth?] i. e. Shall I set upon a work and not go through with it? God began and finished his work of Creation: Christ is both Author and finisher of his people's faith, Heb. 12.2. The holy Ghost will sanctify the Elect wholly, and keep them blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 1 Thes. 5.23. Nescit tarda molimina Spiritus sancti gratia, saith Ambrose: Otherwise his power and mercy would not equally appear to his people in regeneration, as the power and mercy of the Father and the Son in Creation and Redemption.

Ver. 10. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem] As friends use to do with her that is newly made a mother, Luk. 1.58.

Rejoice for joy with her] Out of the Church there is no solid joy: See Hos. 9.1. with the Note. Others may revel, the godly only rejoice, their joy is not that of the mouth but of the heart: nec in labris nascitur sed fibris, it doth not only smooth the brow, but fills the breast: wet the mouth, but warm the heart, &c.

Ver. 11. That ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations] Zion is not only a fruitful mother, but a joyful nurse: God giveth her the blessings both of the belly and of the breasts; and these breasts of hers are full-strutting with the sincere milk of the Word, that rational milk, 1 Pet. 2.2. the sweet and precious promises of the Gospel. These breasts of consolation we must suck, as the babe doth the mothers dug, as long as he can get a drop out of it, and then sucks still till more cometh. Let us suck the blood of the Promises, saith one, as a dog that hath got the blood of the bear, he hangs on, and will hardly be beaten off. Let us extort and oppress the Promises (saith another descanting upon this text) as a rich man oppresseth a poor man, and getteth out of him all that he hath: so deal thou with the Promises, for they are rich, there is a price in them; consider it to the utmost, wring it out. The world layeth forth her two breasts (or botches rather) of Profit and Pleasure, and hath enow to suck them though they can never thereby be satisfied: And shall almamater Ecclesia, want those that shall milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory?

Ver. 12. Behold I will extend peace to her] This and the following Promises are the delicious milk spoken of before, sc. pax copiosa & p • rennis, peace as a river, as the waters cover the sea: joy unspeakable and full of glory, God's fatherly care, motherly affection, &c. all that heart can wish, or need require.

Like a river] As Euphrates, saith the Chaldee.

Like a flowing stream] Or overflowing as Nile,

Ye shall be born upon her side] Humanissime & suavissime trāctabimini, ye shall be born in the Churches arms, laid to her breasts, set in her lap, dandled on her knees, &c. Hac Similitudine nihil fierà potest suavius. See Num. 11.12.

Ver. 13. And as one whom his mother comforteth] Her darling and dandling, especially, when she perceiveth it to make a lip and to be displeased: mothers also are very kind to and careful of their children when they are grown to be men: as Monica was to Austin, and as Matres Hollandicae the mothers in Holland, of whom it is reported, quod prae aliis matribus mire filios suos etiam grandaevos ament, ideóque eos vocant & tractant ut pueros. See Isa. 46.4. with the Note.

Ver. 14. And when ye see this, your heart shall rejoice] Videbitis, gaudebitis: you shall see that I do not give you good words only, but that I am in good earnest, ye shall know it within yourselves, in the workings of your own hearts, as Heb. 10.34.

And your bones shall flourish like an herb] i. e. They shall be filled again with moisture and marrow. See Ezek. 37.10, 11. you shall be fair-liking and reflourish.

And the hand of the Lord] i. e. His infinite power, tantorum beneficiorum in piis operatrix, the efficient cause of all these comforts.

Ver. 15. For behold the Lord will come with fire] With hell-fire, say the Rabbin's here, with the fire of the last day, say we, whereof his particular judgments are as pledges and preludes.

And with his chariots like a whirlwind] As he did, when he sent forth his armies (the Romans ) and destroyed those murderers (the Jews) and burnt up their City, Mat. 22.7. And when they would have reedified their City and Temple under Julian the Apostate who in hatred to Christians, animated them thereunto, balls of fire broke forth of the earth, which marred their work, and destroyed many thousands of them.

Ver. 16. For with fire] Then which nothing is more formidable.

And with his sword] Which is no ordinary one, chap. 27.1.

Ver. 17. In the gardens] Where these Idolaters had set up Altars, offered sacrifices, and had their ponds, wherein when they were about to sacrifice, heathen-like, they washed and purified themselves one after another, and not together, which they held to be the best way of purifying. This they did also not apart and in private, but in the midst, ut hoc modo oculos in nudis lavantium, praesertim muliercularum, corporibus pascerent, that they might feed their eyes with the sight of those parts which nature would have hid: for your Pagan superstitions were ofttimes contrary to natural honesty.

Behind one tree in the midst] Or as others render it after, or behind Ahad, which was the name of a Syrian Idol, representing the Sun, as Macrobius telleth us, calling him Adad.

Ver. 18. For I know (or, I will punish) their works and their thoughts ] Or, yea their thoughts which they may think to be free. See Jer. 6.19.

It shall come to pass that I will gather] It is easy to observe, that this Chapter consisteth of various passages interwoven the one within the other: of judgments to the wicked, of mercies and comforts to the godly, &c.

All Nations and tongues] A plain Prophecy of the calling of the Gentiles to the Kingdom of Christ: for which purpose the miraculous gift of tongues was bestowed upon the Apostles.

And they shall come and see my glory] i. e. In Christ, who is the brightness of his Fathers glory: and in sending of whom the glory of his truth, wisdom, power, justice and goodness shone forth, as the Sun at noon.

Ver. 19. And I will set a sign among them] This sign may very well be that visible pouring out of the gifts of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost, under the symbol of wind and fire, Act. 2. together with the signs and wonders whereby the Apostles doctrine was confirmed. Others make this sign to be the Profession of the Christian faith. Some also, the Doctrine of the Gospel, and especially the Sacraments.

And I will send those that escape of them] i. e. The Apostles and their fellow-helpers; such as were Barnabas, Silas, Lucas, &c.

To Tarshish, Pul] To all parts of the Word, East, West, North and South.

That draw the bow] The Mosches or Muscovites, say the Septuagint: the Turks, saith one of the Rabbin's. See the Notes on Rev. 9.15, 16, 17.

Ver. 20. And they shall bring all your brethren] Now become all your brethren in Christ: Sanctior est copula cordis quam corporis, Religion is the strongest eye.

Upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters] i. e. With much swiftness and sweetness: though sick, weakly and unfit for travel, yet rather in litters than not at all. The Apostles became all things to all men that they might gain them to Christ.

Ver. 21. And I will also take of them for Priests and for Levites] For Evangelical Pastors and Teachers: who have a distinct function and employment in the Church of the New Testament, as the Priests and Levites had in that of the Old, to teach instruct, and edify God's people.

Ver. 22. For as the new heaven] So shall there be a true Church and a Ministry for the good of my people to the worlds end. It shall not be taken away as is the Jewish Polity and Hierarchy.

Ver. 23. And it shall come to pass that from one new-Moon to another] God shall be served with all diligence and delight. In the Kingdom of Christ here, but especially in heaven, it shall be holy-day all the week, as we say; a constant solemnity, a perpetual Sabbath. King Edgar ordained that the Lord's day should be kept here in England from Saturday nine of the clock, till Monday morning. The Ebionites kept the Saturday with the Jews, and the Sunday with the Christians. But here it is foretold (and we see it fulfilled) that all flesh, i. e. all the faithful, whether Jews or Gentiles, shall not only keep every day holy-day (1 Cor. 5.8.) by resting from sin, and rejoicing in God; but shall also both in season and out of season have their Church-meetings for holy services, worshipping God ( from day today, and from month to month, as the phrase is, Esth. 3.7.) in spirit and in truth, and having the continual feast of a good conscience.

Ver. 24. And they shall go forth and look upon the carcasses] Rhetoricians tell us that in the introduction to a discourse 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 milder affections suit best to insinuate: but in the conclusion 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 passionate passages, such as may leave a sting behind them and stick by the hearers. This Art the Prophet here useth: for being now to period his Prophecy, he giveth all sorts to know what they shall trust to. The godly shall go forth, i. e. salvi evadent, liberi abibunt, they shall have safety here and salvation hereafter. They shall also look upon the carcasses, &c. they shall be eye-witnesses of God's exemplary judgments executed on the wicked, that would not have Christ to reign over them, ( Rev. 19.21.) who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the glory of the Lord and from the presence of his power, 2 Thes. 1.9. This the righteous shall see, and fear, and laugh at them, Psal. 52.6. giving God the glory of his justice and goodness. Some think they shall have at last day, a real sight of hell, and the damned there, Rev. 14.10. and this may very well be. Oh that wicked men would in their daily meditations take a turn or two in hell, and so be forewarned to fly from the wrath to come. Is it nothing to have the worm of conscience ever grubbing upon their entrails, and the fire of God's vengeance feeding upon their souls and flesh throughout all eternity? Oh that eternity of extremity! Think of it seasonably and seriously, that ye never suffer it. The Jewish Masters have, in some copies, wholly left out this last verse: as in other copies they repeat (both here and in the end of Ecclesiastes, Lamentations and Malachi ) the last verse save one, which is more sweet and fuller of comfort; and that for this reason, that the Reader may not be sent away sad, and so fall into desperation. But of that there is no such danger, since most people are over slight in their thoughts of hell-torments, regarding them no more than they do a fire painted on the wall, or a serpent wrought in Arras. And besides, Non sinit in Gehennam incidere, Gehennae meminisse, saith Chysostom: to remember hell, is a good means to preserve us from it. This verse hath sufficient authority from our Savior's citing of it, Mar. 9.44. See the Note there, Plato also (if that be anything) in his description of hell (which he calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a fiery lake) saith the same as here, that their worm dieth not, neither is their fire quenched. He might possibly have read Isaiah as he had done Moses. It is thought, Laertius telleth us, that he travelled into Egypt, where he conversed with some Hebrews, and learned much of them.

And they shall be an abhorring to all flesh] i. e. All good men abominate them now as so many living Ghosts, walking carcases, Eph. 2.2. Prov. 29. ult. and shall much more at the last day, when they shall arise again to everlasting shame and contempt, Dan. 12.

CHAP. I.

Ver. 1. T He words of Jeremiah] Piscator rendereth it Acta Jeremiae, The Acts of Jeremy, as we say The Acts of the Apostles: which Book also, saith One, might have been called in some sense, The Passions of the Apostles, who were for the testimony of Jesus, in deaths often. And the same we may safely say of Jeremy, who although he were not omnis criminis per totam vitam expers (which yet great Athanaesius affirmeth of him) that is, free from all fault (for he had his out-bursts, and himself relateth them) yet he was Judaeorum integerrimus (as of Phocion it is said, that he was Atheniensum integerrimus ) a man of singular sanctimony and integrity; good of a little child, a young Saint, and an old Angel; an admirable Preacher, as Keckerman rightly calleth him, and propoundeth him for a pattern to all Preachers of the Gospel. Nevertheless, this incomparable Prophet proved to be a man of many sorrows, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , (as Isidor Pelusiot ) a most calamitous person, as appeareth by this Book, and one that had his share in sufferings from, and fellow-sufferings with his ungrateful Country-men, as much as might be. Nazianzen saith most truly of him, that he was the most compassionate of all the Prophets: witness that Pathetical wish of his, chap. 9.1, 2, 3. Oh that my head were waters, &c. and that holy Resolve, chap. 13.17. But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride, and mine eye shall weep sore and run down with tears, because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. It was this good man's unhappiness to be a Physician to a dying State:

Long time he had labored amongst this perverse people but to very small purpose, as himself complaineth, chap. 27.13, 14. after Isaiah, chap. 49. whom he succeeded in his office of a Prophet (some scores of years between) but with little good success. For, as in a dying man, his eyes wax dim, and all his senses decay, till at length they are utterly lost: so fareth it with Common-wealths, quando suis fatis urgentur, when once they are ripe for ruin: the nearer they draw to destruction, the more they are overgrown with blindness, madness, security, obstinacy, such as despiseth all remedies, and leaveth no place at all for wholesome advice and admonition. Loe this was the case of those improbi & reprobi (reprobate silver shall men call them, chap. 6.30.) with whom our Prophet had to do. Moses had not more to do with the Israelites in the wilderness, then Jeremy had with these stiffnecked and uncircumcised in in heart and ears, as good at resisting the Holy Ghost as ever their Fathers were. The times were not unlike those described by Tacitus, concerning which Casaeubon saith, quibus nulla unquam aut virtutum steriliora, aut virtutbus inimiciora, that no times were ever more barren of virtues, or greater enemies to virtues. And to say sooth, how could they be much better, when the Book of the Law was wanting for above sixty years, and the whole land overspred with the deeds of darkness? Josiah indeed that good young King (by the advice of this Prophet Jermy, who was younger then himself, but both full of zeal) did what he could to reform both Church and State; but he alas could not do withal: the Reformation in his days was forced by him: and there was foul work in secret (as appeareth by Zephaniah who was our Prophets Contemporary) it met with much opposition both from Princes, Priest, and People, who all had been woefully habituated and hardened in their idolatry under Manasseh and Amon, &c. Unto which also and other abominations not a few they soon relapsed, when once Josiah was taken away, and his successors proved to be such as countenanced and complied with the people, in all their impieties and excesses. This Prophet therefore was stirred up by God to oppose the current of the times and the torrent of vices; to call them to repentance, and to threaten the Seventy years captivity: which because they believed not, neither returned unto the Lord, came upon them accordingly, as is set forth in the end of this Prophecy. Whence Procopius, Isidor, and others, have gathered that, besides this Prophecy and the Lamentations, Jeremiah wrote the first and second Book of Kings. But that is as uncertain, as that he was stoned to death by the Jews in Egypt, or that the Egyptians afterwards built him an honorable Sepulcher, and resorted much unto it, for devotion sake: when as R. Solomon thinketh from chap. 44.28. that Jeremy together with Baruch returned out of Egypt into Judea, and there died.

