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

CHAP. L.

Ver. 1. THe word that the Lord spake against Babylon] Which was built by Nimrod: as Nineveh was afterwards by his nephew Ninus, Gen. 10.11. Of the greatness of this City, besides what we read in holy writ, much may be read in Herodotus and Pliny. It was the head-City of the Assyrian and Chaldean Monarchy, which lasted above 1700. years, till Cyrus the Persian took the Kingdom. Isaiah prophesied against it in several Chapters. Habakkuk maketh it his whole business. Jeremy had set forth how Sheshak, that is Balthasar, should drink the dregs of the cup of God's wrath, chap. 25.26. Here, and in the next Chapter, he discourseth it more at large, showing how it was that Babylon was to drink of that cup; and for more certainty, it is spoken of in this prophesy as already done.

Ver. 2. Declare ye among the nations] Let all take notice of the good news: there shall be a general goal-delivery; sing therefore Jo triumph.

Say, Babylon is taken] So Isaiah 21.9.

Bel is confounded] This Bel was Nimrod, whose nephew Ninus set him up for a god. Merodach (a restorer of their Empire, whereof Nimrod had been founder) was likewise idolized. They are called dirty deities ( faeditates & stercora, a name good enough for them) and said to be confounded. See Esa. 46.1. Sorrows also: because their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another God, Psal. 16.4.

Ver. 3. For out of the North there cometh up a Nation against her] i. e. Out of Media and Persia which lay Northward from Chaldea. The Jews had their bane out of the North, (as had been foretold, Jer. 1.14, 15.) sc. from Babylon. And now Babylon is to be baned from the same quarter. This was some comfort doubtless to the poor Jews in captivity.

Which shall make her land desolate] This was not fulfilled, till many years after. Cyrus indeed began it: but Seleucus Nicanor finished it, by building near unto it another great City called Seleucia.

Ver. 4. In those days, and at that time] Destructio Babel salus est populo Dei: so shall it be at the ruin of Rome.

The children of Israel shall come and the children of Judah together] In better times they could not agree: but when they were both in a weeping condition, misery bred unity: as it did also betwixt Hooper and Ridley, when they were both in prison for the truth.

Going and weeping] Tears of sorrow for their sins; and tears of joy for their deliverance by Cyrus, but especially by Christ.

They shall go and seek the Lord their God] Whom they had long been without: and do now long and linger after.

Ver. 5. They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward] As intent upon it, and minding nothing else in comparison. It is good for a man to have his face set towards heaven and to make Religion his business: looking at other things by the by, and out at the eyes end, as it were.

Come and let us join ourselves to the Lord] Be so joined to the Lord, so glued unto him, as to be one Spirit with him, in a conjugal perpetual covenant.

Ver. 6. My people have been lost sheep] Per avia peccatorum aberrantes, lost in the maze of sin and misery.

Their shepherds have caused them to go astray] True also of Papists and Sectaries: miserably misled by their pretended Pastors; Impostours rather.

Ver. 7. All that found them have devoured them] As ravenous creatures do wandering sheep. Straglers are a fit prey for Seducers.

And their adversaries said, We offend not] i. e. God will have it so, Jer. 40.2. but this was no good plea; Jer. 2.3.

The habitation of justice] Or, in the habitation of justice: in a land of uprightness have they dealt unjustly, Esa. 26.10. which was no small aggravation of their sin.

Even the Lord the hope of their Fathers] But these, as degenerate children, have no such hope.

Ver. 8. Remove out of the midst of Babylon] Ho, Ho, come forth, as Zach. 2.6. Away, this is not your rest, for it is polluted, Mic. 2.10. See Isaiah 48.20. Rev. 18.4.

Be as the he-goats] That lead the flocks, generose & festinanter, freely and readily. Sheep are fearful, and therefore go behind: goats are not so, and therefore go before. There is good hope, saith one, that we are going out of Babylon, when the he-goats go before the flock: when men of public place and authority are active for reformation.

Ver. 9. From the North country] See on ver. 3.

Their arrows shall be as of a mighty expert man] Or, of a potent prosperous man, that can hit where he pleaseth, and that without fail.

None shall return in vain] No shaft shall: or no soldier shall miss of booty, for whereas Babylon, like a sea, had taken in the wealth of all Nations; so it was meet that it should be exhausted: like as Rome was by the Goths and Vandals, and as Constantinople was by the Turks and Tartars.

Ver. 10. And Chaldea shall be a spoil] See on ver. 9.

Ver. 11. Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced] sc. In a thing of naught, as Am. 6.13. and in the miseries of my people ye were madly merry: therefore shall ye be let blood in the vena cava.

Because ye are grown fat] Ye have laughed yourselves fat, you have fatted yourselves as in a duy of slaughter, or of good cheer. It was at a feast that Babylon was taken.

And bellow as bulls] Or, neigh as steeds, lusty steeds.

Ver. 12. Your mother shall be sore confounded] i. e. Babylon your mother-City: or Babylonia your country: or your Monarchical greatness, which being in the last place laid waste after other Nations, as Jer. 25. was foretold, shall with shame cry out, Hui tam cito me qua primas obtinebam, &c. How is it, that I, who was the head of Nations, am now the tail, &c?

Ver. 13. It shall not be inhabited, but be wholly desolate] Babylon standeth not now in the same place as of old: not is there hardly any ruins of the old City remaining, as travellers tell us. Pausanias saith, that in his time, there was naught to be seen of it but the walls only: and Jerome saith, that in his, it was turned into a park for dear. Omne in medio spacium solitudo est. See on ver. 3.

Ver. 14. For she hath sinned against the Lord] Yea she is a sink of sins, the contagion of the world, the shop of Satan, the adversary of the Saints, &c. So, and much more then so is spiritual Babylon, cito itidem casura, si essetis viri (said Petrarch long since) that groaneth for a downfall.

Ver. 15. Shout against her round about] As they did once at Jericho; she shall come down assuredly.

She hath given her hand] i. e. She hath yielded and cried quarter: add hereunto, that two Princes of Babylon being displeased by Baltashar, sent for Cyrus to take the City, and shown him how he might best do it. This was giving the hand saith Calvin.

As she hath done, do unto her] — Neque enim lex justior ulla est. See Judge. 1.5. with the Note.

Ver. 16. Cut off the sower] Leave not so much as an husbandman alive: who yet are generally spared as harmless, and useful: they were left and let alone by the Chaldeans when they carried away the Jews, 3 King. 25.12. But here is enjoined a more severe execution.

Ver. 17. First the King of Assyria hath devoured him] Many Assyrian Kings successively; but especially Sennacherib.

Hath broken his bones] Heb. hath boned him: hath left nothing of him but the bare bones.

Ver. 18. As I have punished the King of Assyria] And accordingly so he did: for as Sennacherib first lost his army, and then his life; and then soon after, that Monarchy was dissolved: so after that Baltasar was slain, the Empire was translated unto the Persians.

Ver. 19. And I will bring Israel again to his habitation] Or to his fold, or his pastures: See ver. 6, 17.

Ver. 20. The iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for, and there shall be none] Because to the justified no sin is imputed. Nihil oblivisci solet praeter injurias, He forgetteth nothing but injuries only, said Cicero of Caesar flatteringly, say we of God truly. This to have known, is to feed in those soul-fatting pastures, ver. 19.

For I will pardon them whom I reserve] Tegam quod fuit; quod erit, regam.

Ver. 21. Go up against the land of Merathaim—and against the inhabitants of Pekod] Two Babylonian Provinces, Ezek. 23.23. Calvin rendereth it The land of exasperators, and the inhabitants of visitation, i. e. that deserve to be punished. This is God's commission to Cyrus.

Utterly destroy after them] i. e. Their posterity, as Dan. 4.11.

Ver. 22. A sound of battle is in the land] Barritus militaris: this is (not the joyful but) the woeful sound: for war is a woe, which no words, how wide soever, can sufficiently set forth.

Ver. 23. How is the hammer of the whole earth out asunder?] Babylon was the mawle of many Nations. Nimrod began it, and his successors took after him. Charles Martel King of France, was so called for like cause. Augustine also was worthily styled Haereticorum malleus the hammer of heretics: and Mr. Arthur Hildersham Schismaticorum malleus, the mawle of Schismatics.

Ver. 24. I have laid a snare for thee] Thou wild-bull, ver. 27. Babylon was unexpectedly taken by a stratagem, whiles they were in the midst of their revels.

And thou w • st not aware] The palace was suddenly seized upon: but some parts of the City knew not that the enemy was entered, till three days after: for it was the greatest City that ever the Sun beheld, saith Pausanias; and the most suddenly surprised.

Because thou hast striven against the Lord] Heb. hast mingled thyself with the Lord, incertamen scilicet, to wrestle and fall with him, and to try masteries.

Ver. 25. The Lord hath opened his armory] Heb. treasury. Now God's armory is omne id sub caelo usque ad diabolos, all things both in heaven and under the cope of heaven, as far as the very devils; whereby he is able to subdue his enemies, and to bring them to nothing. Out of this treasury God took Darius and Cyrus with their forces, and set them upon this expedition.

Ver. 26. Come against her] This he speaketh to the Medes and Persians; who though they were farther remote then they that could hear the Prophet; yet God, who spake by him, could and did speak home to their hearts, stirring them up by a secret instinct to do this execution.

Ver. 27. Slay all her bullocks] Heb. sword them, sheath your swords in their sides. See ver. 24.

Ver. 28. The vengeance of his Temple] Spoiled and burnt by the Chaldeans, those wasters, as their name also signifieth. Woe then to such as destroy God's living Temples.

Ver. 29. According to all that she hath done] See ver. 15.

For she hath been proud against the Lord] Who setteth himself in battle array against the proud, 1 Pet. 5.5.

Ver. 30. Therefore shall her young men] See on chap. 49 26.

Ver. 31. Behold I am against thee O most proud] Heb. O pride, in the abstract, i. e. O Balshazzar; as of a certain Pope was said,

Ver. 32. And the most proud shall stumble] Heb. Pride, or that man of pride. Praefractarius ill, so Oecolampadius rendereth it, that stubborn man, who will do wickedly against conviction of conscience.

Ver. 33. The children of Judah, and the children of Israel were oppressed together] Or, were oppressed alike, sc. In their several deportations; and God mindful of his Covenant, showeth himself sensible of it; though for present he seemed not to care what became of either of them;

Ver. 34. Their Redeemer is strong] Or, But their strong Avenger, whose name is the Lord of hosts, he shall thoroughly plead their cause, i. e. right their wrongs.

That he may give rest to the land] See on 2 Thes. 1.8, 9.

Ver. 35. A sword is upon the Chaldeans] Those sworn swordmen of the Devil.

Ver. 36. A sword is upon the liars] i. e. The prognosticators and wizards. Mendaces nominat divinos, as it was wont here to be sa • d A friar, a liar.

Ver. 37. A sword is upon their horses] Upon all their military preparations; whereof see Herodot. lib. 1.

They shall become as womer] Elumbes, cowardly, and crestfaln.

A sword is upon her treasures] Which how inestimable they were, see Strabo lib. 15. and Plin. l • b. 33. cap. 3.

Ver. 38. A drought is upon her waters] Which Cyrus did so drain by many outlets, that without any great difficulty he took the City: ass • ulting it on two sides. Frontinus saith that thrice Babylon was taken by this stratagem. 1. By Semiramis. 2. By Cyrus. 3. By Alexander the Great.

And they are mad upon their idols] Deos terrificos & truces, statues of their Kings and Worthies which were of a huge vast stature. See Dan. 3.1.

Ver. 39. Therefore the wild beasts of the desert] See Esa. 13.21.

Ver. 40. At God overthrew Sodom] See Isaiah 13.19. and chap. 49.18.

Ver. 41. Behold a people shall come from the North] As ver. 3.9. See chap. 6.22.

Ver. 42. Against thee, O daughter of Babylon] In like sort as thou didst once against God's Israel, chap. 6.23. Now thou shalt meet with thy match.

Ver. 43. The King of Babylon, &c.] See chap. 6.24. Dan. 5.6.

Ver. 44. Behold he shall come up] See chap. 49.19.

Ver. 45. See on chap. 49.20.

Ver. 46. See on chap. 49.22.

CHAP. LI.

Ver. 1. BEhold I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst] sc. Of the land of Chaldea, in the royal seat and center of that great Monarchy.

A destroying wind] Blasting and boisterous: See chap. 4.11, 12.

Ver. 2. And I will send unto Babylon fann • rs] Who shall make as clean work, as they once did in Judea, disperse her inhabitants and dissipate her riches.

Ver. 3. Against him that bendeth] Periphrasis Babylonii, omnibus gentibus infesti.

Ver. 4. Thus the slain shall fall] Both within the walls and without. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , there shall be neither measure nor end of manslaughters: as Plutrach saith of Rome in Sylla 's time.

Ver. 5. For Israel hath not been forsaken] Heb. widowed.

Though their Land was filled with sin] Heb. guilt, or delinquency, or devastation. This Scripture hath been fully made good to us of this Nation: whilst the fullness of sin in us hath not yet abated the fullness of grace in God toward us. See those four gracious Yets, Zach. 1.17. with the Notes there.

Ver. 6. Flee out of the midst of Babylon] See chap. 50.8. So in the New Testament we are called upon to flee and avoid the corruptions of the world and of Antichrist, 1 Joh. 2. Ephes. 5. Rev. 14. & 18.4.

For this is a time, &c.] As chap. 50.15, 25, 27, 28. So 46.10.

Ver. 7. Babylon hath been a golden cup] See chap. 25.15. Rev. 17.4.

In the Lord's hand] i. e. Oeconomiâ & dispensatione ejus: He had the mixing and distributing of it.

Ver. 8. Babylon is suddenly fallen] Chap. 50.2. So— ruet alto à culmine Roma, Rev. 14.8. & 18.2, 10.

If so be she may be healed] q.d. Try you may; but tis to no purpose. See c. 46.11.

Ver. 9. We would have healed Babylon] Say the foreign nations that came to help her; or the people of God, say others, that were kept captive by her; as Daniel & the rest.

But she is not healed] Or, she could not be healed. See Hos. 7.1.

For her judgment reacheth unto heaven] It coelo clamor, proportionable to her sin, Rev. 18.5.

Ver. 10. The Lord hath brought forth our righteousness] i. e. Our just cause and the righteousness of our religion, derided by the Babylonians.

Ver. 11. Make bright the arrows] q. d. Do so O Chaldeans, if ye think it will boot you anything at all for the shoaring up of your tottering State, when as the Lord is resolved to bring it down.

Ver. 12. Set up the standard] An Irony all along, as ver. 11.

Ver. 13. O thou that dwellest upon many waters] Euphrates and Tigris especially, famous rivers running from Babylonia into the Persian sea. Hence most Geographers hold, and not improbably, that that land was a part of the garden of Eden: fruitful it was beyond credulity.

