debars us of the joy and pleasure that we were wont to take in our rich supply of sacrifices and offerings for the house of the Lord our God 17. For now not onely the corn above ground is destroyed but the very seed cast into the earth is putrisied under the clods so that our hope of a good harvest is buried with it and our garners are destroyed our barns emptied and ruined and our corn withered 18. O how the very cattel sensible of their wants in their loud bellowing seem to grone and cry unto God as elsewhere the hungry ravens are said to call upon Him who hath an ear for them and would much more be favourable to our prayers who are not so forward to bemoan our selves as the herds of bruit beasts are in their woful condition and perplexitie for lack of pasture And the flocks of sheep that as heavily though more remisly and silently expresse their sad and desolate case 19. I can not but crie unto thee O Lord the roaring of the poor beasts might put me upon it for that cruelty of our enemies that carrie all before them like a consuming fire destroying the fruitful places of the once-plentiful but now a most desert land and like a continued flame fearfully burning up all the trees of the field 20. And if I should leave crying and calling upon thee the beasts of the field every one of them as confuting the dulnesse and coldness of my affections and the too little pitty of my self and them would continue their louder and heavier cry unto thee because the great rivers of waters are dried up and the fruitful earth parched with heat is become like a drie and desolate wildernesse the pastures now deserve no other name among us CHAP. II. 1. BLow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh for it is high at hand 2 A day of darknesse and of gloominesse a day of clouds of thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains a great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it even to the years of many generations 3 A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth the land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them 4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen so shall they run 5 Like the noise of charets on the tops of mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array 6 Before their face the people shall be much pained all faces shal gather blacknesse 7 They shall run like mighty men they shall climb the wall like men of war and they shall march every one on his wayes and they shall not break their ranks 8 Neither shall one thrust another they shall walk every one in his path and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded 9 They shall run to and fro in the city they shall run upon the wall they shall climb up upon the houses they shall enter in at the windowes like a thief 10 The earth shall quake before them the heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining 11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his camp is very great for he is strong that executeth his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it 12 Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning 13 And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repenteth him of the evill 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a fast call a solemn assembly 16 Gather the people sanctifie the congregation assemble the Elders gather the children and those that suck the breasts let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet 17 Let the Priests the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thing heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people where is their God 18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people 19 Yea the Lord will answer and say unto his people Behold I will send you corn and wine and oil ye shall be satisfied therewith and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen 20 But I will remove far off from you the Northern army will drive him into a land barren and desolate with his face toward the east Sea his hinder part towards the utmost sea his stink shall come up his ill savour shall come up because he hath done great things 21 Fear not O land be glad and rejoyce for the Lord will do great things 22 Be not afraid ye beasts of the field for the pastures of the wildernesse do spring for the tree beareth her fruit the fig-tree and the vine do yeild their strength 23 Be glad then ye children of Zion and rejoyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in the first moneth 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm my great army which I sent among you 26 And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wonderously with you and my people shall never be ashamed 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my people shall never be ashamed 28 And it shall come to passe afterward that I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids maids in those dayes will I powre out my Spirit 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth bloud and fire and pillars of smoak 31 The Sun shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into blood before the
unto the house of Israel Seek ye me and ye shall live 5 But seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal and passe not to Beer-sheba for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nought 6 Seek the Lord and ye shall live leâ—t he break out like fire in the house of Ioseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel 7 Ye who turn judgement to wormwood and leave off righteousnesse in the earth 8 Seek him that maketh the seven Stars and Orion and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night that calleth for the waters of the sea and powreth them out upon the face of the earth the Lord is his Name 9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong so that the spoiled shall come against the fortresse 10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate and they abhor him that speakketh uprightly 11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat ye have built houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them ye have planted pleasant vineyards but ye shall not drink wine of them 12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sinnes they afflict the just they take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evill time 14 Seek good and not evill that ye may live and so the Lord the God of hosts shall be with you as ye have spoken 15 Hate the evill and love the good and establish judgement in the gate it may be that the Lord God of hostes will be gracious unto the remnant of Ioseph 16 Therefore the Lord the God of hosts the Lord saith thus Wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high-wayes Alas alas and they shall call the husband-man to mourning and such as are skilfull of lamentation to wailing 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing for I will passe thorow thee saith the Lord. 18 Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light 19 As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him 20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darknesse and not light even dark and no brightnesse in it 21 I hate I despise your feast dayes and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies 22 Though ye offer me burnt offering and your meat offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts 23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs for I will not hear the melody of thy viols 24 But let judgement run down at waters and righteousnesse as a mighty stream 25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wildernesse fourty years O house of Israel 26 But ye have born the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images the star of your god which ye made to your selves 27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus saith the Lord whose Name is the God of hosts CHAP. V. 1. HEar what I have to say unto you O you children of Israel Though it be a sad Propheticall Lamentation yet I must speak what I am commanded and if that were not I cannot but speak it over you while I consider the deep misery and affliction into which you have drawn your selves by the weight of your own grievous sinnes 2. Israel should be like a pure Virgin in the sincere profession and service of the true God But now her spirituall whoredoms represent her as a wanton and impudent Harlot Therefore her fall from that Virginity hath produced so deep and great a fall into calamity and desolation that if she do not speedily prevent it by Repentance there is little or no hope of her rising again and recovering her wonted peace and prosperity She is levelled with the Earth like one ready to be buried in silence and oblivion and knowes of none that are able to raise her up and reduce her to her former estate 3. In this misery and captivity which I foresee as certainly coming upon her very few will be left in her Cities and Villages For thus saith the Lord God A City in Israel that could send out a thousand valiant men well appointed shall scarcely be able to show the tenth part of them left alive And that City which could send out a hundred shall have as little a proportion left for the house of Israel Not the tenth part but nine parts of ten shall be taken away by the sword or the famine or the pestilence 4. Yet this sentence is not so irreversibly concluded by the Lord against the house of Isaael but that if you will now seek after your mercifull God in that way in which only he may be found which is in the way of Repentance you may either remove or at least mitigate the decree of your most just and deserved punishment that will otherwise cut off so many by death 5. This Repentance must not be verball onely but active and reall You must absolutely renounce the service of your golden calf in Bethel You must have no more to do in the Idolatry of Gilgal or Beersheba For the right service of God will not consist with the worship of Idols Therefore if you forsake not these places you must perish in them For Gilgal must go into captivity according to the omen in her name And Bethel that carries in the name of it the house of God shall be turned to Beth-aven which promiseth nothing but iniquity vanity and desolation 6. Therefore keep close to that way of Repentance wherein God is to be found That 's the onely way to preserve you in life and safety And if you be not found in that way you expose your selves to extream danger and know not how soon the house of Ioseph as you call your kingdom of Israel from the tribe of Ephraim the greatest part in it and the Royal tribe may be compassed with those flames of war that will break out on such a sudden that the best of you and your friends will find no time wherein to quench or prevent them no not in Bethel the Kings Court and the eminentest place of all the kingdom 7. And how can they look for a milder punishment that turn Iustice the sweetest and loveliest of all vertues into injury and oppression which is as unwelcome and distastfull as the bitter wormwood and when they should exalt Justice and prefer her before all other respects whatsoever do rather suppress her and leave her on the ground as a thing of no value with them that are bribed high for injustice in the pronouncing
great and the terrible day of the Lord come 32 And it shall come to passe that whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be delivered for in mount Zion and in Ierusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said and in the remnant whom the Lord shall call CHAP. II. 1. NOw me thinks I see Ierusalem in danger of a siege Nabuchodonosars souldiers are on their march It is high time to leave your wonted mirth and musick Let the loud sounding of your trumpets in Sion which is a kind of summons and alarum to the Kings own house there and the beating of your drums in the holy Mountain which is a watchword to those about the Temple give notice of your necessary preparation for war And a terrible war it may prove to all the inhabitants of these parts They have had their day a long time of sin and liberty and now God will have his day a severe time of punishment which comes on faster then we think for 2. That destruction of Ierusalem by Nabuchodonosor shall be but the forerunner of a greater day and a heavier destruction by the Romans And that will be a terrible day indeed A sad and gloomy day a dismal and cloudy day which shall come with as much speed and as sodain danger upon Ierusalem in all their security as the clear light of the morning that in an instant spreds and diffuseth it self over the mountains and imparts his lustre to all the world And answerable to this will be the agilitiy and quick dispatch that shall be used by those Locusts with Lions teeth their numerous and potent enemies This will make it such a fearful day such á terrible army with such slaughter of men as was never yet seen nor ever shall be to the years of many generations 3. The fearful and utter davastation then made by the enemies will be like that of fire both before and behind that sodainly and totally consumes all about it so that this pleasant countrie of Judea that before the entrance of the enemie was as well stored and delight sâ—me to look upon as the garden of Eden shall before their vast army of locusts be removed be rather like a bare and desolate wildernesse In which if any shall be so fortunate as not to perish by the sword yet there would be no way to escape from hence nor any hope of continuance here without perishing by famine or submission to the pleasure of the enemy Who will no way be hindred from having what he comes for in the compassng of our ruine 4. Such will be the event of this coming of these locusts who by their courage and agility and specially by their cruel visage wherein they will rather be like fierce horses then locusts might fright us into death And yet like stout Horsemen they will fall upon us with that force and violence that the valiantest amongst us will never be able to resist 5. In which violence skipping with hast over our mountainous country they will make as great a noise as chariots would do if they were furiously driven over such high places Or which is yet more horrid to the ear like the noise of a slanting fire that devours the stubble In these or what else may be worse then these they will show themselves like an armie of lustie men sufficiently instructed ordered and prepared for war 6. This quick and rough way of onset will be terrible to our people and make all their sad faces contract a palenesse or rather blackness as visible as if they had lain among pots that have changed their natural colour over the fire 7. While this fear makes us at a stand they will on forward like strong men in their full speed readie to mount our walls with a valour befitting stout and true military persons Every man knowing his own way and his own task No man appearing so slow or carelesse as if he were ingaged either to stay there or to give way to any that would turn him out of his place 8. So will every one of them make sure to be no hinderance to his fellow in the execution of their charge either in their way or in their work For both which they shall be so well appointed and so strongly armed that if they chance to light unawares upon their enemies weapon whatsoever it is therewill be no such hazard unto them as to expose them to any dangerous wound So happy and successeful shall they be in their bold attempts 9. Their ventrous army being so well ordered they will resolve to make a fierce irruption into the city like skipping locusts running about the walls and by sodain invasion taking possession of them shaking their heels there and dancing as men secure of the victory and then entring into the houses if not at the doors yet at least climbing in at the windows like bold and desperate theeves that will neither be hindred from coming in nor driven out again till they have ransacked and plundered the secretest corners where there is any thing to be found worth the carrying away 10. After this rude and insulting demeanour of the souldiers it will the be easier to conjecture what misery must needs fall upon the poor people if we expresse it by an Earthquake and the shaking of the Heavens and the obscuring of the celestial lights The terrour of the lower and meaner sort of the people may be conceived by the fearful effects of an Earthquake So may the sad ruine of the Nobles by the shaking of the heavenly or higher powers And the woful confusion of all Order and Command that followed upon that by the darkning of the Sun and Moon and the Stars withdrawing their wonted lustre to the astonishment of all the Spectators as well as of those eminent persons that will be most concerned in that calamity 11. And that you may know the just and powerful author of all this miserie As God himself will have us know that he sends these signs before him so God himself in a signal victory will seem to own our enemies as his souldiers as plainly as if we had it from his own voice and declare openly that those mighty and numerous armies are his and come thither by his own command and irreversible decree and cannot be hindred from doing his pleasure in taking vengeance upon a sinful people that would take their liberty in their day and now must therefore be made sensible of the great and terrible day of the Lord. And who will be able to abide that time wherein he pleaseth to break the hearts of them that are assaulted and adde courage to their enemies 12. All this is threatned by him By him that would not be unwilling to have his hands stayed from such a severe execution of his justice It is therefore foretold that it may be timely prevented And O that even
and connivence as I have formerlie used toward them 3. And their merrie songs in their stately Palaces shall be turned into fearful howling in that day saith the Lord God And many bodies of dead men shall want the honour of the wonted funeral rites being privily cast aside by them that will endeavour to conceal their miserie least their own men should be too much disheartned or the enemie encouraged by seeing what a number perish by famine pestilence or discontent before the sword come near them 4. It will highly concern you to take notice of this prophesie and vision that are are come to so high a degree of covetousnesse and oppression that you are ripe enough to be taken off from any further benefit of life You that could find in your hearts to devour the poor and meek and humble men and quite obliterate the name and memory of them from the earth that you alone might injoy the good things of this life 5. You that say When will the New Moon and the Sabbath be gone we like not these Festival daies they are prejudicial to us that might every day make our markets It were not amisse if they were quite put out of the Kalender that we might be wholly employed in selling our corn and opening our granaries of wheat and practising the art we have in making our measures lesse and raising the value of our coin and falsifying our weights by sleight and deceit 6. That when we have by these tricks cheated and beggered the poor we may have an easie purchase of them and their goods and all that they have for a little sum of money or for as poor a thing as the present supply of a pair of shooes when they are cold and needy or by putting off to them at our own price the very refuse of our wheat that we know not otherwise how to dispose of 7. Therefore the Lord in his justice hath fully resolved and sworn by Himself whom all will acknowledge to be the glorie of his people Israel that since they so often forget the interest that they have in this high title or abuse it by making themselves guilty of such wicked deeds I will not forget to punish any of their evill courses I will surelie do it saith the Lord. 8. For Why should I not make the land tremble and all her inhabitants mourn for these things Why shall not this deluge of sin in this nation make her punishment overflow and overwhelm her in every part as the River Nilus in Egypt ascends by degrees and at last ovorflows her banks and covers all the face of Egypt with her inundations 9. When that day of revenge riseth upon them saith the Lord God I will make all their joy and comfort to vanish on a sodain as if the Sun of a clear day should set upon them in a dark and dismal cloud before he had run half his course 10. And I will turn your merry festivals and gaudy daies into daies of mourning and your pleasant songs into doleful lamentations your rich and loose apparel into course sackcloth girded about your loines and your neat heads of hair into bald pates that your outward garb may speak your inward sorrow for your heavy calamitie Nay I will bring the land of Israel to that passe and that high degree of mourning that in all the chiefest places men shall be found in as sad postures and bitter exclamations as a tender Mother useth to expresse in the funerals of her onely son And how jolly and chearful soever they have been they shall close up their last times in great bitternesse of woe and miserie 11. There is yet worse news behind if it were rightly apprehended Behold the time is coming saith the Lord God wherein I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread onely or a thirst of water but a want of spiritual food too and of the water of life a scarcity of the word of God specially of the word of prophesie which you neglect when it is offered and therefore it will not be heard when you long for it 12. For they that are now so coy and dainty that no Prophets can please them shall then compasse about from Sea to Sea They shall run to and fro from one corner of the Country to another to seek the word of the Lord purely and sincerely taught and shall not find it 13. Then shall even the succulent bodies of fair damsels and proper young men in the flower of their age be ready to faint and wither away for thirst 14. This shall happen to them that swear by the idols of Samaria near Bethel as if they had no true Deitie to swear by To them that have this form of oath as thy Diety lives O Dan in imitation of their former oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they Lord lives To them that swear thus as the living God is rightly worshipped in that kind of service which is used in Beersheba or as I wish that the course and religious way of Beersheba may thrive These men shall fall from their former prosperous estate and shall never be restored to that or so much as to their Country again CHAP. IX 1 I Saw the Lord standing upon the Altar and he said Smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake and cut them in the head all of them and I will slay the last of them with the sword he that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered 2 Though they dig into hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climbe up to heaven thence will I bring them down 3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them 4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good 5 And the Lord God of Hosts is he that toucheth the land and it shall melt and all that dwell therein shall mourn and it shall rise up wholly like a floud and shall be drowned as by the floud of Egypt 6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven and hath founded his troup in the earth he that calleth for the waters of the sea and powreth them out upon the face of the earth the Lord is his Name 7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me O ye children of Israel saith the Lord have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the Philistins from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir 8 Behold the eies of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom and I will destroy it from