The son of Hilkiah] The High-priest who found the Book of the Law, say the Chaldee Paraphrast and others, but many think otherwise: and the Prophet himself addeth.

Of the Priests that were at Anathoth] Poor Anathoth renowned as much by Jeremy, as little Hippo was afterwards by great Austin Bishop there. The Targum tells us that Jeremy was one of the twenty four Cheiftains of the Temple. A Priest he was, and so an ordinary Teacher, before he acted as a Prophet: but his Country-men of Anathoth evil-entreated him.

In the land of Benjamin] Some three miles from Jerusalem.

Ver. 2. Unto whom the Word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah] Woe be to the world because of the Word. The Lord keepeth count what Preachers he sendeth, what pains they take, and how long, to how little purpose they preach unto a people. He saith that it was the Word of the Lord, for authority sake, and that none might despise his youth, since he was sent by the Ancient of days.

In the thirteenth year of his reign] Eighteen years then he prophesied under good Josiah, who was too blame, doubtless, in not sending to advise with this or some other Prophet, before he went forth against Pharaoh-Necho: sometimes both grace and wit are asleep in the holiest and wariest breasts.

Ver. 3. It came also in the days of Jehoiachim] Called at first Eliachim by his good Father Josiah, from whom he degenerated, cutting Jeremiah's roll with a pen-knife and burning it, chap. 36. at which his Fathers heart would have melted, as 2 Chron. 34.27.

Unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah] Jehoahaz and Jehoiachim, are not mentioned because their reign was so short, hardly half a year. By this computation it appeareth, that Jeremy prophesied forty years at least. And the Holy Ghost setteth a special mark (as a Reverend Writer hath well observed) upon those forty years of his prophesying, Ezek. 4.6. where when the Lord summeth up the years that were betwixt the falling away of the ten Tribes and the burning of the Temple, three hundred and ninety in all, and counteth them by the Prophets lying so many days upon his left-side; he bids him to lie forty days upon his right-side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days, a day for a year. Not to signify that it was forty years above three hundred and ninety betwixt the revolt of the ten Tribes and the captivity of Judah (for it was but three hundred and ninety exactly in all) but because he would set, and mark out Judah 's singular iniquity, by a singular mark; for that they had forty years so pregnant instructions and admonitions, by so eminent a Prophet: and yet were impenitent to their own destruction.

Unto the carrying away of Jerusalem] He thought (belike) when he prefixed this title, that he should have prophesied no more, when once Jerusalem was carried captive; but it proved otherwise; for he peophecyed after that in Egypt, chap. 44. yet not forty years also after the captivity, as the Jews have fabled: Nor is it so certain, that for that prophecy he was slain by Pharaoh Ophrae (whom Herodotus calleth Apryes, and saith he was a very proud Prince) as some have storied.

Ver. 4. Then the word of the Lord came unto me] The Lord is said to come to Balaam, Abimelech, Laban, &c. but he never concredited his word to any but to his holy Prophets, of whom it is said as here, The Word of the Lord came to them.

Ver. 5. Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee] viz. With a knowledge not Intuitive only but also Approbative. Verba notitiae apud Hebraeos secum trahunt affectum.

I sanctified thee] Infusing grace into thy heart (as afterwards also into the Baptists, Luke 1.15.) and setting thee apart in my secret purpose to this sacred office of a Prophet, as afterwards also God did Paul to the Apostleship, Gal. 1.15.

And I ordained thee a Prophet] Magna semper fecerunt qui Deo vocante docuerunt, saith Luther. They have always done great things, whom God hath called to teach his people: quod est contra eos qui Ecclesiam ruituram putant nisi & ipsi doceant, saith Oecolampadius • : This text maketh against such as think that the Church must needsly suffer, unless they (though uncalled) turn Teachers.

Unto the Nations] i. e. First to the Jews, qui fere in Gentiles evaserant, who were little better then Gentiles: so Papagant are called Pagans, Rev. 11.2. Secondly, to foreigners, of and to whom he prophesied, chap. 44, &c. Thirdly, to people of all times, who may and must be instructed by this Book: which is such as was highly see by, and cited in the Old Testament by Daniel, Ezekiel, Nehemiah, Ezra, Obadiah, (who taketh most of his Prophecy out of him) as in the New by our Savior, Matth. 21. Mar. 11. Matthew the Evangelist, chap. 2. Paul 2 Cor. 6.1. & 10. Heb. 8. & 10. John the Divine, Rev. 2. & 15.

Ver. 6. Then said I, Ah Lord God] Verbum angustiae: The old Latin hath it A, A, A, whereby is noted (say some) a threefold defect sc. of age, of knowledge, and of eloquence: but that's more subtle then solid. True worth is ever modest: and the more fit any man is for whatsoever vocation, the less he thinketh himself: forwardness argueth insufficiency.

Behold I cannot speak] Heb. I know not to speak, i. e. a right, and as I ought. Tanto negotio tam instructum oratorem me non agnosco. Jeremy was an excellent Speaker, as well appeareth by these ensuing Homilies of his, which show that he was suaviter gravis, & graviter suavis (as One saith of Basil ) a grave and sweet Preacher; one that could deliver his mind fitly, and durst do it freely. Hence some of the Jews judged our Savior to have been Jeremiah propter dicendi agendique gravitatem & Parrhesian, for his gravity and freedom of speech. Nevertheless Jeremy, in his own opinion, cannot speak: that is, was no way fit to speak. So Moses is at it with his Who am I? Exod. 3. when as none in all Egypt was comparably fit for such an Embassage. It was an usual saying of Luther, Etsi jam senex, & in concionando exercitus sum, &c. Although I am now an old man, and an experienced Preacher, yet I tremble as oft as I go up into the pulpit.

For I am a child] Epiphanius saith, that Jeremy was not now above fourteen or fifteen when he began to Prophecy. Samuel also and Daniel began very young. So did Timothy, Origen, Cornelius Mus a famous Preacher, say his fellow Jesuits, at eleven years of age. Arch Bishop Usher was converted at ten years old, preached betime, and so continued to do for sixty years or near upon. Mr. Beza was likewise converted at sixteen years old (for the which, as for a special mercy, he giveth God thanks in his last Will and Testament) and lived a Preacher in Geneva to a very great age.

Ver. 7. Say not I am a child] Plead no excuses, cast no perils; never dispute but dispatch; never reason but run, depending for direction and success upon God alone, in whom are all our fresh springs, and from whom is all our sufficiency, &c. Paul was a most unlikely piece of wood to make what he was afterwards called, a Mercury, Act. 14.11. yet God made use of him, Act. 9.13, 14.

For thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee] Whether Kings or Captives, Lord's or Losels. He preached before Jehoiachim, concerning the office of a King: and threatened him with the burial of an asse, chap. 22. and 36. he dealt plainly with the Princes who beat him, and with the Priests who stocked him, with all sorts to his great cost: he was of an heroical and unexpugnable spirit: so are not many in these times, Verbi Dei truncatores & emasculatores, men-pleasing Preachers.

Ver. 8. Be not afraid of their faces] Look they never so big, as did Henery 8. upon Latimer, and upon Lambert, who yet told him his own: as did Stephen Gardener upon Dr. Taylor Martyr, but had as good as he brought. The majesty of a man, as also his wrath showeth itself in his countenance: and young men especially are apt to be baffled and dashed with fierce looks.

For I am with thee, to deliver thee] On one sort or another: thy crown (be sure) no man shall take from thee; thy perpetual triumph thou shalt not lose.

Ver. 9. Then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth] This was a very great favor and a sweet settlement to the hesitating Prophet. The like visible sign for confirmation was given to Isaiah, chap. 6, to Ezekiel, chap. 2. and 3. and to John the Divine, Rev. 10. how much are we bound to God for his Word and Sacraments?

Behold I have put my words in thy mouth] And in thy mind also; together with good courage for the better uttering of them. Fear not therefore though thou be, as thou objectest, infantissimus & infirmissimus; but go in this my might, and Preach lustily.

Ver. 10. See, I have set thee this day over Nations] sc. With authority to use the same liberty in reproving their sins, that they take in committing them. Fear not the highest (for I have set thee over them) but look upon them as so many mice: for what are they more in comparison of me and of thee, who hast from me thy mission and commission? zeal in well-doing showeth a man to be right: like as such are living fish as swim against the stream.

To root out and to pull down] i. e. To denounce destruction to evil-doers, and then I will effect it. Elisha hath his sword, as well as Hazael or Jehu, 1 King. 19.17. and vengeance for the disobedient is every whit as ready in God's hand as in his Ministers mouth, 2 Cor. 10.6. See Hos. 6.5. (with the Note) Joh. 20.23. But what a mercy of God to the Church was it, that the same day that Pelagius that Arch-heretic was born in Britain, Austin the great confuter of that heretic should be born in Afric? Providence so disposing that the poison and the Antidote should come into the world together?

To build and to plant] As a co-worker with God for the good of souls, by preaching Christ unto them, as this Prophet doth notably in a most divine and stately strain: setting him forth in his coming, Covenant, Offices, Benefits, &c. as the only foundation, and lively root of hope.

Ver. 11. Jeremiah, what seest thou?] It was great kindness and familiarity thus to parle with him, and to call him by his name.

And I said, I see a rod of an Almond tree] Which hath its name in Hebrew from watching, because it watcheth as it were to bud and bear before other trees, even in the deep of winter, and when it is at coldest. Hereby, the Prophet is animated though but young; and assured that he shall have the fruit of his so early labors. God careth not for those arbores autumnales, Jude 13. trees which bud not till the latter end of harvest. The truth of all his predictions is designed, though little believed by the most: the speediness also of their performance, as ver. 12. and Ezek. 7.10, 11. a good Comment upon this text. The sins of God's people, saith one, are sooner ripe then of the heathens, because they have the constant light and heat of his Word to hasten their maturity. This was typified by the basket of Summer fruits, and by the Almond-tree in this text. As the Almond-tree, saith another, hath a bitter rind but a sweet kernel, so hath affliction sanctified: and again, as the Almond-tree is made more fruitful by driving nails into it, letting out a noxious gum that hindereth the fruitfulness thereof: so is a good man made better by afflictions.

Ver. 12. Thou hast well seen] Heb. Thou hast done well to see, i. e. so to see.

For I will hasten my Word] Heb. amigdalaturus sum, I am watching upon the evil, to bring in the Chaldeans, as I have threatened. See the like elegant allusion, Ans. 8.1, 2. Nemesis à tergo: punishment is at the heels of sin.

Ver. 13. What seest thou?] By these questions his attention is stirred up, that he may the better observe the matter of his preaching, which is here represented by a second vision.

I see a seething pot] Heb. a pot blown up. This boiling pot is Jerusalem besieged by the Chaldeans, and we are the flesh, say those deriders of this Prophecy of Jeremy, Ezek. 11.3. but they found it to be just so, shortly after: and then their profane hearts might well have bespoke them, as the heart of Apollodorus the tyrant seemed to say to him, who dreamed one night that he was flayed by the Scythians and boiled in a Chaldron; and that his heart spake to him out of the kettle, It is I that have drawn thee to all this.

And the face thereof] i. e. That part of the pot that is next the fire, and heated therewith.