Thine end is come, and the measure (Heb. the cubit) of thy covetousness] Cujus avaritia totus non sufficit orbis. The covetous Cormorants mouth (with his Give Give) shall shortly be stopped with a spade-full of mould: and his never-enough quit with fire enough, in the bottom of hell.

Ver. 14. Surely I will fill thee with men as with caterpillars] So they shall seem both for multitude and humming noise, barritu militari.

They shall lift up a shout against thee] As pesants did at their harvest-home. See chap. 48.33.

Ver. 15. He hath made the earth by his power] And can therefore easily and quickly unmake this great Monarchy. See chap. 10.12. with the Note.

Ver. 16. When he uttereth his voice, &c.] See chap. 10.13.

Ver. 17. Every man is brutish] See chap. 10.14.

Ver. 18. They are vanity] See chap. 10.15.

Ver. 19. The portion of Jacob, &c.] See chap. 10.16.

Ver. 20. Thou art my battle-ax, and weapon of war] Cestra fuisti mihi, Thou hast been my pole-ax, such as horse men use to batter their enemies helmets and other harness.

Ver. 21. And with thee] O Babylonian King.

Will I break in pieces] Or rather, have I broken in pieces. And hence thy perdition.

Ver. 22. With thee also will I break (or by thee have I broken) in p • eces man and woman] But especially my people of the Jews, whom I more valued then all the men and women in the world besides.

Ver. 23. The shepherd and his flock — the husbandman and his yoke, &c.] This particular enumeration is very Emphatical: so chap. 50.35, 37, 38.

Ver. 24. And I will render unto Babylon] See chap, 50.15, 29. Isa. 47.6, 8. & 10.5, 6, 12.

In your sight] You my prisoners of hope shall live to see it, Psal. 79.10.

Ver. 25. O destroying mountain] O Babylon, thou that art amplitudine & altitudine instar montis; for thy large command and lofty buildings like a mountain, and that dost abuse thy power to other men's destruction.

And will make thee aburnt mountain] A great heap of ashes and rubbish, such as burned and ruined Cities are.

Ver. 26. And they shall not take of thee a stone] Thou shalt never be reedified: So it is foretold of Rome,

Ver. 27. Set up a standard] Thus God the great Induperator bespeaketh the Medes and Persians, as his field officers.

Prepare the Nations against her] Heb. Sanctify, call them together to wage this sacred war against Babylon.

Call together against her the Kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz] i. e. Of both the Armenia 's and of Ascania subdued by Cyrus, before he marched against Babylon. Vatablus will have Ashkenaz to be Gothland; the Jews, Germany: but these were too far remote.

Ver. 28. Prepare against her] Heb. Sanctify, as ver. 7.

With the Kings of the Medes] Darius and Cyrus.

Ver. 29. And the land shall tremble and sorrow] As a travelling woman, so shall it be pained.

Ver. 30. The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight] At Cyrus his first coming they gave him battle: but being worsted, they from thenceforth remained in their holds till Babylon was taken.

Their might hath failed] Or, their courage is shrunk, as Jacob 's sinew did, Gen. 32.32.

They became as women] See chap. 50.37.

Ver. 31. One post shall run to meet another] Observe how punctually all things were foretold in the several circumstances, above fifty years before.

At one end] sc. where Euphrates had run, till diverted and dried up by Cyrus: See on chap. 50.38.

Ver. 32. And that the passages are stopped] Or, taken, seized, surprised, as ch. 48.41.

And thereeds] Or Marishes, made by Euphrates overflowing. It is well observed, that the Babylonians might by this Prophecy have been forewarned and forearmed against Cyrus his stratagem: But they slighted it, and never inquired after it, likely.

Ver. 33. The daughter of Babylon] Proud of her wealth and strength, as young maids, many are of their beauty.

And the time of her harvest shall come] When God shall put in his sickle, and cut her down, being ripe and ready. See Rev. 14.16. Gen. 15.16.

Ver. 34. Nebuchadnezzar—hath devoured me, he hath crushed me] A graphical description of the Babylonical cruelty.

He hath cast me out] He hath gorged himself with me, and laid up his gorge.

Ver. 35. The violence done to me and to my flesh] Torn and tost as carrion, by that ravenous beast: the Lord look upon it and require it.

Ver. 36. Behold I will plead thy cause] Not so much verbally as really: here's a present answer to Israel's cry.

Ver. 37. And Babylon shall become heaps] See chap. 50.39.

Ver. 38. They shall roar together like Lions] When hongerbit: The Babylonians terrified, and the Persians tumultuating together. The old Latin Version hath it, they shake their shaggy hair.

Ver. 39. In their heat I will make their feasts] Or, I will dispose their drinkings: that is, I will pour into their cups the wine of my wrath: Now poison mixed with wine, worketh the more furiously. God can punish one kind of drunkenness with another worse.

That they may rejoice] That they may revel it and sleep their last: and so they did, as being slain in a night of public solemn feasting, and great dissoluteness, which was soon turned in moerorem & metum, into heaviness and horror.

And not wake] Till awakened by the sound of the last trump. The Chaldee here hath it, They shall die the second death, and not be quickened in the world to come, sc. unto life everlasting.

Ver. 40. I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter] All that with followeth here to the end of this oration is no less easy then elegant; in holding forth the power, justice, and truth of God in fulfilling this Prophecy exactly, though divers years after.

Ver. 41. How is Sheshack taken] i. e. How is Babylon destroyed beyond all expectation! See chap. 25.26.

Ver. 42. The sea is come up upon Babylon] A sea of hostile forces; what wonder therefore though she be taken?

Ver. 43. Her Cities are a desolation] See chap. 2.6. & 9.12.

Ver. 44. And I will punish Bel in Babylon] Nimrod was after his death called the Babylonian Saturn: Belus, who succeeded him, the Babylonian Jupiter, as Berosus testifieth. This Idol of massy gold and of a huge bigness, was carried away by Cyrus: thus Bel was punished.

And I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he hath swallowed up] Bolum ex ore Beli: such an elegancy there is also in the Original. Of the rich presents, spoils, costly furniture found in Bel 's Temple, see Diodore lib. 2. Those taken from God's Temple at Jerusalem, and laid up in his, 2 Chron. 36.7. he was forced to regurgitate, Ezr. 1.7. & 5.14. See Job 20.12, 15.

Yea the wall of Babylon shall fall] Which yet was strong to a miracle, as being two hundred cubits high (of the Kings cubits which were larger then ordinary) and fifty cubits thick; having a hundred brazen gates, and many stately towers, &c. All shall down saith the Prophet.

Ver. 45. My people, go ye out of the midst of her] This is much pressed, chap. 50 8. ver. 6. and it was but need; for many of the Jews were as hardly drawn to depart thence, as a dog ab uncto corio, from a fat morsel.

Ver. 46. And lest your heart faint] Or, And let not your hearts faint.

And ye fear for the rumour] sc. Of Cyrus his coming: fear it not, all's for the best to you: your redemption draweth nigh.

A rumor shall both come one year] sc. Of Cyrus his preparation, and then another of his expedition toward Babylon.

Ruler against Ruler] i. e. Cyrus against Belshazzar: so Constantine against Maxentius, Maximinus, Licinius, &c. this was for the best to the poor Church of Christ.

Ver. 47. I will do judgment, &c.] See chap. 43.12, 13. Exod. 12.12.

And all her slain shall fall] Her dancers One rendereth it: their merry dance shall end in a miserable downfall.

Ver. 48. Then the heaven and the earth, &c. shall sing] There shall be as it were a new face set upon the world, and all the creatures shall appear to be well-apaid at the downfall of Babylon: under the oppressions whereof they even groaned and labored. See what a like general joy there will be at the ruin of Rome, Rev. 18.

Ver. 49. So at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the earth] Or rather of all the land, i. e. of all Babylon, or Assyria. When God once cometh to make inquisition for the blood of his Saints, woe to the wicked, &c.

Ver. 50. Ye that have escaped the sword] sc. Of the Medes and Persians, who at the taking of the City killed all promiscuously.

Go away, stand not still] Haste home to your own Country: for therefore hath the Lord delivered you from so many deaths and dangers: See ver. 25.

Remember the Lord afar of] Should not we mind heaven, and hasten thither? If a Heathen could say, ought not we much more? Fugiendum est ad clarissimam patriam, ibi Pater, ibi omnia, Haste we home to heaven: there's our Father, there are all things.

Ver. 51. We are confounded because we have heard reproach] This is the Jews lamentation, as in the next verse we have the answer to it.

Ver. 52. Wherefore behold the days come] So soon is God up at the cry of his poor people, Psal. 12.5.

I will do Judgment] See ver. 37. & 49.

Ver. 53. Though Babylon should mount up to heaven] As her walls are said to have been of an incredible height (see on ver. 44.) and her tower to have been little less then four miles high, threatening heaven as it were.

Ver. 54. A sound of a cry cometh from B • bylon] See chap. 48.3.

Ver. 55. Because the Lord hath spoiled Babylon] Heb. is spoiling: for it was long in doing: but as sure as if done together and at once. In like sort many of the promises are not to have their full accomplishment till the end of the world: as those about the full deliverance of the godly, the destruction of the wicked, the confusion of Antichrist, &c.

And destroyed out of her the great voice] Of the revellers and roaring-boys: or of their enemies (as some rather sense it) breaking in upon them.

Ver. 56. For the Lord God of recompenses] Princeps ill & arbiter justae taelionis, God who loveth to retaliate.

Ver. 57. And I will make drunk] See ver. 39.

Ver 58. The broad walls of Babylon] See on ver. 44. Or, the walls of broad Babylon that greatest of all Cities, saith Strabo: the compass whereof within the walls was near upon threescore miles, saith Pliny.

Ver. 59. The word which Jeremiah the Prophet commanded Seraiah] This is now the last part, viz. a type used for confirmation of this prolix preceding Prophecy; uttered at Jerusalem haply in the fourth year of Johejakim, which was the first of Nebuchadnezzar, and now to be read at Babylon in the fourth year of Zedekiah, which was seven years before the destruction of Jerusalem, and above Sixty years before the destruction of Babylon. God loveth to fore-signify, but Babylon would not be warned; which was a just both desert and presage of her ruin.

When he went with Zedekiah] In company with him, say some out of the Jews Chronicle: at which time Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him King, took an oath of him to be true to him: which he afterwards brake, and was pun • shed accordingly, 2 Chron. 36.13. Others think that Seraiah went not with Zedekiah, but for him, and from him with a present to Nebuchadnezzar, that he might keep his favor, or that he might be reconciled unto him after his revolt from him, 2 King. 24.20.

And this Seraiah was a great Prince] One that opposed the rebellion against Nebuchadnezzar, or a peace-maker at Court, or the great Chamberlain, Heb. a Prince of rest, or, Prince of Menucha, a place so called, Judge. 20.43. or a quiet, honest and humble Prince: otherwise he would not have been thus commanded by a poor Prophet: especially in a matter of so great danger, as it might have proved, if publicly noticed.

Ver. 60. So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil] For Babylon 's commonition (if at least the book were read publicly, as some hold it was) and the Jewish captives consolation.

Ver. 61. When thou comest to Babylon and shalt see] sc. The sinfulness, as well as the stateliness of that City.

And shalt read all these words] Or, then shalt thou read all these words. They who hold he did it publicly, extol the authority of the Prophet, the boldness of Seraiah, and the mildness of the King of Babylon, somewhat like that of the King of Nineveh, Jon. 3. but the most think he read it privately: yet not in some closet a part by himself, but in some private house to his country-men who came unto him.

Ver. 62. Then shalt thou say, O Lord, &c.] The promises are to be prayed over, and then we may expect their accomplishment. Prayer also added to the outward sign, according to God's holy Word, maketh it a sacramental sign.

Ver. 63. Thou shalt bind a stone to it] See the like Symbol or Chria, Rev. 18.21. Where, by the mighty Angel, Alcazar understandeth the Prophet Jeremy.

Ver. 64. Thus shall Babylon sink] Ceremonies are to little purpose, unless they have divine expositions annexed unto them.

And they shall be weary] That seek either to save it, or to restore it.

Thus far are the words of Jeremiah] sc. Concerning Babylon: See the like concerning Moab, chap. 48.47.

CHAP. LII.

Ver. 1. ZEdekiah was one and twenty years old, &c.] For the exposition of this whole chapter, see the Notes on 2 King. 24. & 25. 2 Chron. 36. & Jer. 39.1, 2, 3, &c. It is altogether historical, and set here fitly by Ezra or some other Prophet, as an Appendix to the foregoing Prophecy, and as a Preface to the Book of the Lamentations, which is nothing else but Jeremy 's Elegy over their doleful Captivity: not over King Josiah 's death as Jerome would have it: nor yet is it that Book that Jehoiakim cut and afterwards cast into the fire. Jer. 36. as some of the Jew-doctors have doted. The Septuagint have set this title upon it, And it came to pass after that Israel was carried captive, and Jerusalem laid wast, the Prophet Jeremy sat weeping, and wailing and bitterly lamenting the case of his people. Thus they knit together this Chapter and the ensuing Lamentations: which the Jews also are still said to read together in their Synagogues, on the ninth day of the month Ab, which answereth to our July: because that on that day, the City was taken and destroyed by the Chaldeans, Jer. 52.7.

CHAP. I.

Ver. 1. H Ow doth the City sit solitary] Some tell us of Jeremyes cave, near to Acheldama, where he sat in sight of the City now destroyed, and made her this Epitaph: not altogether unlike that which David once made for his dear Jonathan, 2 Sam. 1.17. There he hath his Ecah admirantis & commiserantis, his wondering and condoling How once and again, and a third time, ver. 19 25, 27. And our Prophet hath the self-same (in sense at least) three several times in this one verse: whence the Hebrews call the whole book by the name of Echa (How) which is the first word in it: and beginneth with the first letter of the Hebrew Alphabet. For it must be observed here that (for memory sake especially) this piece of holy writ is, most of it made up in order of Alphabet, viz. the four first chapters; and all of it with singular artifice in a poetical strain: take that one passage for a taste, chap. 5.16. Oi na lanu, chi chattaxu (which runneth rhythmically) i. e. woe to us that we have sinned. And whereas other Poetry is the luxury of such learning as is in words restrained, in matter (usually) loose; here it is altogether otherwise. For the Prophet or Poet whether, id sibi negoti credidit solum dari, maketh it his whole business, to set forth his people's misery in the cause thereof, their sins and excesses: pressing therefore to patience, to repentance, to earnest prayer, and to a confident expectation of a gracious issue, together with a sanctified use of all their sufferings: he had himself been a man of many sorrows all along: and now had his share as deep as any in the common calamity. Besides which he could truly say with Cyprian, Cum singulis pectus meum copulo, maeroris & funeris pondera luctuosa participo: cum plangentibus plango, cum destentibus defleo, i. e. in St. Paul's words, Who is weak, and I am not weak? grieved and I grieve not? offended, and I burn not? 2 Cor. 11.29. And this he expresseth in a stately style and figurative terms, full of Passion and compassion; as, to show his love to his Country, so to work upon his hard-hearted Country-men, and to excite them to repentance and better obedience.