off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord. 9 For lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth 10 All the sinners of my people shal die by the sword which say The evill shall not overtake nor prevent us 11 In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his cumes and I will build it as in the daies of old 12 That they may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this 13 Behold the daies come saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the tâ—eader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them 15 And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God CHAP. IX 1. I Come now to a vision that chiefly concerns Ierusalem and the two Tribes I saw in the spirit a glorie representing the Majesty of God not appearing between the Cherubims as formerly he used to do but nearer the end of the Temple as if he were departing from that sacred place and leaving his Sanctuary by degrees For I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar of the Holocausts as ready to slay those wicked men of Judah that had highly provoked his Justice and Anger to be showed amongst them and to make such a sacrifice of them as he never calls for but when he comes to be revenged of great sinners And he said to some Angel attending at that time or as exciting the army of the Chaldaeans Smite the lintel of the door in such a manner that the posts may shake which signified a great blow by his own command to be given to them that were thought to be most eminent and most able to support and give aid to the Temple and the whole nation to whom it belonged He said moreover Cut them all or strike all through in thâ— head piece q. d.. Let them that are in the highest place the guides and governours of the people have the first and greatest blow that in them others may see their doom And after that I will slay the last of them also the lowest of the people with the sword of a cruel enemie and with such a slaughter that He who thinks to secure himself by flight or any other way of evading the stroke of the enemie shall no way escape that unlesse he fall into their power for a worse punishment of long captivity Which doth not yet exempt him from their striking hand when they shall have a mind to command his life 2. And if there were any way to escape the enemie yet none of them should escape me For who can run so far or so fast that divine vengeance shall not overtake him Where is such a secret corner to be found wherein that will not find him out If any of them could dig as deep as hell to fit themselves with a dark and obscure lurking place thence should my powerful hand pluck them out If they could climb as high as heaven far enough out of their enemies reach thence also would I tumble them down 3. If they could lie scouting and sculking in the unfrequented caves and holes upon the top of high Carmel where no enemy would search for them yet there would I hunt them out and cast them down from thence If it were possible that they could conceal themselves from my sight in the bottom of the sea I have Whales and Serpents of the deep that should pursue them and bite them and fright them out of that refuge 4. Could they be so subtle as to prevent the captivity of their enemies and be gone into theirs or some other land before they come near them yet thither will I bring the sword of those verie enemies to cut them off and spoil all their plots For the eye of my favour and providence shall not watch over them for good I will rather be intent upon what may help on the just and severe punishment of all their sins 4. Where then shall they think to be safe in the time of his anger that offend such a powerful God whom nothing will be able to resist He is the Lord God of Hosts whom all things obey as an Army ever ready for the execution of his mercie or justice of such power that if He do but touch a land with that touch he can make it melt like wax before Him and all the inhabitants of the land miserablie and lamentably to fade away and consume by some calamity that shall overwhelm them and drown them in sorrow and destruction with a sodain inundation like that of the River Nilus in Egypt when it breaks over ' all the banks 6. He fills Heaven and earth with the Majesty of his Glorie In Heaven he hath built his several Ascents by which we may climb to the speculation of it The nearest to us are the heavenly Orbes that are created and moved by Him and their peculiar degrees of elevation one above another Over those Orbes is his spacious Court and glorious Palace in a higher Heaven and in that his Royal Throne where he sits as in the highest Ascent of Majestie Vpon the earth if we consider not the whole globe together as one bundle and a little one too or a little handful in the eye of God we may observe the several bundles of united creatures that he hath placed over the earth which is as it were the foundation of all the rest As first that of the Elements that have their proper bounds then out of them that of the Vegetables and sensible and rational creatures that have their several waies of combination yet altogether make but a little handful before him that can measure the heavens and the earth with a span He calls for the waters of the sea in his anger by a deluge or in his love to ascend up in vapours that he may poure them down again into the lap of the earth to make her fruitful in all manner of store He that doth all this well may he have the name of the Lord and Commander of all 7. Therefore account not your selves onely to be the servants For in that respect what priviledge have you above all his creatures or above all other nations You that descend from
heard from the Fish-gate which is in that part which you call the City of David Then a sad and doleful howling from the second part of the City And as woful and crashing a noise from the highest and most eminent part wherein is the Temple and the Palace places that have been often acquainted with sweeter sounds 11. When the three chief places in Ierusalem have thus begun to expresse their sad condition then you that dwell in the hollower part of the City may second them with as doleful an eccho to bewail the ruine of the multitudes of Merchants thereabouts and the many fair heaps of silver that they must leave behind them 12. Then will I suffer every rich corner in Ierusalem to be as narrowly searched and ransacked by the Chaldaean souldiers as a man would peep and prie into the closest places with the help of candles that he might be sure to let nothing escape him that he hath a mind to bear away And so shall my justice meet with those that have lived in ease and plenty and without any disturbance like wine that hath been long setled on the lees without any removal out of one vessel into another These are they that soothed up themselves in their own foolish perswasion that God took no great care of humane affairs either to reward or to punish us here below according to our good or bad life and conversation 13. But this is the day wherein I will confute them by exposing their ill-gotten goods as a prey to the enemie and bringing their houses wherein they nestled themselves so securely to utter ruine and fearful desolation or at least by changing the owners so that other men shall dwell in those goodly buildings which they have erected and drink up the fruit of those costly vineyards which they had planted for themselves 14. This great day of the Lord is near very near and withal it flies swiftly towards us as a time that hath quicker wings then ordinarie to convey it self It will be such a bustling day that you may hear it as well as see it and the stoutest man that hears the approach of that day will not passe it over so quickly but that he will be heard to expresse the bitteruesse of the day in most bitter lamentations 15. This day will be a day of wrath and a day of trouble and yet a day wherein we shall be so streightned and penned in that there will be no way of evasion It will be a day of desolation of utter desolation without hope of recoverie to most of them A dark and gloomy day without the least appearance of comfort and a cloudie and thick-cloudie day wherein the heavens whither we use to cast up our eyes for relief will seem continually to frown upon us 16. A day that will fright us with the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war against the strongest Cities and highest Towers that we have 17. In this day saith the Lord I will cause men to be in such pressure and such streights that they shall see no more then blind men which way to turn themselves or what course to take that may rid them out of this distresse And in the midst of those streights because they have sinned against the Lord their enemies shall make no more scruple of shedding their blood then of treading upon the dust that is under their feet and their bodies shall have no better esteem then the dung of the earth 18. In this day of Gods wrath their silver and gold shall not be able to purchase their ransome but the whole land shall be sodainly consumed by the fierce and jealous wrath of the Lord wherein he will make a full and speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land CHAP. II. 1 GAther your selves together yea gather together O nation not desired 2 Before the decree bring forth before the day passe as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords anger come upon you 3 Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgement seek righteousnesse seek meeknesse it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger 4 For Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon a desolation they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day and Ekron shall be rooted up 5 Wo unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast the nation of the Cherethites the word of the Lord is against you O Canaan the land of the Philistines I will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant 6 And the sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks 7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Iudah they shall feed thereupon in the houses of Ashkelon shall they ly down in the evening for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity 8 I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders 9 Therefore as I live saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall he as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah even the breeding of nettles and salt-pits and a perpetual desolation the residue of my people shall spoil them and the remnant of my people shall possesse them 10 This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts 11 The Lord will be terrible unto them for he will famish all the gods of the earth and men shall worship him every one from his place even all the isles of the heathen 12 Ye Ethiopians also ye shall be slain by my sword 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wildernesse 14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her all the beasts of the nations both the cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the cedar-works 15. This is the rejoycing city that dwelt carelesly that said in their heart I am and there is none beside me how is she become a desolation a place for beasts to lie down in every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand CHAP. II. 1. THe day so foretold being so terrible and so near at hand Make an exact scrutinie and examination of your selves first and then of what else may conduce to your safety O nation little worthy the love and good liking of those that know your waies 2. Do this before Gods peremptorie and irrevocable decree produce the certain and final resolution for this day which shall be like one of his fanning and winnoing daies wherein he will separate
his field near the Temple of the Lord. 14. Then it pleased God to proceed to the breaking of the second staff and to say I will even break asunder my other Shepherds staff too to which I gave the name of Bands and so dissolve the unity and brotherly concord that formerly had been between Iudah and Israel the two tribes and the ten tribes as the Sons of one father coming all out of the loins of Iacob 15. Then said the Lord unto me yet we will have somewhat more of the Shepherd Go and get thy self the poor habit and furniture of some silly Shepherd such as he useth to carry abroad with him 16. For this is my meaning by that silly Shepherds provision that for the sins of the people I will often send amongst them silly Shepherds and Governors in the land that shal neither have skill nor will to attend any thing but the advancement of their own advantages They shall not do their office to take care for the reducing of that which is lost and stragled from the company nor seek after the weak lamb that is left behind because it cannot hold out the pace of the rest nor heal that which is hurt and wounded by some evil accident nor feed that which continues healthful and free from hurts But providing rather for themselves then their flock they shall feed upon the fattest and so hurry many of their sheep up and down at their pleasure as if they longed to wear out their very clams that they might not be able to stir about for that which their Shepherds will not provide for them 17. Wo to such Shepherds no Shepherds that will have the name and place of Shepherds and Governors but nothing else that is requirable in good Shepherds Such carelesse Shepherds as these leave their flock to look to themselves but my curse shall attend them Such a Shepherd will I strike with a bright and sharp sword that shall break his arm and dazle his right eye so that his arm shall wither and be unfit for action because he would be lazy where he should not and his right eye shall not be able to see any thing that tends to his own good because he he would not look after that which was for the good of his flock CHAP. XII 1 THe burden of the word of the Lord for Israel saith the Lord which stretcheth forth the heavens and layeth the foundation of the earth and formeth the spirit of man within him 2 Behold I will make Ierusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege both against Iudah and against Jerusalem 3 And in that day will I make Ierusalem a burdensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in piece though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it 4 In that day saith the Lord I will smite every horse with astonishment and his rider with madness and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Iudah and will smite every horse of the people with blindnesse 5 And the governours of Iudah shall say in their heart The inhabitants of Ierusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God 6 In that day will I make the governours of Iudah like an hearth of fire among the wood and like a torch of a fire in a sheaf and they shall devour all the people round about on the right hand and on the left and Ierusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place even in Ierusalem 7 The Lord also shall save the tents of Iudah first that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Ierusalem do not magnifie themselve against Iudah 8 In that day shall the Lord defend the inhabitants of Ierusalem and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the angel of the Lord before them 9 And it shall come to passe in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Ierusalem 10 And I will pour upon the house David and upon the inhabitants of Ierusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his onely son and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitterness for his first-born 11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Ierusalem as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon 12 And the land shall mourn every family apart the family of the house of David apart and their wives apart the family of the house of Nathan apart and their wives apart 13 The family of the house of Levi apart and their wives apart the family of Shimei apart and their wives apart 14 All the families that remain every family apart and their wives apart CHAP. XII 1. ANother Prophesie that carries a burden in it to be laid upon Israel by the command of the great Iehovah Thus saith the great Iehovah that stretched out the heavens like a curtain and fixed the vast globe of the earth upon nothing and created the breath of life which he breathed first into Adam and placed within him i. who made all and therefore governed all from the beginning 2. You will wonder at the time when you see all things so brought about by my providence that Ierusalem shall become like a drunken cup of giddinesse and astonishment to all the nations about her not so much that others which would greedily swallow her up shall tast of that cup which will work their own shame and confusion but in reference to her self that she shall do the actions of a giddie-headed people Therefore upon all Iudah there shall fall great tribulation by occasion of that punishment which shall light first upon Ierusalem 3. But about the close of that time when I have so punished my own people I will make Ierusalem prove like a huge weighty stone to all people that shall go about to disturb her All that lift hard at her shall sooner show their strength in breaking of their own veins in pieces then in removing her from that loyalty towards me and that state of tranquillity wherein I shall place her And this difficulty of so moving Jerusalem shall be thus though all the people of the earth should be mustered up against her And this may be a figure of what shall afterward happen to the fierce and ventrous opposers of the mystical Jerusalem and such as are Jews within They that will be lifting at them and heaving at the true Messias their corner stone will have but ill successe in their vain attempts but on whomâ—soever that stone falls it shall bruise him to powder 4. For at that time saith the Lord if
Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one 10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Ierusalem and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner-gate and from the tower of Hananiel unto the kings wine-presses 11 And men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more utter destruction but Ierusalem shall be safely inhabited 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their shesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their holes their tongue shall consume away in their mouth 13 And it shall come to passe in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them they shal layhold every oneon the hand of his neighbour his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour 14 And Iudah also shall fight at Ierusalem and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together gold and silver and apparel in great abundance 15 And so shall be the plague of the horse of the mule of the camel and of the asse and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague 16 And it shall come to passe that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Ierusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts and to keep the feast of Tabernacles 17 And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Ierusalem to worship the King the Lord of hosts even upon them shall be no rain 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 20. In that day shal there be upon the â—els of the horses HOLINESSE VNTO THE LORD and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the altar 21. Yea every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah shall be Holinesse unto the Lord of hosts and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them feeth therein and in that day there shall be nâ— more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts CHAP. XIV 1. BUt before these things come to passe there is a sad day of the Lords wrath coming on that will more particularly touch thee O Jerusalem For they of the Gentiles shall make havock of all the Countries about thee and make division of those spoiles in the middest of thy land 2. And I will muster up all sorts of people to fight against Ierusalem and by their forces the Citie shall be taken upon which advantage the houses shall be plundered and the women ravished And the one half of the City shall go out and deliver themselves up as Captives for very fear and famine but as for the rest they shall show themselves more valorous and religious in defense of their Temple they shall neither be iusticed nor forced out of the Citie 3. After this the Lord Himself that suffered these Nations for a time to come thither and show their spite and furie against Jerusalem shall appear for his People and fight against those barbarous Nations as he hath often heretofore at the red Sea and elsewhere showed himself the Lord of Hostes and in our defense chose himself a day of Battle and Victory 4. In that day shall the feet of him that shall be leader of those Nations against Jerusalem stand upon Mount Olivet which hath the prospect of the East-part of the Citie that he may thence spy out a fit place wherein to pitch his camp And by his command they shall dig so much toward the East and West of that Mountain that it shall seem to have a great cleft and rupture in the middest Which earth being so digged and removed from thence to be used for severall military designes against the North and South part of the City there shall seem to be a very great Valley made out of that which was before a great part of the Mountain 5. Then shall you flee like men affrighted at the valley made as it were in a mountain For that valley so made out of the mountain shall reach as far as Asel the place that hath the name from the vicinity of that Mount Even so shall you flie from the sight of this vast rupture as you fled from the great Earthquake which made such a rupture in the same mountain in the dayes of Vzziah King of Iudah But then shall the Lord my God the Lord of hosts himself come to your defense and all his heavenly Host of holy Angels with Him 6. But in that day of their trouble and affrightment before the Lord shall thus appear there shall be no light of comfort and refreshment but cold and quaking horrour fear and astonishment 7. But this shall be as one day or a time whereof God hath determined in his foreknowledge and speciall providence and which I cannot well tell whether I should call it a Day or a night For the Day is a time of comfort but this shall have none the night is a time of rest and quiet but this shall have none Yet it shall come to passe toward the Eve and expiration of this sad time that when you would think your Sun is setting and the hope and joy of your life quite vanishing away then shall arise a new glimpse of recovering your former happinesse for you shall espie a light of comfort and joy appearing to you in the approach of those Angels of light that God shall bring for your succour 8. Then shall come a time of Peace and works of Peace You shall then have Aquaeducts and usefull passages for running water made from Ierusalem some of them towards the Eastern Sea the lake of Asphaltites and some of them towards the Western or Syrick Sea And they shall be constant supplies of water for your ordinary occasions as well in Summer as in Winter 9. And then shall of Judaea be free from the imperious commands of forrein Nations as when the Lord vouchsafed to stile Himself your King and you his People So shall you then be in all your land under that one gracious Lord whose name and his onely is honoured in Judaea no Usurper having power over you 10. This time of Peace shall make you populous All the places about Iudaea shall be compassed about with inhabitants even in the plaines and more desert places that have not yet been
men let all the men of war draw near let them come up 10 Beat your plow shares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears let the weak say I am strong 11 Assemble your selves and come all ye heathen and gather your selves together round about thither cause thy mighty ones to come down O Lord. 12 Let the heathen be wakened come up to the valley of Iehoshaphat for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about 13 Put ye in the sickle for the harvest is ripe come get you down for the press is full the fats overflow for the wickedness is great 14 Multitudes multitudes in the valley of decision for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkned and the Stars shall withdraw their shining 16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Ierusalem and the heavens and the earth shall shake but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the strength of the Children of Israel 17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion my holy mountain then shall Ierusalem be holy and there shall no strangers passe thorow her any more 18 And it shall come to passe in that day that the mountains shall drop down new wine and the bills shall flow with milk and all the rivers of Iudah shall flow with waters and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord shall water the valley of Shittim 19 Egypt shall be a desolation and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness for the violence against the children of Iudah because they have shed innocent bloud in their land 20 But Iudah shall dwel for ever Ierusalem from generation to generation 21 For I wil cleanse their bloud that I have not cleansed for the Lord dwels in Zion CHAP. III. A Prophesie of what shall happen after a longer and more uncertain time in the vally of Iehoshaphat which what particular place soever is chiefly intended signifies a place or several places wherein God will please to exercise his judgement upon his and the Churches enemies at several times and upon several occasions before the last Day of Iudgement but compleatly then 1. FOr Behold it shall come to passe saith the Lord in those dayes of the Messias the times of the gospel when I shall bring again the captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem â— reduce all the true Israelites Jewes and Gentiles into one fold to be all under one Shepherd 2. Then will I as occasion serves summon the enemies of the Church in all nations and I will make them appear before me in the vally of Iehosphaphat or in the place wherein I will execute my judgement and there will I avenge the injuries done to my own People the true Israel of God mine inheritance whose cruell enemies dispersed them through all the world as if they would have taken possession of my own peculiar portion and divided it as their own haereditary possession 3. In those particular dayes of Judgement which will be as types and forerunners of the Generall Iudgement that will at last overtake all the enemies of the Church it will appear what scornes and injuries have been put upon all the Saints of God Particularly it will be made evident that upon some of my People they have cast lots they have sold the children of Christians an ingenuous young man have they made away for the price of an harlot and a modest Virgin for a sum of money that might furnish them with wine to drink and be merry 4. And what have you to do with me and my Church saith the Lord. You that are as great and close adversaries to the Christians as ever the Tyrians and Sidonians and all the Tract of Palestine were to the Jewes Doth your ill usage come in as a return of some injury that I and my People seem to have offered unto you If you do either provoke me with your ventrous and first attempts or pretend any such requital upon me or mine I shall very speedily take order to return a just recompense upon your own heads 5. And I may then truely say that you have deserved it otherwise For both silver and gold and other precious things which I bestowed upon my People those it will appear that you took away thereby the better to furnish and adorn your own Temples and Palaces 6. Likewise the true Sons of mystical Iudah and Ierusalem the good and constant Professors of my gospel you sold to the Grecians and other Merchants with whom you had the like commerce and so dispersed them thorough severall remote countries that they might be far enough from returning to their own home 7. But I shall as surely recall them and reduce them safe out of those parts to which you thought they had been confined by your selling of them thither And then I will requite you in a like return of your deserts upon your own pates 8. For I will leave your Sons and Daughters upon the same termes in the hands of those good Professours whereof Iudah is the type And they shall have power to dispose of them into far remoter parts even as far off as the Sabeans Because I have so determined to do and have justly passed such a decree upon them 9. Against which decree if you can have any hope to prevaile Bestir your selves to the purpose and use all the meanes you can Publish or proclaim your war among what nations you think fit Provide your self of the ablest auxiliaries Put all your strength upon it And leave not out a man that can assist you in this enterprise When you have done all you can all will be but lost labour against those my Servants that I have resolved to defend 10. Sell your plow-shares and sythes and other necessary instruments and implements of your country-labour to supply your selves the better with weapons and engines of war And let the weakest of all be encouraged to do some proper service to the cause 11. Let your troopes and Regiments out of severall nations multiply into a mighty army and muster up all your forces together There and then the Lord of Hostes hath his greater forces of men and angels and the meanest creatures that will quickly and utterly rout the very flower and strength of your most daring Souldiers at the hearing of this short prayer out of the mouth of his afflicted Servants There let thy mighty ones descend O Lord to the releif of thy people 12. That Prayer will procure a Command that shall rouse all the nations that oppose the Church and summon them personally to appear in the vally of Iehoshaphat in the place which I shall appoint there to sit in judgement against all nations on every side that have been enemies to Me and my Church 13. Upon this summons Hear how God
himself encourageth those that he makes the executioners of his Justice Come put in your sithes for there is a great harvest before you the wickednesse of mine enemies is now ripe Come down into this vally For the wine-presse is full it runs over for the exceeding abundance of their great and bloudy offences for that may be intimated in the overflowing of the blood of the grape 14. O the multitudes of hereticks schismaticks irreligious and profane livers O the vast companies of Atheists Idolaters Tyrants and other malicious enemies of the true Profession and Service of God that methinks I see now making their appearance in the vally of Jehoshaphat or devine judgement that may now be called the valley of decision where they shall receive their doom or the vally of threshing after the harvest where their punishment shall begin For now after they have enjoyed their time the day of the Lord the time of divine vengeance is ready to come upon them in the valley of decision and of threshing 15. At the approach of this terrible day the world will seem to be all in confusion They that were the light and glory of their times and as eminent and conspicuous in the sphaere of their government as the Sun and Moon and Stars are in the firmament of heaven shall be suddenly obscured and loose their light 16. The Lion of the tribe of Iudah shall roar out of Sion to the terrour of all his enemies When he first utters his voice as the defender of Ierusalem i. of his holy Church whereof Jerusalem was a figure though the powers of heaven and earth may shake yet they that trust in him will stand as firm as mount Sion that cannot be moved The Lord will shew himself our refuge and the strength of the Israel of God 17. After the roaring of the Lion will you hear the comfortable voice of the Lamb of God Thus shall ye know saith he to his Servants thus shall you see that I am the Lord your God that dwell in my Church as in my Sion my holy mountain Thus shall you be assured that my Ierusalem my Church is holy and therefore shall be secured from the unhallowed hands of those strange children that shall not be suffered so insolently and triumphantly as they have done to go thorough her any more 18. After this treading the wine-presse of the wicked and threshing of their harvest we are onely to hear of the happinesse of the Church For then shall the mountains drop new wine to her for her stronger Saints and the hils shall flow with milk fit nourishment for her yet tender babes And all the rivers of this mysticall Iudah shall with waters of life to refresh all And to this end a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord to supply the sacred Font which is placed in the lower part of the Church like a little valley of Shittim which is the embleme of a vessel that will not putrifie 19. And then while Egypt and Edom i. e. great enemies of the Church shall lie ruinous and desolate because of the innocent blood which they have shed in the true Iudah the Church of God 20. Iudah in the mean while the holy Church shall dwell safe aud the true Jerusalem shall be comforted with a true and lasting felicity 21. And the blood of the Saints which I did not before manifest to be pure and innocent and therefore most unjustly spilt that shall I even by that meanes declare to be pure and innocent namely by the exemplary punishment of their executioners And thus will God ever abide with his Church and preserve his Servants in their greatest dangers or reward them with that which shall exceed a present delivery and be a sufficient vindication of their vertue and innocence A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF AMOS CHAP. I. 1. THe word of Amos who was among the herdmen of Tekoa which he saw concerning Israel in the dayes of Vzziah King of Iudah and in the daies of Ieroboam the son of Ioash King of Israel two years before the earthquake 2 And he said the Lord will roar from Zion and utter his voice from Ierusalem and the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn and the top of Carmel shall wither 3 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Damascus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron 4 But I will send a fire into the house of Hazael which shall devour the palaces of Benhadad 5 I will break also the bar of Damascus aud cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven and him that holdeth the scepter from the house of Eden and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir saith the Lord. 6 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Gaza and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they carried away captive the whole captivity to deliver them up to Edom. 7 But I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza which shall devour the palaces thereof 8 And I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod and him that holdeth the scepter from Ashkelon and I will turn mine hand against Ekron and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish saith the Lord God 9 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Tyrus and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they delivered up the whole captivity to Edom and remembred not the brotherly covenant 10 But I will send a fire on the wall of Tyrus which shall devour the palaces thereof 11 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Edom and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all pitty and his anger did tear perpetually and kept his wrath for ever 12 But I will send a fire upon Teman which shall devour the palaces of Bozrah 13 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of the children of Ammon and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have ript up the women with child of Gilead that they might inlarge their border 14 But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah and it shall devour the palaces thereof with shouting in the day of battel with a tempest in the day of the whirlwind 15 And their King shall go into captivity he and his Princes together saith the Lord. CHAP. I. 1. THe words or things Prophetically imparted to the knowledge of Amos who was among the Shepherds or keepers of cattle in Tekoah six miles from Bethlehem which were famous for that employment Thence was he called to be a Prophet as David before that from following of sheep was chosen to be a Royal Prophet by that wise and merciful God that chuseth the base things of the world to confound the
employments From hence laying the raines loose to all liberty they take the impudence to proceed further to sins of another nature to a degree of incestuous pollution hardly named among the Gentiles that the Father and the Sonne should wickedly abuse the same woman By which horrid crimes they do what they can to pollute my holy name and provoke the Gentiles to the blaspheming of me as well as speaking the truth of them that thus dishonour their God whose honour and glory should be the main end and aim of all their endeavours 8. Beside all this having taken some pledges of those that run not after the same madness of Idolatry with them they made use of them for sacred vestures or carpets in or upon them to prostrate themselves before their Idol-altars whereas to make any use of pledges is against their law And still adding sinne unto sinne they delighted their palates with that wine which they bought with what was gained by the sale of their goods whom themselves had unjustly condemned Thus were they not ashamed to chear up themselves in the house of their false Gods and in their service as it were to drink up the blood of innocent men that would not be drawn to the like excesse of Idolatry with them 9. In this excesse and overslowing of sinne how much have these men forgot themselves and the favours and mercies that I heaped upon them How in the way to a land of rest and plenty out of my love and care of them I drove away the Amorite before them a stout and strong people giants of so vast a bignesse and stature that whosoever was to fight against them would think that his sword was to hack at Cedars and Oakes rather than to cut down men Yet these Cedars and Oakes did I pluck up by the roots and cut off in the branches and laid them prostrate before the children of Israel as low as the ground they trod upon i.e. I utterly ruined and destroyed the Amorite so that he was no longer a People as I did many other nations that were vanquished and expelled out of their antient seates to make room for them root and branch Fathers and children Princes and subiects all were driven out to give them way 10. This I did for them whom I had first obliged by a miraculous delivery from their Egyptian bondage and a safe conduct thorough the red Sea and a vast and barren wildernesse where they were fourty yeares together plentifully supplied with all things necessary till they came to possesse those fat and fertile grounds of all the seven nations of the Amorites 11. And that I might crown these temporall benefits with spirituall gifts and graces I raised up some of your children to be Prophets that they might instruct you and be your guides into a place of everlasting rest in the heavenly Canaan And as another meanes to that I made others of the Nazarites that they might be as living patterns and examples of a temperate and holy life Tell me if any of these things can be denied or if all these favours were not freely thus disposed of for your good saith the Lord 12. And yet as it were to crosse my ordinances which tended so much to your own advantage you would often interrupt the strict order of the Nazarites by perswading them to drink wine though it were flatly interdicted And you longed so much to hear your Prophets tell you rather of that which was pleasing than of that which was true that you spared not to lay it as an Injunction upon them 13. But for this liberty of sinne that you have taken to your selves I will bring you into great streights and pressures of misery and calamity so that as a cart streitned in it self and as it were oppressed with too great a burden doth seem to groane and make a noise of complaint under the weight of many sheaves so the enemies that set upon you and the afflictions that distresse and humble your soules shall force out of you many groanes and lamentations heavy and loud expressions of your sorrow 14. In this pressure and streightnesse It will be to little purpose to think of saving your selves from your enemies by flight or of finding wayes of evasion from your other miseries It will be as vain to think of resisting and overcoming them by strength of body or stoutnesse of heart For the means of flight shall be taken from them and the stoutest shall feel his stout heart to faint and sink within him And the strongest of your champions shall be so far from rescuing others that he shall not be able to preserve his own life 15. Nor shall the most cunning Archers be able to stand to it so long as to make sufficient use of his bow Or the swiftest of foot to runne so fast as to carry himself farre enough out of danger Or the most confident Horse-man to ride so fast but that a speedy and deadly blow shall overtake him and make an end of his life 16. And if any be accounted of so Heroicall a spirit that he may presume of better fortune than other mighty men even he shall be forced to yeild at last or if he can make an escape to betake himself to his heeles like a naked Souldier stripped of all his harness and leaving all his weapons behind him For the Lord hath spoken it CHAP. III. HEear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you O children of Israel against the whole family which I brought up from the land of Egypt saying 2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities 3 Can two walk together except they be agreed 4 Will a Lion roar in the forrest when he hath no prey will a young Lion cry out of his den if he have taken nothing 5 Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth where no gin is for him shall one take up a snare from the earth and have taken nothing at all 6 Shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people not be afraid shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it 7 Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets 8 The Lion hath roared who will not fear the Lord God hath spoken who can but prophesie 9 Publish in the palaces at Ashdod and in the palaces in the land of Egypt and say Assemble your selves upon the mountains of Samaria and behold the great tumults in the midst thereof and the oppressed in the midst thereof 10 For they know not to do right saith the Lordâ— who store up violence and robbery in their palaces 11 Therefore thus saith the Lord God An adversary there shall be even round about the land and he shal bring down thy strength from thee and thy palaces shall be spoiled 12 Thus saith the Lord