Ver. 14. Out of the North an evil shall break forth] i. e. From Chaldea which is North from Judea; Gregory moralizeth the text thus: man's mind is this pot: that which from the North sets it on fire is the devil, by inflaming it with evil lusts, and then he sets up his throne therein; As

Ver. 15. And set everyone his throne] Judging such as in those very gates had unjustly judged others. See this performed, 2 King. 24.4. and 25.4. Chap. 52.

Ver. 16. And I will utter my judgment against them] sc. By those Northern Princes: bu first by thee and Zephaniah, and Huldah, &c. if haply they will repent, that I may repent of the evil. God therefore threateneth that he may not punish.

Who have forsaken me and burnt incense] These sins differ in degrees; and are all found among the Papists.

Ver. 17. Thou therefore gird up thy loins] q. d. Thou hast, I must needs say, a hard task of it. But hard or not hard, it must be done, or thou art undone. About it therefore, and play the man, plucking up thy best heart, as we say, and acting vigorously. Stir up the gifts of God that are in thee, and exercise thy talents committed unto thee. Verbs minister es: hoc age.

Be not dismayed at their faces, least] Ne conteritor, nete conteram. Be not afraid of them least I fright thee worse, to thy ruth and utter ruin. Excellently Bernard, If I deal not faithfully with you, you will be damnified, but I shall be damned: Let me suffer anything rather than be guilty of a sinful silence, said that heroical Luther. But Melancthon (his Colleague) was so timorous, that Luther was fain to chide him many times: And Calvin (in an Epistle of his to John Sleidan ) prayeth God to furnish him with a more noble spirit, ne gravem ex ejus timiditate jacturam sentiat posteritas, lest posterity should rue for his timidity. Calvin himself in his last speech to his fellow-Ministers on his death-bed, speaketh thus: When I first came to this City (Geneva) the Gospel indeed was here preached, but things were very far out of order, as if Christianity consisted wholly in the casting down of images, &c. There were also not a few wicked fellows who put me hard toit, setting themselves against me to their utmost. But the Lord our good God did so steel me and strengthen me, who am naturally fearful and dastardly, that I stoutly withstood them, and went on with the work of Reformation; to his glory alone be it spoken. Melacthon also admired that courage in Luther, that he could not find in himself: for besides many passages of his in his Epistles that way tending, one time when he saw Luther's picture, he uttered this verse immediately,

Ver. 18. For behold I have made thee this day a defensed City] i. e. Inpregnable, inexpugnable, the bulwark of truth (as one said of Basil ) such as could not be battered. And of Ambrose Stilico the Earl said, that he was the walls of Italy. Peter and John are called Pillars, Gal. 2.9. Athanasius, the Churches Champion,

Against the Kings of Judah, against the Princes, &c.] There was a general defection of all sorts; and Jeremy was to declaim against them all, and proclaim their utter destruction, in case they repented not. Well might Luther say, for he had the sad experience of it, Praedicare nihil aliud est quàm totius mundi furorem in se derivare. To preach is nothing else, but to derive upon a man's self the rage of all the world. He met with some even at Wittenburg where he lived, who were so wicked and uncounselable, that the four Elements could not endure them: So did good Jeremy, &c.

Ver. 19. They shall not prevail against me] They shall not take thy Crown from thee, no nor thy precious life; for thou shalt survive them. So Luther died in his bed, maugre the malice of Rome, and of hell.

For I am with thee] And what can all the wicked do against one Minister armed with God's presence and power?

CHAP. II.

Ver. 1. MOreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying] The Prophet being thus called and confirmed, as chap. 1. sets forthwith upon the work, Est autem hoc caput plenum querelae, & quasi continuum pathos. In this chapter the Lord heavily complaineth of Jerusalem's unworthy usage of him, convincing them thereof by sixteen several arguments (as Alapide hath observed) and all little enough: for they put him to his proofs, as is to be seen, ver. 35.

Ver. 2. Go thou and cry] For if I myself should do it immediately from heaven, my stillest Rhetoric would be too loud for them, Deut. 5.27, 28.

I remember thee] Who hast forgot thy first love and loyalty to me. Or, I remember, that is, I put thee in mind of the kindness that hath been betwixt us. Augustus might have some such meaning in those last words of his to his wife when he lay a dying, O Livia, remember our marriage, and adeiu. 'It is thought she had a finger in setting him going: and that she was over-familiar with Eudemus the Physician, qui specie artis frequent secretis, saith Tacitus. Peccatum est Deicidium.

The kindness of thy youth] When thou camest out of Egypt after me, and wast espoused unto me at the giving of the Law. We use highly to prize nettle-buds, when they first put forth: so doth God our young services. Others render it thus, I record the mercy shown to thee in thy youth, and the love of thine espousals, sc. when as I loved thee because I loved thee, and for no other reason, Deut. 7.7, 8.

When thou wentest after me in the wilderness] God takes it kindly when men will choose him, and his ways in affliction: as did Moses, Heb. 11.25. Cant. 8.5. Who is this that cometh from the wilderness (from troubles and afflictions) leaning on her beloved.

Ver. 3. Israel was holiness unto the Lord] A people consecrated and set apart for his peculiar, Exod. 19.5. Psal. 114.2. holy with a federal holiness at least.

And the first-fruits of his increase] Yea his first-born, and therefore higher than the Kings of the earth, Psalm 89.27. All God's people are so, Heb. 12.23. James 1.18.

All that devour them shall offend] Rather thus, all that devoured them trespassed, evil befell them: witness the four latter books of Moses.

Ver. 4. Hear ye the word of the Lord] This is often inculcated in both Testaments, to procure attention, 1 Cor. 11.23. I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, 1 Thes. 4.15. This we say unto you by the Word of the Lord. Thus to preach, is to preach cum privilegio.

Ver. 5. What iniquity have your Fathers found in me?] How unreasonable was their Apostasy? and how senseless is your pleading of their example? nothing is more irrational then irreligion.

That they are gone far from me] Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man? said Themistocles to his ungrateful Country-men.

And have walked after vanity] An Idol is nothing at all, but only in the vain opinion of the Idolater.

And are become vain] sc. In their imaginations, Rom. 1.21. as vain as their very Idols, Psal. 115.8.

Ver. 6. Neither said they] In their minds, or with their mouths. That signal deliverance was obliterated, and even lost upon them. Plerique omnes sumus ingrati.

Through a land of deserts and of pits] Per terram campestrem & sepulchralem, where we talked of making our graves; neither was it any otherwise likely, but that God gave us pluviam escatilem & petram aquatilem, all manner of necessaries.

Ver. 7. And I brought you into a plentiful Country] You lived in my good land, but not by my good Laws: you had aequissimajura, sed iniqu • ssima ingenia, as was said of the Athenians: as if I had hired you to be wicked, so have you abused my mercies to my greatest dishonor.

Ver. 8. The Priests said not, Where is the Lord] Ignorant they were and idle: they would not be at the pains of a serious inquisition after God and his will: though he be a rewarder of all that diligently seek him, Heb. 11.6.

And they that handled the Law] That expounded and applied it. A Metaphor from such as are trained in the war, who are said tractare bellum, to handle their arms.

The Pastors also transgressed against me.] What marvel therefore that the people did so too? For, as in a fish, the corruption of it beginneth at the head: so here.

And the Prophets prophesied by Baal] And taught others to worship Idols. We see then 'tis nothing new that stars fall from heaven, that Church-chieftaines should fall from God, and draw others after them. It went for a Proverb a little afore Luther stirred, Qui Theologum scholasticum videt, videt septem peccata mortalia, he that seeth a Divine, seeth the seven deadly sins.

Ver. 9. I will yet plead with you] i. e. Debate the case with you, and set you down by sound reason. So he did to our first Parents when they had sinned; but doomed the serpent without anymore ado.

Ver. 10. For pass over the isles of Chittim] The Western parts of the World, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, &c.

And send unto Kedar] The Eastern parts, where dwell Kedarens, Arabians, Saracens, &c.

Ver. 11. Hath a Nation changed their God's?] No: they are too pertinacious in their superstitions. Xenophon saith it was an oracle of Apollo, that those God's are rightly worshipped which were delivered them by their ancestors: and this he greatly applaudeth. Cicero also saith, that no reason shall ever prevail with him to relinquish the religion of his forefathers. That Monarch of Morocco told an English Ambassador, that he had lately read St. Paul, and that he disliked nothing in him but this, that he had changed his religion.

Which yet are no gods] Sed hominum figmenta & ludibria daemonum: when Hercules came into a Temple, and found the Image or statue of Adonis in it, he pulled it down with this expression, Certe nil sacri es, Sure thou art no god: the like may be said of all Idols.

But my people have changed their glory] i. e. Their God of whom they might glory, saying, as Deut. 32.31. their Rock is not as our Rock, our enemies themselves being Judges.

Ver. 12. Be astonished O heavens] A poetical and pathetical expression! Confer Deut. 32.1. Isa. 1.2.

Be horribly afraid] Horripilamini portento malitiae, quod jam dicturus sum, be agast at such a prodigious wickedness.

Be very desolate] As the Sun seemed to be, when at the death of Christ, he hid his head in a mantle of black, which made (they say) the Heathen Astrologer break out into these words Either the God of nature suffereth, or else the world is at an end.

Ver. 13. For my people have committed two evils] Contrary to those two good things that I have commanded them, viz. Depart from evil, and do good, Psal. 34.14. Lust doth first 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 draw a man from God, and then it doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 deceive him with a bait of the creature, Jam. 1.14.

They have forsaken me the fountain of living water] The all-sufficient, ever-flowing, over-flowing well-spring of all welfare, Jam. 1.17. Trismegist a Heathen could say Respicite O mortals, & resipiscite, & ad fontem vitae ricurrite. Look back O mortals and repent, and run back again to the fountain of life. Seneca also saith, that Sin is so foul a thing, that he would not commit it, though he could hide it from men, and get pardon of it of God: for that were to turn his back upon God the chife good, &c. How well might Bullinger say, that Seneca alone had left to posterity more sincere Divinity, then all the books of almost all the School men!

And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns] Such and no better are all Idols, human helps, creature-comforts, friends, means, merits, &c. what are they all but cisterns, that hold but muddy rain-water at best: but then, being broken cisterns, riven vessels, what hold they else but limum & lapides, mud and gravel? Such cisterns therefore to hew out, what is it better then industrious folly, laborious loss of time? to say no worse of it. Now

Ver. 14. Is Israel a servant] sc. Bought with money?

Is he a home-born slave] Verna, a slave by birth q. d. If he be either of the two, he may thank himself. He was my son, nay my Spouse, if he could have kept him so: but he hath sold himself to commit wickedness, and I have therefore sold him into the hands of the Chaldeans. Loe this is the product of his forsaking me the fountain of living waters, &c.

Ver. 15. The young Lions roared upon him and yelled] i. e. The King of Babylon and his forces, more fierce and fell then young Lions. Would any take the Churches picture? saith Luther; then let him paint a silly poor maid sitting in a wood or wilderness, compassed about with hungry Lions, Wolves, Boars, and Bears: for this is her condition in the world.

And they made his land waste] i. e. They shall shortly so make it.

Ver. 16. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes] Two chief Cities of Egypt, the Inhabitants whereof were said to be most effeminate and servile fellows: even these shall overtop thee, knock thee down as an Ox by a blow on the brain-pan, and make havoc of those things, that thou holdest the chiefest and most desirable.

Ver. 17. Hast thou not procured this to thyself?] The same may the Lord say to every sufferer: and further add, Did not I warn you saying, Sin not against the child? Oh do not this abominable thing! your iniquities will undoubtedly be your ruin, &c.

When he led thee by the way] The way that is called holy, the high-way to heaven: fitly here opposed to those by-ways of carnal wisdom, mentioned in the following verses.

Ver. 18. And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt?] Why trustest thou to carnal combinations, which thou hast formerly found to be so successlesse? wilt thou never be warned of these broken cisterns? or hast thou a mind to be ground to powder betwixt those two mil-stones, of Egypt and Assyria, after whom thou hankerest? Psal. 146.3. David having entered a Caveat against creature confidence, persuades people to trust in God alone: See also Psal. 62.8. 9, 10.

To drink the waters of Sihor] i. e. Of Nile called Sihor, of its blackness, or muddinesse; and in Greek 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Black: to drink the waters of it here, is to draw the Egyptian forces to thine assistance, and (as some think) to partake with them in their superstitions.

To drink of the water of the river] i. e. Of Euphrates, that river by an eminency.

Ver. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee] E • udiat te malitia tua, Let thine own wickedness with the sad consequents thereof, teach thee better things: as chap. 6.8. Let it for shame, let it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , let smart make wit, Isa. 28.19. Prov. 29.15.

Know therefore and see] Learn at least by sad experience; for thou hast paid for thy learning. Piscator ictus sapiet.