How doth the City] Lately a City, yea the City, the most famous of all the Cities of the East, saith Pliny; but now, alas, of a City become an heap: so true is that of Seneca speaking of a great City burnt to ashes, Una dies interest inter magnam civitatem & nullam, there was but one day betwixt a City and no City.

Sit solitary] Sit on the ground in a mourning posture, as Job did among the ashes; and as Vespasian, after the last destruction of Jerusalem by his son Titus, caused money to be coined, whereon was stamped the picture of Judea in form of a captive woman, sitting sorrowfully under a Palm-tree.

That was full of people] Full indeed at the three solemn anniversary feasts especially. Josephus testifieth that at the last destruction of this City by the Romans there were more then eleven hundred thousand people got into it. And although Judea was not above two hundred miles long and fifty miles broad; nothing near so big as England, yet what huge armies brought they into the field in the days of David, Asa, Jehoshaphat, &c?

How is she become as a widow] Having lost her King, if not her God: happy, if in this last respect, she be but quasi vidua, as a widow only and no more (see 2 Cor. 6.8. with the Note) if God at any time should say unto her, as Zach. 10.6. She shall be as if I had not cast her off, and I will hear her: or if she could say of herself as that good widow in story did, Sola relicta solum Deum sequor, Being left alone, I will follow after God alone.

She that was great among the Nations] So was Athens once the glory of Greece, for both Arts and Arms; now a dog-hole in comparison. Sparta also, that other eye of Greece, is now a small Burrough called Misithra, having nothing to boast of but the fame and thoughts of its former greatness.

And Princesse among the Provinces] In David's and Solomon's days especially, when that state was in the flourish; i. e. the praise of the whole earth, and terror to all Nations.

How is she become tributary?] And by that means melted and exhausted, as the Hebrew word importeth. So was England once, when the Popes Ass: Oh the huge sums that he sucked hence, to the wasting and impoverishing of the land! Of one of his Agents here it is recorded, that at his departure he left not so much money in the whole Kingdom, as he either carried with him, or sent to Rome before him. Some of them derive their Mass from the Hebrew word Mas in the text, signifying tribute; and in some respects well they may: per • am scilicet pietas omnis liquefacta est & dissoluta, saith Rivet; for it is the bane of men's souls, and a purge to their purses.

Ver. 2. She weepeth sore] Heb. weeping she weepeth, i. e. Sadly and soakingly, or as we say, savourly: seeking that way to ease her sorrow, which is so deep and downright.

In the night] When grief may have its full forth: and when widows are most sensible of their solitary and forlorn condition.

And her tears are on her cheeks] Haerent & perennant, seldom or never are they off. As hinds by calving, so she by weeping cast out her sorrows, Job 39.3.

Among all her lovers she hath none to comfort her] Optimum solatium sodalitium, saith one: And, Affert solatium lugentibus suspiriorum societas, saith another Father. It was no small aggravation of Jerusalem's misery, that her confederates proved miserable comforters, and her allyes kept aloof off, so that she had none to compassionate her. This is also none of the smallest torments of the damned Ghosts, that they are unpittied of their best friends and nearest relations.

All her friends have dealt treacherously with her] The Edomites and Moabites. Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, &c. Every sinner shall one day take up this Lamentation: And why? they have forsaken the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out broken cisterns that can hold no water, Jer. 2.13.

Ver. 3. Judah is gone into captivity] But with no good will: God hath driven them out, for their cruel oppressions and hard usage of their poor brethren that served them. Thus the Chaldee Paraphrast, and not amiss. Others thus; Judah, i. e. the inhabitants of the Kingdom, goeth away, i. e. willingly leave their country, goods, and dwelling, sc. before the desolation of Jerusalem, because of affliction, i. e. extremity of trouble, and great slavery, &c.

She dwelleth among the heathen] Where she can get nothing better then guilt or grief.

She findeth no rest] No more then did the dove in the deluge, Gen. 8.9.

All her persecutors, took her in the straits] i. e. At the most advantage to mischief her: a term taken from hunters or high-way-men. The Chaldees took the City, when it had been first distressed with famine: and then the Jews that went down to Egypt for succor and shelter after Gedaliahs death, they caught there, as mice in a trap, as this Prophet had foretold them, chap. 42.43. and 46. but they would not be warned. M • tsraim proved to be their Me • sarim, i. e. Egypt their pound, or prison.

Ver. 4. The ways of Zion do mourn] So they seem to do because unfrequented, overgrown with grass, and out of their kindly order.

Her Priests sigh] For want of employment.

The virgins were afflicted] Or discomfited: those that are usually set upon the merry pin, and were wont to make mirth at those festivities.

And she is in bitterness] Zion is: but for nothing so much, as for the decay of religion, and the loss of holy exercises: when this befalleth, all things else are mere Ichabods to good people. See Zeph. 3.18.

Ver. 5. Her adversaries are the chief] Heb. are for the head. This was threatened, Deut. 28.13, 14, 43, 44 This, when it falleth out, is a great grief to the godly. Therefore the Prophet Nahum, for the comfort of God's Israel is wholly in setting forth the destruction of their enemies, the Assyrians.

Her enemies prosper] See Jer. 12.1. they prevail and do what they list; so that there seemeth to be neither hope of better, nor place of worse.

For the Lord hath afflicted her] Not so much her adversaries and enemies, or her oppressors and haters (as the words properly signify) that is, those that oppress them in action, and hate them in affection.

Her children are gone into captivity] Those that were able to go: for the rest were slain, chap. 4.

Before the enemy] Driven before them, as cattle.

Ver. 6. And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed] Her glory, as Esa. 5.14. that is chiefly the Temple, and the service of God in it: It is now Ichabod with her. The beauty and bulwark of a Nation are God's holy ordinances.

Her Princes are become like harts] i. e. Heartlesse, bereft of courage; they dare not make head against an enemy.

Before the pursuer] R. Solomon here observeth, that the Hebrew word 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is written at full, so as it is scarce anywhere else, to note the fullness of the persecution.

Ver. 7. Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affl • ction] Misery is the best art of Memory. Then those privileges we prized not in prosperity, we recount with regret: Bona à tergo formosissima: the worth of good things is best known by the want of them: and as we see things best at a distance, so here. Afflictions are pillulae lucis, that do notably clear the eye-sight.

The adversaries saw her] sc. With a spiteful and scornful eye.

And did mock at her Sabbaths] Calling the Jews in contempt Sabbatarians: and jeering them as those that lost more then a seventh part of their time that way; and telling them in scorn, that now they might well awhile to keep a long Sabbath, as having little else to do. Juvenal thus describeth a Jew,

Paulus Phagius telleth likewise of a black-mouthed Egyptian, who said that Christians were a colluvies of most loathsome lecherous people, that had a foul disease upon them, and were therefore fain to rest every seventh day.

Ver. 8. Jerusalem hath grievously sinned] Heb. hath sinned sin, hath sinned sinningly, doing wickedly as she could, Jer. 3.4. and having many transgressions wrapped up in her sins and their circumstances, Levite. 16.21. And this is here acknowledged as the true cause of her calamity. Profane persons lay all the blame in this case upon God: as He in the Poet,

Therefore she is removed] Heb. therefore is she unto removing or wandering, as Cain was, when he went to live in the land of Nod: or as a menstruous woman is separated from the society of others. Nidah for Niddah.

All that honored her] When her ways pleased the Lord.

Because they have seen her nakedness] Her infamous wickednesses, for which she hath done penance, as it were, and is therefore despised. Or else it is a term taken from a naked captive woman.

Yea she sigheth and turneth backward] sc. To hide her nakedness from public view. Or, going into captivity she looked her last look toward her dear country, and fetched a sigh.

Ver. 9. Her filthiness is in her skirts] Taxat impudextiam insignem. She rather glorieth in her wickedness, then is any whit abashed of it: a Metaphor from a menstrous woman that is immodest. Oh quam vulgare hoc hodie malum! See Isa. 3.9. But whence this gracelessness?

She remembereth not her last end] i. e. What a black tail of plagues sin draweth after it, and that for all these things she must come to Judgment. Memorare novissima is a good preservative from sin: but most men are of Otho the Emperors mind who thought it a piece of dastardy to speak or think much of death: whereas Moses assureth us, that by keeping out the thoughts of death, we keep our spirits void of true magnanimity: and that one of those that will consider their latter end would chase a thousand, Deut 32.30.

Therefore she came down wonderfully] Heb. with wonderment • : Her incogitancy and inconsideratnesse, together with the licentious wickedness following thereupon (being more heavy then a talent of lead, Zach. 5.7.) brought her down with a powder, as we say, ita ut ad miraculum corruerit.

O Lord, behold mine affliction] If not me (as utterly unworthy) yet mine affliction, as thou once didst Hagar 's, Gen. 16.13. and if I may obtain no favor, yet why should the enemy insult to thy dishonor? Deut. 32.27. Psal. 35.26. & 38.16. Jer. 48.26, 42. Zeph. 2.20.

Ver. 10. The adversary] The common enemy both of God and us, out of hatred of the truth and the professors thereof.

Hath spread out his hand] His plundering and sacrilegious hand.

Upon her pleasant things] But especially those that were consecrated to the service of God in the Temple. The Rabbin's here by pleasant or desirable things, understand principally the book of the Law, which say they, the Moabites and the Ammonites sought for in the Temple, that they might burn it, because therein was forbidden their admission into the Church forever.

Ver. 11. All her people sigh] And so think to ease their grief.

They shall seek bread] The staff of life, which, without repair by nutrition, would be soon extinct; so in the spiritual life; which made Job prefer the word before his necessary food. There is a famine of the Word, which is much worse, Amos 8. Isa. 5. Pray against it, and prevent it.

They have given their pleasant things for meat] Which must be had at any rate: much more must the food of the soul. Our forefathers gave five Markes or more for a good book: a load of hay for a few Chapters of St. James or of St. Paul in English, saith Mr. Fox. The Queen of Castile sold her jewels to furnish Columbus, for his discovering voyage to the West Indies, when he had shown his Maps (though our Henry the seventh loath to part with money, sl • ghted his proffers) and thereby the golden mines were found, and gained to the Spanish Crown. Let no man think much to part with his pleasant things for his precious soul: or to sacrifice all that he hath to the service of his life; which next to his soul should be most dear unto him. Our ancestors in Queen Mary's days were glad to eat the bread of their souls in peril of their lives.

To relieve the soul] Heb. to make the soul come again. For Animantis cujusque vita in fuga est: Life must be fetched again by food, when it is fainting away.

See O Lord and consider] Quam delicata epulatrix facta sim, to what hard meat I am held, to how strait an allowance: See it, and be sensible of my prisoners pittance, and how I have made many a meals meat upon the promises, when I have wanted bread, as that good woman once said.

Ver. 12. Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by the way] Siste viator, Stay passenger, hast not a tear to shed? &c. Sanchez thinks that this is Jerusalem's Epitaph made by herself, as to be engraven on her tomb to move compassion. The Septuagint have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Hei, ad vos, subaudi clamo: Woe and Alas, cry I to you. Make ye nothing of my misery? I wish the like may never befall you: Ne sit super vos; for so some render the words.

Behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow] What we see in the water, seemeth greater then it is: so in the waters of Marah: See chap. 3.1. It is sure, that no temptation taketh us, but what is human, or common to man, 1 Cor. 10.13. But what did the man Christ Jesus suffer? All our sufferings are but chips of his cross, saith Luther, not worthy to be named in the same day, &c.

Wherein the Lord hath afflicted me] This was yet no small allay to her grief, that God had done it. The Stoics, who held that all came by destiny, were noted for their patience, or rather tolerance, and aequanimity in all conditions.

Ver. 13. Form above hath he sent fire into my bones] Like as when the marrow and natural moisture is dried up by a violent fever: or rather, as when the solid parts of bodies below are lightening-struk from above, and scorched by these sulphureous flames that pierce unto them.

And it prevailed against them] Or. And he ruled it, viz. the fire: i. e. he directed and disposed it.

He hath spread a net for my feet] And so hampered me an unruly creature, ut constricta fuerim in ruinam, that there is no escaping from him: yea the more I strive to get out, the faster I stick.

He hath turned me back] Laid me on my back.

He hath made me desolate and faint] My calamities come thick, one in the neck of another; words are too weak to utter them: and yet here is very great copy and variety of words: so that Paschasius saith this book may well be called the Lamentations of Lamentations: like as Solomon 's Song is called for its excellenty The Song of Songs.

Ver. 14. The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand] Compactum est. Or, is bound upon his hand: that is, the Lord carrieth them in his continual remembrance.

They are wreathed] Wrapped and wreathed together as a strong cord. My sins are twisted together, saith One, and sadly accented: so are the punishments of my sins, saith the Church here, neither can I get free: but as the heifer, by wriggling against the yoke, galleth her neck, so do I.

And come up upon my neck] Praeclarum scilicet monile, & torques, mearum virtutum index, & insigne.

He hath made my strength to fall] Heb. he hath caused my power to stumble, i. e. so to stumble, as to fall: for he who stumbleth and yet falleth not, getteth ground.

From whom I am not able to arise] Only God can raise me: and it is a work worthy of God, who

Ver. 15. The Lord hath trodden underfoot] As unsavory salt; that is, he hath covered with the greatest contempt.

All my mighty men] Vulg. My Magnifico's or Gallants; in whom I too much trusted.

In the midst of me] In the very bosom of their mother; as Caracalla killed his brother Geta, consecrating the sword wherewith he so killed him.

He hath called an assembly against me] Vocant adversum me tempus, so the Vulgar version hath it; (and Calvin to the same purpose) He hath called the time against me: i. e. a set time wherein to destroy my strong ones. Howbeit One maketh this inference from the words, For the very time which we have contemned, we shall be condemned: and for every day which we have spent idly, we shall be shent severely. This is true, but little to the present purpose: like as Hushai said, Ahithophel 's counsel was good, but not now.

The Lord hath trodden her as in a wine-press] By another like Metaphor, God is said to have threshed Babylon as a threshing-flour, Jer. 51.33.

Ver. 16. For these things I weep] I Jerusalem, as ver. 2. Or, I Jeremy:

Mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water] Continuitatem significat: imo emphasin dicit; Niobe -like I weep excessively, and without intermission. God would not have the wounds of a godly sorrow to be ever so healed up, but that they may bleed afresh again upon all good occasion. As for worldly sorrow, there must be a stop put to it, left what we have over-wept, we be forced to unweep again.