and empty thy rich and stately houses which thou hadst so filled and stuffed with unlawful gain 12. If any of you escape the fury of that enemy it will prove as hard and as strange a deliverance as if a shepherd should venture to snatch a leg or two or a little piece of the ear of a sheep out of the mouth of a hungry Lion Thus saith the Lord of the difficultie and paucitie of the delivered Such and so rare will be the reliques of those poor Israelites that with much hazard will be rescued out of the verie jaws of the enemie They will be sensible of this danger that will lie in Damascus their confederate Cities as in a bed and in Samaria their own nests as in the corner of a bed thinking to nuzzle themselves there as in a bed of ease and security or a fit place for the exercise of their spiritual whoredom This enemy will rouse them all 13. Hear this you specially that are most concerned in the care and oversight of the Nation and make protestation of it in the house of Iacob that you may move them to repentance saith the Lord God the Lord of Hosts who onely can refrain the violence of the hostile Armies that come against you 14. For unlesse you prevent it by repentance when I begin to punish those of Israel for the foul sins which they have committed I will not then spare the chiefest places Down will go the Altars at Bethel and the Hornes the supposed holier part of the chief Altar will be broken in pieces and the Altar ruined and by that the idolatry of that place utterly abolished 15. And the Court shall not stand firm where the Temple is ruined Their stately Palaces shall all be laid wast The winter-house and the summer-house shall feel the same blow The Kings Ivory-house shall have the same fate with many other houses that shall be levelled with the ground For the Lord of Hostes hath spoken it and his sentence cannot be reversed by any other CHAP. IV. 1 HEar this word ye kine of Bashan that are in the mountain of Samaria which oppresse the poor which crush the needy which say to their masters Bring and let us drink 2 The Lord God hath sworn by his Holinesse that lo the dayes shall come upon you that he will take you away with hooks and your posterity with fishhooks 3 And ye shall go out at the breaches every cow at that which is before her and ye shall cast them into the palace saith the Lord. 4 Come to Bethel and transgresse at Gilgal multiply transgression and bring your sacrifices every morning and your tithes after three years 5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven and proclaim and publish the free-offerings for this liketh you O ye children of Israel saith the Lord God 6 And I also have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your cities and want of breadâ—â— in all your places yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. 7 And also I have withholden the rain from you when there were yet three moneths to the harvest and I caused it to rain upon one city and caused it not to rain upon another city one piece was rained upon and the piece whereupon it rained not withered 8 So two or three cities wandred unto one city to drink water but they were not satisfied yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. 9 I have smitten you with blasting and mildew when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig-trees and your olive-trees increased the palmer-worm devoured them yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. 10 I have sent among you pestilence after the manner of Egypt your young men have I slain with the sword and have taken away your horses and I have made the stink of your camp to come up unto your nostrils yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. 11 I have overthrown some of you as God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and ye were as a firebrand pinckt out of the burning yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord. 12 Therefore thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel 13 For lo he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind and declareth unto man what is his thought that maketh the morning darknesse and treadeth upon the high places of the earth the Lord the God of hosts is his name CHAP. IV. 1. HEar ye this which God hath revealed unto me concerning the punishment of you that dwell in Samaria the Metropolis of Israel pleasantly seated upon a high hill You that in so fair and sweet a place live in ease and plenty and spend all your precious time in pampering of your wanton bodies like Epicures rather then worshipers of the true God nay like bruit beasts rather then women indued with reason like fat kine of Basan rather then modest and temperate wives of such Princes as have eminent place and authority among the people of God You that in your proud and wanton humors scorn and oppresse the poor and needy And that you may do it with more advantage speak to your Husbands and Rulers to bring them some way under your command that you may get as much out of them as will defray the charge of your drinking and feasting among your merry Gossips Hear you this message 2. The Lord hath sworn by his own sacred Majesty i. he hath irreversibly decreed that the time shall come upon you ere long wherein the enemy shall as easily and unexpectedly surprise both your selves and your pampered children as Fishers with their fishhooks and other instruments of their art use to catch the fishes that sport about that which is brought to bereave them of their liberty and their life too 3. And for fear of the enemie you shall be fain to creep out at the breaches that he shall make in the walls of your Citie every one at that breach which she can first light upon After this inevitable flight you shall be taken and at last with shame enough cast out as far as into Armenia that will have no such delights for you as you enjoyed in the rich Palaces of Samaria This is that which God himself hath decreed against you 4. Therefore if you will hear your own foolish fancies and inclinations you had best enjoy your pleasure before you go thither Yes by all means get you to Bethel and take your solemn leave of your beloved calves erected for the worship of that place show some of your impiety there Then take your way toward Gilgal to the idols of that place there make up the full measure of your sins Every morning with great care and diligence bring the sacrifices that should be offered to God and offer them at your pleasure and at your peril to those idols your sacred Dieties of
of a false sentence or the not executing of a just law when it is in their power to do it 8. It were well if they would amend this fault and resolve to do Justice in awe and reverence of that all-seeing eye and powerfull Majesty that created all the glorious lamps of Heaven Among them He made the Pleiades or Vergiliae a constellation of seven stars that ushers in the delights of the spring and the fittest time for navigation and Orion that appears about November and threatens tempestuous or at least inconstant weather as the name it self imports It is He that can turn the shadow of death the most dismall and palpable darknesse into the clearest morning and on the contrary the brightest day into the blackest night which allegorically expresseth another power of his to turn the saddest calamity into the truest felicity and again the fairest prosperity into the greatest misery It is He that can call the waters out of the Sea drawing them in vapours into the clouds by the heat of the Sun and poure them down again upon the earth in pleasant and comfortable showres where and whensoever he pleaseth It is He whose name is Iehovah which name showes the independance of his own essence that gives being to all other and the constancy of his performance of whatsoever he hath promised 9. It is he that doth often in such measure refresh and inable a weak man which hath been laid wast and desolate that he overcomes the strong It is he that brings it so about that a feeble man laid desolate shall invade and take a strong place of defense All these Instances of his power might well perswade the Israelites that He is able to releive those that are oppressed and wronged in their courts of Justice 10. Yet have not they been well advised of this For they have showed their malice against him that for their injustice hath reproved them openly in the very gates of their Cities that are their usuall places of Judicature There have they made it known how they use to abominate him that speaks sincerely ex animo and to the purpose as if he understood the case in hand 11. Now because you of Israel have thus unjustly oppressed and trampled upon the poor not onely in your Courts of Justice as you call them but in other places at your own price taking from them burdens of wheat which they got as a reward of their day-labour and for the releif of your family Therefore you that by such unjust meanes have built you sumptuous houses of hewen stone shall not come to possesse and enjoy them nor shall ye stay so long in the land as to taste the wine of those fair and lovely vineyards which you have planted upon the like purchase 12. For I observe your manifold transgressions those specially wherein you afflict the just defenders of the poor and by your bribery and other waies keep the needy from their right in that very place wherein they have most reason to expect it 13. Therefore in such evill and corrupt times he that is wise will spare his giving you any more good admonitions at his own perill which he sees will do no good upon men wholly wedded and devoted to their own waies of unlawfull gain and injurious to them that rebuke them for it 14. The thought of this may perswade you while the punishment is yet deferred to bethink your selves of doing that which becomes the people of God and by all meanes avoiding such foule faults that you may live and escape the dangers that hang over your heads Do this in time and the Lord God of Hostes will be with you as you use to boast that he is in the midst of you and will preserve you from any great danger 15. Avoid sinne with a perfect hatred of it and do that which is good in pure love of vertue and goodnesse Above all take care for the free course of Iustice in the publick places of judgement Then happily the Lord of Hostes will be mercifull to the poor remnant of the children of Israel now under the power of the tribe of Ephraim the son of Ioseph 16. For to no other end doth the Lord God of Hostes threaten so much but that your Repentance might timely prevent his judgements and lay hold of his mercy This is the intent of that which the Lord hath said that there shall be mourning not in your houses onely but in all your streets and lamentation in all your high-waies and publick places Where the generall calamity shall joyn whole troupes of them together in the sad tone of Alas Alas what will become of us Then shall they that dwell in Cities invite the Husbandmen to bear a part in their Lamentation and they that for their skill in those sad waies of Mourning were wont to be hired to do it in the Funerals of the richer sort of men shall be called in not to personate a mourner or act a part for money but more really and seriously to expresse that sorrow which equally concerned them all 17. And in all the Vineyards where you were wont to have such merry shoutes and chearfull acclamations at the close of a happy Vintage there also shall you eccho your dolefull sighes and outcries to one another While I passe thorough thy land to take vengeance of all thy wickednesse saith the Lord. That they who would not honour me for my favours and blessings may acknowledge me at least in my righteous Judgements 18. Then woe to them they will be of all other the most unhappy and miserable that to their Idolatry Injustice and other clamorous sins venture also to adde the sinnes of Unbeleif Impatience and open contempt of those many Prophetical admonitions that have been used to reclaim them and in that wicked disposition are not ashamed to say Oh when will the day of the Lord come which the Prophets have so often sounded in our eares Is it the day of our death or of the doom that the whole nation must expect to be executed upon them And will it be so terrible as they seem to conceive We would fain see in earnest what that day will prove and whether the Prophets were not much mistaken in their Predictions For will God ever in such manner forsake his holy land and the children of Abraham Isaac and Iacob his dearest Saints Oh that the time were come when we might try the love of God and see the day of the Lord which is so talked of Alas poor soules why are you so willing to see it If you knew what it will be to you you would not be so earnest to hasten it forward For it will be a black and dismall day a time of extream misery and calamity without the mixture of any light somnesse and comfort And do you long for such a sad cloudy stormy day 19. In that day terrours and troubles will come so thick upon
Israel are not you in that point the same to me saith the Lord as any other as they for instance that came from the Cushites a base and servile nation in your account To me your Creator and Lord you are the same though you may be more excellent in respect of some other people that have not receaved so much from me as you have There is nothing in your selves but in my favour onely that distinguisheth you from all others Nor have my favours been wanting to others though they have exceeded towards you For as I brought you out of Egypt where your servitude though you have almost forgot it was greater then that of the Cushites so I brought the Philistims also from Caphtor or Cappadocia and the Syrians from Kir or that part of Media that lies by the river Cyrrus 8. My care and providence hath extended to others but much more to you that have been most ingratefull and disobedient Yet have you larger promises of mercie then any other For Behold and you have great reason to take notice of it The eies of the Lord God that created and governs all and sets up or puls down kingdoms at his pleasure are intent upon every sinful kingdom to destroy it from the face of the earth unlesse they repent Yet for my promise sake to your Forefathers I will not utterly destroy the whole nation and people of Israel saith the Lord. 9. I will indeed by my own command so order it that the Israelites for their sins shall be dispersed and tossed about among the nations as corn is shaked and moved about when it is sifted in a sieve or winnowed with the fan but the chaff onely shall flie away the least grane or scruple shall not fall to the earth Afflictions may purge or trie the best amongst them but they shall not consume them 10. The worst and most obstinate of my people I shall cut off by the sword that amend not their lives upon fair admonition and yet presume that God will not let the evil day so hastily overtake and prevent them but that God will deliver them at last as he hath done their forefathers in many feares and dangers which they have fallen into 11. Their securitie may undo them But there is a day coming wherein I will By Zorobabel restore the state of the Church and kingdom of David and whatsoever under his Successors was gone much to decay Which you may look upon as a type of the kingdom of the Messiah and setling of religion by him Which will be the true repairing of all breaches and raising up the ruines made by Scribes and Pharises and other enemies of the Church and building up the Kingdom of the true Israel of God in greater perfection then ever it saw before 12. That my people or they that are called mine i. my Apostles and Servants and their Successors whom I shall use in the restauration of the Church may take a kind of spiritual possession of the Gentiles in my name bringing them within the pale of the Church and fould of the great Shepherd of our souls Even of the greatest enemies of the Church as the Edomites were to the Iews At least of a remnant of them i. so many of them as shall return by true repentance and obedience from their opposing of the truth So saith the Lord Himself that will be the main Agent in this great work and make use of his Messengers as instruments for that purpose to effect what he hath often and most gratiously promised for the restoring and enlarging of his Church by the conversion and accesse not of Gentiles onely but of enemies too to be incorporated into one mystical body whereof the Messias shall be the head 13. Behold that joyful time is at hand wherein the abundance of Gods spirituall graces shall be prefigured in the plenty of all outward blessings The harvest shall be so long that it shall extend till the time of plowing the earth again And from the beginning of vintage to the sowing of new seed there will be employment enough in gathering of grapes and treading the Winepresse and furnishing all the Cellars with wine Of which there shall be such store as if the mountains dropped and distilled sweet wine and the hills that use to be drie and barren were resolved and moistened with the overflowings of milk Which may figure the plenty of spiritual food and heavenly comforts that shall attend the coming of the Messias 14. And I will bring the captives home again i. such as have been detained under the power of sin and Satan and they shall rebuild the waste Cities and re-inhabit them i. restore and settle the true worship of God where it was neglected And they shall plant Vineyards and drink the wine thereof i. found Churches and tast the fruit of their labours bestowed upon the Church and they shall make gardens and eat the fruit of them i. the maledictions of the Law being taken away they shall be blessed in propagating the Gospel and the true service of God for the increase of those spiritual graces that are like fragrant flowers in the garden of the Church 15. And I will plant them upon their land which I will give them out of which they shall be no more plucked up again i. In the Paradise of the Church they shall be like Trees of Righteousnesse so planted that they shall take deep and firm root Nothing shall separate them from the love and service of God Neither shall the gates of hell the extreamest dangers or terrors be able to prevail against them Thus saith the Lord thy God to thee O Amos or to thee whosoever that art in the number of the true Israel of God Thou maist safely believe it and undertake that all these things shall certainly come to passe A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF OBADIAH 1. THe vision of Obadiah Thus saith the Lord God concerning Edom We have heard a rumour from the Lord and an Ambassadour is sent among the heathen Arise ye and let us rise up against her in battell 2 Behold I have made thee small among the heathen thou art greatly despised 3 The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock whose habitation is high that saith in his heart Who shall bring me down to the ground 4 Though thou exalt thy self as the Eagle and though thou set thy nest among the stars thence will I bring thee down saith the Lord. 5 If theives came to thee if robbers by night how art thou cut off would they not have stolne till they had enough If the grape gatherers came to thee would they not leave some grapes 6 How are the things of Esau searched out how are his hid things sought up 7 All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the