That it is an evil thing and bitter] So all sin will prove in the issue, and when the bottom of the bag is turned upward. There will be bitterness in the end, as Abner said to Joab, 2 Sam. 3.15. Laban will show himself at parting howsoever. Tamar will be more hated then ever she was loved: Amor, amaror; pius aloes quam mellis habet.

Drunkenness is sweet, but wormwood is bitter. These Inhabitants of Jerusalem were made drunk, but with wormwood, Lam. 3.15. they found that sin was a Dulcacidum, a bitter-sweet: sweet in the mouth, but bitter in the maw, as that book in the Revelation: like Adam 's apple, or Esau 's pottage, or Jonathan 's honey, or Judas his thirty pieces, whereof he would fain have been rid but could not: they burnt like a spark of hell-fire in his hand, but especially in his conscience. The Devil with the Panther, hideth his deformed head, till the sweet sent have drawn other beasts into his danger, and then he devoureth them. Did we but consider what sin will cost us at last, we durst not but be innocent.

Ver. 20. For of old time I have broken thy yoke] Or, For when of old I broke thy yoke &c. sc. in Egypt, Psal. 81.5, 6, 10. whilst the deliverance was fresh, thou hadst very good resolutions.

And thou saidst I will not transgress] Or, I will not serve, sc. other God's. Good words, hadst thou been as good as thy word. But what followeth?

When upon every high hill and every green tree, &c.] No sooner did her old heart and her old temptations meet, but they presently fell into mutual embraces. When men have made good vows, let them be as careful to make good their vows unto the Lord, Psal. 76.11.

Thou wanderest playing the harlot] Thou runnest a madding and a gadding after Idols, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

Ver. 21. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine] Heb. a Sorek, or with slips of Sorek. Judge. 16.4. See Esa. 5.3. (a parallel text) Exod. 15.17. Psal. 44.3. and 80.9.

Wholly a right seed] That should have yielded a right crop: but it proveth otherwise; nec votis respondet avari Agricolae.

How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant] How is that slips of Sorek prove slips of Sodom? Deut. 32.32. See on Isa. 5.4, 7.

Ver. 22. For though thou wash thee with nitre] Much used of old by Fullers and neat Landresses, say Isidore and Athanasius; now not known in these parts: Apothecaries use Salt-peter instead of it. Sin leaveth behind it a deep stain, so ingrained that it will hardly ever be gotten out: not at all by blanching, extenuating, excusing, &c. or by any legal purifications, hypocritical lotions. All which notwithstanding,

Thine iniquity is marked before me] Nitet iniquitas tua, splendet instar auri, it glisters like gold before me, whose eyes thou canst not blind or bleer with any of thy colorable pretexts and pretences.

Ver. 23. How canst thou say I am not polluted?] q. d. With what face? but that sin hath oaded an impudence in thy face.

I have not gone after Baalius] The whole crew of Heathen-dieties ( Lord's or Masters the word signifieth) which Cicero saith were but men, their Temples were their sepulchers, and their religion superstition. He further wisheth, that he could as easily discern the true religion, as discover the false.

See thy way in the valley] Of Ben-Hinnom, Where thou hast sacrificed thy children to Moloch thy chief Baal: that is, say some, to the Sun, as to the universal cause strongly concurring to the generation of their children so sacrificed.

Thou art a swift Dromedary] That runneth a madding after her mate: so dost thou after Idols: Confer 1 Cor. 12.2.

Ver. 24. A wild Ass used to the wilderness] Untamable, and intractable, Job 39.8. especially when proud, and in the heat of lust, as these were after their Idols.

That snuffeth up the wind] When she windeth the male: so this people when acted by a spirit of fornications.

In her month they shall find her] i. e. In her last month, when she is so big with young, that she cannot wield herself. So sinners be they never so stubborn, so stiff and high in the instep, that there's no dealing with them, yet when they are in straits and distresses, it will be otherwise. God, said Mr. Marbury, is fain to deal with wicked men, as men do with frisking jades in a pasture, that cannot be taken up till gotten to a gate: so till he seize upon them by some judgment or summons to die, &c.

Ver. 25. Withold thy foot from being unshod, &c.] Cease thy vain vagaries to the wearing out of thy shoes, and exposing thyself to extreme thirst: Or rather take a timely course to prevent captivity and the miseries that attend it, Isa. 20.2, 4. and 47.2.

But thou saidst There is no hope] viz. Of reclayming us, we are resolved on our course, and will take our swing in sin whatsoever come of it, Isa. 28.14, 15. & 57.10. Some grow desperately sinful (saith a Reverend modern Writer) like those Italian Senators, that despairing of their lives (when upon submission they had been promised their lives, yet) being conscious of their villainy, made a curious banquet, and at the end thereof every man drank up his glass of poison and killed himself: so men feeling such horrible hard hearts, and privy to such notorious sins, they cast away souls and all for lust, and so perish woefully, because they lived desperately, and so securely.

Ver. 26. As the thief is ashamed when he is found] As usually he is at length, notwithstanding all his slights and wiles. That was a cunning thief indeed of whom Dio writeth in the life of Severus: Bulas he calleth him, an Italian, who having gotten together six hundred such as himself, robbed many in Italy under the Emperors nose for two years together: and although he was diligently sought for by the Emperor and his Armies, yet he could not be caught: Visus enim non videbatur, non inveniebatur inventus, deprehensus non capiebatur, saith the Historian: he was too hard for them all.

So is the house of Israel ashamed] They are, or ought to be so: but

Ver. 27. Saying to a stock, Thou art my Father] i. e. My God. Isa. 44.17. We are not the children of fornication, said those boasting Jews, Joh. 8.41. that is, we are not Idolaters who say, as here, to a stock, Thou art my Father. The Samaritans, they called bastards.

But in the time of their trouble they will say. Arise and save us] Thus in their month they will be found, ver. 24. When they had run themselves barefoot in following their lovers, ( ver. 25.) who answered their expectation with nothing but fear, and sent them away with shame instead of glory, then God was thought upon and sought unto. Let us make God our choice, and not our necessity: and labor to maintain such constant couse with him, that he may know our souls in adversity, and not turn us off, as he doth these with

Ver. 28. But where are thy God's that thou hast made thee?] Thou hast sure no need of my help: Quisi tu hujus indigeas patris. See the like, Judge. 10.14. with the Note there.

For according to the number of thy Cities are thy gods] Enough of them thou hast, and near enough. The Papists also have their Tutelar -Saints, to whom they seek more then to God himself. And when the Ave-Mary -bell rings, (which is at Sun-rising, Noon, and Sun setting) all men in what place soever, house, field, street or market, do presently kneel down and send up their united devotions to heaven, by an Ave-Maria.

Ver. 29. Wherefore will ye plead with me?] Putting me to my proofs? Is not the case clear enough? will ye not yield to reason? See on ver. 19.

Ye all have transgressed against me] And yet ye have the face to ask, as chap. 16.10. What is our iniquity, or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord? and to say as Hos. 12.8. In all my labors they shall find none iniquity in me: that were sin. See there.

Ver. 30. In vain have I smitten your children] My hammers have but beaten cold Iron: ye are incorrigible, irreformable. See Isa. 1.5. with the Note.

Your own sword hath devoured your Prophets] As it did in the days of Ahaz, Joash, Manasseh, of whom Josephus saith, that he slew some Prophet of God every day.

Like a destroying Lion] Cum saevitia summa, exutâ omni humanitate: ye have puulled them limmeale, and caused them to die piecemeale.

Ver. 31. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord] q. d. O generation rather leonine then human! as ver. 30. See ye the word; I say not to you Hear, no more then I would to a savage beast; for ye have no ears to hear reason: but see with your eyes; for so even beasts can do. See now, and say sooth.

Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?] Such as is described before, ver. 6. Or have I not rather been a Paradise unto you, and a storehouse of all accommodations and comforts? It well appeareth that they have wanted nothing but thankful hearts, by this, that fullness hath bred forgetfulness: for so stout they are grown by reason of their great wealth, that they will not come at me, nor acknowledge my sovereignty over them: but will needs be petty God's within themselves: We are Lord's, say they, and will not now take it as we have done. The ancient Greek rendereth it, We will not be ruled.

Ver. 32. Can a maid forget her ornaments?] Not lightly or easily, as minding them many times more then is meet, and then their ornaments are but the nest of pride: and whilst they think to gain more credit by their garments then by their graces, they are much mistaken.

Yet my people have forgotten me days without number] i. e. Time out of mind: when as God should be remembered at every breath we draw, since from him we have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , life and breath, as the Apostle saith elegaintly, Acts 17.25. But into such a dead Lethargy hath sin cast most people, that God is forgotten by them, add his Service neglected.

Ver. 33. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love?] Cur bonificas? So Calvin rendereth it, why dost thou make good thy way? that is, set a good gloss upon it, even the best side outwards. The same word is used of Jesabels dressing her head, 2 King. 9.30. What need this whorish tricking and trimming, if all were right with thee?

Therefore also hast thou taught the wicked ones thy way] Heb. the wicked women (for the word is feminine) those she-sinners may learn immodesty of thee, who are meretricissimae. And for this it is that thou art pointed at with the finger as it were, verse. 34, 35.

Ver. 34. Also in thy skirts] In the skirts of thy garments. Heb. in thy wings: an allusion say some, to birds of prey, which stain their wings with the blood of lesser fouls.

Is the blood of the souls] The life-blood of innocent poor ones, of Prophets especially, ver. 30.

I have not found it by secret search] Non in suffessione, as Calvin rendereth it, as an allusion to Exod. 22.2.

But upon all these] that is, in propatulo, in public view. Or, super haec omnia, because they told thee of all thy faults.

Ver. 35. Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent] Antiquum obtines, thou standest still upon thy justification: this doubleth thy fault. Homo agnoscit, Deus ignoscit. The best way, is, to plead guilty: confess and go free.

Ver. 36. why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way] Or, changing thy way, as hoping some way to mend thyself. Keep home, and trust God: go further and fare worse. Creatures were never true to those that trusted them.

Ver. 37. Yea thou shalt go from him] Or, from hence, into captivity.

With thine hands] Lamenting as did Tamar, 2 Sam. 13.19.

For the Lord hath rejected thy confidence] Where the beginning is carnal confidence, the end is shame of any business, even of this life.

CHAP. III.

Ver. 1. THey say] Vulgo dicitur, saith the Vulgar; Dicendo dicitur, say others. They say, and they say well, for they have good law for it, Deut. 24.4. But I am above law, saith God, and will deal with thee, not according to mine ordinary Rule, but according to my Prerogative. Thou shalt be a Paradox to the Bible: for I will do that in favor of thee, which I have inhibited others in like case to do, and that scarce any man would do, though there were no law to inhibit it, as one here Paraphraseth.

Shall not the land be greatly polluted] Great sins do greatly pollute; that of adultery especially: for this is an heinous crime, yea it is an iniquity to be punished by the Judges, Job. 31.11.

But thou hast plaid the harlot—yet return unto me] Haec est Dei clementia insuperabilis; God's mercy is matchless. No man, no God would show mercy as he doth, Mic. 7.18. Mal. 3.7. Zach. 1.3. He followeth after those that run from him, as the Sun-beams do the passenger that goeth from them; and as is sweetly set forth by our Savior in those three Parables, of the lost groat, the lost sheep, and the lost son, Luk. 15. Paul alloweth of Mark, 2 Tim. 4.11. (though before he had refused him, Act. 15.38.) and willeth others to entertain him, Colos. 4.10, 11. Let none despair that hath but a mind to return to God, from whom he hath deeply revolted. There is a natural Novatianisme in the timorous conscience of convinced sinners, to doubt and question pardon for sins of Apostasy, and falling after repentance. But this need not be, we see here. Pernicious was Ahitophels counsel to Absalom, Go in to thy Fathers Concubines: this he judged such an injury as David would never put up: yet return again to me saith the Lord, and all shall be well betwixt us.

Ver. 2. And see where thou hast not been lien with] Pouring out thy spiritual whoredoms, as Papists now do with their Crosses, Chapels, Pictures set up in all places.

In the ways hast thou sat for them] For thy customers and copesmates, like a common strumpet. See Gen. 38.19. Ezek. 16.24, 25, 31.

As the Arabian in the wilderness] As high-way-robbers wait for and way-lay passengers, making it thy trade.

Ver. 3. Therefore the showers have been withholden] Drought and dearth have ensued upon thy sin. By showers here understand the former rain, called also the seeds rain, Isaiah 20.23.

And there hath been no latter rain] That commonly came a little before harvest, and was much desired.