Because the comforter that should relieve my soul is far from me] This was very sad, and made both eyes run down with water. God stood aloof off, men were slack to shore up a poor sinking soul. This was a condition and complaint not unlike that of Saul, 1 Sam. 28.15. I am sore distressed: for the Philistines are upon me, and God is departed from me, &c.

Ver. 17. Zion spreadeth forth her hands] But to whom? To God? She should have done it sooner; namely whilst he stretched out his hands to her all the day long. To the Babylonian? at barbarus nil nisi iras spirat, but his tender mercies are mere cruelties. God will not take the wicked by the hand, saith Bildad, Job 8.20. Men may not, when as God will not. No better course can be taken in this case then that prescribed, Lam. 3.40, 41. then God will repent, and men shall relent toward a distressed creature.

And there is none to comfort her] See ver. 16. This is oft complained of as a most heavy affliction.

The Lord hath commanded] What marvel then that their hearts were so set off from him, who had been so careless of keeping God's Commands?

Jerusalem is as a menstruous woman amongst them] Or, as an abomination, tanquam quisquiliae, vel tanquam foetidae aliquae sordes. God's people are more shamefully slighted and reproached in the world, then any else; and the godliest, most of all.

Ver. 18. The Lord is righteous] Whatever I suffer, or say haply in my passion, that may seem to sound to the contrary. Righteous art thou O Lord, and just are thy judgments, said David, Psal. 119.137. and after him Mauricius the Emperor (when deposed by the traitor Phocas ) and the noble Du-plessis when he heard of the death of his only son, slain in the Low-Countries.

For I have rebelled against his Commandments] Heb. against his mouth; and have therefore deserved thus to feel the weight of his hand; to hear the rod and who hath appointed it: because I would not hear the word and who preached it. I have imbitered his mouth, as some render the Hebrew text, and therefore am worthily imbittered by him.

Hear I pray you, all people] See ver. 12. But how agreeth this with that of David, 2 Sam. 1.20. Tell it not in Gath? It is answered that David there would not have that slaughter in Gilboah to be reported as the hand of the Philistines, but of God.

My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity] Are carried out of this land, the sign of God's favor, and of heaven itself: And here lay the pinch of their grief. Let young ones and maids (quibus hoaie fraena laxari solent) obey God, unless they had rather perish.

Ver. 19. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me] My confederates, idols, and other sweet-hearts, never yet true to any that trusted them. See Jer. 22.20. & 30.14.

My Priests and mine Elders, &c.] What then became of poor folk? and how gracious was God to Jeremy in the provision made for him by the King, who yet loved him not?

Ver. 20. Behold O Lord, for I am in distress▪ Thus ever and anon she is lifting up her soul to God by an holy Apostrophe in some short yet pithy expressions. And surely if a long look toward God speedeth, Psal. 34.4, 5. Jon. 2.4, 7. how much more an hearty Ejaculation, as here?

My bowels are troubled] Lutulant, bulliunt, vel intumescunt: non solum fluctuant, aut strepunt, ut alibi. My bowels boil and buble, or are thick and muddy, as waters are after and in a tempest: or it is a Metaphor from mortar made by mingling water with lime and sand. She was in a great perturbation: and sought ease by submitting to God's Justice, and imploring his mercy.

Mine heart is turned within me] Or, turneth itself upside down. See Hos. 11.8.

For I have grievously rebelled] This was the right way to get ease and settle all within, viz. to confess sin with aggravation, putting in weight, laying on load.

Abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death] Famine especially (which is worse then the sword, chap. 4.9.)

R. Solomon interpreteth it of evil Angels.

Ver. 21. They have heard that I sigh] My friends have; and yet they pity me not: this was a great vexation, and is much complained of. See ver. 2, 16, 17, 19.

All mine enemies have heard of my trouble: they are glad] This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is the devils disease: the wicked compose Comedies out of the Saints Tragedies, and revel in their ruins. But God people, in this case, have a double comfort. 1. That God hath done it (and not the enemy) that he hath a holy hand in all the troubles that befall them. 2. That their enemies shall not scape scot-free, but be soundly punished.

That thou hast done it] Or, but thou hast done it: and sure we are, thou wilt not overdo.

Thou wilt bring the day that thou hast called] The dismal day of vengeance, that thou hast threatened Babylon with, especially by Isaiah and Jeremy.

And they shall be like unto me] Their future desolation is my present consolation.

Ver. 22. Let their wickedness come before thee] God had pronounced Babylon's destruction, and therefore the Church might safely pray it: Think the like of spiritual Babylon. God seemeth to forget the insolencies of his enemies, and deliverance of his people: we must mind him, and then it will be done. Only let us see to it, that our fire of zeal for God's glory burn clear, without the smoke of self-ends, and of private revenge.

As thou hast done unto me for my transgressions] This was it that put a sting into all her sufferings: but then she had this to support her, that her sighs for her sins were many, and that her heart was faint or heavy through fear of wrath; yet not without hope of mercy, which made her thus to repair unto him by Prayer. Qui nihil sperat, nihil orat.

CHAP. II.

Ver. 1. HOw hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud?] Heb. with a thick cloud: nothing like that bright cloud wherein he appeared to his people, as a token of his grace, at the dedication of the Temple, 1 Kings 8.10. How comes it about, and what may be the reason of it? Oh in what a wonderful manner and by what strange means hath the Lord now clouded and covered his people (whom he had established as Mount Zion ) with blackest calamities and confusion • s, taking all the luster of happiness and of hope from her, and that in his anger, and again in the day of his anger?

And cast down from heaven to the earth] i. e. From the highest pitch of felicity, to the lowest plight of misery. This was afterwards indeed Capernaums case: but when Micah the Morashite prophesied, that Zion should be plowed as a field and Jerusalem laid on heaps, it seemed a Paradox, and very few believed him. Christ's disciples also had a conceit that the Temple and the world must needs have one and the same period: which occasioned that mixed discourse made by our Savior, Mat. 24. But God's gracious presence is not tied to a place: The Ark, God's footstool (as here it is called) was transportative till settled in Zion: so is the Church militant in continual motion, till it come to triumph in heaven: and those that with Capernaum are lifted up to heaven in the abundance of means, may be brought down to hell, for an instance of divine vengeance.

And remembered not his footstool] The Temple and therein the Ark: to teach them, that he was not wholly there included; nieither ought now to be sought and worshipped anywhere but above. Sursum corda.

Ver. 2. The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Judah] 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the sea swalloweth up a ship; as an earthquake swalloweth up whole town-ships: as fire swalloweth up fuel, or as Moses his serpent swallowed up the Sorcerers serpents.

And hath not pitied] This was worse then all the rest. Isa. 47.6.

He hath thrown down] Not shaken them only and so left them standing; but utterly subverted them, and that in great displeasure, Deo irritato, & irato, God set on the Chaldees, and was the Author, not of their evil will, but of their work.

He hath brought them down to the ground] Though for their height they seemed to threaten heaven.

He hath polluted the Kingdom and the Priests] Which were held holy and inviolable: Profanavit regnum coeli, say some Rabbin's here, He hath profaned the Kingdom of heaven: for so they accounted the Commonwealth of Israel; which Josephus calleth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a God-government. But now God had dispriviledged them, and cast them off as a thing of naught.

Ver. 3. He hath cut off in his anger all the horn of Israel] i. e. All the strength and beauty: the royal majesty especially, Psal. 89.24. & 132.17.

He hath drawn back his right-hand] Wherewith he was wont to shelter them, and to fight for them: Or, Israel's right-hand, sc. by disabling them: for it is God that strengtheneth and weakeneth the arm of either party, Ezek. 30.24.

And he burned against Jacob] Or, in Jacob: i. e. He declareth his displeasure among his people as clearly as a flame of fire that is easily discerned.

Ver. 4. He hath bent his bow like an enemy] He doth not only help the enemies, but himself fighteth against us with his own bare hand. He hath bent his bow, id est, vim suam ultricem, saith Origen, that is, his avenging force: So the Poet feigneth that Apollo shot his deadly shafts into the camp of the Grecians.

He stood with his right-hand] Heb. He was set: Vulg. Firmavit dextram suam, he held his right hand steadily, that he might hit what he shot at.

In the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion] In Jerusalem that was sweetly situated, as a tabernacle pitched in a pleasant plain; but now a field of blood.

He hath poured out his wrath like fire] i. e. Abundantly and most vehemently, perinde ac Aetna, Hecla, &c.

Ver. 5. The Lord was an enemy] This, the secure and foolish people would not be drawn to believe, till now they felt it: therefore it is so reiterated.

He hath swallowed up Israel, he hath destroyed, &c.] This he had said before, ver. 2. but in cases of this kind people love to say the same things over and over.

And hath increased—mourning and lamentation] Heb. lamentation and lamentation, q. d. this is all he hath left us. And this she speaketh mourning, but not murmuring: non litem intendit Deo, sed confessionem edit.

Ver. 6. And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle] Redit ad deplorandam religionem: nothing grieves a good soul so much as the loss of religious opportunities. Old Eli 's heart was broke before his neck, at the news of the Ark taken.

As if it were of a garden] As if it were some cottage or hovel set up for a short time in a garden, for the repose of the gardener, Es. 1.8.

He hath destroyed his places of the assembly] Whence we were wont to hope for help, in answer to our prayers. There it was that he formerly brake the arrows of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the battle, Psal. 76.3. See the Note there. Hence 2 Chron. 4.9. the great Court of the Temple, where the people used to pray, is called Gnazarah, that is help and defense.

The King and the Priest] Zedekiah, and Serajah; and with them, the Kingdom and the Priesthood,

Ver. 7. The Lord hath cast off his Altar] She goeth over it again, as the main matter of her grief, that she was bereft of the outward exercises of religion. His altar God had cast into a corner, as that which was an eye-sore to him: — his Sanctuary he abhorred or dissolved, &c.

They have made a noise in the house of the Lord] Where God was wont to be praised with heart and voice, now the enemies reboate and roar out Jo triumph, Jo Paean, Victoria, all's our own.

Ver. 8. The Lord hath purposed to destroy] Non casu, non subito, non temere, sed maturo & destinato decreto. God's Providence (which is nothing else but the carrying on of his decree) extendeth to smallest matters; much more to the subversion of States and Cities.

He that stretched out a line] sc. Of destruction, or a levelling line: See 2 King. 21.13. Esa. 34.11. Jerusalem was built by line; and so it was destroyed by him who doeth all things in number, weight and measure.

Ver. 9. Her gates are sunk into the ground] So they seem to be, because laid on the ground, and covered with rubbish. The Rabbin's fable, that the gates sank indeed into the ground, that they might not come into the enemies power, because the Ark had once passed thorough them; and when the Priests that carried it sang, Lift up your heads O ye gates, &c. they opened of their own accord.

The Law is no more] sc. Read, or regarded. Inter arma silent leges: the noise of wars drowneth the voice of Laws.

Her Prophets also find no vision from the Lord] See Psal. 74.9. with the Note. Jeremy was alone, and haply thought when he saw all ruined, that he should prophesy no more. Ezekiel and Daniel were far remote. This was no small affliction that is here complained of. How woe-begone was sinful Saul, when in his distress he could have no answer from God, either by Urim, or Vision, &c. but had the devil to preach his funeral?

Ver. 10. The elders of the daughters of Zion] Who sat once aloft passing sentence; and held themselves, haply, too high to be told their duties by a poor Prophet.

Sit upon the ground] After the manner of mourners.

And keep silence] Who were wont to be the oracles of the Country.

They have cast dust upon their heads] Those white heads of theirs, which they had stained with foul practices.

They have girded themselves with sackcloth] Heb. sacks, instead of silks.

The virgins of Jerusalem] Who were wont to walk haughtily, and with stretchtout necks, Isa. 3.16.

Hang down their heads to the ground] As if they were ashamed of themselves, and had small joy of their beauty, and former bravery.

Ver. 11. Mine eyes do fail with tears] Those fountains (as the Hebrew word signifieth) are even drawn dry. I have wept till I can weep no more, as David did; or I have wept myself blind, as Faustus the son of Vortiger (once King of England ) is said to have done.

My bowels are troubled] Heb. bemudded. See chap. 1.20.

My liver is poured upon the earth] I have well-nigh vomited up my gall, as Job 16.13.

For the destruction] Heb. the breach even to shivers: as young trees or ships are broken by tempests.

Because the children and sucklings swoon in the streets] Miserabile etiam hostibus spectaculum, a rueful sight.

Ver. 12. They say to their mothers] Lege & luge.

As oft as I read the Lamentations of Jeremy (saith Gregory Nazianzen ) my voice faileth me, and I am overwhelmed with tears: the misery of that poor people cometh under my view as it were; and my heart is therewith very much affected, and afflicted.

Where is corn and wine] Frumentum dicunt non panem: Corn they would have been glad of, though unground saith one: Wine they ask for and not water, which noteth an ill custom in their mothers to drink wine, and to give it their little ones: but by corn and wine here may be meant necessary food, to keep them alive.

When their soul was poured out into the mothers bosom] As it were giving them their lives again, seeing they yielded them no food to preserve them alive.

Ver. 13. What thing shall I take to witness for thee?] q. d. Thou art such a mirror of God's heavy judgments, that I know not whence to borrow arguments, nor where to find examples for thy comfort, so matchless is thy misery. It exceedeth that of the Egyptians under Moses, of the Canaanites under Joshua, of the Philistines under David, of the Hebrews under Eli, &c. It is even imparallel, and inexpressible: I have but one Simile to set it forth by: and it is this,

Thy breach is great, like the sea] As far as the sea exceedeth the rivers, so doth thy calamity exceed that of other nations.

Who can heal thee?] None but an Almighty Physician: surely in man's judgment, thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous, Jer. 30.12.

Ver. 14. Thy Prophets] Thine and not mine; for thou art miserable by thine own election, accessory to thine own ruin.

Have seen vain and foolish things for thee] Visions of vanity, sapless and savourlesse stuff: the fruit or rather froth of their own fancies, Jer. 23.9, 10, &c.

And they have not discovered thine iniquity] Conviction maketh way for conversion, and so preventeth utter subversion.

But have seen for thee false burdens] viz. Against Babylon: in confidence whereof thou hast been hardened and heartened in thy sinful practices, to thine utter undoing.

And causes of banishment] sc. Eventually, and as it hath proved.

Ver. 15. All that pass by thee clap] See chap. 1.18.

Is this the City] God's palace upon earth, the porch of Paradise, &c. as they said of Jezebel when she lay torn with dogs, Is this that Jezebel?

Ver. 16. All thine enemies opened their mouths against thee] They speak largely and freely to thy dishonor, the very banks of blasphemy being broken down, as it were.

We have swallowed her up] But shall find her to be hard meat, such as they shall digest in hell. See ver. 2, 5.