speak what God had put into his mouth 11. Yet not venturing rashly to make away an Ebrew and so near a Servant to the great Creator and Governour of all things they advised with himself what was fittest to be done to him that they might appease the wrath of God and so quiet the raging Sea which seemed still more and more to swell and beget more trouble to them 12. Then spake the Prophet as from the oracle of God and told them that their safety could not be otherwise procured than by casting him over board and so committing him to the mercy of God And that this their execution of divine Iustice upon him would calm and still the roaring Sea which called aloud for vengeance against him and would not be silent but upon his patient offering himself to the mercy of Almighty God and so becoming some means of their deliverance from what himself had been a main instrument to bring upon them wherein he was a type of Christ that offered himself to a crueller death for the salvation of the world 13. Neverthelesse Jonas his readinesse to die for them melted the hearts of the rude Mariners I wish our Saviours offering himself for us could work the like effect in us all They resolved now to venture themselves a little further for his sake rather than secure themselves by his death And casting about in their minds all the waies by which they might preserve him they pitched upon this as the likeliest to try whether by rowing the ship to dry land they might not save themselves and him too But after much labour they see that they could not do it For the more they strived to gain the land the more fiercely did the wind and weather beat them into new danger upon the Sea 14. At last though forced unto it yet they would not be executioners of the death of a Prophet till they had prayed to Almighty God whose power the Prophet had made known to them that they might not be called to account for the losse of his life nor his innocent blood any way laid to their charge because all these things the extraordinary tempest the event of the lottery and Jonah's own confession appeared plainly to fall out and be wholly ordered and directed according to his own divine dispensation and holy will and pleasure In all which prayer of the Mariners they were no types of the cruelty of the Jewes to our Saviour when he died for us 15. After this but much against their wills they took up Jonah that willingly yeilded himself and cast him into the Sea which being done there followed a sudden and great calm The boisterous waves and whistling winds were laid As the fury of Death and Sathan was quelled upon our Saviours exposing himself to Death for our Salvation 16. These things wrought in the Seamen a wonderfull Fear and Reverence of the true God the Creator and Lord of all things Of whom they might have heard something in Joppe and other places of the holy land but these passages concerning Jonah and the words that he spake to them wrought so powerfully in their hearts that upon their safe landing again they offered sacrifice to the Lord after the way of Israel according to the vowes which they had made unto him when they were in danger adding other vowes which they intended afterwards to perform at their first opportunity 17. But God that is able to rescue us in all places and useth to be a present help in the greatest times of difficulty by his good providence and mercy had prepared a whale to swallow up Ionah alive and be as his prison or his keeper for a time And Ionah continued in the belly of the Fish three dayes and three nights and so again became a type of our Saviour that was three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth CHAP. II. 1 THen Ionah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly 2 And said I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardst my voice 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the flouds compassed me about all thy billows and thy waves passed over me 4 Then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again toward thy holy temple 5 The waters compassed me about even unto the soul the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapt about my head 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains the earth with her bars was about me for ever yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanks-giving I will pay that that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. 10 And the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Ionah upon the dry land CHAP. II. 1. JOnah in the time of his abode within the Whale considering the miraculous securitie that he had being scarce out of the very mouth of one danger of being swallowed up by the sea and yet presently in the middest of another in the bellie of a vast and monstrous Fish did not forget to make his humble and yet confident prayer to the Lord his God a kind of Prophetical assurance of his deliverie from the Fish as well as from the Sea 2. And he framed his prayer to this purpose I cried unto the Lord out of that fearful affliction of mine that streightly compassed me about on every side and by the life yet left in my bodie with some degree of inward repose and quiet in my soul I quickly and easily perceived that he had accepted and answered my prayer Yes O my Gracious and Merciful God Out of the innermost parts of the Whale wherein I lay as in a kind of Grave or a shadow of darknesse like Hell it self for the time Even thence I cried and thou wert pleased to give ear to the voice of my groaning in my importunate prayer 3. Though what relief could I then in any reason have expected when thou hadst cast me into the innermost receptacles and bosome of the vast Seas where the overflowing of the waters circled me about and which was more terrible unto me my accusing thoughts in reflection upon thy heavy displeasure and my rebellious sin were like so many waves and surges that passed over me and afflicted my heavy soul. So that what the Royal Prophet once speak in a figure I find in a more literal and both sensible and spiritual way made good upon me 4. How could I then but take up those other words of the same Prophet wherein betwixt hope and discomfort he complains that he was cast
out of thy sight like one out of thy remembrance and care and providence But in this bitter conflict my faith and repose in the mercy of God at last got the victorie and then I altered my sad tone and with some chearfulnesse delivered the hope that I had to escape this peril and live to present my hearty thanks once again in thy holy Temple of Jerusalem 5. All this while my danger continued and made me recal another passage of the Psalmist where he saith that the waters beset him on every side to the hazard of his life His words might he mine when I was walled about with the great abysse and a multitude of weeds all which strengthened and collected into one bundle which seemed ready to wrap about my head and confine me to my last unquiet bed 6. For me thought that I went down to the lowest parts of those rocks and promontories that peep out like mountains in the sea and that the earth had barred me out and excluded me wholly from ever seeing the firm land again Yet out of the depth of this miserie didst thou preserve me alive O just and powerful Lord and my most merciful God 7. When in the middest of these difficulties I was ready to faint and dispair of recoverie I forgot not to humble my self before God And my prayer found admittance unto thee O Lord and accesse into thy holy Temple 8 They that perverslie wait upon idols for succour which are but meer vanities what do they but in effect wilfully relinquish that mercy and favour that is offered to them from heaven 9. But I will present my self before thee O God with the sacrifice of praise and thansgiving and I will pay my vows unto thee from whom onely we may securely hope for mercy and deliverance 10. According to this prayer from a penitent and faithful heart the Lord upon the third day commanded the Whale to cast up Ionah upon the drie land as the grave delivered up our Saviour upon the third day in the garden of Ioseph of Arimathea and by his power and mercie shall deliver us all at last being able to retain us no longer then the great day of the Resurrection and that general Spring when all the bodies of the Saints shall budd out of the earth incorruptible though they were sown in corruption CHAP. III. 1 ANd the word of the Lord came unto Ionah the second time saying 2 Arise go unto Nineveh that great city and preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee 3 So Ionah arose and went unto Niniveh according to the word of the Lord now Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three daies journey 4 And Ionah began to enter into the city a daies journey and he cryed and said Yet fourty daies and Nineveh shall be overthrown 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sack-cloath from the greatest of them even to the least of them 6 For word came unto the King of Nineveh and he arose from his throne and he laid his robe from him and covered him with sack-cloath and sat in ashes 7 And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles saying Let neither man nor beast herd nor flock tast any thing let them not feed nor drink water 8 But let man and beast be covered with sack-cloath and cry mightily unto God yea let them turn every one from his evil way and from the violence that is in their hands 9 Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not 10 And God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them and he did it not CHAP. III. 1. WHen Ionas like one risen from the dead was returned out of that prison and Grave in the Whales belly and saw himself to be one of this World again he heard no more of his former disobedience he was sufficiently admonished of that by his punishment in the deep But to take away the scruple and perplexity that he might have in his heart whether he should now fit himself for his journey towards Ninive or no for he might remember that the Israelites neglecting Gods first command of entring the land of Canaan were slain for attempting to do it afterward upon their own bare resolution To resolve him in this by a new Commission he was furnished and encouraged again by God himself with a second and fresh command in the same terms wherein he received it before That is 2. Arise and go to that great City Ninive the head City of the Assyrians and preach against them what I first injoyned thee At which if they repent the Israelites may understand by that how much they have offended in not being drawn to repentance by the message of so many Prophets as have been sent to them 3. Then Ionah having learned obedience from his afflictions without any further delay chearfully resolved upon his journey and went to Ninive as God had commanded him Now Ninive was a very great and spatious City of three daies journey in length from the one end to the other 4. Ionah therefore beginning to enter into the City ordered it so that he passed thorough a third part of the City in one daies journey exclaiming against the great sinnes of that place and threatning that unlesse they did prevent it by a serious and speedy repentance within fourty daies Ninive should be overthrown but upon their true conversion they should find that God desired not their death but the reformation of their lives 5. In which the people of Ninive believed God and being well perswaded of his Justice and mercie made known unto them by his Prophet and contented with that first daies journey and admonition caused a solemn Fast to be proclaimed and further to show their inward and universal sorrow and contrition they left off their costly apparel and from the highest to the lowest appeared all in sackcloth as penitent and humble suiters for mercy 6. For the report of this Prophesie was brought to the Kings Court as well as to other places of the City and the King to show good example to his Courtiers and the rest of his subjects arose from his Throne laid aside his Royal ornaments and in sackcloth and ashes made evidence of his great sorrow and remorse wherein he begged mercy for himself and his People 7. Nor did he thus onely countenance but by his Royal Proclamation with the advise and counsel of his Nobles he enjoyned a Fast to be kept through all Ninive in such solemn and strict manner that neither man nor beast greater or lesse should be permitted to tast any food or drink any water 8. And it was further commanded that both men and beasts should be covered with sackcloth
were expired Whether the Citizens would so long persevere in their repentance and if they did not whether Justice would then be showed upon them whom God seemed now willing to spare upon their present conversion and reformation of life 6. Now when the thin slight materials of Jonah his booth began to wither and fade with heat the Lord prepared a gourd or some shrub that used to grow in those parts to come over Ionah like a Canopie to shadow and defend his head from the heat of the Sun which seemed not a little to afflict him And with this refreshment under the gourd Ionah was much delighted 7. But that ease and pleasure was not long to be indulged unto him For the next day betimes in the morning God prepared also a worm which by gnawing at the lower parts of his gourd and so extracting the moisture was the cause that it quickly withered away 8. Moreover at the rising of the Sun God sent a soft and still wind the East that had little or no motion or cooling quality which was the thing that Jonah desired Besides this warm breath the son also with some violence of heat did beat upon the head of Jonah and became so troublesom that it made him ready to faint and show himself wearie of his life plainly professing that it was better for him now to die then to live Which seems to be spoken in a passion as if he thought it an injurie to be deprived of that benefit of the gourd which was gratiously afforded him for a time and considered not that this variety of means might be used to bring him to the acknowledgement of the truth of Gods judgments and the sight of his own offences and demerites 9. Therefore God said unto Jonah Is this well done of thee to discover so much anger and disturbance of thy self for a poor little gourd To which question he gives a rash impatient answer confessing that he was extreamly angry even unto death and did well to be so 10. Whereupon the Lord said again Art thou so affected at the withering of a poor vile gourd of a daies continuance which neither for the coming up nor the growth of it is any way beholden unto thee 11. And shall not I the creator and preserver of all things whose property it is to have mercy upon me above all my creatures shall not I be touched with compassion of so great and populous a City as Ninive wherein beside much cattle there are more then a hundred and twenty thousand innocent children so simple and weak that they cannot distinguish between their right hands and their left and therefore cannot be thought by any fault of theirs to call for this heavy destruction upon them Yet were they all ready to perish in the punishment of their Parents sins had not they timely repented What must you then guesse of the number of men and women of fuller growth that have appeased my wrath by amendment of life Which being done their death and ruine should not be rashly and uncharitably desired to make you seem the truer Prophet who was not to threaten any people but with this implicite condition if they forsook not their sins A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF MICAH CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the dayes of Iotham Abaz and Hezekiah kings of Iudah which he saw concerning Samaria and Ierusalem 2 Hear all ye people hearken O earth and all that therein is and let the Lord God be witnesse against you the Lord from his holy temple 3 For behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth 4 And the mountaines shall be molten under him and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire and as the waters that are powred down a steep place 5 For the transgression of Iacob is all this and for the sins of the house of Israel What is the transgression of Iacob is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Iudah are they not Ierusalem 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard and I will poure down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof 7 And all the graven Images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall return to the hire of an harlot 8 Therefore I will wail and howl I will go stript and naked I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owles 9 For her wound is incurable for it is come unto Iudah he is come unto the gate of my people even to Ierusalem 10 Declare ye it not at Gath weep ye not at all in the house of Aphrah roll thy self in the dust 11 Passe ye away thou inhahitant of Saphir having thy shame naked the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel he shall receive of you his standing 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem 13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish bind the chariot to the swift beast she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee 14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee O inhabitant of Mareshah he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel 16 Make thee bald and poll thee for thy delicate children enlarge thy baldnesse as the eagle for they are gone into captivity from thee CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was made known to Micah of Moreshah a City in Judaea in the dayes of Iotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Iudah and which he had revealed to him in a vision concerning Samaria and Ierusalem two eminent Cities by whose example the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel were drawn into many grievous sins and disorders 2. Hear all ye people of Judah and Israel Attend to this Prophesie of mine you that dwell in any part of this land how populous and of how great extent soever it is And for my faithfull delivery of what I am enjoyned to say let God himself that sees and hears all from his holy and glorious habitation in heaven hear witnesse against you if I be at any time accused or mistrusted for concealing any part of his will and pleasure 3. For I wish you all to take notice of this that God is now coming out of those high and holy places of his to show himself in the execution of his judgements upon your nation and the highest and strongest places with the
preach what will please them and to sooth them up in expectation of better times then they are worthy to enjoy or have any reason to hope for 9. And now to put my office accordingly in execution Give ear to me once again you Princes of Iacob and other Governors in the house of Israel that sit in the place of Justice and yet abhor doing of judgement and should be the onely examples of dealing rightly and exactly according to the rule and yet are commonly seen to pervert the rule of equity and make the law serve your own turns 10. That makes them build such houses in Sion and other parts of Jerusalem with what they gain by shedding of the blood of the innocent and by deciding causes that come before them with much injustice and iniquity 11. For the Princes of this City judge for the bribe and the Priests teach for the hire and the Prophets divine for the reward in ready cash And yet they can talk devoutly and confidently of Gods protection for Sion and Jerusalems sake and seem to rely upon the Lord and say Doth not God dwell in the midst of us How then can evil betide us that are lodged so near to his own holy Temple 12. But talk what you will For you and your sins Sion shall be plowed like a field Jerusalem shall become like heaps of rubbish and Mount Moriah the top of your glory as the place where the House of God stands shall be like those Mountains in the forrest that are fitter for the entertainment of beasts then men CHAP. IV. 1 BVt in the last daies it shall come to passe that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the mountains and it shall be exalted above the hills and people shall flow unto it 2 And many nations shall come and say Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Iacob and he will teach us of his waies and we will walk in his pathes for the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Ierusalem 3 And he shall judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off and they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into prunning hooks nation shall not lift up a sword against nation neither shall they learn war any more 4 But they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree and none shall make them afraid for the mouth of the Lord of hosts hath spoken it 5 For all people will walk every one in the name of his god and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever 6 In that day saith the Lord will I assemble her that halteth and I will gather her that is driven out and her that I have afflicted 7 And I will make her that halted a remnant and her that was cast far off a strong nation and the Lord shall reign over them in mount Zion from henceforth even for ever 8 And thou O tower of the flock the strong hold of the daughter of Zion unto thee shall it come even the first dominion the kingdom shall come to the daughter of Ierusalem 9 Now why dost thou cry out aloud is there no king in thee is thy councellour perished for pangs have taken thee as a woman in travail 10 Be in pain and labour to bring forth O daughter of Zion like a woman in travail for now shalt thou go forth out of the city and thou shalt dwell in the field and thou shalt go even to Babylon there shalt thou be delivered there the Lord shall redeem thee from the hand of thine enemies 11 Now also many nations are gathered against thee that say Let her be defiled and let our eye look upon Zion 12 But they know not the thoughts of the Lord neither understand they his counsel for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor 13 Arise and thresh O daughter of Zion for I will make thine horn iron and I will make thy hoofs brasse and thou shalt beat in pieces many people and I will consecrate their gain unto the Lord and their substance unto the Lord of the whole earth CHAP. IV. 1. YEt for your comfort after all this desolation there will a time come at their return from the captivity of Babylon when that mountain where the house of the Lord is seated shall overtop all other mountains and no hills or high places which the Pagans have made choice of for the worship of their idol-gods shall any way be compared to the high glory of Mount Moriah or so frequented with multitudes of men as this shall be 2. Hither shall flock the true worshipers from several parts of the World and say Come and let us go up to the holy Mountain the Mountain of the Lord Iehovah and to the house of the God of Iacob and by his holy Priests and Prophets he will teach us what is fittest for us to be instructed in out of his waies that we may walk in them For thence onely must we look for the knowledge of the true God whose divine laws specially in the daies of the Messias shall go forth of Sion and his holy word out of Ierusalem and thence be divulged and imparted unto other nations 3. This great God of Israel that so instructs and directs them that make their humble addresses unto him will for their sakes show his judgements among many people that seek him not and correct many remote nations that are too strong and puissant for us to deal with for no strength no distance can secure them from his power and good pleasure upon them And while we serve him he will make them to be so willingly and so absolutely resolved of peace that they shall beat their swords into plow-shares and their spears into pruning hooks And rather then their own quarrels shall be any disturbance to us one nation shall not lift up a weapon against another nor shall they learn how to practise themselves in the feats of war any more 4. And so shall it be after our return from Babylon we shall then enjoy many daies of great peace and tranquillity Every man shall sit quietly under his own vine and under his own fig-tree without any to molest him or make him afraid And to make us secure of all this it is decreed by God himself and the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it who hath all hosts and armies and alterations of peace and war at his disposal 5. And our serving of him will be one motive of this mercy and favour for while other people addict themselves to the worship of their false gods and in their name tender all their respects we shall go on to present our humble service and devotions in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever 6.