And thou hadst a whores forehead] Quam pudet non esse impudentem, that can blush no more then a sackbut. We have heard (saith a Reverend writer) of Virgins, which at first seemed modest, blushing at the motions of an honest love; who being once corrupt and debauched, have grown flexible to easy entreaties to unchastity, and from thence boldly lascivious, so as to solicit others, so as to prostitute themselves to all comers, yea (as the Casuists complain of some Spanish stews) to an unnatural filthiness. The modest beginnings of sin will make way for immodest proceeding. Let men take heed of that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 i. e. inverecundia, shamelessness, that Caligula liked so well in himself: and that the heriticks called Effrontes professed. 'It is an hard thing to have a brazen face and a broken heart.

Ver. 4. Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me] And is not this extreme impudence? hast thou a face thus to collogue? Hypocritis nihil impudentius: hypocrites are impudent flatterers: they would, if they could, cozen God of his heaven.

Thou art the guide of my youth] i. e. My dear husband, Prov. 2.17. Fair words are light-cheap, and may make fools fain. But God is not to be so courted and complemented.

Ver. 5. Will he reserve his anger forever?] Will he not? Nah. 1.2. and is there not good reason he should do so, so long as you speak and do evil things as you can, obstinately persisting in thy sinful practices? He that repenteth with a contradiction (saith Tertullian ) God will pardon him with a contradiction. Thou repentest, and yet continuest in thy sins. God will pardon thee, and yet send thee to bell: There's a pardon with a contradiction.

As thou couldest] i. e. To thine utmost. Nolunt solita peccare, saith Seneca of some: they strive to out-sin themselves, and others.

Ver. 6. The Lord also said unto me in the days of Josiah] This is the beginning of a new Sermon, as most hold. Josiah was a religious Prince, and a zealous reformer: and hypocrisy reigned exceedingly in his days, as we see here: and as holy Bradford in his letters complaineth, that it did likewise in King Edward the sixths days (who was our English Josiah ) among the great ones especially, who were very corrupt.

She is gone up upon every high mountain] sc. Ever since Solomon's mind began to be corrupted, 1 King. 11.4. and now she smarteth for it: yet is not Judah warned by her example.

Ver. 7. And I said after she had done] Or, yet I said: but I lost my sweet words upon her.

Ver. 8. And I saw] That which others could not so easily discern; viz. their hypocrisy and hollow-heartedness, their incorrigibleness also and refusing to he warned by what had befallen their brethren. God looked that Israel's corrections should have been Jerusalem's instructions, and that by their lashes she should have been lessoned: which because she was not, he is highly displeased, and speaks of it here in a very angry dialect.

Yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not] But slighted the kindness of such a caution, and despised the counsel that was written to her in her sisters blood.

But went and played the harlot also] Being therefore the worse, because she should have been the better of the two.

Ver. 9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom] Or (better) through the vocalnesse of it, the loudness of her lewdness. Heb. The voice or noise of her whoredom, the fame and brute of it: for it is talked of far and near.

And committed adultery with stones and with stocks] Haec ferae omnia in coecum, erroneum, meretrioiumque Papatum apt hodie torqueri possunt: Do not Idolatrous Papists even the same?

Ver. 10. Hath not turned unto me with her whole heart] Josiah did, but the people did not: as soon appeared, when in the next Kings reign they fell off as fast as leaves do in Autumn. And so they did here, when Queen Mary set up Popery.

Ver. 11. The back sliding Israel hath justified herself] That is, she is less guilty and faulty of the two: because Judah sinned against more means and mercies; and because she received not instruction by her sisters destruction; Therefore shall she feel, what she feared not at a distance: therefore shall she taste of Israel's rod, because she would not hear it: she that would not tremble at her sisters divorce, must herself be divorced, and be judged as women that break wedlock, Ezek. 16.38. bearing her own shame for her sins that she had committed, more abominable then theirs, ver. 52.

Ver. 12. Go and proclaim these words toward the North] i. e, Toward Assyria and Media, into which Countries the ten tribes had been carried captive. And although they cannot hear thee, yet in time this prophecy may be brought to their hearing: and the men of Judah, mean while, may be wrought upon thereby.

And I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you] Heb. I will not make my face to fall: I will not further frown upon you, or deal hardly with you.

I will not keep anger forever] Heb. I will not keep forever. There is nothing that a man is more ready to keep than his wrath. Therefore the Hebrews put keep, for keep wrath; so Psal. 103.9. Levite. 19.18. See Ver. 5.

Ver. 13. Only acknowledge thine iniquity] Thus favor is promised to the ten captivated tribes, sed per modulum unius poenitentiae, but upon condition of their true repentance: one part whereof is confession of sin, Prov. 28.13. Psal. 32.4. When thy sins and God's wrath meeting in thy conscience (saith one) make thee deadly sick, then pour forth thy soul in confession; and as it will ease thee (as vomiting useth to do) so also it will move God to pity, and to give thee cordials and comforts to restore thee again.

Ver. 14. Turn, O backsliding children] See on Zach. 1.3.

For I am married unto you] And, as I hate putting away, Mal. 2.16. so I can receive to favor a wise that hath been disloyal, ver. 1. and after a divorce.

And I will take you one of a City] i. e. Though but a few, as Isa. 10.11, 12. and 17.6. and 24.3. all the rest hardening their hearts by unbelief. This hath been principally fulfilled in the days of the Gospel.

Ver. 15. And I will give you Pastors according to my heart] God gives faithful Pastors oft for the sake of but a few that are there to be converted; & vilissimus pagus est palatium eburneum, in quo est Pastor & credentes aliqui, saith Luther: the poorest village is an Ivory Palace, if there be but in it a Pastor and some few believers. Such Pastors as God here promiseth (and more largely describeth, chap. 23. and Ezek. 34.) are special gifts of God: I will give you Pastors. David, after he had discomfited the Amalekites, sent gifts to his friends in Judah, 1 Sam. 30.26. Great Alexander, when he had prevailed at the river Granicum, and was now ascended into the upper parts of Asia, sent back many gifts, to assure them of his love in Macedonia. The like doth God to his Church by sending them Pastors, with such two adjuncts as are here. 1. Adherent, his own approbation. 2. Inherent, skill to teach the people. See Eph. 4.8. with the Notes.

Ver. 16. They shall say no more the Ark, &c.] When the Gospel shall be preached, the ancient ceremonies shall be abolished. This was not so easily believed, and is therefore here again and again assured.

Ver. 17. They shall call Jerusalem] i. e. The Church Christian.

The throne of the Lord] The throne of glory, chap. 4.21. So Exod. 17.16. because the hand upon the throne of the Lord, that is, say some, Amalecks hand upon the Church: which is elsewhere also called the Temple of God.

Neither shall they walk anymore, &c.] i. e. Not at random, but by rule, Eph. 5.15. Heb. not anymore after the sight of their heart, i. e. as themselves thought good, but as God directeth them.

Ver. 18. In that day shall the house of Judah walk with the house of Israel] All the Elect shall be reunited in Christ: unless we shall understand it of the last reduction of the Nation into one, Isa. 11.13. Ezek. 37.16, 22. Hos. 1.11.

And they shall come together out of the land of the North] i. e. Out of the place of their captivity, whereby was figured our spiritual captivity, &c.

Ver. 19. But I said, How shall I put thee among the children?] How, but by my free grace alone, since thou hast so little deserved it? the causes of our Adoption, see Eph. 1.5, 6.

And give thee a pleasant land] The heavenly Canaan, which is here fitly called a land of desire or delight, an heritage or possession of goodliness, a land of the H • sts (or desires ) of the Nations.

And I said, thou shalt call me My Father] And, My Father affectionately uttered, is an effectual prayer. As Pater I brevissima quidem vex est, sed omnia complectitur, saith Luther, i. e. Ah Father is but a little word, but very comprehensive; it is such a piece of eloquence, as far exceedeth the rowlings of Demosthenes, Cicero or whatsoever most excellent Orator.

Ver. 20. Surely as a treacherous wife, &c.) This ye have done, but that's your present grief, and now you look upon your former disloyalties with a lively hatred of them: holding that the time past of your life may suffice to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, &c. 1 Pet. 4.3.

Ver. 21. A voice was heard upon the high places] Where they were wont to worship Idols, now they weep for their sins, and pray for pardon.

For they have perverted their ways] This is it that now draweth from them prayers and tears. See Chap. 31.18. Lam 5.14 Oi nalanu, chi chattanu. Woe worth us, that ever we thus sinned. Some understand those words, A voice is heard, as showing God's readiness to hear penitent sinners so soon as they begin to turn to him, even before they speak, as the Father of the Prodigal met him. &c.

Ver. 22. Return ye backsliding children] Give the whole turn, and not the half-turn only. So Act. 2.38. Peter said to them that were already pricked at heart, Repent ye, even to a transmentation; and chap. 3.19. Repent ye, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Repent not only for sin but from sin too: be through in your repentance, set it be such as shall never be repented of, 2 Cor. 7.10. It is not a slight sorrow that will serve Apostates turn; it must be deep and down-right.

And I will heal your back slidings] Pardon your sins, and heal your natures. I will love you freely, and cause your broken bones to rejoice, Hos. 14.4. Isa. 19.22. Oh sweetest promise I what wonder then that their hard hearts were forthwith melted by it into such a gracious compliance, as followeth.

Behold we come to thee] See Zach. 13.9. with the Note.

Ver. 23. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills] Heb. Truly in vain from the hills; the multitude; the mountains; it is like to that, Hos. 14.3. Ashur shall not save us—neither will we say anymore to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods. See the Notes there.

Truly in the Lord our God] They trust not God at all, that not alone.

Ver. 24. For shame hath devoured the labor of our Fathers] That shameful thing Baal hath done it, Chap. 11.13. Hos. 9.10. he hath even eaten up our cattle and our Children: of whom if any be left, yet there is nothing left for them: And this we now see (long and last) poenitentia ducti, & nostro malo edocti, having bought our wit, and paid dear for our learning. And may not many ill husbands amongst us say as much of their drunkenness and wantonness? See Prov. 5.9, 10, 11, 12. with the Notes.

Ver. 25 We lie down in our shame] We that once had a whores forehead, ver. 3. and seemed past grace, are now sore ashamed of former miscarriages, yea our confusion covereth us (as Psal. 44.15.) because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our Fathers from our youth unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of our God. Lo here a dainty form and pattern of penitent confession, such as is sure to find mercy. Haec sane omni tempore Christiana est satisfactio, non meritoria aliqua Papistica atque nugivendula. Only we must not acknowledge sin with dry eyes, but point every sin with a tear, &c.

CHAP. IIII.

Ver. 1. IF thou wilt return O Israel] As thou seemest willing to do, and for very good reason, Chap. 2.22, 23, 24. Thou art but a beaten rebel, and to stand it out with me is to no purpose: thou must either turn or burn. Neither will it help thee to return feinedly; for I love truth in the inward parts, and hate hypocrisy, halting, and tepidity. If therefore thou wilt return.

Return unto me] Return as far as to me; not from one evil course to another, chap. 2.36. (for that is but to be tossed, as a ball, from one of the devils hands to the other) but to me with thy whole heart, seriously, sincerely and zealously: for Non amat, qui non zelat. To a tyrant thou shalt not turn, but to one that will both assist thee, Prov. 1.23. and accept thee, Zach. 1.2.

And if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight] i. e. Thine Idols out of thine house and out of thine heart, Ezek. 14.3, 4.

Then shalt thou not remove] But still dwell in the land and do good; feeding on faith, as Tremellius rendereth that, Psal. 37.3.

Ver. 2. And thou shalt swear The Lord liveth] Not by Baal shalt thou swear, or other Idols, but by the living God, or by the life of God. The Egyptians once sware by the life of Pharaoh, as the proud Spaniards now do by the life of their King. But, to speak properly, none liveth but the Lord: and none should be sworn by but he alone; an oath being a proof of the Divine Power, which one worshippeth. The Pythagoreans used to swear by 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Quaternity, which they called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the fountain of eternal being: and this doubtless was the same with 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Jehovah.

In truth, in judgment and in righteousness] Vere, rite & juste. 1. In truth, Rom. 9.1. that is, 1. To that which is true, least we fall into perjury, Lev. 19.12. And, 2. Truly, agreeable both to the intentions of our mind (not deceitfully, Psal. 24.2.) and agreeable also to the intentions of him that ministereth the oath, and not with mental reservations, as Romish Priests oft swear.