Certainly this is the day that we look for] Pray we, that the Papists may never see here their long looked for day, as they have long called it.

Ver. 17. The Lord hath done that which he had devised] Or, performed what he purposed. See ver. 8.

He hath fulfilled his Word that he had commanded] That is, his threats annexed to his commands, and of as great authority as they.

In the days of old] And not two or three days only since God's menaces are ancient, and infallible: not uttered in terrorem only: neither it his forbearance any acquittance.

And he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee] Still the Prophet calleth off this distressed people from the jeares and insolencies of their enemies whom they too much looked upon, to the just judgment of God who turned those dogs loose upon them, to bark at them, and to bait them, in manner aforesaid.

Ver. 18. Their heard cried unto the Lord] i. e. They cried seriously at least, if not sincerely. Some think it was not a cry of the Spirit for grace; but only of the Flesh, for ease and freedom from affliction: wherefore the Prophet in the next words turneth to the walls of Jerusalem which were now broken down, bidding them weep, since the people would not. And surely the stony walls of men's houses, standing with bells of water on their faces before foul weather, shall witness against such hard hearts as relent not, and so prevent not the terrible tempest of God's wrath for their iniquities. There are that render and sense the text thus, Their heart crieth against the Lord, i. e. the adversaries set their whole power to devise blasphemy against God: let the Church therefore pray in hope to be heard and to speed the better for the others insolencies. These by wall understand the people within the wall; Others O Mure, qui nunc es merae ruinae, O poor shattered wall; or O City which art now nothing but bare walls, without housing and inhabitants.

Ver. 19. Arise, cry in the night] A fit time for meditation and prayer, as we read of David, Psal. 119. and of the son of David, Luk. 21.

In the beginning of the watches] When others are in their first (which is their deepest and sweetest) sleep, break thyself of thy rest, that thou mayst give God no rest. Esa. 62.6, 7. Omnibus signis et modis miseriam tuam expone Domino, bestir thee every way: all • 's but little enough.

Pour out thine heart like water] That is, saith Sanchez, weep till thou hast wept thy very heart out, if it were possible. Or as others, pour out thine heart to God in humble and ingenuous confession and supplication: but then pour it forth as water, (whereof every drop will come out) and not as oil, whereof some will still stick to the sides of the vessel. Tundens pectus & non effundens vitia, ea consol • d • t, saith Austin. He who pretendeth to repent, and yet parteth not with his sins, doth but increase them.

Lift up thine hands toward him] But withal thy heart, chap. 3.41.

For the life of thy young children] See on ver. 11, 12.

Ver. 20. Behold, O Lord, and consider to whom thou hast done this] Even to thine own inheritances, who suffer harder and heavier things commonly then any others: And why? Ingentia beneficia, ingentia flagitia, ingentia supplicia, their offenses are increased, their punishments are aggravated by their obligations.

Shall the women eat their fruit, children of a span-long? ] That they did so in the siege of Jerusalem by the Chaldees, it appeareth by this question. In the famine of Samaria under Joram they did likewise: as also at the last destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans: and at the siege of Sancerra in France, Anno 1572. See the sad effects of sin, and shun it, if but for the ill consequents of it.

Shall the Priest and the Prophet be slain in the Sanctuary of the Lord?] It seems they were so, (but who they were we read not) although God had cautioned, Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm. Priests were slaughtered, where they used to slaughter beasts for sacrifices: but it may be they were nothing better then Thomas Becket the devils Martyr here, and Adam Beton that butcherly Archbishop in Scotland, who when himself was butchered, cried out Kill me not, for I am a Priest.

Ver. 21. The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets] Oh the woe of war! oh the bloody work that the sword maketh wheresoever it is in commission! Well may it be called an evil, an only evil by an Antonomasie, Esa. 45.7.

Ver. 22. Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors] i. e. My terrible enemies the Chaldees, being called in by thee their Generalissimo, came on as cheerfully as if they had come to a solemn feast or some merry-meeting; and not to a siege, and to a bloody war; which they cannot but know to be utrinque triste, such as both sides usually suffer by.

Those that I have swaddled and brought up] Singula haec verba ponderanda sunt: singula enim ingens habent pathos. Here every word is very ponderous, and pathetical: Indeed this whole book is so: which is the reason that there is no great cohaerence in some places thereof to be discovered. For as he that is under some grievous affliction, without observing of order, now cries, now prays, now laments, now complains, &c. so doth the Prophet here, in the name of the Church, pour forth himself tumultuarily in a flood such words as his grief ministered unto him: and grief is no methodical speaker.

CHAP. III.

Ver. 1. I Am the man] Here Jeremiah in the name and place of all the Jewish people, setteth forth his sufferings very passionately, and elegantly: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , saith Synesius, for nothing is more Rhetorical then a man in misery: See on chap. 1.12.

By the rod of his wrath] i. e. Of God's wrath, whom yet he nameth not prae magnitudine affectus, but referreth to him all his sufferings, and alludeth here, say some, to that rod, Jer. 1.11.

Ver. 2. He hath led me and brought me into darkness] Perstat semper in Metaphora pastoriti • , say some, who by rod in the foregoing verse understand God's shepherds wand, wherewith, when he is displeased, he driveth his unruly sheep into dark and dangerous places: See Psal. 23.3.4. Mic. 7.9.

Ver. 3. Surely against me is he turned] Metaphora a colaphizantibus, a Metaphor from buffetters who double their blows; beating their adversaries on both sides, as the smith doth his red-hot iron upon the anvil, till he hath shaped it.

Ver. 4. My flesh and my skin hath he made old] Withered it and wanzed it, so that I am not like myself: facta videbor anus, as she said: See Psal. 32.3.

He hath broken my bones] Decayed and impaired, and that with greatest torment, as befalleth when bones are broken.

Ver. 5. He hath built against me] Bulwarks and batteries.

And compassed me with gall and travel] Or, with venom and vexation: See Jer. 8.14. In these and the like hyperbolical expressions we must note, that words are too weak to utter the greatness of the Saints grief, when they lie under the sense of God's wrath, and heavy displeasure.

Ver. 6. He hath set me in dark places] Dungeons haply which are a kind of graves, and where poor prisoners lie as forgotten. The Persians called their prisons 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 oblivions: And Ezekiel saith that Babylon was to the Jews as a grave, where they lay for dead, till those dead bones lived again, chap. 37.

As they that be dead of old] Free among the dead, and forgotten. It may be said of a Saint in some cases, that

Ver. 7. He hath hedgd me about] Surrounded me with troubles, brought me into straits inextricable, and importable.

Ver. 8. Also when I cry and shout] As poor Prisoners use to do, for relief and release.

He shutteth out my prayer] Or shutteth his ear to my prayer. This was very grievous to any good heart: more then it could be to Tully, a stranger to the true God, who yet bewaileth the matter to his brother in these words, I would pray to the gods for those things; but that, alas, they have given over to hear my prayers.

Ver. 9. He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone] i. e. Most strongly and closely, so that none can come at me.

He hath made all my paths crooked] So that all things go cross with me: and although they were never so well devised, yet still they sort out unto the worst.

Ver. 10. He was unto me as a Bear lying in wait] So that if I do but offer to stir, or seek to make escape, I am in danger to be devoured.

And as a Lion in secret places] God hath many ways and means to bemeet with sinners. He can stop them in their course, as he did Balaam, Jonas, others.

Ver. 11. He hath turned aside my ways] As ver. 9.

And pulled me in pieces] As a Bear or Lion doth the silly sheep, that falleth into their paws. Carnali quadam intemperie haec effusa sunt. The Vulgar hath it, He hath broken me in pieces, sc. Attempting to leap over his hedge, ver. 7. his stone-wall, ver. 9. In the year 1590 Nicolas Frischlin that famous Poet, Orator, and Philosopher, attempting to escape out of prison, was so broken, à capite ad talos, à cute ad ossa.

Ver. 12. He hath bent his bow] Chap. 2.4.

And set me as a mark] Which he is sure to hit. The Benjamites, Judge. 20. the Parthians, Alcon the Cretian, Domitian the Emperor were excellent archers: but

God's arrow never misseth the mark.

Ver. 13. He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins] Heb. the sons of his quiver, by an Hebraism: So Horace hath

Job hath many like complaints, chap. 7.20. & 8.4. & 16.12, 13. See there.

Ver. 14. I was a derision to all my people] Or, to all people's. Our Savior suffered all this, and much more, for us.

And their song all the day] Or their lute or k • t; whom they plaid on at pleasure, and desired no better sport.

Ver. 15. He hath filled me with bitterness] Heb. bitternesses: alluding as some think, to that jus seu embamma in quo intingebant agnum Paschalem, sauce of bitter herbs wherewith they did eat the Passover (the juice of them expressed:) to mind them of the bitter afflicions which they suffered in Egypt.

He hath made me drunk with wormwood] Or Henbane, or Wolf-bane rather, succo cicutae.

Ver. 16. He hath also broken my teeth with gravel-stones] i e. With gritty bread: See Prov. 20.17.

He hath covered me with ashes] The Greek and Latin have it, He hath fed me with ashes, which was worse then that bread made most of saw-dust, wherewith they fed the Martyrs in the Marian times.

Ver. 17. And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace] Prosperity and I are twain; we are utterly unacquainted.

Ver. 18. And I said] But not so wisely. I was even almost tumbling into the pit of desperation: I was stradling over it, as it were, but God preserved me.

My strength and my hope is perished] My strength to bear these miseries, and my hope to be ever freed of them.

Ver. 19. Remembering mine affliction and my misery; the worm-wood and the gall] i. e. The bitterness that was in it, but of mine own commingling. Impatiens quisque bis affligitur, Impatience redoubleth an affliction.

Ver. 20. My soul hath them still in remembrance] But it is not good to plod overmuch in this case. Such bitter pills should be swallowed whole, and not chewed upon, unless it be for our further humiliation.

Ver. 21. This I recall to my mind] This? what? God's infinite mercies, that Cape of good hope: See ver. 22. So Psal. 119.56. This I had; that is, this comfort, or this ability to keep thy precepts.

Ver. 22. It is of the Lord's mercy that we are not consumed] That we are yet on this side hell. This sentence was much in the mouth of that famous Maria Aegyptiaca: and should be much in all our minds and mouths, for a lenitive!

Because his compassions fail not] Or are not spent, wasted: but, as the oil in the cruse, as the spring ever runneth, the Sun ever shineth, &c. This should ever shine in our hearts, as the Sun doth in the firmament.

Ver. 23. They are new every morning] Yea every moment. We have continual experiments.

Great is thy faithfulness] God's mercy moved him to promise: his Truth to perform. See 2 Sam. 7.18, 21. with the Notes.

Ver. 24. The Lord is my portion] And that's enough for me, should I never have more. See Notes on Psal. 16. That which giveth content in any portion, is, 1. The favor and presence of God. 2. That it is from the hand of a Father. 3. That it comes to us in the Covenant of Grace. 4. That it is the purchase of Christ's blood. 5. That it is an answer of prayers, and a blessing from above on honest endeavors, &c. Vide autem, pie Lector, saith an Expositor, See here, good Reader, how this Prophetical Lamentation beginneth to be a guide to godliness. For it doth not, after the manner of silly women, throw out empty words without wisdom: but teacheth all along, either overtly or covertly, that all things here below, how highly soever esteemed, are vanity and soon lost: but the grace of God is solid and stable. — Christum tollere nemo potest. Christ is a portion unloosable, as One once answered to those that asked him, why he was still merry and cheerful?

Said my Soul] Not my mouth only: but I speak it from my very heart, which rejoiceth in God my portion more then the many do in the increase of their corn and wine, Psal. 4.7.

Therefore will I hope in him] Expectabo ut teneam per speciem, quem teneo per spem.

Ver. 25. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him] Which few can skil of, and I have somewhat to do to hit on, but would not now have missed of for all the world.

To the soul that seeketh him] Not giving over till he findeth him.

Ver. 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait, Heb. be silent: not with a Pythargorical or monastical silence, ut non liceat lequi locis & horis certis, but with an humble submission to God's holy will, a patient and peaceable behavior under his hand; waiting for a good use thereof, and a gracious issue in the best time: To frame the heart whereunto, Aurea his subnectitur sententia.

Ver. 27. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke from his youth] The yoke of God's law, and the discipline of afflictions: it is good to be betime in God's nurturing-house, and remain a good while there, that he be trained up in the School of afflictions, that he be a well-beaten Soldier to the Cross. The description of such a one followeth.

Ver. 28. He sitteth alone] Sessio solitaria, as being much in meditation, according to that counsel of the Preacher. In the day of adversity consider.

And keepeth silence] When God's hand is upon his back, his hand is upon his mouth: See on ver. 26.

Because he hath born it upon him] Or, When he hath taken it upon him, taken up his cross, as being active in suffering.

Ver. 29. He putteth his mouth in the dust] He lieth low at God's • eet: putting himself into the hands of Justice, yet in hope of mercy. See 1 Cor. 14 25.

If so be there may be •• pe] Heb. Peradventure there is hope, q. d. doubtless there is: however, I will try, since I have lost many a worse labor.

Ver. 30. He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him] Humility (the product of affliction sanctified) is still at her lesson, or rather practicing what she hath learned. David having suffered by Absalom, can well enough bear with Shimei 's tongue smitings: and the Apostles, after they had been in prison, departed from the Council rejoicing that they were so far graced as to be disgraced for the name of Jesus, Acts 5.41.

He is filled full of reproach] He can bravely bear all contumelies and contempts for his conscience, taking them as crowns and confirmations of his conformity to Christ.

Ver. 31. For the Lord will not cast off forever] No, nor at all: however he may seem to some so to do. Non deserit etiamsi deserat, saith a Father: He doth not put his poople far from him, as the word here signifieth.

Ver. 32. For though he cause grief] As sometimes he doth in very faithfulness, and that he may be true to his people's souls.

Yet he will have compassion] He will repent and return and leave a blessing behind him: that's certain, Joel 2.14.

Ver. 33. For he doth not afflict willingly] Heb. From the heart; Non nisi coactus, as that Emperor said, when he sealed a writ for execution of a condemned person: I would not do it but upon necessity. It goeth as much against the heart with God, as it can do against the hair with us:

Ver. 34. To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth] i. e. All those that are in misery, to lay more load upon them, and so to crush them to pieces, yea to grind them to powder. This he could as easily do as bid it be done: but he takes no such delight in severity and harshness.

Ver. 35. To turn aside the right of a man] To wrest his right by false witness and corrupt means, as wicked men use to do before the face of the most High, or of a Superior under color of law: God liketh none of all this, though eftsoons for excellent ends he suffereth it so to be, and ordereth it when so it is.

Ver. 36. To subvert a man in his cause] By legerdemain to tilt the balance of Justice on toone side.