from the dayes of eternity for who can declare his generation 3. Therefore will he give to them of Judah what he hath promised i. a safe return out of their captivity and a place of abode again in their own Countrey till the time wherein she that is to bring forth the Messias shall bring forth that happinesse to the world and till the residue of his brethren for with that title shall he honour the lost sheep which he shall come to seek and reduce to his fold till they shall be converted and united to the rest of the children of Israel and so begin all to make one flock under one Shepherd 4. And he shall never cease to feed and govern that flock by no lesse than a divine power being advanced thereunto in no other name and authority then that of the great Iehovah his God as he shall then stile him when he hath humbled himself to that brother-hood which we named before under that care and government shall that flock of his dwell in joy and safety And good reason because from henceforth this our Prince and Messias shall be magnified and renowned not in Jurie onely but to all the ends of the earth 5. And this peace and prosperity of our nation shalt thou begin and not till then when the Assyrian shall have often entred into our land sometime of himself sometime as an auxiliarie of the Chaldaeans For he shall enter in a proud and hostile manner trampling down our fairest Palaces But this pride and malice shall be the occasion of his utter ruine and so of our more setled peace For we shall at last so far prevaile over the Assyrian by the assistance of Almighty God and his blessing upon our prayers and patience that we shall be the meanes of as great a tyranny over him to be exercised by many severall Governours great Princes and Commanders over men that shall lead them and rule them as easily as Sheep are by their Shepherds 6. And if these may be called Shepherds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as other Kings and Rulers are they shall be such as shall subdue and govern their stocks of Assyrians by the sword and the successors of Nimrod in Babylon with her own naked and terrible weapons Thus shall God punish them and give us a sure peace by delivering us from further fear of the Assyrian and letting us be revenged of him because he would needs enter so cruelly upon our land and so proudly trample us under him in our own borders 7. After this the remnant of Iacob being freed from all such tyranny shall be accounted by many other nations among whom they are seated as the dew which falls from heaven and as the drops of rain upon the grasse which expect not the power or pleasure of man or any son of man for their accesse or recesse from this or that place but are sent thither and blessed there by the sole power and favour of Almighty God 8. And in processe of time the posterity of this remnant of Iacob specially in the time of the Maccabies shall be in respect of their power and authoritie and command among the Gentiles and in the midst of many people as the Lion is among the beasts of the forrest and the young Lion among the flocks of the sheep who when he is pleased to passe thorough them doth tread them down and tear them in pieces without controule of any other that is able to rescue and deliver them in that distresse 9. Thus prosperously shall it fare with thy children and with thee O Israel when thy hand shall no sooner be lift up against thy enemies but they shall be cut off and fall before thee All which about the times of the Maccabies shall be but a figure of greater conquests that they shall have over all nations when after the dayes of the Messias they shall begin to subdue them and reduce them to his spirituall kingdom 10. This mention of Israels prosperity in these times must be accompanied with the Prophesie of thy ruine O Babylon For thus saith the Lord I will cut off the strength wherein thou makest thy boast the multitude of thy horses and chariots Them will I destroy with the riders that were so expert in managing of them both 11. And the best Cities of thy land will I lay waste and throw down all thy strong holds 12. And I will down with thy witch-crafts and thy magicall divinations And thy Soothsayers that were so cunning at them shall have no more to do within thee 13. Thy graven images and thy rich statues will I remove from the midst of thee so that thou shalt give no more worship to those vanities the workmanship of thy own hands 14. Thy superstitious groves and thy wealthy Cities will I utterly destroy 15. And in the fiercenesse of my anger will I revenge my self upon those nations which shall not then hear and obey those Conquerors and Governors which I shall please to set over the kingdom of Babylon CHAP. VI. 1. HEar ye now what the Lord saith Arise contend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice 2 Hear ye O mountains the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a controversie with his people and he will plead with Israel 3 O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me 4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants and I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam 5 O my people remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousnesse of the Lerd 6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul 8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God 9 The Lords voice crieth unto the City and the man of wisdom shal see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it 10 Are there yet the tresures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked and the scant measure that is abominable 11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitfull weights 12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth 13 Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee in
the edicts and precepts of Omri that wicked King of Israel are observed with thee more readily than the precepts of the God of Jacob and so are all the workes of the house of Ahab the sonne of Omri after whose advise and example you have so framed the course of your lives as if you intended that I should make you a desolation and all your inhabitants a hissing Therefore shall you bear the reproach of my people They that passe by and see the ruine of your Citie shall lay all the blame and shame of it upon the rapine of her rich Citizens and the lying cozening and dissembling of the other inhabitants CHAP. VII 1 WO is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit 2 The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every man his brother with a net 3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly the prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up 4 The best of them is as a brier the most upright is sharper then a thorn-hedge the day of thy watch-men and thy visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity 5 Trust ye not in a friend put ye not confidence in a guid keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom 6 For the son dishonoreth the father the daughter riseth up against her mother the daughter in law against her mother in law a mans enemies are the men of his own house 7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgement for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousnesse 10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me Where is the Lord thy God mine eyes shall behold her and now shall she be troden down as the mire of the streets 11 In the day that thy walls are to be built in that day shall the decree be far removed 12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria and from the fortified cities and from the fortresse even to the river and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain 13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein for the fruit of their doings 14 Feed thy people with thy rod the flock of thine heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the daies of old 15 According to the daies of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things 16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might they shall lay their hand upon their mouth their ears shall be deaf 17 They shal lick the dust like a serpent they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth they shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of thee 18 Who is a God like vnto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy 19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the daies of old CHAP. VII 1. YOu have heard what you should justly have said to God and what he hath said as justly against you Will you now hear what I or any good man might as well say of the sad estate wherein you shall shortly be under the raign of Manasses a most dissolute and idolatrous Prince that will succeed the good Hezekiah Wo is me that I am fallen upon so unhappy an age wherein there are few or none to be seen that love and fear God! I am in a time like that wherein men have gathered in their summer fruits and there are onely a few grape-gleanings left of the vintage a time when there is no cluster to eat I may long and desire with all my soul to taste some of the first-ripe fruits but there is none to be had 2. Such a scarcity of goodnesse is there in this wicked age wherein the best men are all dead and taken out of the earth there is not a just and upright person to be found among men They are all such as lie in wait for blood They hunt every man after his brother and seek his utter ruine and destruction 3. So do they hunt and lay snares with both hands when they are to do mischief but when they do any good for others the very Prince and Magistrate knows how to ask for his reward and the judge for his bribe and retribution from him that hath the cause to go on his side And if a great man speak out of that wickednesse that is in his heart as in some false relation at a trial before the Judge he orders it so that he will thereby intricate and intangle the businesse the more to puzle those that have interest in the thing to be decided by the Judge 4. And for this matter of briberie he that is accounted the best of them is no better then a brier that catcheth at what can be had from all that come near it and he that hath the name of the uprightest man is without that reward no kinder then a thorny hedge that hath prickles to fetch blood out of all that meddle with it But when the day comes which the watchmen thy Prophets have foretold thee of O Jerusalem and the time of thy visitation then shall these men of all other be in great perplexity as a just reward of that intangling and perplexing of causes with their unjust relations and seeking after bribes 5. In such a wicked age for briberie and injustice take heed what friend you trust and put no great confidence in Princes and Magistrates And keep the door of thy mouth from being too open in deliverie of thy secret thoughts to thy own wife that lies in thy bosom whence they are to be picked out 6. For what is done by the rest of thy family may be done by thy wife in time and now adaies it is ordinarie for the son to dishonour his father in disclosing of
his secrets and for the daughter to rise up as a witnesse against her mother and the daughter in law against the mother in law And a mans enemies are they of his own house as usually as any other 7. But be the world never so bad I that speak all this against these wretched times will still look up unto God in my hearty prayers for patience and perseverance in doing good and a happy deliverance in due time from the perils of a disordered state I will constantly wait for the God of my salvation And I doubt not but my God will hear me 8. After this Prophetical discourse of my own in the foresight and contemplation of the miseries and disorders that shall happen in the reign of Manasses you shall now hear my own Country the Iewish nation her self bemoaning of her great affliction under Zedekiah and the Babylonish Captivity and somewhat too of their return out of captivity under Nehemiah and Ezra For thus she bespeaks the Country of the Chaldeans first Do not triumph over me O thou mine enemie When I am fallen into a low estate I shall rise again and when I sit in the darknesse of a sad affliction there shall the Lord be as a light and comfort unto me 9. I will patiently bear the heavy punishment laid upon me in the fierce indignation of the Lord because I drew it upon my self by those sins which I committed against him This will I do till he please to take notice of my cause to plead for me and to revenge the injuries which I have received from the Babylonians As in his justice I know he will do in his good time And he will bring me out of this sad and gloomy time of affliction into the chearful lustre and glorie of my former prosperity And in that light I shall once again be able to see the goodnesse of the Lord. 10. And my enemie the whole nation of the Chaldeans shall see it as well as I when she shall be ready to hide her self for shame as impudent as she was in the time of my captivity to say unto me Where is now the Lord thy God what is now become of that help which you expected from him Mine eies shall see her then with comfort when she will be ashamed to look upon me And when I am raised out of my low estate then shall she be cast down and trampled under feet by the victorious Persians and made no more account of then the mire in the streets 11. The time will then come for repairing of thy breaches and rebuilding of thy walls O Jerusalem And at that time the proud commands of the Babylonian shall be out of date instead of sending abroad his high edicts to other nations he shall have one above him the conquering Persians that shall over-master and command him 12. About those daies men shall begin to stock again unto thee O Jerusalem Some from Assyria and the strongest Cities there Shortly after thou maiest discover them from all parts coming towards thee Some from the strongest forts beyond Euphrates towards that river and so towards thee And in like manner from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain shall they come to thee 17. For the countries from whence they shall thus come to thee shall fall to ruine and desolation for the sinful inhabitants thereof which shall have that fruit of their wicked works and so many of them for very need be forced to repair unto thee 14. So be it O Lord for their chastisement and for our return and recovery of our former estate Feed thine own people again as their careful Shepherd go before them with thy Shepherds hook as the peculiar flock of thine heritage They that have lodged long like as in a barren and solitary place in a wood let them now come to feed again in as pleasant places as those of Mount Carmel and in as rich pastures as those of Basan and Gilead as in the daies of old 14. And say to thy people O Lord I will show thee again as wonderful things in mercy as I did heretofore when I brought thee out of the land of Egypt And I will show as great a punishment upon thine enemies as I then did upon the Egyptians 16. So let the nations all about be confounded at all the might and power of the Jews Let them lay their hands on their mouths in silent admiration and their ears be made deaf with the noise and fame of thy wondrous acts 17. Like men amazed at them so let them fall down with fear and astonishment and lick the dust like a serpent Let them be forced to creep out of their secret holes and refuges where they had hid themselves like wormes out of the earth And in the complishment of these things which our prophesies have foretold let them learn to fear the Lord our God and stand in awe of thee O Lord. 18. Who among the gods is like unto thee that pardonest iniquity and removest the punishment thereof upon our repentance and passest by many of the transgressions of the poor remnant of thy people as one that is unwilling to take notice of them if they may be amended For He is not so implacable as to continue in his anger for ever though our sins extort a punishment His delight is rather in mercy and loving kindnesse 19. Therefore will he have mercy upon us again He will trample all our offences under his feet as things he would see no more and cast them into the bottom of the sea as things that he will not care for hereafter nor make any more account of 20 So Lord wilt thou perform the truth of thy promises to Iacob and thy tender mercies to Abraham and what thou hast confirmed by oath to our forefathers from the daies of old A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF NAHUM CHAP. I. 1 THe burden of Nineveh The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite 2 God is jealous and the Lord revengeth the Lord revengeth and is furious the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserveth wrath for his enemies 3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked the Lord hath his way in the whirl-wind and in the storm and the clouds are the dust of his feet 4 He rebuketh the sea and maketh it drie and drieth up all the rivers Bashan languisheth and Carmel and the flower of Lebanon languisheth 5 The mountains quake at him and the hills melt and the earth is burnt at his presence yea the world and all that dwell therein 6 Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his furie is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him 7 The Lord is good a strong bold in the day of trouble and he knoweth them that trust in
house by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it 12 Wo to him that buildeth a town with bloud and stablisheth a city by iniquity 13 Behold it is not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 15 Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest the bottle to him and makest him drunken also that thou mayest look on their nakednesse 16 Thou art filled with shame for glory drink thou also and let thy foreskin be uncovered the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee and shamefull spewing shall be on thy glory 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee and the spoil of beasts which made them afraid because of mens bloud and for the violence of the land of the City and of all that dwell therein 18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it the molten image and a teacher of lies that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make him dumb idols 19 Wo unto him that saith to the wood Awake to the dumb stone Arise it shall teach behold it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in the midst of it 18 But the Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him The Sum of the second CHAPTER The Prophets Quaeries in the former Chapter were followed so eagerly in the behalf of his Countrey-men that St. Hierome and some others are almost angry with him and think he may well take the name of Chabakkuk from his touching so near and wrastling so boldly with almighty God Not onely in his prayer for them like another Iacob in his third Chapter but in the first Chapter too like a close Disputant in his pressing so hard upon God himself and his Divine Providence and disposall of humane afflictions But whatsoever was the true occasion of the name it seems that his open and patheticall delivery of his Questions did put them upon that conjecture and so upon the point that those learned men were as much troubled at his expression as himself was at the apprehension of that strange course of divine Justice Now this second Chapter resolves the holy Prophet as it may do us in that scruple and showes him the progresse of God's divine Iustice overtaking the bloody profane sacrilegious Chaldeans in the height of their securitie and falling the more heavily upon them for their abusing the power that was put into their hands when they were permitted to be the scourges of men that were better than themselves Which may read a Lecture to any who contribute too much to the malignity of such wicked dayes This may advise them while they have time of Repentance seriously to examine themselves and their own cause This being a Truth that is evidenced by this passage of holy Scripture and this example in the Jewes and Chaldees That God may be so angry with the sins of his own People or so willing to have their Pietie and Vertue made known to the world that it may produce some effects that are little expected So that either for the severe punishment of some to whom it is likely he means to show the more mercy in a greater and more terrible day Or for the Fatherly correction of others that by outward calamities he will hasten to a better amendment of life Or for the exacter tryall of the Faith Obedience Patience and Perseverance of others for whom he intends a weightier Crown of Glory in everlasting Mansions For these and the like respects it may please God to give way to the doing of many things which may well seem strange and wonderfull in the eies of men And while such things are in agitation He may let them see many cruell and malicious designes seconded with as prosperous successes as the evill hearts of the Actors could wish We found it true in the former Chapter of the Chaldeans and may elsewhere of others that were inabled to say that God goes in and out with their Forces that He fights for them in the head of their Armies and crownes their Actions with Triumphs and Victories over far more innocent and religious undertakers than they are All this being no more than the Prophet implies here and God himself speakes in effect by the mouth of his holy Prophets And yet this second Chapter may inform them that all this is not enough to secure the vain confidence of the Enemies of the Church and excuse the idle boasting of strange and fortunate attempts Which may end in as sad a Catastrophe as that of the Chaldeans did after all their pride and effusion of much blood as now we shall hear The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION of the second CHAPTER 1. AFter these sad and scrupulous Quaeries and Objections which presented themselves unto me I could do no other then as a Prophet a Watchman a Seer of Israel betake my self to my watch-tower and with all Reverence and Patience expect what the Divine Oracle would discover unto me and make me able to return as the best solution of those doubts and Interrogatories of my former Discourse 2. And such did the solution prove to be that others have as much reason to observe it as I have Therefore was I commanded by God himself so clearly to deliver and explain the Vision which I shall now relate that it might be given down to Posterity as a thing written in Tables of some durable substance and in fair Capitall letters so that he that runs might read it and see in it as in a little Map a draught of those waies of Gods divine Wisedome and Justice in the ordering and disposing of things below far beyond the reach of our weak judgement and apprehension 3. And beyond the little compasse of our time too For it lookes further than our short and euill dayes Yet as they that live to see it accomplished will account the hardest part of it to be slipped over as in a dream so we that by the eie of faith can look forward and fix our thoughts upon that end which will prove the end of our misery and the end of our Enemies prosperity may see it posting on as all our Times do with such speed as if it were carried upon the wings of the wind For all which speed nothing that is foretold of it will fail or come short of the truth Therefore let no seeming delay take off our expectation and hope in Gods promises which will certainly come at last and cannot come slowly to a heart that is ready and prepared for it and wants not that solace wherewith it