In judgment] Or, considerately, duly weighing the conditions and circumstances: not rashly and unadvisedly, Levite. 5.4. 1 Sam. 14.39. as those that swear in heat and choler, swear when they should fear, Deut. 10.20. and 28.58. The Grecians when they would swear by their Jupiter, out of the mere dread and reverence of his name forbore to mention him. And the Egyptians bore such respect to Mercurius Trismegistus, that they held it not lawful to pronounce his name lightly and rashly. This is check to many swearing Pseudo-Christians. Such also as swear in jest, will (without repentance) go to hell in earnest. The ancient form of taking and imposing an oath was, Give glory to God, Josh. 7.19. Joh. 9.24.

And in righteousness] 1. Promising by oath, lawful and possible things only; not making an oath a bond of iniquity, 1 Sam. 25.21, 32. and 28.10. 2. Careful to perform what we have sworn, though to our own hindrance, Psal. 15.4.

And the Nations shall bless themselves in him] Or shall be blessed in him, that is, in that God to whom thou returnest, and by whom thou thus swearest. They shall turn to God by thine example, and hold themselves happy in such a good turn.

Ver. 3. Break up your fallow-ground] Novellate vobis novale: Tertullian rendereth it, Renovate vobis novamen novum, put off the old man, and put on the new. See Hos. 10.11. with the Notes. By the practice of Repentance, runcate, exstirpate, root up and rid your hearts and lives of all vile lusts and vicious practices. The breaking up of sinful hearts, may prevent the breaking down of a sinful Nation.

Sow not among thorns] i. e. Cares and lusts of life, fitly called thorns, —because 1. They prick and gore the soul. 2. Harbor the old Serpent. 3. Choke the Word: there's no looking for a harvest in a hedge. Stock them, and stub them up therefore, 1 Pet. 2.1. Jam. 1.21. do not plow here, and make a bawk there, &c.

Ver. 4. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord] There is a twofold circumcision, Corporis & Cordis, Outward and Inward: that without this availeth nothing, Gal. 6.15. See the inward described, Colos. 2.11. It is the putting off the old Adam with his actions. It is purgatio animae & abjectio vitiorum, saith Origen, the cleansing of the soul, and the casting away of sin, that filthy foreskin, that superfluity of naughtiness. It is a wonderful work of the holy Spirit wrought by the Word upon the Saints at their first conversion, whereby corruption of nature is wounded, beloved sins cast away with sorrow, and the sinner received into an everlasting communion with God and his Saints: Those that are not thus circumcised, are not Israelites but Ishmaelites: whereas Jether, though by nature an Ishmaelite, 1 Chron. 2.17. yet being thus inwardly circumcised, he was for his Faith and Religion called and counted an Israelite, 2 Sam. 17.25. See Philip. 3.3, 4, 5.

And take away the fore-skin of your heart] Not of the flesh only (see 1 Pet. 3.21.) as the carnal Israelite, who rests in the work done, glorious in outward privileges, neglects the practice of religion and power of godliness, pursueth him that is born after the spirit, the Israelite indeed, &c. and is therefore dispriviledged, hated and defied by God, as Goliath that uncircumcised Philistine was by David, dead in sins and the uncircumcision of the flesh, Colos. 2.13. subject to utter excision, Gen. 17.14. as having no portion in Christ nor in Canaan. Take away therefore the fore-skin of the heart: stick not in the bark, pare not off the fore-skin of the flesh only: off with the whole body of sin, Col. 2.11. begin at Adams sin, bewail that: then set upon the beloved sin, out with that eye, off with that hand: cast away all your transgressions with as great indignation as angry Zipporah did her child's fore-skin. Take unto you for this end the sword of the Spirit, the word sharper then those stones that she made use of, Exod. 4.24. consider the threats (these will work faith, and that will work fear) apply the Promises, Deut. 30.6. Ezek. 36.26, 28. doubt not of God's Power, but pray him to thrust his holy hand into your bosoms, and to fetch off the filthy fore-skin that is there. Loe this is the way, walk in it.

And burn that none can quench it] When once it hath caught your thorns, ver. 3.

Ver. 5. Declare ye in Judah] As if the Prophet should say, I do but lose my labor in calling upon you to mortify your corruptions and to cast away all your transgressions. Uncircumcised ye are in heart and ears, and so will be. Now therefore stand upon your guard against the approaching enemy, and defend yourselves, if at least you are able, from the evil that is coming upon you. Mott up yourselves against God's fire, ver. 4.

Ver. 6. Set up the standard towards Zion] All this seemeth to be Ironically spoken, as ver. 5.

For I will bring evil from the North] i. e. From Babylon. Ab aquilone nihil boni. There is also another Babylon spoken of in the Revelation, which to the true Church hath of long time been lerna malorum: and so the poor persecuted Protestants in Poland feel at this day.

Ver. 7. The Lion is come up from his thicket] i. e. Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon, where he lieth safe, ficut leo in vepreto, and will shorly show himself for a mischief to many people, who shall feel his force and fierceness.

Ver. 8. For this, gird you with sack-cloth] Repent, if at least it be not too late, as the next words hint, that now it was.

For the fierce wrath of the Lord is not turned back from us] Or because the fierce wrath of the Lord will not turn from us: it will have its full forth. See Zeph. 2.2. with the Notes.

Ver. 9. The heart of the King shall perish] His courage shall be quailed, and he shall be strangely crest-fallen. This was fulfilled in Zedekiah, who sought to save himself by flight, but could not.

Ver. 10. Surely thou hast greatly deceived this people] sc. by those false Prophets, ver. 9. Confer 1 King. 19.22, &c. Ezek. 14.9. This God doth as a just Judge, punishing sin with sin. The words may be rendered question-wise, Hast thou indeed thus deceived this people? Is it possible that Thou shouldest have an active or so much as a permishve hand in such a business?

When as the sword reacheth unto the soul] i. e. To the heart, it goes as far as it can. — Capulo tenus abdidit ensem. See Psal. 69.11.

Ver. 11. A dry wind of the high places] Ventus urens & exiccans as the North wind is; understand hereby the King of Babylon, as ver. 6. blasting and wasting all before him.

Not to fan nor to cleanse] But to dissipate and destroy.

Ver. 12. Even a full wind from those places] An impetuous and stiff wind, such as shall carry away chaff, and corn, and all.

Now also will I give sentence against them] Heb. utter judgments with them, i. e. I will speak no more by my Prophets, but by my Judgments.

Ver. 13. Behold he shall come up as clouds] Swiftly, and numerously.

His Horses are swifter then Eagles] Which, though the biggest of all fouls, yet fly with greatest speed.

Woe unto us, for we are spoiled] This he premiseth fitly to his exhortation to Repentance, ver. 14. q. d. We are utterly undone, if Repentance prevent not.

Ver. 14. O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness] Which defileth it worse then any leprosy, or jakes, doth the body, Mar. 7.19, 20, 23. Thy hands thou often washest (and other outward parts; placeing therein no small religion) thou canst not wash them in innocence; wash them therefore in tears: and when thou hast so done, cry to God with Austin, Lava lachrymas meas Domine: ipsae enim lachrymae sunt lacrymabiles; Wash my very tears, Lord; for they are lamentable ones. Beg of him to bathe thy soul in the blood of his Son, to wash thee thoroughly from thine iniquity, and to cleanse thee from thy sin, Psal. 51.2.

That thou mayest be saved] i. e. Have safety here, and salvation hereafter.

How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?] Heb. in the midst of thee, in the very heart of thee? Creep in they will: but why should they lodge there? why should the Devil be at Inn with us? be any man's bed-fellow, as he is the angry man's, Ephes. 4.26? David oft communed with his own heart, and his spirit made diligent search for such vagrants, Psal. 77.6. Scopabam spiritum mem (so some render it) I swept out my spirit. Carnal hearts are stews of unclean thoughts, slaughter-houses of cruel and bloody thoughts, exchanges and shops of vain and vile thoughts, a very forge and mint of false Politick undermining thoughts, yea oft a little hell of confused and black imaginations. They had need therefore to be carefully cleansed, and kept with all custody. Grace beginnerh at the center, and from thence goeth to the circumference. God and Nature begin at the heart: Art begins with the face and outward lineaments; so doth Hypocrisy at outward paintings and expressions; it cleanseth the outside of the cup and platter, when the inside is full of ravening and wickedness, Luke 11.39.

Ver. 15. For a voice declareth from Dan] which was first called Laish, then Dan, and after that (in honor of Tiberius Caesar) Cesarea Philippi. It was the utmost bound of Israel Northward: and therehence came a rumour of the enemy entering, and making his first impression into the Land; and so, by Mount Ephraim, to the Jews of Jerusalem. This, Jeremy by a spirit of Prophecy foretelleth long before, against their vain confidence of better.

And publisheth affliction] The same Hebrew word signifieth vanity or iniquity in the verse afore-going. Sin is the mother of misery and molestation.

Ver. 16. Make ye mention to the Nations] i. e. To the Jews who haply are called the Nations, because once better accounted of then all Nations: thus the Saints are called All things, Colos. 1.18. and the Rabbin's have a saying that those seventy souls which came down to Egypt with Jacob, were more worth then all the Seventy Nations of the world besides.

That watchers are come] Nebuchadnezzar's life-guard say some. Heb. Notserim, i. e. Nebuchadnezzarens. Others give a better reason of the word from the next Verse.

And give out their voice against the Cities of Judah] Whilst they invade them cum barritu militari, with a horrid and horrible noise, such as the Turks use nowadays also, when they set upon any City to storm it.

Ver. 17. As keepers of a field are they against her] They have straightly besieged her; so that there is no escaping their hands.

Ver. 18. Thy ways and thy doings have procured these things unto thee] This is like as we use to say to our children when they have taken cold or got any harm, This is your gadding and dabbling in the dirt, your going in the snow, your eating of fruit, &c.

This is thy wickedness] i. e. Merces malitiae, the wages of thy wickedness, the fruit of thy folly.

Because it is bitter] Thou hast given God a bitter pill, as it were, that went to his heart: and now he hath given thee as bitter a potion, that reacheth unto thine heart.

Ver. 19. My bowels, my bowels] So my head, my head, 2 King. 4.19. My leanness, my leanness, Isa. 24.16. Thus the Prophet here, to express his inexpressible grief for the calamities of his people.

I am pained] as a woman in travel.

At the very heart] Heb. at the walls of my heart, sc. to see, in spirit, the City-walls surprised.

My hear maketh a noise in him] Saltitat & palpitat ut in pavidis & perculsis fi • ri solet, leaps and throbs.

I cannot hold my peace] Heb. I will not.

Because thou hast heard] i. e. I have heard in the Spirit, and am affected with it, as if already come.

Ver. 20. Destruction upon destruction] Fluctus fluctum trudit, one mischief upon another, the sword after famine, captivity after a seige.

For the whole land is spoiled] Or, plundered: which word we first heard of in the Swedish wars.

Ver. 21. How long shall I see the standard?] Sad sights and doleful ditties are common in times of war.

And hear the sound of the trumpet] Tubam turbamque hostium.

Ver. 22. For my people is foolish, they have not known me] To know and to worship God aright, is the only true wisdom, saith Lactantius.

They are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge] In terrenis Lyncei, in coelestibus talpae. Wise the wicked are in their generation, subtle and sly: but so is the Serpent, or the Fox: the Swine that wandereth can make better shift to get home then the Sheep can to the fold. They have received the spirit of this world, 1. Cor. 2.12. the Devil also worketh effectually in them, as a Smith in his forge, Ephes. 2.2. Hence they are wise to do evil. Elymas was a vere subtle fellow, but the Devils child; and so the more dangerous, Acts 13.10. Magnum ingenium & magna tentatio, saith Vincentius Lirinenses concerning Origen, who had a great wit, but proved a great scandal to the Church. The Devil covets to be adorned by thee, said Austin to one that was wittily wicked. Surely as Jet gathereth dross and refuse things to itself, but lets go gold and precious things: so do the Worlds wizards.

Ver. 23. I beheld the earth, and loe it was without form and void] Tohu vabohu, as Gen. 1.2. sightlesse and shapelesse. Sermo est hyperbolicus; all was in a confusion: what shall it then be at the last day?

Ver. 24. I beheld the mountains, and loe they trembled] War is a woe, that no words, how wide soever, can sufficiently utter.

And all the hills moved lightly] As being lightened of their burden, (saith a Rabbin) trees and houses.

Ver. 25. I beheld, and loe there was no man] But all killed, captived, or fled. Judea lay utterly waste for Seventy years. Insomuch that after the slaughter of Gedaliah, when all, men, women and children, fled into Egypt, there was not a Jew left in the Country.

And all the Birds of the heavens were fled] Birds were given men for food, Physic, and delight, as companions of his life; therefore it is reckoned both here and chap. 9.10. as a judgment to lose them.