The Lord approveth not] Heb seeth not. Non videt, i. e. non ei visum est, it seemeth not good unto him he liketh it not.

Ver. 37. Who is he] Tam imprudens & imperitus? Can any one be so simple as to think that the enemy could do ought against us, but by the divine permission and appointment? God, as he made all by his power, so he manageth all by his Providence. This, the Egyptians hieroglyphically set forth by painting God, 1. As blowing an egg out of his mouth, that is, as making the round world by his Word. 2. As compassing about that Orb with a girdle, that is, keeping all together, and governing all by his Providence.

Ver. 38. Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?] i. e. Prosperity and adversity? q. d. Who doubteth of that? Amos 3.5. Isa. 45.7. Talk not then of • ate and blind Fortune.

Ver. 39. Wherefore d • th a living m • n complain?] Mourn immoderately, or murmur causelessly? If he mourn let him mourn for his sin, as the cause of his suffering, let him revenge upon that. If he be tempted to murmur, let him remember that he is yet alive, and that's more then his part cometh to, since it is the Lord's mercy that he is not consumed, and sent packing hence to hell. Life in any sense is a sweet mercy: even that which to the afflicted may seem a lifeless life, as Prov. 15.15. Let this patient us, that we are yet alive.

A man for the punishment of his sine?] Heb. man for his sin? for sin doth as naturally draw and suck punishments to it, as the Laod-stone doth Iron, or Turpentine fire: wherefore also the same word in Hebrew signifieth both.

Ver. 40. Let us search and try our ways] i. e. Make accurate enquiry into them: so shall we soon find out selves to be a whole new-found world of wickedness. Search we therefore, and do it thoroughly: Many either search not at all ( • hey cannot endure these domestical Audits: its death to them to reflect and recognize what they have done) or as though they desired not to find: they search, as men do for their bad money: they know they have it, but they would gladly have it pass for currant among the rest. Heathens will rise up in judgment against such: for they prescibed and practiced self-examination; Pythagoras once a day;

Phocyllides thrice a day, if Stobaeus may be believed.

And turn again to the Lord] Let self-examination end in reformation: else sin will be thereby but imboldened and strengthened, as idle vagrants and lawless subjects are, if questioned only, and not punished and restrained. Of turning again to the Lord. See the Notes on Zach. 1.2.

Ver. 41. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands] Holy hearts, pure hands. Instead of wrangling with God, as ver. 39. let us wrestle with him in prayer: this is the only way to get off with comfort. Nazianzen saith, that the best work we can put our hands unto is, in coelos ease extendere, ad precesque expandere, to lift them up to God in prayer. But then it must be with a true heart, Heb. 10.22. See Job 11, 13. with the Notes.

Ver. 42. We have transgressed and have rebelled] We have committed evil, and omited good, and failed in the manner, and are therefore justly punished. Let God hear such words fall from our mouths, set a work by our hearts, and then we may have anything.

Ver. 43. Thou hast covered with anger] Overwhelmed us with thy Judgments. None out of hell have ever suffered more then the Saints: they have felt the sad effects of displeased Love.

Ver. 44. Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud] Hid thy face from us; and secreted thyself as a Judge doth (when he hath passed sentence upon a malefactor) that he may not be solicited to reverse it.

That our prayers should not pass through] The veil of the Temple was of no debarring matter but thin and pervious, that the incense might easily pass thorough it into the Holy of Holies: but now it was otherwise; God had set a bar betwixt him and his people.

Ver. 45. Thou hast made us as the off-scouring] Eradicationem saith the Vulgar: rasuram potius, not the rooting out, but the scrapings off. As the Jews did rather extrinsecus radere peccata quam intrinsecus eradicare, shave off their sins outwardly then root them out from within: so God made them as despicable as the parings of a pavement, or of a leprous house.

And refuse] See 1 Cor. 4.13. with the Notes.

Ver. 46. All our enemies have opened their mouths against us] i. e. Reviled and derided us: See chap. 2.16.

Ver. 47. Fear and a snare is come upon us] Heb. a pit: Great terror, and no way to escape. See Isa. 24.17, 18.

Ver. 48. Mine eye runneth down] Heb. mine eye descendeth, i. e. Falleth as it were wholly away. See chap. 1.16. & 2.18.

Ver. 49. Mine eye trickleth down and ceaseth not] Put fire under the still, and water droppeth from roses. Fiery afflictions cause drops of repentance: and Repentance, like the Philosophers stone, maketh golden afflictions, 1 Pet. 1.7.

Ver. 50. Till the Lord look down] Let God but see the Rainbow of sound Repentance in our hearts, and he will soon shine forth, and cause it to clear up.

Ver. 51. Mine eye effecteth my heart] Iisdem quibus videmus oculis flemus, we see and weep with the same eyes. But Pliny wondereth where that humor is at other times, that floweth out of the eyes so readily and plentifully in case of grief.

Because of all the daughters of my City] Or, more then all the daughters, &c. more then the most passionate women use to weep, when they are most grieved.

Ver. 52. Mine enemies chased me sore] In most eager and extreme manner, with utmost cruelty and craft.

As a Bird] Beaten from bush to bush.

Without cause] Jeremy and the godly party might say so: but not Zedekiah and other perfidious ones.

Ver. 53. They have cut off my life in the dungeon] Where I lead a lifeless life, such as did Roger Bishop of Salisbury in King Stephens time, who sustained such miseries in prison, ut vivere noluerit, mori nescierit, that live he would not, and yet die he could not.

And cast a stone upon me] As they did upon the mouths of dens, dungeons or sepulchers, to make sure work. The Chaldee hath it, they stoned me.

Ver. 54. Waters flowed over mine head] Many and great miseries have overwhelmed and oppressed me, both in body and soul. These are frequently compared to waters.

Then I said, I am cut off] sc. From the land of the living, but God was better to me then my hopes.

Ver. 55. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon] See Psal, 130.1. Jon. 2.1. with the Notes.

Ver. 56. Thou hast heard my voice] Seem a man's case never so desperate, if he can but find a praying heart, God will find a pitying heart. Prayer is the best lever at a dead lift.

Hide not thine ear at my breathing] As breathing is a proof of animal life; so is prayer, though never so weak, of spiritual. If therefore you cannot speak, weep ( fletu saepe agitur non affatu, tears also have a voice, Psal. 39.12.) if you cannot weep, sigh, (a storm of sighs may do as much as a show of tears) if you cannot sigh, yet breath, as here: God feels breath; and happy is he that can say, In te spero & respiro, In thee I hope Lord: and after thee I breath or pant.

Ver. 57. Thou drewest near] This thou hast done, and this I hope thou yet wilt do, Experience breedeth confidence.

Ver. 58. O Lord thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul] whereof those Babylonians were no just Judges.

Thou hast redeemed my life] It is the life, nay the soul of the Saints, that the wicked hunt after, though they do not always profess so to do.

Ver. 59. O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong] Thou hast seen it and art sensible of it: that's my comfort; for

Judge thou my cause] As Psal. 43.1. See there.

Ver. 60. Thou hast seen all their vengeance] See on ver. 59. The Saints fare the better for their enemies spite and cruelty: and they may very well plead and present it to God in prayer.

Ver. 61. Thou hast heard their reproach] Their spiteful speeches, and taunting terms have come into thine ears.

And all their imaginations] Heb. Their contrivements. As the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers, Psal. 34.15. so he both seeth the ill carriage, and heareth the ill language of graceless persons against the godly.

Ver. 62. The lips of those that rose up] See on ver. 61.

Ver. 63. Behold, their sitting down and their rising up] Or, at their both sitting down (to meat) and at their rising up (from meat) I am their music-maker, their table talk, and the matter of their mirth: they make sport with us, as the Philistines did with Sampson. David complaineth of the like evil-dealing, Psal. 35.15, 16, 17.

Ver. 64. Render unto them a recompense] Call them to an account: and requite them. Let their music be marred, and the meal once ended, send them in a reckoning.

Ver. 65. Give them sorrow of heart] In place of their mad mirth and sinful music: turn their Psalm (as the vulgar rendereth the word Music in the foregoing verse) into a black Sant •• , as they call it, ferale carmen, a doleful ditty. Dabis eis scutum cordis, saith the Vulgar. And indeed the word rendered sorrow signifieth a shield or cover. It noteth, saith one, the Gardiaca passio, whereby the heart is so oppressed, and there is such a stopping, that it is as it were covered sicut scuto, as with a shield; there is a lid as it were, put over the heart, to keep off the most refreshing cordials, and so the heart is suffocated with sorrow. It is as if he should say, put them into such a condition, that no creature may yield them the least refreshment. Spira was in this condition.

Thy curse upon them] All the curses written and unwritten in thy book. This is not more a prayer then a prophecy. How effectual Christ's curse is, may be seen in the withered fig-tree in the Gospel, presently dried up by the roots.

Ver. 66. Persecute and destroy them in anger] Since they are thine and our implacable and irreformable enemies: be thou, Lord, implacably bent against them, to their utter destruction: and since they think us not worthy to breath in the common air (whom thou hast made heirs of the world together with faithful Abraham our Progenitour) destroy them from under these heavens of thine, in the compass and cope whereof thou raignest and rulest all.

From under the heavens of the Lord] Do thou, O Christ (to whom the Father hath committed all judgment) root them out from under the heavens of thy heavenly Father. Thus some Paraphrase the words: and observe therehence the mystery of the Trinity: like as they do from Gen. 19.24.

CHAP. IV.

Ver. 1. HOw is the gold become dim?] How? by way of wonderment again, as chap. 1.2. q. d. Quo tanto scelere hominum, & qua tanta indignatione Dei? What have men done? and how hath God been provoked, that there are such strange alterations here all on the sudden? By gold and fine gold here understand the Temple overlaid by Solomon with choice gold: or God's people (his spiritual Temple ) who had now lost their luster, and dignity.

The stones of the Sanctuary are poured out] Come tumbling down, from the demolished Temple.

Ver. 2. The precious sons of Zion] Those Porphyrogeniti, as the Greek Emperors children were called, because born and bred up in a room made up of precious stones. Understand it of the Jews in general (God's peculiar people, precious in his sight and therefore honorable, Isa. 43.4.) of Zedekiahs sons in particular who (as did also the rest of the Jewish Nobility, if Josephus may be believed) poudered their hair with gold dust, to the end that they might glister and sparkle against the beams of the Sun. The precious children of the Church are all glorious within, by means of the graces of the Spirit, that golden oil, Zach. 4.12. and the blessings of God out of Zion, which are far beyond all other the blessings of heaven and of earth.

As earthen pitchers] Weak and worthless.

Ver. 3. Even the sea-monsters] Heb. Whales or Seals: which, being Amphibii, have both a willingness, and a place convenient to suckle their whelps.

The daughter of my people is become cruel] She is so perforce, being destitute of milk for want of food, but much more by feeding upon them, ver. 10. and chap. 2.20. Oh what a mercy is it to have meat! and how inexcusable are those unnatural mothers that neglect to nurse their children, not out of want but wantonness! Surely as there is a blessing of the womb to bring forth, so of the breasts to give suck, Gen. 49.25. and the dry breasts and barren womb have been taken for a curse, Hos. 9.14. as some interpret that text.

Ver. 4. The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth] For want of suck. That was a miracle which is recorded of the old woman of Bolton in Lancashire, who took up a poor child that lay crying at the breasts of her dead mother (slain, among many others, by Prince Ruperts party) and laying it to her own dry breasts that had not yielded suck for above twenty years before, on purpose to still it, had milk came to nourish it, to the admiration and astonishment of all beholders. This and another like example of God's good providence for the relief of little ones whom their mothers could not relieve, may be read of in Mr. Clerks Mirror for Saints and Sinners, Edit. 3. fol. 495, 507.

And no man breaketh it unto them] The parents either not having it for them, or not having an heart to part with it to them.

Ver. 5. They that did feed delicately] Such uncertainty there is of outward affluence. Our Richad the second was famished to death. Henry Holland Duke of Excester, grand-child to John of Gaunt was seen to run on foot bare-legged after the Duke of Burgundy 's train begging his bread for God's sake: This I saw, saith Philip de Comines. This Henry was brother in law to King Edward the fourth, from whom he fled.

They that were brought up in scarlet] Qui nutriebantur in croceis sen cocceis, that were gorgeously arrayed, or, that rolling on their rich beds, wrapped themselves in costly coverlets.

Embrace dunghills] There take up their lodgings, and there also are glad to find anything to feed on, though never so course and homely, The Lapwing is made an Hieroglyphic of infelicity, because he hath as a coronet upon the head, and yet feedeth upon the worst of excrements. It is pity that any child of God, washed in Christ's blood, should bedabble his scarlet robe in the stinking guzzle of the worlds dunghill: that any one who hath heretofore soared as an Eagle, should now creep on the ground as a bettle, or wallow as a swine in the mire of sensuality.

Ver. 6. For the punishment of the iniquity of Zion is greater] For Sodom was destroyed by Angels, Zion by malicious men: The enemies were not enriched by Sodom, as they were by Zion. Sodom was destroyed in an instant; not so Zion, for she had her punishment piecemeal; first a long seige, and then the loss of all, after a world of miseries sustained in the seige. Julius Caesar was wont to say, It is better once to fall then always to hang in suspense. Augustus wished that he might die suddenly: His life he called a Comedy, and said that he thought he had acted his part therein pretty handsomely; Now if he might soon pass through death, he would hold it an happiness. Soldiers wish is thus set forth by the Poet;

It is the ancient and manful fashion of the English (who are naturally most impatient of lingering mischiefs) to put their quarrels to the trial of the sword, as the Chronicler observeth.

Ver. 7. Her Nazarites] Who served God in a singular way of abstinence above other men. These had their rules given them, Num. 6. which whiles they observed,

They were purer then snow, whiter then milk] Temperance is the mother of beauty, as luxury is of deformity. This is nothing to the Popish Votaryes those Epicures and Abby-lubbers,

Some by Nazarites here understand their Nobles and such as wore coronets on their heads: Nezar is a crown, 2 Sam. 1.10. 2 Kings 11.12. thus Joseph was a Nazarite, Gen. 49.26. So Daniel and his three Associates, in whom that was verified,

Ver. 8. Their visage is blacker then a coal] Heb. their visage is more darkened then blackness. sc. With famine, fear, grief, and car: those vultures have so fed upon them, that all sightlinesse and loveliness is lost. Think the same of Apostates: God may complain of such, as Mic. 2.8.

Ver. 9. They that be slain with the sword are better] They suffer less pain in dying, they are soon dispatched. See on ver. 6. But Famine is an hard weapon.

For these pine away] By a lingering death, as Drusus the Roman: to whom meat being denied, he had eaten the stuffings of his bed, saith Suetonius: and our Richard the second who was Tantalized and starved to death at Pomfret Castle, where his diet being served in and set before him in the wonted Princely manner, he was not suffered either to taste, or touch thereof.