or any that have near reference unto him as first to besot him with his strong and inticing liquor and then to make use of that time of infirmitie for the discovery of his nakednesse and the disclosing of any secret which he knowes is best gotten out of him when the warm drink hath sweetly washed away the remembrance of his Duty 16. This wo is for thee O Chaldaean that art so ready to discover and deride the weaknesse of others For thou shalt be fuller of shame than glory when thou meetest with thy reward at last in a worse cup whereof thou shalt be forced to drink deeply when thy turn comes So shall thy nakednesse also come to be discovered when in the midst of thy Pride and Gallantry the right hand of the Lord which cannot be resisted shall hold out that cup unto thee and make thee drink it all off though thou art forced to cast it up again to thy further disgrace And so shall Divine Justice repay thee with that shame and affliction which thou hast abundantly deserved for thy insolent opprobrious dealing with others whom thou hast laid open and naked to all kinds of injury and reproach 17. And deserved again if thou hadst no other fault for thy base sacrilegious and scornfull abuses of the Temple to which the whole Forrest of Lebanon did contribute her best Timber and therefore gave it also the name of another more sacred Lebanon but thy violent profane Army have now turned it again into the likenesse of a ruder Forrest that the wild Beasts have had to do withall That open injury to Lebanon that spoil and havock made there to the very laying it in the dust shall beat those Beasts thy rude Souldiers into dust that behaved themselves there like wild Beasts indeed rather than like men That Impiety in the desolation of my holy house saith the sacred Oracle shall overwhelm thee with a worthy punishment and thy own Houses and fair structures shall therefore be laid as waste and desolate as that which is the openest and vastest Habitation of the wild Beasts of the Forrest The rather because of thy imitation of those savage Creatures in the effusion of blood and ransacking of so many Persons and Places as do now in their ruines give a testimony of thy barbarous proceeding against them all 18. All which Sacriledge and cruell Barbarisine was accompanied with other waies of Irreligion and Idolatry and what fruit and advantage did any of them gain What profit can be shewed from the graven and molten Images He that made them and he that preached them up for Deities were both of them Inventers and Dispersers of Lies Yet could that Maker and Raiser of them adde this folly to the other to trust and repose a confidence upon such mute and false Gods as could not so much as make answer unto their Prayers 19. And this calls for another wo upon that sinfull nation Wo to him that commenceth his Prayer for releif to a piece of wood and calls to the dumb Idol of stone to awake and give him audience The Idol it self might teach him that another Deitie would be looked after if he look for help For who cannot see that though it be fairly guilded over with silver and gold to seem glorious to the eie yet there is not so much breath and spirit within it as can adde life and vigour to that glittering outside 20. But the Lord is not so Heaven is the glorious Temple wherein he dwells and whereof all other Temples are but figures And the Reverence we show in them is a Copy of that Fear and Reverence that is due to Him from all the ends of the Earth CHAP. III. A Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet upon Sigionoth 2 O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy 3 God came from Temon and the holy one from mount Paran Selah His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise 4 And his brightnesse was as the light he had horns coming out of his hand and there was the hiding of his power 5 Before him went the pestilence and burning coals went forth at his feet 6 He stood and measured the earth he beheld and drove asunder the nations and the everlasting mountains were scattered the perpetuall hills did bow his waies are everlasting 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction and the curtains of the land of Midiâ—n did tremble 8 Was the Lord displeased against the rivers was thine anger against the rivers was thy wrath against the sea that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation 9 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oathes of the tribes even thy word Selah Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers 10 The mountains saw thee and they trembled the overflowing of the water passed by the deep uttered his voice and lift up his hands on high 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation at the light of thine arrows they went and at the shining of thy glittering spear 12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation thou didst thresh the heathen in anger 13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people even for salvation with thine anointed thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked by discovering the foundation unto the neck Selah 14 Thou didst strike thorough with his stâ—ves the head of his villages they came out as a whirl-wind to scatter me their rejoycing was as to devour the poor secretly 15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses through the heap of great waters 16. When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottennesse entred into my bones and I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble when he cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troups 17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fall and the fields shall yeild no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls 18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation 19 The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon mine high places To the chief singer on my stringed instruments The Sum of the third CHAPTER THe third Chapter in a devout Prayer or divine Hymne set to an Instrument of Musick admires the Justice and Providence and Goodnesse of Almighty God And teacheth us by the holy Prophets example to trust and repose our selves in the will and mercy of God whatsoever it pleaseth him to bring upon us Wherein we cannot but observe that the devout Prophet made
thy Horses that shrunk up the rivers with this terrour and drave them out of their wonted Station For in such triumph indeed didst thou seem to draw near the waters of Jordan when the Ark was thy Chariot the Chariot of our Salvation and thy glory seemed to be carried upon the holy Cherubims 9. After that glorius and miraculous passage over Jordan an Angel showed himself for a Captain of the Host of the Lord. And thy self O Lord as the great Lord of Hostes preparedst for the battle Thine arrowes were apparently drawn out of their quiver and thy Bow out of the Case to be in readinesse against thine Enemies The severall Tribes of Israel as thy Souldiers were mustered up to their military Sacramentall oath And the very Earth and the Waters and all the Elements divided themselves into their severall ranks at thy command and for thy service 10. And when thou beganst to set forward the Mountains O Lord as if standing higher they had made the first discovery of thy coming afar off were sore troubled at it like a woman that is in labour and longs to be delivered Presently whole Rivers of waters gushed out as the issue of that birth The noise and murmur which they made at their breaking forth of the hollow Earth was like the cry of this new-born Creature And the diffusion of those waters into severall courses and rivulets was like the stretching out of his armes which thou canst bind and lap up in his swadling clouts as it pleaseth thee 11. And if the Hills can thus discover and expresse thy powerfull approach how can the two fair eyes of the Firmament the Sun and the Moon but see it and give some acknowledgement of it As they did to all the world when the Sun stood still over Gibeon and the Moon over the valley of Ajalon as if then indeed they had come to their Houses wherein they should rest While by that so miraculously continued Light thy Hailestones like glittering speares and â—wift arrowes did sâ—y about to execute vengeance upon thine Enemies 12. This was the obedience every where tendred to our Lord when he brought us and our Armies to take possesion of the Land of Promise Into which we must ever thankfully acknowledge O blessed God as thou didst enter with wrath and terrour against all the Inhabitants of the Land so in the end in the like displeasure thou didst cause the Heads and Commanders of those Heathen people to be trampled on by the feet of the Conquerours 13 This was thy doing O Lord and thus hast thou often gone out with our Armies to save and defend thy People and thine Annointed whom thou hast set over them Thou hast often wounded the heads of those wicked Families that oppose them and discovered their Foundations so that from the highest to the lowest part of their best hold and confidence they were laid open to ruine 14. Thou hast pierced the Heads of those Peasants that sought our destruction with the same weapons that they used against us might Israel then say and taken them in their own Inventions when they had thought suddenly and violently like a whirl-wind to have set upon us scattered us and blown us away When their Triumph before victorie was like the exultation of those that have in their hopes already devoured the poor and innocent that hides himself from their fury and persecution 15. So did our enemies perish in that passage where they purchased their own death in the pursuit of ours While the Triumph which they hoped for was thine own and not their Horses or Chariots but Thy Chariots and Armes prevailed in the Red-Sea and went safe thorough the unusuall paths and heaps of many waters 16. Such hath been thy Providence over us in our former calamitie so far did thy Power then show it self in our delivery And shall it not be such in thy good time from the Babylonian slavery as it was from the Egyptian But alas what do I venture to entreat I have heard and seen so much in my former vision of the long sad time of our Captivitie as makes me startle and interrupt my prayer But my bowels do earne with compassion of my poor Country-men as well as quake for fear My inward parts are so wholly possessed and troubled with sorrow for them that my fearfull quavering lips will not suffer me to expresse it And though I live yet me thinks my bones are almost consumed with rottennesse while I labour to conceale my selfe-devouring feares and perplexities that I have within me And so much the rather because I must be still and silent for the day of their affliction For it seems the doom is now past no prayer can avert it when he shall rise up against thy poor People that shall bring his troupes of cruell Souldiers to prey upon them 17. To this most heavie but most just Sentence I humbly submit with this Prayer that they may endeavour as I shall to make sure for some inward solace when all outward helps and comforts shall be taken away For though the Figge-tree shall not flourish and give her wonted sweets nor the Vine-tree prosper and yeeld her comfortable wine though the Olive shall deceive our expectation of her fatnesse and the Corn-fields shall not continue the provision of their food to strengthen us though the Sheep shall be plundered out of their folds and the Oxen out of their stalls 18. Yet will I resolve to place my heart in the Lord and to rejoyce in the God of my Salvation 19. And it shall be my Prayer and my Hope that the Lord my God will be my strength and my safeguard supply me with Patience and Obedience and courage make my feet as nimble as Harts-feet and so conduct me chearfully in the way to those high places and Sanctuaries above were I shall be set out of the fear of all danger in everlasting blisse And as a testimony of my Joy and Solace in that I will take order with the chief Master of the Musick to have this Prayer set to my Instruments which may help to rouse up my spirits and my repose in God my Saviour A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF ZEPHANIAH CHAP. I. THe word of the Lord which came unto Zephaniah the son of Cushi the son of Gedaliah the son of Antariah the son of Hizkiah in the daies of Iosiah the son of Amon king of Iudah 2 I will utterly consume all things from off the land saith the Lord. 3 I will consume man and beast I will consume the fowles of the heaven and the fishes of the sea and the stumbling-blocks with the wicked and I will cut off man from off the land saith the Lord. 3 I will also stretch out mine hand upon Iudah and upon all the inhabitants of Ierusalem and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place and the name of the
desolate I made their streets wast that none passeth by their cities are destroyed so that there is no man that there is none inhabitant 7 I said Surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not be cut off howsoever I punished them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings 8 Therefore wait ye upon me saith the Lord until the day that I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie 9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering 11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of mine holy mountain 12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. 13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speaks lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid 14 Sing O daughter of Zion shout O Israel be glad and rejoyce with all the heart O daughter of Ierusalem 15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgements he hath cast out thine enemy the king of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evil any more 16 In that day it shall be said to Ierusalem Fear thou not and to Zion Let not thineâ— hands be sâ—ack 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who are of thee to whom the reproach of it was a burden 19 Behold at that time I will undo all that afflict thee and I will save her that halteth and gather her that was driven out and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame 20 At that time will I bring you again even in the time that I gather youâ— for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes saith the Lord. CHAP. III. 1. BUt that Israel applaud not themselves too much in the ruine of their enemies royal City let them now hear the woes pronounced against their own Jerusalem Wo to the City that grew fat with her gluttony and polluted with all those sins that accompanie a full table and with all kind of rapine and oppression that were made the means to maintain it 2. She would not hear the voice of those that foretold her ruine if she did not amend She would not entertain any such good instruction before the blow came Nor would she trust in the Lord Iehovah and make her devout approaches and addresses unto her God in the time of her extremities but to the Egyptians and Assyrians and who not rather then to him that was ever her surest friend in the time of trouble 3. And to say somewhat again of that oppression that we named before The threats and menaces of her Princes and Governors within the City were grown to be as high and terrible as the roaring of a lion and her Iudges that instead of doing justice put these unjust threats in execution became like those ravenous wolves that seek out for their prey in the evening when their hunger makes them to be more greedily and fiercely set upon it so that what they lay hold on is presently devoured they leave not so much as a bone to be gnawed and examined again in the morning 4. Their pretended Prophets for their lives and for their opinions too are as various and inconsistent as water that will not stay long in his own bounds but must be kept in by some other bodie that is not so fluid as that And which is yet more they are persidiously wicked persons in betraying that trust which is reposed in them that should be the patternâ— and maintainers of true religion and not the bare outward professors of it for their own private interests And the Priests come not much short of the Prophets for instead of hallowing they pollute the Sanctuary and all holy things and instead of keeping and expounding they do most violently both in their actions and expositions wrest and abuse the sense of the law to what it was never intended by the Law-maker 5. But the righteous Lord whose Laws and Sanctuaries are thus abused observes all that is done in this wicked City and He will not deflect from doing right as they do that should be the Patrons of right and justice in his stead Every morning will he show some examples of his justice upon them that should every day be the executioners of it upon others Thus will God never fail to show his justice And yet the unjust and wicked men that know this are so past shame and fear that they will not repent when they see my judgements upon their own and their neighbour Countries saith the Lord. 6. But when I destroyed those Gentiles for so I may call your ten tribes that had nothing in them of Israel I made their strong towers desolate and their populous streets I laid wast and left none to walk about them Even upon their greatest Cities did I bring that solitude and desolation so that there was not left a man nor any of mankind to dwell within them 7. You should have learned to take heed by their punishment And so I said within my self Surely thou my land of Iudah wilt thence at least learn to fear me by what thou seest inflicted upon Israel Their correction will be thy instruction that the Cities of Judah and other places of her habitation may not be cut off in the same manner but that all the good that in my best and kind visitations I have made profer of may come upon her But they deceived my expectation and instead of rising early to seek me they rose early to currupt their own waies more and more as if they were so eagerly set upon mischief that they would break their sleep to be at it 8. Therefore after my expectation deceived I will give you an item before hand to expect that which you shall not be deceived of i. my rising to answer yours and my rising out of the place
the building and adorning of your own private houses So your neglect of me and my service produced my neglect of you and your profit 10. That is the reason why the Heavens that are above you were prohibited to supply you with that dew which should help on the growth of those things that spring out of the earth And the earth that is under you had the like prohibition from affording her usual increase of fruit 11. And I commanded a drought and barrennesse to come upon all the land specially upon the mountainous and most eminent parts A barrennesse both of the corn and the new wine and the oyl And this barrennesse extended to all that which is brought forth of the ground or of men or of cattel and so to every thing that mny be esteemed as a fruit of the labour of your hands So that nothing that you went about did any way seem to prosper 12. These words of the Prophet wrought so with Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Iosuah the son of Iosedech the High-Priest and the remnant of the Iews that returned out of the captivity that they readily obeyed what God had injoyned them to do and to what his Prophet Haggai had delivered to them they gave great attention and respect because the Lord their God had set him upon that message And so the people humbled themselves in the fear of the Lord and submitted to what had been said against them and to what was not required of them 13. Whereupon Haggai that had delivered the former message from the Lord spake again to them by vertue of a further commission and deputation from God himself and said I will be with you saith the Lord not onely to pardon all that is past but to prosper also what you readily undertake for the reedifying of my Temple 13. In prosecution of which promise the Lord stirred up the spirit i. the will and courage of Zorobabel the son of Shealtiel Governour of Iudah and the spirit of Joshua the son of Josedec the High-Priest and the spirit of all the Jews that remained after the captivity of Babylon And they began to compose and prepare themselves for that work in the house of the Lord of Hosts their God 15. And what was thus resolved on was accordingly begun upon the 24. day of the sixth moneth which hath part of our August and part of September in the second year of Darius the King CHAP. II. IN the seventh moneth in the one and twentieth day of the moneth came the word of the Lord by the Prophet Haggai saying 2 Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and to Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high-Priest and to the residue of the people saying 3 Who is left among you that saw this house in her first glory and how do ye see it now is it not in your eies in comparison of it as nothing 4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and be strong O Ioshua son of Iosedech the high-Priest and be strong all ye people of the land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of hosts 5 According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt so my spirit remaineth among you fear ye not 6 For thus saith the Lord of hosts Yet once it is a little while and I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land 7 And I will shake all nations and the desire of all nations shall come and I will fill this house with glory saith the Lord of hosts 8 The silver is mine and the gold is mine saith the Lord of hosts 9 The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former saith the Lord of hosts and in this place will I give peace saith the Lord of hosts 10 In the four and twentieth day of the nineth moneth in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying 11 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Ask now the Priests concerning the law saying 12 If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment and with his skirt do touch bread or pot age or wine or oyl or any meat shal it be holy and the Priests answered said No. 13 Then said Haggai If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these shall it be unclean and the Priests answered and said It shall be unclean 14 Then answered Haggai and said So is this people and so is this nation before me saith the Lord and so is every work of their hands and that which they offer there is unclean 15 And now I pray you consider from this day and upward from before a stone was laid upon a stone in the temple of the Lord. 16 Since those daies were when one came to an heap of 20 measures there were but ten when one came to the presse-fat for to draw out fifty vessels out of the press there were but twenty 17 I smote you with blasting with mildew with hail in all the labour of your hands yet ye turned not to me saith the Lord. 18 Consider now from this day and upward from the four and twentieth day of the ninth moneth even from the day that the foundation of the Lords temple was laid consider it 19 Is the seed yet in the barnâ— yea as yet the vine and the fig-tree and the pomegranate and the olive-tree hath not brought forth from this day will I blesse you 20 And again the word of the Lord came unto Haggai in the four twentieth day of the moneth saying 21 Speak to Zerubbabel governour of Iudah saying I will shake the heavens and the earth 22 And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen and I will overthrow the chariots and those that ride in them and the horses and their riders shall come down every one by the sword of his brother 23 In that day saith the Lord of hosts will I take thee O Zerubbabel my servant the son of Shealtiel saith the Lord and will make thee as a signet for I have chosen thee saith the Lord of hosts CHAP. II. 1. IN the seventh moneth which consisted of part of our September and part of October and in the twenty first day of the moneth the Lord spake again to the Prophet Haggai and by him to the people of the Jewes to this effect 2. Speak now to Zerubbabel the Son of Shealtiel Governour of Iudah and to Ioshua the Son of Iosedech the High-Priest and to the People that are returned from the captivity of Babylon and say unto them 3. If there be any of you left of the captivity that hath seen the Temple which was formerly built in this place in the rich and glorious state and beauty which then it had being a work of much time and cost