Ver. 26. At the presence of the Lord, &c.] Who was the chief Agent: as Titus the Roman Emperor also acknowledged after he had destroyed Jerusalem: Non se id fecisse dixit, sed Deo iram suam declaranti manus suas accommodasse, he said it was not He that had done it, but that He had only lent his hands to God, justly displeased at that Nation.

Ver. 27. Yet I will not make a full end] God kept the room empty all those Seventy years, till the return of the natives.

Ver. 28. Because I have spoken it, &c.] Quod scripsi scripsi, said Pilate, I will not alter it: See the like, Ezek. 24.13, 14.

Ver. 29. Every City shall be forsaken] See ver. 25.

Ver. 30. Though thou rentest thy face with paint] Jezebel like, 2 King. 9.30. See Ezek. 23.40.

In vain shalt thou make thyself fair] i. e. Seek to ingratiate with the Chaldees, by submitting to them, and worshiping their Idols.

Thy lovers will despise thee] As an old withered strumpet, and now out of date See Ezek. 16.36. & 23.22.

Ver. 31. As of her that bringeth forth her first child] Primiparae: such have greatest pains and least patience, oft.

For my soul is wearied because of Murderers] Once her Paramours, her Sweethearts. There is nothing got by comporting with Idolaters. The Duke of Medina 's sword knew no difference between Papists and Protestants in Eighty eight, and that they should have found, had the Spaniard then prevailed.

CHAP. V.

Ver. 1. RUn to and fro] Spaciamini, scrutamini. Go as many of you as ye please: the verbs are plural.

In the streets of Jerusalem] Where it was strange there should be such a rarity of righteous ones. But the faithful City was now become an harlot, Esa. 1.21. Like as Rome is at this day.

She had a Mancinel, a Savanorola, and some few other Jeremiah's, to tell her her own: but she soon took an order with them. The Primitive Christians called Heathens, Pagans; because country people living in pagis, that is, in Hamlets and Villages, were heathenish for most part, after that Cities were converted, and had many good people in them: but Jerusalem here afforded not any one, hardly.

If ye can find a man] i. e. A godly, a zealous man. For homines permulti, vire perpauci, saith Herodotus: there is a great paucity of good people. Diogenes is said to have sought for a good man in Athens with a lantern and candle at Noon-day. And once, when he had made an O yes in the market-place, crying out 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Hear O ye men, and thereupon company came about him to hear what the matter was, he rated them away again with this speech, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , I called for men and not for varlets. Job was a man every inch of him; See the Notes on Job 1.1. So was Moses that man of God, Daniel that man of desires, John Baptist, then whom there arose not a greater among all that were born of woman; Paul that little man, but who did great exploits: Athanasius and Luther, who stood out against all the world, and prevailed. But not many such: blessed be God that any such. Cicero observeth that scarce in an Age was born a good Poet. And Seneca saith Such as Clodius was, we have enow: but such as Cato are hard to be found. The Host of Nola being bid to summon the good men of the Town to appear before the Roman Censor, gat him to the Church-yard, and there called at the graves of the dead: for he knew not where to call for a good man alive. God himself sought for a man that might stand up in the gap, but met not with any such one, Ezek. 22.30.

And I will pardon it] Sodom's sins cried loud to God for vengeance; so did now Jerusalem's. But had there been but a voice or two more of righteous & religious persons there, their prayers had outcryed them. A few birds of Song are shriller, then many crocitating birds of prey.

Ver. 2. And though they say The Lord liveth] i. e. Albeit they talk religiously (as those pretenders also did, Isa. 66.5.) and make a great flaunt, as if some great matter (with Simon Magus, Acts 8.9.) yet they are arrant Hypocrites, and therefore odious to me who desire truth in the inward parts, Psal. 51.6. These neither say the truth, nor do it, 1 Joh. 3.10.

Ver. 3. O Lord are not thine eyes upon the truth?] And can these painted Hypocrites hope ever to please thee? how much are they mistaken?

Thou hast stricken them, but they have not grieved] As being past feeling, of a dead and dedolent disposition: like naughty boys, which are the worse for a whipping: or Solomon's drunkard who is beaten but never the better, Prov. 23.35. There is no surer sign of a carnal Israelite, of a profligate professor, then to be senseless or incorrigible under public judgments.

Ver. 4 Therefore I said] i. e. I thought with myself.

Surely these] sc. That swear falsely, and refuse to be reformed; &c,

Are poor] Of the rascality; under law; base and beggarly; who neither know God's will, nor hold themselves much bound to do it. Of the poorer sort in Sweden it is storied, that they do always break the Sabbath, saying that 'It is for Gentlemen only to keep that day.

Ver. 5. I will get me unto the great men] Who have been better bred, and abound with liesure, and other helps to holy living.

But these have altogether broken the yoke] Of God, of the Law, and of Discipline. These are lawless and awless, and think they may lay the rains in the neck, and run riot.

Ver. 6. Therefore a Lyon of the forest shall slay them] So Nebuchadnezzar is called for his cruelty, a Wolf for his voracity, and a Leopard for his sliness and swiftness. All the malignities of other Creatures meet in the Churches enemies.

Ver. 7. How shall I pardon thee for this?] How with the safety of mine honor and justice? Swearing then by creatures (as by our Lady, by St. Anne, by this light, &c.) or by Idols, (as by the Mass, by the Rood. &c.) or by qualities (as by Faith, Troth, &c.) is not so small a sin as many deem it: since God maketh here a great question how he can pardon it. For why? it is a forsaking of him, a giving away his honor to another, a disgrace done to a man's self (since we always swear by the greater, Heb. 6.16.) and a means to procure his utter mine, without God's greater mercy, Amos 6.14. Zeph. 1.3, 4, 5. Men sport themselves with oaths, as the Philistines did with Sampson: which will at last pull the house about their ears, Zach. 5.4.

When I fed them to the full, they then committed adultery] Fullness in good men oft breeds forgetfulness, and in bad men, filthiness • . Gula vestibulum luxuriae, gluttony is the gallery that incontinency walketh through. The Israelites ate and drank and rose up to play, sc. with their Midianitish Mistrisses, to the provoking of God's fierce wrath. Fulness of bread made way to Sodom's sin. Lunatikes, when the Moon is declining and in the wain, are sober enough: but when full, more wild and exorbitant. Ceres and Bacchus are great friends to Venus, &c. Watch therefore, and feed with fear.

And assembled themselves by troops] Heb. they trooped themselves: such was their impudency.

Ver. 8. They were as fed horses] As stallions and stone-horses, that are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , mare-mad, as the Septuagint have it.

Ver. 9. Shall I not visit for these things] i. e. Shall I not take cognizance of them, and punish them surely and severely?

Ver. 10. Get yt up upon her battlements and destroy] Ascendete & exscindite, up and lay about you lustily. A commission granted out to the enemy, to execute Divine vengeance: God can never want a weapon to beat his rebels with.

But make not a full end] See chap. 4.27.

For they are not the Lord's] He disowneth them, and giveth them primo occupaturo, to him that shall first seize them; as the Pope took upon him to do, this Kingdom of England, in the days of Henry 8. whom he had excommunicated and deprived.

Ver. 11. For the house of Israel and the house of Judah] Both Aholah and Aholibah are stark naught: I renounce them therefore, and shall take no further charge of them. And why?

Ver. 12. They have belied the Lord] Or, They give the Lord the lie, (as Montfort Earl of Lecester gave his Sovereign Henry 3. the lie) Every unbeliever doth as much, upon the matter, 1 Joh. 5.10. See the Note there, Nam etiamsi non semper ore obloquitur, factis tamen obluctatur.

And said It is not he] sc. That speaketh, but the Prophets speak their own dreams and fancies. Or, as some render the text, He is not: there is no God to reward us if we do well, or to punish us, if we do worse. See my Common-place of Atheism.

Ver. 13. And the Prophets shall become wind] All their threats and bugbear-terms (devised on purpose to affright silly people, who are no wiser then to believe them) shall come to nothing: they are but bullatae nugae, bruta fulmina, bubbles of words, brute light-bolts: both they and their menaces shall vanish together, they shall blow over.

Thus shall it be done unto them] The evils that they foretell shall befall themselves, not us: & nos male mulctabimus ipsos, and we will see them soundly punished for false Prophets. Poor Jeremy was ill-handled amongst them many times, as we shall see in sundry Chapters following. Hoc fuit 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c.

Ver. 14. Because ye speak this word] Ungodly men shall one day answer (with all the world on fire about their ears) for all their hard and haughty speeches, Jude 15. They shall find that neither their own words are wind, but such as they shall give a sad account of: nor the Prophets words wind, unless it be to blow them into the bottomless lake, and to torment their consciences, haply, in the mean while, more then wind doth men's bodies, when gotten once into the veins, or bowels.

Behold I will make my words in thy mouth fire] That's somewhat worse then wind. Oh fear this fire, vengeance is in readiness for the disobedient, 2 Cor: 10.5. every whit as ready in God's hand as in the Ministers mouth. See Zach. 1.6. with the Notes.

Ver. 15. It is a mighty Nation, it is an ancient Nation] As ancient as Nimrod the first founder of that first of the four Monarchies. Hence Babylon is called the land of Nimrod, Mic. 5. whom the Poets call Saturn, and his son and successor Jupiter Belus.

A Nation whose language thou knowest not] For the Babylonians spake Syriac, Dan. 2.4. as did also the Jews afterwards, viz. after the captivity in Babylon, where they learnt it, and lost their own language.

Ver. 16. Their quiver is an open Sepulcher] As holding arrows that wound deadly, and that shall dispatch many being drenched in their gall.

Ver. 17. And they shall eat up thy harvest] Partim gladio, partim gula. Consider the calamity of war, and take course to prevent it.

Ver. 18. I will not make a full end with thee] In the midst of judgment, God remembereth mercy. See chap. 4 27. and here ver. 10. Howbeit, from this text some gather, that now in this last captivity of theirs God hath made a full end with the Jews, and that wrath is come upon them to the utmost, or to the end, as the Greek hath it, 1 Thes. 2.16.

Ver. 19. Wherefore doth the Lord our God all these things unto us] Why? could not they yet tell? And had they not been oft enough (if anything were enough) told wherefore? But they were never willing to hear on that ear. Some of our hearers turn the deaf ear, and say, What tell you us of these terrible things, &c. Many sit before us as senseless as the seats they sit on, the pillars they lean to, the dead bodies they tread upon.

So shall ye serve strangers] God loves to retaliate.

Ver. 20. Declare this in the house of Jacob, &c.] Cease not to ring it in their ears whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear: for it is a rebellious people; and of the number of those, who wink willingly, that they may not see when some unsavory potion is ministered to them, as Justin Martyr expresseth it.

Ver. 21. Hear now this O foolish people] They were strangely stupefied, and were therefore thus rippled up. Those that are in a Lethargy must have a double quantity of Physic to what others have.

And without understanding] Heb. Without an heart: Cor sapit & pulmo loquitur, &c. The heart is the symbol and seat of wisdom. See Hos. 7.11. with the Note.

Which have eyes and see not, &c.] See Isaiah 6.9. and 42.20. which have not senses habitually exercised to discern good and evil, Heb. 5. ult.

Ver. 22. Fear ye not me? saith the Lord] What? not me, whom the sea itself, that tumultuous and unruly creature, feareth and obeyeth? See Psal. 65.7. and 93.4.

Who have placed the sand for a bound to the sea] A weak bound for so furious an element. Vis maris infirmissimo sabuli pulvere cohibetur. But so I will have it: and then who or what can gainstand it? Now who can but be moved at such miracles? Know you not that I can soon make your arable, sailable? and that I can shake the earth as oft as there is a tempest in the Ocean, since the earth is founded not upon solid rocks but fluid waters? See 2. Pet. 3.5.

By a perpetual decree] Heb. by an ordinance of antiquity or of perpetuity; clapping it up close prisoner.

Ver. 23. But this people have a revolting and rebellious heart] Cor recedens & amaricans, gone they are, and return they will not. Apostates are dangerous creatures, and mischievous above others; witness Julian, once a forward professor; Lucian once a Preacher at Antioch: Staphylus and Latomus once great Lutherans, afterwards eager Popelings: Harding was the Target of Popery in England, (saith Peter Moulin ) against which he had once been a thundering Preacher in this land, wishing he could cry out against it, as loud as the bells of Oseney. The Lady Jane Gray, whose chaplain he had sometimes been, gave him excellent counsel in a letter: but he was revolted and gone past call.

Ver. 24. Neither say they in their hearts] God understands heart language, and expects a tribute there.

Let us now fear the Lord] Fear him for his goodness, as well as for his greatness, ver. 22. See Hos. 3.5. and Notes.