Stricken through for want of the fruits of the field] Those precious fruits of the earth, as James the Apostle calleth them. These as a sword defend us from death: and the want of them, as a sword, runneth us thorough. In the time of Otho the Emperor there was so great a scarcity of bread corn in Germany for three years together, that many thousands died of hunger. In remembrance of which great dearth, there is yearly baked at Erphord a little loaf, such as was then sold for much money.

Ver. 10. The hands of the pitiful women have sodden] Sodden them rather then roasted them, lest they should be discovered by the smell, and so in danger to be despoiled of them, as it sell out at the last seige by the Romans. Lege & Luge.

They were their meat] In eadem viscera, ex quibus exierant, retrusi sunt: they returned into the same bowels, whence they came forth.

Ver. 11. The Lord hath accomplished his fury] Which he had long deferred; but now hath paid it home. Cave ne ira delata fiat duplicata.

He hath poured out his fierce anger] As it were by whole buckets, or paile-fulls. God's anger may be set out in minums, as there may be much poison in little drops: But woe be those on whom it is poured.

He hath kindled a fire in Zion] His wrath is like fire that furious Element, which at first burneth a little upon a few boards, but when it prevaileth, it bursteth forth into a terrible flame.

Ver. 12. The Kings of the earth, &c.] These knowing how impregnable a piece Jerusalem was: how the Jebusites of old held out the Tower of Zion against David, how long it had kept out Nebuchadnezzar, viz. for two years space almost; how it had been preserved by God against Sennacherib, &c. looked upon it as in a sort insuperable, and could not but see a divine vengeance in the destruction of it.

Ver. 13. For the sins of her Prophets] These, these were the right cause of her ruin. Not that the People were not faulty (for they loved to have it so, Jer. 5. ult. ) but those were the ring-leaders in that general defection.

Ver. 14. They have wandered as blind men in the streets] Well might a certain Expositor say, Hic versus cum sequentibus vary exponitur. The sense in short is this, saith One, that the Jews misled by their Prophets and Priests, were so blind in knowledge, that every example of sin led to evil: which, for want of grace, they could not refrain from.

Ver. 15. They cried unto them] The enemies in a mockery said aloud unto the Jews.

Depart ye, it is unclean, depart, depart] Mimesis: q. d. You that are so pure, and (as people say profanely amongst us) so Pope-holy, that none must come anear you, but get away as far and as fast as they can, as if they were Lepers, &c.

They said among the Heathen] The blind Ethnikes beholding the Jews wickedness, have judged that it was impossible God should suffer them any longer to live in his good land, since they would not live by his good Laws.

Ver. 16. The anger of the Lord hath divided them] Say the Heathen still, concerning the wicked Jews: continuatur enim hic instituta Mimesis.

He will no more regard them] Heb. look after them, sc. facie blandâ ac benevolâ, in mercy; he hath utterly rejected them: For why?

They respected not the persons of the Priests] But vilely entreated them: See Chron. 36.16.

Ver. 17. As for us, our eyes as yet failed] With long and vain looking: as Psal. 119.82, 123. For, As for us, some render Cum adhuc essemus, while as yet we were, sc. a Nation: for now we are none. Fuimus Troes.

In our watching we have watched for a Nation] sc. for the Egyptians, Jer. 2.18, 36. & 37.7, 8.

Ver. 18. They hunt our steps] There is an elegancy in the Original, as if we should say, They hunt our haunts.

That we cannot go in our streets] Because of their forts, from whence they shoot at us. Satan doth so much more:

Our end is come] We are an undone people.

Ver. 19. Our persecutors are swifter then the Eagles] Those swiftest of all foul: whom Pindarus therefore calleth the Queen of Birds, as the Dolphin is of fishes for like swiftness. The Egyptians, their pretended helpers, were slow as snailes; the Chaldees swifter then Eagles.

They pursued us] Or they chased us, or traced us, like blood-hounds.

They laid wait for us in the Wilderness] They met us at every turn: and left us no means of escape.

Ver. 20. The breath of our nostriles] King Zedekiah, in whose downfall we drew as it were our last breath. The Chaldee Paraphrast understandeth it of Josiah, with whom indeed died all the prosperity of the Jews, as with Epaminondas did that of the Thebans; and with Theodosius, that of the Western Empire.

The Anointed of the Lord] Who yet for his perfidy was vilely cast away like Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil, 2 Sam. 1.21.

Was taken in their pits] A term taken from hunters, Ezek. 12.13. See ver. 20. Jer. 52.8.

Under his shadow] As the chickens do under the hens.

Ver. 21. Rejoice and be glad] This is spoken to Edom by a certain Ironical and bitter concession: q. d. Do so if thou hast any mind to it: but thou shalt soon be made to change thy cheer. Thy flearing at us shall be soon turned into fearing for thyself: thy mirth into mourning.

That dwellest in the land of Uz] Job 's country, called also Siria, saith R. Solomon, and haply from Seir. Evil is at next door by to those who rejoice at the evils of others.

The cup shall pass through unto thee] The quassing cup of God's Wrath, Jer. 25.18, 29.

And shalt make thyself naked] To the scorn of all: as drunkards who are void of shame and common honesty, baring those parts that nature would have covered, See Jer. 49.10.

Ver. 22. The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished O daughter of Zion] A word of comfort in the close of this doleful ditty. The Sun of Righteousness loveth not to set in a cloud. See Isa. 40.1. Profane Elegies have no comfort in them, as this hath.

He will no more carry thee away into Captivity] i. e. No more in haste; after thy return from Babylon. Caried away they were again, many ages after by the Romans, whom to this day they therefore call Edomites, and the Popes hierarchy the wicked kingdom of Edom, which they say shall be certainly destroyed, as is here also foretold: and then shall they be brought back again to Jerusalem, and there resetled by their Messiah. See the Chaldee Paraphrast upon this text.

He will discover thy sins] i. e. Punish thee soundly for them, in the sight of all men. See on Psal. 32.1, 2. Job 20.17.

CHAP. V.

Ver. 1. REmember, O Lord, what is come upon us] This last Chapter is a brief Recapitulation of what had been said in the four former, that they might be the better remembered and considered by the Reader. The ancient Greek and Latin Bibles style it Jeremiah's prayer. Herein the Prophet, or rather the Church layeth open, as a Lazar, her sores and sufferings: and beggeth to be remembered and considered of God. Not that either forgetfulness or inobservancy can be found in him (for All things both past and future are present with him) but these are Metaphorical expressions, and He alloweth us to be his Remembrancers.

Consider and behold] Heb. behold and see: Affectum cum effecta conjunctum significat.

Our reproach] This is that which man's nature is most impatient of: to the Saints it is so much the more grievous, because they do quarter Arms with Christ.

Ver. 2. Our inheritance is turned to strangers] So the Jews called all other Nations, as the Greeks, Barbarians. From hence to ver. 19. there are so many verses, so many several complaints. Whiles we are in this vale of misery and valley of tears, we are sure of many ailements, and still to have somewhat to cry for.

Ver. 3. We are orphans and fatherless] And so are become thy clients: just objects of thy pity, Hos. 14.3.

Ver. 4. We have drunk our water for money] Fire, water, and air, are common good, quae jure naturae sunt omnium & singulorum, saith Cicero. Lysimachus paid dear for a cup of water when he parted with his Kingdom for it. Dives would have done as much in hell for a drop, and could not have it.

Our wood is sold to us] This was strange to them (who had enough of their own growing, or might have it from the Commons for fetching) but just upon them for their abuse of it to the service of the Queen of heaven, Jer. 7.18.

Ver. 5. Our necks are under persecution] For that we would not stoop to the sweet yoke of thine obedience, but held it heavy, now we are under an intolerable yoke of extreme slavery.

We labor and have no rest] Who once troubled God's holy rest by bearing burdens and working thereon, Jer. 17.21. In many places amongst us, God's Sabbath is made the voyder and dunghill for all refuse businesses. The Sabbath of the Lord the sanctified day of his Rest (saith a Reverend writer) is shamelessly troubled and disquieted. The Sabbath was never so profaned (saith such another Reverend man yet living) with heart, hand, foot, tongue, pen and Press, as of late. And is it not just with God that those who would justle his religious Rest out of its right, should be restless in their condition? as Lam. 5.5. Thus He. All wicked men acted and agitated by the devil day and night, may well cry out as here, We labor and have no rest: but they are not sensible of this woeful servitude.

Ver. 6. We have given the hand to the Egyptians and to the Assyrians] Enemies to the Chaldeans, no less then they were to us: but hard hunger (that driveth the wolf out of the wood) hath made us glad to be beholding to them for bread: so ill have the cruel Chaldees relieved and rewarded us for our work.

Ver. 7. Our fathers have sinned and are not] They had their payment, but not comparable to ours: who have out-sinned them, and do therefore justly bear the punishment of both their sins and our own too.

Ver. 8. Servants have ruled over us] And they are usually most insolent; as was Tobiah the servant, Neh. 2.19. Cicero, after the defeat given to Pompey, complaineth in a certain Epistle, Lord's we could not away with, and now we are forced to serve our fellow-servant. This was Canaan's curse to be a servant of servants, Gen. 9.25. See the Notes there.

Ver. 9. We gat our bread with the peril of our lives] So did our good Ancestors the bread of life, whilst their Preachers also were glad to do as Jotham did, Judge. 9.21. when they had delivered what they had to say, run away, and fly for their lives. See 2 Sam. 23.17.

Because of the sword of the wilderness] Where rovers and robbers lay in wait for us: neither could we pass them without apparent peril.

Ver. 10. Our skin was black like an oven] Or, at a chimney, Isa. 31.9. being still beaten upon with the fire that is within it.

Because of the terrible famine] Propter procellas famis, because of the tempests of famine, which, like a violent storm, beareth down all before it.

Ver. 11. They ravished the women in Zion] Heb. they humbled, i. e. they dishonested: although Virgo invita vexari quidem potest, violari non potest. The Chaldee Paraphraseth thus, The wives were ravished by the Romans, and the maids by the Chaldees: for the Jew-doctors do understand this book of the Lamentations concerning both the destructions of Jerusalem.

Ver. 12. Princes are hanged up by the hand] Made to die a dogs death, and (as some will have it) by their own hands, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 .

The faces of the Elders were not honored]

But now it was otherwise with the Jewish Elders, who haply were not worthy of their years, as we say: like as the Princes had done wickedly with both hands earnestly, and were therefore not undeservedly hanged up by the hand: But if Quakers amongst us might have their way, our families (saith One) would soon be like the cabbins of the Lestringonians in Sicily, where everybody was at liberty, and none regarded or reverenced their Seniours or Superiors.

Ver. 13. They took the young men to grind] i. e. To do any base and abject business, Exod. 11.5. & 12.29. Frustra enim hic Hieronymus & alii Sodomiticum quid cogitant.

And the children fell under the wood] Being not able to stand under such unreasonable burdens as were laid upon their backs.

Ver. 14. The Elders have ceased from the gate] Where they were wont to sit, Gen. 34.20. to judge between party and party.

The young men from their music] From their ordinary and honest recreations and disports.

Ver. 15. The joy of our heart is ceased] Heb. keepeth Sabbath, i. e. is vanished, and that because we made not God's Sabbath our delight, as Isa. 58.13.

Ver. 16. The crown is fallen from our head] i. e. All our glory both of Church and State, because we refused to serve God, which indeed is to reign in righteousness. Now neither is all this, nor any of this spoken to exasperate or exulcerate people's hearts to fret against God, or to faint under their pressures, but to put them upon the practice of true humiliation that so they may not lose the fruit of their Afflictions: whence the following passage,

Woe unto us that we have sinned] Which as it runneth sweetly and rythmically in the Original: so it pointeth us to that savory and sovereign practice of lamenting our sins more then our miseries; and humbling ourselves to the utmost under the mighty hand of God, that he may lift up in due season.

Ver. 17. For this, our heart is fain] Ponit symbolum vere contritionis, we are sin-sick even at heart: our sins are as so many daggers at our hearts, or bearded arrows in our flesh.

For these things our eyes are dim] we have well-nigh wept them out: whereby nevertheless out minds have been enlightened.

Ver. 18. Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate] q. d. Next unto our sins (which are our greatest sorrow) nothing troubleth us more then this, that the public exercises of Piety are put down: Zion, the seat of God's Sanctuary is desolate.

Ver. 19. Thou O Lord remainest forever] Alioqui totus totus desperassem, as that good man said once in like case: Otherwise I should have but small joy of my life. But thou art everlasting and invariable in essence, truth, will and promises: This is mine Anchorhold.

Thy throne from generation to generation] i. e. Thy most equal and righteous ordering of all things, utut nobis quaedam confusiuscule currere videantur, though some things may seem to us to be somewhat confusedly carried, and even to run on wheels, yet it shall one day appear that there was a wheel within a wheel, Ezek. 1. that is, an over ruling and all-disposing Providence.

Ver. 20. Wherefore dost thou forget us?] Since thy Covenant runs otherwise? 2 Sam. 7.14. See on ver. 1.

And forsakest us so long time] Heb. to length of days, as Psal. 23, 6. Not for Seventy years only, but to the end of the world: till wrath is come upon us to the utmost, as 2 Thes. 2.

Ver. 21. Turn thou us unto thee] That thou mayest turn thee to us, as Zach. 1.3. Let there be a through-reformation wrought in us: and then a gracious restauration wrought for us.

Ver. 22. But thou hast utterly rejected us] This is a sad Catastrophe, or close of this doleful ditty. Sometimes God's suppliants are put hard to it in the course of their Prayers: the last grain of their faith and patience seemeth to be put into the scale. When the Son of man cometh with deliverance to his praying people, shall he find faith in the earth? Hard and scarce: And yet he comes oft when they have even done looking for him: he is seen in the Mount, he helpeth those that are forsaken of their hopes: Hallelujah. Sure it is that God cannot utterly reject his people whom he hath chosen, Rom. 11. Tremellius rendereth it, and so the Margin of our Bibles hath it (and I think better) For wilt thou utterly reject us, or be extremely wrath with us? sc. supra modulum nostrum, according to thine infinite power, and above all that we are able to bear? I cannot think it, neither doth it consist with thy Covenant.

Here (as also at the end of Ecclesiastes, Isaiah and Malachi ) many of the Hebrew Bibles repeat the foregoing verse, Turn thou us unto thee O Lord, &c. yet without pricks, left anything should seem added thereby to the holy Scriptures. The reason here of read in the end of the Prophecy of Isa. This is also here observed by the most renowned Mr. Thomas Gataker, whom for honor sake I name, and to whose most accurate and elaborate Annotations upon Isaiah and Jeremy I have been not a little beholden, all along. These he finished not long before his death, to the great glory of God and good of his Church: And of him, and this worthy Work of his I may fitly say as a learned man doth of Magellanus the Portingal (that great Navigator) that the Strait or Sea now called by his name, unâ navigatione simul & immortalem gloriam & mortem ei attulerit, was both his death, and his never-dying Monument.