That giveth rain] Which God decreeth, Job 28.26. prepareth, Psal. 147.8. withholdeth, Am. 4.7. bestoweth, Deut. 28.12. Mat. 5.41. for a witness, Acts 17.14. of his general goodness, Mat. 5.45. and special providence, as a good householder, Act. 14.17.

He reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of harvest] Which if he should deny us but one year only, how easily might he starve us all? See his love, and fear his Name.

Ver. 25. Your iniquities have turned] See on Isa. 59.1, 2.

Ver. 26. For among my people are found wicked men] This was as bad as to find a nettle in a garden, unchastity in a Virgin, or the devil in Paradise. All the Lord's people are or ought to be holy.

They lie in wait] Or watch, or prey: See on Mic. 7.2.

They set a trap, they catch men] To spoil them, or slay them. Such a one was Otto the Popes Muscipulator (as the story styleth him) i. e. Mice-catcher, sent hither by Gregory 9. to take and take away our money: Tecelius sent by Leo 10. into Germany was another.

Ver. 27. As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit] i. e. Of illgotten goods, which will prove no such catch in the close, as they count upon.

Ver. 28. They are waxen fat, they shine] Pingues, nitidi sunt: cutem curant ut Epicuri de grege porci, fat they are and fair liking slick and smooth.

Yea they overpasse the deeds of the wicked] They out-sin others. Or as some sense it, they escape better then others, Psal. 73.5.

Ver. 29. Shall I not visit] See ver. 9.

Ver. 30. A wonderful and horrible thing] Res stupenda & horrenda, an abhorred filth, such as may well draw from us an hen, hen Domine Deus.

Is committed in the Land] Heb. in this land, where men are therefore the worse, because they should be better.

Ver. 31. The Prophets phophecy falsely, and the Priests bear rule] The chief Priests bearing rule in the causes and consciences of the people, had suborned their abbettours ambitious Prophets, who applauded their greatness for preferment, teaching the people to dote on the titles of Moses chair, High-Priests, the Temple of the Lord, &c. as if there were not many a goodly box in the Apothecaries shop without one dram of any drug therein. Such false Prophets were those Pharisees, factors for the Priests with their Corban: and such also for the Pope are the Jesuits and Seculars, which differ only as hot and cold poison, both destructive to the State.

What will ye do?] Alas, what will become of you at last?

CHAP. VI.

Ver. 1. O Ye children of Benjamin] These were the Prophets Country-men; for Anathoth was in that tribe: so was also part of Jerusalem itself. He forewarneth them of the enemies approach, and bids them be gone. The Benjamites were noted for valiant, but vicious, Judge. 19. Hos. 9.9. and 10 9.

And blow the trumpet in Tekoah] A place that had its name from trumpetting; so there is an elegan • in the Original: See the like Mic. 1.10, 14. It was twelve miles from Jerusalem, and six from Beth-haccerem. Here dwelt that wise woman suborned by Joah, 2 Sam. 14.2.

Set up a sign of fire] A Beacon, or such as the fire-cross is in Scotland; where (for a signal to the people when the enemy is at hand) two fire-brands set across, and pitched upon a spear, are carried about the Country.

Ver. 2. I have likened the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman] Certatim amatae Bucolicae puellae, some fair Shepherdess, to whom the Kings with their armies make love (but for no love) that they may destroy and spoil her.

Ver. 3. The Shepherds] See on ver. 2.

Ver. 4. Prepare ye war against her] Say those Chaldean sweet-hearts: this is their wooing language: like that of the English at Muscleborough.

Let us go up at noon] Let us lose no time: why burn we day-light by needless delays?

Ver. 5. Let us destroy her Palaces] Where we shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our hands with spoil, as Prov. 1.13.

Ver. 6. For thus hath the Lord of hosts said] q. d. It is he who setteth thes • Chaldean warriors awork: and giveth them these words of command. So Totilas, Gensericus and others were the scourge in God's hand; as now also the Turks are.

She is wholly oppression] She was full of judgment, righteousness lodged in her: but now nothing less.

Ver. 7. As a Fountain casteth out her waters] Incessantly, and abundantly. In Jeremia est continua quasi declamatio contra peccatum, &c.

Before me continually] This showeth their impudency.

Ver. 8. Be thou instructed] Affliction is a School-Master, or rather an Usher to the Law, which the Apostle calleth a School-Master to Christ. Affl • ction bringeth men to the Law, and the Law to Christ. Affliction is a Preacher, saith one: blow the Trumpet in Tekoah: what saith the Trumpet? Ee instructed O Jerusalem.

Least my soul depart from thee] Heb. be loosed or disjointed: least I loath thee more then ever I loved thee, and so thy ruin come rushing in, as by a sluice.

Ver. 9. They shall thoroughly glean the remnant] They shall make clean work of them, as Judge. 20.45.

Ver. 10. To whom shall I speak and give warning] Heb. protest, q. d. I know not where to meet with one teachable hearer in all Jerusalem.

Behold their ear is uncircumcised] Obstructed and stopped with the superfluity of naughtiness, worse then any ear-wax, or thick film overgrowing the organ of hearing. Tanquam monstra marina surda aure Dei verba praetereunt.

The Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach] They take reproofs for reproaches, as Luk. 11.45.

Ver. 11. Therefore I am full of the fury of the Lord] i. e. of curses and menaces against this obstinate people, as chap. 4.19.

I am weary with holding in] As hitherto I have done, and could still in compassion, but that of necessity I must obey God's will, and be the messenger of his wrath. It is a folly to think, that God's Ministers delight to fling daggers at men's breasts, or handfuls of hell-fire in their faces. Non nisi coactus, said he.

I will pour it forth] I will denounce it, and then God will soon effect it. See on chap. 1.10.

Ver. 12. With their fields and wives together] These are mentioned as most dear to them; who could haply say as he did,

Ver. 13. Everyone is given to covetousness] Avet avaritia, is coveting covetise, crieth still give, give with the horseleech: of which creature Pliny observeth, and experience showeth, that it hath no thorough passage, but taketh much in, and letting nothing out, breaks and kills itself with sucking. So doth the covetous man.

Everyone dealeth falsely] Heb. each one is doing falsehood; as if that were their common trade.

Ver. 14. They have healed also the hurt of — slightly] Heb. Upon a slight or slighted thing; secundum curationem mali leviculi, as men use to cure the slight hurts of their children by blowing on them only, or stroking them over. Thus these deceitful workers dealt by God's people: dallying with their deep and dangerous wounds, which they search not neither cauterize, according to necessary severity.

Saying, peace, peace] Making all fair weather before them, when as the storm of God's wrath was even breaking out upon them; such a storm as should never blow over.

Ver. 15. Were they at all ashamed] Their shamelessness was no small aggravation of their sin: Ita licet mult as abominationes commiserunt Papistae sine verecundia, verecundari tamen non possunt, saith Dr. John Raynols. Papists are frontless and shameless. Dr. Story for instance: I see nothing (said he before the Parliament in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth ) to be ashamed of, so less I see to be sorry for: but rather because I have done no more, &c. wherein he said there was no default in him but in the higher powers, who much against his mind, had labored only about the young and little sprigs, and twigs, whiles they should have struck at the root and rooted it out: meaning thereby the Lady Elizabeth, whom also he afterwards daily cursed in his grace afore meat. And concerning his persecuting and burning the Protestants, he denied not but that he was once at the burning of an herewig (for so he termed it) at Uxbridge (Mr. Denley Martyr) where he tossed a faggot at his face, as he was singing Psalms, and set a wine-bush of thorns under his feet, a little to prick him, &c.

Ver. 16. Stand ye in the ways and see] Duely deliberate and take time to consider, whether you are in the right or not.

Ask for the old paths] Chalked out in the word, and walked in by the Patriarchs. Think not, as some do now-adays, by running through all religions to find out the right: for this is viam per avia quaerere, as Junius phraseth it; to seek a way where none is to be found. How many religions are there now amongst us? So many men, so many minds. Non est sciens hodie qui novitates non invenit, as one complained of old, He's Nobody that cannot invent a new way; but as old wine is better, so is the old way: hold to it therefore. Quod primum verum, That which was first is true: but beware of new truths, that cannot be proved to be old, as 1 Joh. 2.7.

But they said We will not walk therein] So ver. 17. but they said We will not hearken: See the like resolute answers, chap. 22.21. and 44.16. savouring of a self-willed obstinacy. It is easier to deal with twenty men's reasons, then with one man's will. A willful man stands as a stake in the midst of a stream, lets all pass by him but he stands where he was. Luther saith of some of his Wittembergians, that so great was their obstinacy, so headstrong and headlong they were, that the four elements could not bear it. Jeremy seems here to say as much of his Hierosolymitanes. See ver. 18, 19.

Ver. 17. Also I set Watchmen over you] i. e. Priests and Prophets, to watch for your welfare.

Hearken to the sound of the trumpet] See on ver. 8.

We will not hearken] See on ver. 16.

Ver. 18. Therefore hear O ye Nations] For this people will not hear me, though I speak never so good reason. Scaliger telleth us that the nature of some kind of Amber is such, that it will draw to itself all kind of stalks of any herb, except Basilisk an herb called Capitalis, because it makes men heady, filling their brains with black exhalations: Thus those who by the fumes of their own corrupt wills are grown headstrong, will not be drawn by that which draweth others, who are not so prejudicated.

What is among them] What their sins are: Or, Quid in eos, sc. constituerim, what I have resolved to bring upon them: Or, Quae in eis, know O congregation (of the Saints) which art among them.

Ver. 19. Hear O earth] In case none else will hear.

Even the fruit of their thoughts] Why then should any man think that thought is free? free they are from men's courts and consistories: but not from God's eye, law, or hand.

Ver. 20. To what purpose cometh there to me incense] Cui bono, so long as it smelleth of the foul hand that offereth it? so long as you think to bribe me with it? See Isa. 1.14.

From Sheba] Whence the Greeks seem to have their word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 to worship: and the Arabians call God (the adequate object of divine worship) Sabim, and a Mystery Saba.

And the sweet cane] Heb. cane the good. The Septuagint render it cinamon; and the Vulgar Calamus: of which see Pliny, lib. 12. cap. 22.

From a far Country] From India saith Jerome, Haec omnia been in nostros Papistas quadrabunt.

Ver. 21. Behold I will lay stumbling blocks] Heb. Stumblements, i. e. occasions, preparations and means to work their ruth and ruin: what these are, see ver. 22.

Ver. 22. Thus saith the Lord] It is not in vain that this is so oft prefaced to the ensuing Prophecies. Dictum Jehovae is very emphatical, and authoritative.

Behold a people cometh from the North] This the Prophet had oft foretold, for forty years together; sed surdis fabulam, but he could not be believed.

Ver. 23. They shall lay hold on bow and spear] To destroy & eminus & cominus. both afar off, and at hand.

Their voice roareth like the sea] Which is so dreadful, that the horrible shriekings of the devils are set out by it, Jam. 2.19. They who would not hear the Prophets sweet words, shall hear the enemies roaring in the midst of their congregations, Psal. 74.4.

Ver. 24. Our hands wax feeble] He modestly reckoneth himself among the rest, though the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, Gen. 49.24. and his heart was fixed trusting in the Lord, Psal. 112.7.

Ver. 25. Go not out into the field] Since there is no peace to him that goeth out, nor to him that cometh in, 2 Chron. 15.5. but

Ver. 26. Gird thee with sack cloth, and wallow thyself in ashes] The very heathens did so when in danger of a merciless enemy: veniam irarum caelestium poscentes, saith Livy, seeking the pardon of their sins, and the favor of their God's.

Ver. 27. I have set thee for a Tower and a fortress] Or, a fortified watch-tower have I made thee among my people, i. e. To descry and discover their dispositions and affections.

Ver. 28. They are all grievous revolters] Heb. Revolters of revolters. Chaldee. Princes of revolters, arch-rebels. Jeremy (God's champion, such as was wont to be set forth completely armed at the Coronation of a King in this Nation) findeth and reporth them such here, and proveth it.

Walking with slanders] Trotting up and down as pedlers, dropping a tale here, and another there, contrary to Levite. 19.16.

They are brass and iron] Base and drossy, false and feculent metals; silver and gold they would seem to be, a sincere and holy people: but they are malae monetae, a degenerate and hypocritical generation: adulterini sunt nihil habentes probi, as Theodoret hath it here; naught, and good for naught: not unlike those stones brought home in great quantity by Captain Forbisher in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He thought them to be minerals and of good worth: but when there could be drawn from them neither gold nor silver, nor any other metal, they were cast forth to mend the high-ways.

Thy are all corrupters] Of themselves, and of others.