CHAP. I.

T He Book of the Prophet Ezekiel] The Book of Ezekiel; so the Hebrews call it; and forbid any to read the beginning and ending of it till he be thirty years of age, because it is so abstruse and mysterious. Nazianzen calleth this Prophet, The Beholder of great things; and the Interpreter of visions and mysteries. Another calleth him the Hieroglyphical Prophet, A third Jeremy veiled, a hand shut up, and you know not what is in it, &c. Contemporary he was to Jeremy, though in another Country, and a great confirmer of what he had foretold, but could not be credited. To him therefore (as to many others) Ezekiel became (according to the import of his name) The strength of God, who mightily enabled him (as Lavater well noteth) with a stout and undaunted spirit, to reprove both people and Princes, and to threaten them more terribly and vehemently then Jeremy had done before him. But, in the substance of their Prophecies, there is no small conformity. Ferunt Ezechielem servum Jeremiae prius extitisse, saith Nazianzen: Some have affirmed that Ezekiel had sometimes been Jeremiah 's servant, as was afterwards Baruch.

Ver. 1. Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year] sc. Since the Book of the Law found, and that famous Passover kept in King Josiah 's days, 2 King. 22. & 23. since the eighteenth year of his reign, ver. 33 So elsewhere, they began their account from some memorable mercy or remarkable accident: as from the promise made to Abraham, the birth of Isaac, the departure out of Egypt, the division of the Kingdom into that of Israel, and the other of Judah, &c.

In the fifth day of the month] Which was the Sabbath-day, say some: confer chap. 3.16. Then was this holy Prophet in the Spirit, as was afterwards also John the Divine upon the Christian Sabbath, Rev. 1.10.

As I was among the captives] In Chaldea. That rule of the Rabbin's therefore holdeth not, viz. that the Holy Ghost never spake to the Prophets, but only in the holy land.

By the river of Chebar] Which was rivus vel ramentum Euphratis, a part or channel of Euphrates. There sat the poor captives, Psal. 137.1. and there this Prophet received this Vision (here) and his Vocation in the next chapter. It is observed, that by the sides of rivers sundry Prophets had visions of God: by a river side it was that Paul and his company met to preach and pray, Act. 16.13. And of Archbishop Ussier (that most reverend man of God) it is recorded, that to a certain place by a water-side he frequently resorted (when as yet he was but very young) sorrowfully to recount his sins, and with floods of tears to pour them out in confession to God.

That the heavens were opened] Not by a division of the firmament, saith Jerome, but by the faith of the believer. The like befell Steven the Protomartyr (when the stones were buzzing about his ears, Act. 7.) and (if we may believe the Monkish writers) Wulfin Bishop of Salisbury, when he lay a dying.

And I saw visions of God] i. e. Offered by God, or excellent visions. Ezekiel was not only a Priest and a Prophet, but a Seer also: Abraham was the like, Joh. 8.56. with Gen. 20.7. This was no small honor.

Ver. 2. In the fifth day] The Sabbath-day, likely, that Queen of days, as the Jews call it: see on ver. 1.

Which was the fifth year of Jehoiachims captivity] With whom Ezekiel, and other precious persons (called by Jeremiah good figs ) were carried captive, chap. 40.1.

Ver. 3. The Word of the Lord came expressly] Heb. by being hath been, or hath altogether been; Accurate factum est, it really wrought upon me, and made me a Prophet.

Unto Ezekiel the Priest] Whom therefore some have called Urim and Thummim in Babylon.

The son of Buzi] Thas this Buzi was Jeremy (so called because despised for his plaindealing, as some Rabbin's have affirmed) is as true as that Ezekiel himself was the same with Pythagoras the Philosopher; which yet some Ancients have fondly fancied.

In the land of the Chaldeans] Though a polluted land, Mic. 2.10. and the dwelling-place of wickedness, Zach. 5.11. the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth, Rev. 17.5.

By the river Chebar] The Rabbin's call it the Sabbath-river: and further tell us, that it runneth not, but resteth on the Sabbath-day.

And the hand of the Lord was there upon him] Not only came God's Word expressly to him, but the power and Spirit of God came mightily upon him: so that he felt the intrinsical virtue of this hand (as one phraseth it) the Spirit of God in his own heart; it was a quick and lively word unto him, and to as many as believed.

Ver. 4. And I looked and behold] In this ensuing mysterious vision of a whirlwind, four Cherubims, four wheels, a Throne upon the firmament, formidabilis Dei forma proponitur, is set forth the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord, as it is expounded, ver. 28. that hereby the people's arrogancy might be the better subdued, the Prophets doctrine more reverently received, and the Prophet confirmed in his calling. The sum of this celestial vision is, that the Divine Providence doth rule in the world, and is exercised in all parts thereof, and not only in Heaven, or in the Temple, or in Jury, as the Jews then thought. As for the changes in the world (which are here compared to Wheeles ) they befall not at all adventures, or by haphazzard; but are effected by God, though all things may seem to run upon wheels, and to fall out, as it fortuneth. At the day of judgment, at utmost, men shall see an harmony in this discord of things: and Providence shall then be unriddled. Meanwhile, God oft wrappeth himself in a cloud, and will not be seen till afterwards. All God's dealings, besure, will appear beautiful in their season; though for present we see not the contiguity and linking together of one thing with another.

A whirlwind came out of the North] i. e. Nebuchadnezzar with his forces: See Jer. 1.13, 14, 15. fitly compared to a whirlwind for suddenness, swiftness, irresistibleness. A lapide telleth of whirlwinds in Italy which have taken away stabula cum equis, stables with horses, carried them up into the air, and dashed them against the mountains. See Habbak. 1.6, 7, 9, 10. and consider that those Chaldeans were of God's sending.

A great cloud] Nebuchadnezzar's army, Jer. 4.13. that peditum equitumque nubes, (2 King. 25.1. chap. 39.9) that stormed Jerusalem.

And a fire infolding itself] Heb. that receiveth itself within itself, as in an house on fire. Understand it of Nebuchadnezzar's wrath against Jerusalem, much hotter then that furnace of his seven times more then ordinary heated, Dan. 2. or rather of God's wrath in using Nebuchadnezzar to set all on a light free.

And a brightness was about it] The glory of Divine presence, shining in the punishment of evil-doers.

Out of the midst thereof as of the color of Amber] Not of an Angel called Hasmal, as Lyra (after some Rabbin's ) will have it. Jarchi confesseth he knoweth not what the word Hasmal meaneth. This Prophet only hath it here, and ver. 27, and chap. 8.2. as Daniel also hath some words proper to himself.

Ver. 5. Also out of the midst thereof] i. e. From God's glorious presence.

Came the likeness of four living creatures] i. e. Angels chap. 10.8. 14, 15, 20. Intelligentias animales Tully calleth them. See like visions, Dan. 7.9. Rev. 4.6, 7. These are said to be four: because God by his Angels diffuseth his power thorough the four quarters of the world.

They had the likeness of a man] sc. For the greater part: they had more of a man then of any other creature, as hands, legs, &c. ver. 7.8.

Ver. 6. And everyone had four faces] To set forth, saith an Expositor, that the power of Angels is exercised about all creatures. It is as if the Angels did bear on them the heads of all living-wights, i. e. did comprehend in themselves all the Elements and all the parts of the world: not as if they did move or act by their own power, but as they are God's hands and Agents, employed by him at pleasure, for the good of his Church especially, Heb. 1.14. as being fit and ready to every good work: so should we strive to be, Tit. 3.1.

And everyone had four wings] To set forth their agility, their incredible swiftness, far beyond that of the Sun, which yet, if Bellarmine reckoneth right, runneth in the eighth part of an hour, seven thousand miles: others say many more.

Ver. 7. And their feet were strait feet] Importing their right progress in executing God's will. We must also make straight or even paths for our feet: lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, Heb. 12.13. See ver. 9.

And the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calves foot] Round, and therefore easily turned: The Angels as they see every way, so they are apt to go every way; and this with the greatest facility that can be.

And they sparkled] So swiftly they went, that their feet seemed to sparkle or strike fire.

Like the color of burnished brass] Burnished not blemished; polished, not polluted.

Ver. 8. And they had the hands of a man under their wings] Faces, wings, hands: all to express, saith one, the sufficiency of God's Providence for all means of help. A little of the Angels, saith another, is set forth by these faces, wings, hands, feet: but the distinct knowledge of Angels as Angels is reserved till we are like the Angels in heaven. Great Angels they are: but act invisibly, for most part: Their hands are under their wings.

Ver. 9. Their wings were joined one to another] To show the unity of Angels, the uniformity also of their motions in God's service: there is a suteablenesse and agreeableness betwixt them.

They turned not when they went] sc. Till they had effected that they went for; and then they did, as ver. 14.

They went everyone straight forward] The Angels, in the execution of their office, keep a straight course, without deviating or detrecting, without cessation or cespitation. Our eyes should also look right on, Prov. 4.25. and we should make strait steps for our feet, Heb. 12.13. This is Angel-like. St. Paul, that earthly Angel did so, Phil. 3.13, 14.

Ver. 10. They four had the face of a man, and the face of a Lyon] Hereby is set forth the wisdom, strength, serviceableness, and perspicaciousness of the holy Angels for the Churches good, all things requisite to great undertakings: neither forbear they to serve us, though we have the sent of the earth, and hell about us: quantumnis cos proh dolor, faetore peccatorum mon raro laedamus, Deumque offendamus, though by the stench of our sins, we do frequently annoy them, and offend God.

And they four had the face of an ox] Angels are obsequious, painful, patient, useful. The ox is of those beasts that are ad esum & ad usum; and is truly called jumentum à juvando.

They four also had the face of an Eagle] Angels are shard-sighted, 2 Sam. 14.20. vigorous and vivacious, swift beyond belief, Dan. 9.21. and if they be once upon the wing, there is no escaping for any wicked people or person.

Ver. 11. And their wings were stretched upward] Faces and wings are both turned toward God; at whose beck and obedience the holy Angels wholly are, Psal. 103.20. Or hereby may be imported the swiftness, sublimeness, and equality of their service.

Two wings of everyone] See on ver. 9.

And two covered their bodies] See on Isa. 6.2.

Ver. 12. And they went everyone strait forward] See on ver. 9.

Whither the Spirit was to go, they went] That is the Spirit of God, by whose direction and conduct the Angels do all things. He is the great Agent that setteth Angels awork. Let us also be led by the Spirit of God: so shall we approve ourselves sons of God, Rom. 8.14.

Ver. 13. Their appearance was like burning cowls of fire] Angels are actuosi & efficaces ut ignis, of a fiery nature, and of a fiery operation: as is also the holy Spirit, ( Isa. 4.4. Mat. 3.11. Act. 2.3.) whereby they are actuated. Angels are all on a light fire, as it were, with zeal for God, and indignation against sin. Let us be like-affected. Paul was an heavenly spark: John the Baptist a burning and shining light. Chrysostom saith that Peter was a man made all of fire, walking among stubble. Basil was a pillar of fire. Latimer cried out Deest ignis. In Bucholcere vivida omnia fuerunt, &c.

It went up and down among the living creatures] The fire and flame did. Heb. it made itself to walk, of it own accord and pleasure.

And the fire was bright] Let us also labor to kindle and keep quick the fire of zeal upon the harth of our hearts, without all smoke or smutch of sin.

And out of the fire went out lightnings] The Lord is known by the judgment which he executeth: his noble works done by those instruments of his the holy Angels are quickly noted and noticed: as in Sennacherib's army.

Ver. 14. And the living creatures ran and returned] As soon as ever their work was done, they came back to him who sent them out to know his further pleasure; and to do him more service. When the Angel had lessoned the good women about our Savior's Resurrection, he biddeth them go quickly and tell his Disciples, &c. and then dismisseth them with Loe I have told you, Mat. 28.6, 7. q. d. Be gone now about your business: you have your full errand: why linger ye? pack away.

As the appearance of a flash of lightening] Which appeareth and disappeareth in an instant.

Ver. 15. Behold one wheel upon the earth] Things here below are exceeding mutable, and therefore compared to wheels: because they may seem to run on wheels, and to have no certain course, but to be turned upside down eftsoons; such is the various, promiscuous administration of them, to many men's thinking. To set us right herein, here we have the vision of the four wheels: for each of the four living-wights had a wheel by him, ver. 16. and chap. 10.9. to show that God governeth all the four quarters of the world by the ministry of his Angels. This the Poets hammered at (but hit not on) in their foolish fable of Fortunes wheel. St. James speaketh of the wheel of nature, chap 3.6. And indeed this world is of a wheeling nature, moveable and mutable. But God, who moves this wheel, who fuleth the world, is unchangeable and eternal, Jam. 1.17. and his providence, and the ministry of his Angels sets all the wheels in the world in motion.

Ver. 16. The appearance of the wheels—was like unto the color of a Beryl] Heb. as the eye or color of Tarshish, i. e. the sea or Beryl which is of a sea-color, even sea-green: whereby is represented the flux and fluctuating constitution of things here below.

And they four had one likeness] There is the same instability of things in one place as in another, and the same over-ruling providence.

Their appearance and their work were as it were a wheel in the midst of a wheel] God hath a wheel (Providence) in all the wheeling businesses of the world. These are so one within another, as that all their motion dependeth on the Angels, whom he also moderateth, and ordereth at his own pleasure. Whensoever therefore we see such things come to pass that we can see no reason for (as the Churches overthrown, the wicked exalted, &c.) consider that one wheel is within another, and the wings of the Angels are one within another, &c.

Ver. 17. When they went, they went upon their four sides] Or, according to their four sides, i. e. thorough the four parts of the world, as they were moved by the four living creatures.

And they returned not when they went] But kept on strait forward, without stopping or stepping back. A figure of the constant and consonant harmony which is in all the works of God's Providence toward the world, but especially toward his Church.

Ver. 18. As for their rings they were so high] Apsides earum tam amplae seu altae ut propterea formidabiles. The rings or strakes (Heb. backs ) of these wheels were so broad and high, that they struck terror into the beholders. It is hard to take the altitude of second causes. Well might one write a book of the Vanity of Sciences, and another a Tractat Quod nihil scitur. I would see the proudest of you all define the nature of a straw, as one preached in Cambridge to all the Scholars: so of a flower, of a fly, &c. Well might David say, Thy judgments, Lord, are a great deep, Psal. 36.6. such as hath neither bank nor bottom. Well might Paul cry out O the depth! how unsearchable are his ways, &c. Rom. 11.23.

And the rings were full of eyes] Instead of cart-nails. Understand hereby God's all-seeing Providence, which never erreth, but always ordereth the worlds disorders to his own glory.