of your hands and corrupted the fruit of your grounds with blasting and mildew and haile And therefore I did it because I would have had you to reflect upon your sinfull hearts and be converted unto me but yet this punishment was not followed with your conversion saith the Lord. 18. And now take it also into your serious consideration what better successe you have had from this day and upward from the twenty fourth day of the nineth moneth wherein you began to go on with the Foundation of the Temple of the Lord which had been laid before and too long neglected And again I advise you to take speciall notice of this day 19. We are now in the ninth Moneth And â—s your corn which you lately sowed yet come into your barnes Are you as sure of it as if you had it home into your own possession and at your own disposall No. It is still under the ground you have it but in hope and you stand still in need of my blessing upon it that it may be ripened and sitted for the barn And do you not see that the Vine and the sig-tree and the pomegranate and the Olive-tree are yet far from bringing forth that which gives you some likelihood of a good and plentifull year Yet from this day though these fruites are no forwarder and the seed be yet in the ground from this very day will I poure my blessing upon them and so from this day give you an assurance that all these things shall prosper and increase as you would have them 20. And again the word of the Lord came to the Prophet Haggai in this twenty fourth day of the aforesaid moneth to this effect 21. Speak to Zerubbabel the Governour of Iudah and say It shall not be long before I shake the heavens and the earth those that are placed above others as in a higher Orbe and those that are under them with many great wars and tumults 22. I will bring ruine and destruction upon the rich and large Kingdomes under the command of the Persian Monarch and so overthrow that high throne and state of His and bring down the pride and puissance of that great Empire which so overtops the kingdoms of the Heathen I will overturn their chariots of war with their skilfull Riders And their stately Steeds with those that are so bravely mounted upon them shall have a fall They shall all perish by the sword of those nations that are their brethren in iniquity and idolatry and deserve no better than they do 23. At that time when all these stormes shall fall upon them saith the Lord of Hostes will I take thee into my own protection O Zerubhabel the Son of Shealtiel my Servant and I will preserve thee as warily and as carefully as a man would preserve his own signet Thou and thy people shall be secure in the middest of those stirs that in thy time and long after shall be among the greatest nations And all this will I do because I have set my love and favour upon thee and selected thee and thy nation to be a more peculiar object of my care and mercy saith the Lord of Hostes. A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF ZECHARIAH CHAP. I. 1. IN the eighth moneth in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barachiah the son of Iddo the prophet saying 2 The Lord hath been sore displeased with your fathers 3 Therefore say thou unto them Thus saith the Lord of hosts Turn ye unto me saith the Lord of hosts and I will turn unto you saith the Lord of hosts 4 Be not as your fathers unto whom the former Prophets have cried saying Thus saith the Lord of hosts Turn ye now from your evil waies and from your evill doings but they did not hear nor hearken unto me saith the Lord. 5 Your fathers where are they and the prophets do they live for ever 6 But my words and my statutes which I commanded my servants the prophets did they not take hold of your fathers and they returned and said Like as the Lord of hostes thought to do unto us according to our waies and according to our doings so hath he dealt with us 7 Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh moneth which is the moneth Sebat in the second year of Darius came the word of the Lord unto Zechariah the son of Barachiah the son of Iddo the prophet saying 8 I saw by night and behold a man riding upon a red horse and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom and behind him were there red horses speckled and white 9 Then said I O my Lord what are these And the Angel that talked with me said unto me I will shew thee what these be 10 And the man that stood among the myrtle trees answered and said These are they whom the Lord hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth 11 And they answered the angel of the Lord that stood among the myrtle-trees and said We have walked to and fro through the earth and behold all the earth sitteth still and is at rest 12 Then the angel of the Lord answered and said O Lord of hostes how long wilt thou not have mercy on Ierusalem and on the cities of Iudah against which thou hast had indignation these three-score and ten years 13 And the Lord answered the angel that talked with me with good words and comfortable words 14 So the angel that communed with me said unto me Cry thou saying Thus saith the Lord of hosts I am jealous for Ierusalem and for Zion with a great jealousie 15 And I am very sore displeased with the heathen that are at ease for I was but a little displeased and they helped forward the affliction 16 Therefore thus saith the Lord I am returned to Ierusalem with mercies my house shall be built in it saith the Lord of hosts and a line shall be stretched forth upon Ierusalem 17 Cry yet saying Thus saith the Lord of hosts My cities through prosperitie shall yet be spread abroad and the Lord shall yet comfort Zion and shall ye choose Ierusalem 18 Then lift I up mine eies and saw and behold four hornes 19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me What be these and he answered me These are the hornes which have scattered Iudah Israel and Ierusalem 20 And the Lord shewed me four carpenters 21 Then said I What come these to do and he spake saying These are the hornes which have scattered Iudah so that no man did lift up his head but these are come to fray them to cast out the horns of the Gentiles which lift up their horne over the land of Iudah to scatter it CHAP. I. 1. IN the eighth moneth the moneth Bul which had part of our October and part of November in the second yeà r of Darius the son of Hystaspes God spake unto the Prophet
that glory wherein I shall go before you as your glorious guide and Champion to conduct you safe to your Jerusalem that here and that above For he that sends me as his great Angel of the covenant and commander of his Hosts hath sent me upon this errand amongst the rest to visit the nations that spoiled you to be avenged and to deliver you out of their Tyrannie Nor could you expect any lesse since he that toucheth you toucheth the very apple of his eye He is as sensible of your injuries and sufferings as if they were his own and offered to him in a part of the tenderest touch 9. Therefore you may observe me already shaking my hand over them by way of menace And accordingly them that have heretofore used you as Servants I shall not fail ere long to make servants unto you and some of them more then so as in the time of the Maccabees to be no better then captives taken in warlike manner which shall serve also as a type and figure of those that shall be taken into my service when I send the rod of my power out of Sion and when my spiritual souldiers shall bring them of all nations into the number of the true Israel of God And when they that I send shall compasse so great atchievements you will know assuredly that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me the great Commander not of those troops onely that appeared in the first vision but of all things that are in heaven and earth 10. Rejoyce then and be exceeding glad O daughter of Sion for which thou shalt see and wonder at I will not onely vouchsafe to dwell in this Temple that you are building but I will further be pleased to come dwell with you visibly personally conversing among you in the sacred Temple of my flesh saith the Lord Iehovah 11. And many nations shall apply themselves to the Lord in those daies and like true Proselytes and converts indeed be joyned unto Him as souldiers to sight under his banner and no longer as enemies to him and his Church So shall they become my people as you are and true members of the true Jerusalem And I will abide and dwell in the midst of thee and within thee as my holy Temple and my Heaven upon earth And so thou shalt be more and more assured that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me unto thee O thou daughter of Sion the Church and Congregation of the true servants of God 12. With this happy successe shall the Lord inherit Iudah again as his peculiar possession in the holy land and again make choice of Ierusalem wherein to show his power and glory 13. Therefore let all men be still and show fear and reverence before the Lord. For he will rise up from the throne of his glory and show himself from his holy habitation to subdue his enemies under his feet and be glorified in his servants CHAP. III. 1 ANd he shewed me Ioshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him 2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire 3 Now Ioshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel 4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying Take away the filthy garments from him And unto him he said Behold I have caused thine iniquity to passe from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment 5 And I said Let them set a fair mitre upon his head so they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord stood by 6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Ioshua saying 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if thou wilt walk in my waies and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my house and shalt also keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by 8 Hear now O Ioshua the high priest thou and thy fellows that sit before thees for they are men wondred at for behold I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH 9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Ioshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold I will engrave the graving thereof saith the Lord of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day 10 In that day saith the Lord of hosts shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree CHAP. III. 1. NOw the Lord in another vision let me see Iosuah the High-Priest standing before that great Angel or Messenger of the Lord and Satan standing at Joshuah his right hand that he might there show himself to be a Satan i. an adversarie and malitious accusar of him and so like his name 2. And the Lord Iehovah or some Archangel representing his person said unto Satan The Lord rebuke or restrain thee O Satan from prevailing in thy malitious accusation to any prejudice of the High-Priest Even that gratious Lord so restrain thee in the behalf of Jerusalems High Priest that hath in so great love made choice of Ierusalem as a place to be made a special object of his favour and mercy For is not this Joshua whom thou opposest one that hath more need of divine compassion and indulgence as being like a brand plucked out of many sad dangers and fierie trials that befel him in the time of his long captivity And by him plucked out and rescued thence that gave that token of his care and protection over him for the time to come 3. Now Joshuah appeared to me in this vision as one clad in filthy apparrel while he thus stood before the great Angel of the Lord which might be an embleme not so much of his poor estate as of some sin that he had contracted in the time of his captivity For sin represents us no otherwise in the sight of Gods pure eyes then as men covered with rags and pollution 4. Then said that great Angel to the other that stood ready to obey his commands Take away Joshuahs filthy garments from him as a sign of the removal of his sins that had made him appear so unpleasing in the sight of God And then turning himself to the High-Priest See saith he and forget not this mercy wherein I have caused the removal of thy sin which might now have been laid to thy charge and I will cause thee to be arrayed in such new and decent garments the robes of righteousnesse as wherein thou shalt be accepted 5. I have also taken order with my attendants said he that they set a fair mytre upon the head of Iosuah as the High-Priest of the Lord. And this they did
and the Priest and might intimate unto us that a Prince and Priest we should have till the times of the Messias according to the Prophesie of Iacob Though these mysteries both here and in the Temple might have a farther light in this Candlestick to show us the ecclesiastical function in the greater Church of God wherein the several Ministers like several and clear lamps should shine forth in their doctrine and conversation that others by their good light may be brought to glorifie their father which is in heaven 4. But these things at the first representation of the Vision I did not so discover but being wholly taken up with admiration I proceeded and said further to the Angel that discoursed with me what is the meaning of these things my Lord. 5. To which that Angel that had pleased so to talk with me replied and said Dost thou not conceave what is meant by the Candlestick and the Olive-trees and the other parts of the Vision and I said I do not indeed my Lord therefore I desire that you would vouchsafe to explain the mysterie of them 6. Then saith he to me by way of answer Thou maist gather part of the meaning out of those words which thou art commanded to deliver unto Zorobabel that takes so great care and pains about your sacred Fabrick For thus you are commanded by God himself so say unto Zerubbabel This building shalt thou be able to raise and fit for my service not by any wealth or power of your own for who sees not how poor and weak your nation is at this time but by my spirit saith the Lord of Hosts by the vertue and courage that I shall infuse into you all and the means and friends that I shall raise up for you while your own poor abilities contribute as little to the finishing of so great a work as you do to the supply of oyl for those lamps which are fed by olive-trees raised up miraculously by me on purpose for that intent 7. And who can hinder that which the Lord of Hosts will do Canst thou O Babylon Alas what art thou that vaunts thy self and thy Empire to overtop that of Zerubbabel and his little Jury as far as a high Mountain appears above a little mole-hill Did not I lay that high and mighty empire as low as a pore plain in the sight of Zerubbabel who carried in his very name a good omen of the confusion of Babel and the dispersing of her several Provinces Shall I not do the like against any other Potentates that oppose my poor Church in any age Yes and now to begin with Iurie and her Ierusalem and her Temple there maugre all opposition I inabled Zerubbabel to appear strong and powerful iu the work I made him the man that laid the first stone thereof accompanied with the acclamations and good wishes of all the people that cried out Let God ever favour let his mercy ever support it He blesse and succeed and maintain this great work so happily begun 8. Moreover the word of the Lord came to me his Angel saying 9. As the hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation of this house so when his hands have finished it i. by his care at his command and direction and in his time the whole work be perfected as I foretold then shall you by that accomplishment of my prediction be able to conclude that I came with commission from the Lord of Hosts to encourage you in this businesse 10. But if any man slight and mistrust the time of these little beginnings of the Fabrick and think it promiseth but little for the conclusion If any such there be they will rather have cause to rejoyce and chear up themselves when they consider what was said of the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel and of those seven eyes that were so miraculously engraven in it by the immediate power of Almighty God For that is an embleme of the eyes of God that run thorough the whole world i. of his infinite providence and care that extends it self over all things and specially over his own people 11. Then said I further to him What is mean by those two olive-trees whereof one stands upon the right the other upon the left side of the Candlestick 12. And he deferring his answer I presumed to propose the same question again unto him and said What are those two branches of the olives hanging over the golden pipes thence emptying their pretious oyl as pure and cleare as gold 13. Then he replying said unto me Knowest thou not yet what is meant by them And I said I must confesse to my Lord I do not fullie conceave the meaning of them 14. He answered These are the two Sons of Oyl as you use to speak i. the two sorts of sacred persons annointed with holy oyl the Prince and the High-Priest who attend as two principal servants upon the Lord of the whole earth and whose vigilant care over the Temple and the whole Church of God in their respective places is here figured by those two branches of the olive that impart a continual supply of oyl to all the lamps i. of comfort and assistance to all those that shine as clear lights in the Church of God CHAP. V. 1 THen I turned and lift up mine eyes and looked and behold a flying roll 2 And he said unto me What seest thou and I answered I see a flying roll the length thereof is twenty cubits and the breadth thereof ten cubits 3 Then said he unto me This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it 4 I will bring it forth saith the Lord of hosts and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsly by my name and it shall remain in the midst of his house and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof 5 Then the angel that talked with me went forth and said unto me Lift up now thine eyes and see what is this that goeth forth 6 And I said what is it and he said This is an ephah that goeth forth He said moreover This is their resemblance through all the earth 7 And behold there was lift up a talent of lead and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah 8 And he said This is wickednesse and he cast it into the midst of the ephah and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof 9 Then lift I up mine eyes and looked and behold there came out two women and the wind was in their wings for they had wings like the wings of a stork and they lift up the ephah between the earth and the heaven 10 Then said I to the
angel that talked with me Whither do these bear the ephah 11 And he said unto me To build it an house in the land of Shinar and it shall be established and set there upon her own base CHAP. V. 1. AFter this lifting up mine eyes again I discovered that which took me up with so much wonder that it may challenge another Ecce and it was a kind of flying book written all in one long scroul 2. And the angel that I mentioned before said unto me What seest thou And I said I see a flying roul containing so much in that one volume that the length of it seems twenty cubits and the breadth ten cubits 3. Then said he unto me This roule or volume is a book of curses or dire punishments and it is gone out to fly through the whole land so far as the children of Iudah or Israel do inhabit For every one of this nation that is guilty of stealing and hath his name for that fault on one side of the book is accordingly to be emptied of his ill-gotten goods and suffer the losse of all in his house besides and every one that forswears and hath his name for that fault upon the other side of the book is emptied of what he got by his perjurie acrording to the evidence of the fault there 4. This roul will I produce saith the Lord of Hosts and it shall come into the house of him that steals and into the house of him that swears falsly by my name And it shall continue in the midst of his house till it have quite consumed it like a fierce and raging fire that consumes or disperseth the very stones as well as the timber 5. Then the Angel that used to discourse with me as my Interpreter and Director for the understanding of these mysteries having gone out for a while returned again unto me to explain a new Vision and said Lift up now thine eyes and observe that which seems to be coming forward towards us 6. At the sight of it I demanded of the Angel what it might be And he replied This is the full measure of an Ephah that now seems to move forward and discover it self an embleme of their heavy sins that have now filled up their measure and therefore must lie no longer concealed and winked at as a great while they did in expectation of their repentance before they brought them up to this height And he added withal that this might serve for a fit resemblance of those sins or sinners through the whole land whose full measure of sin brought that full measure of punishment which you see was visibly inflicted upon the whole nation in this last captivity 7. And you would wonder what a strange sight immediately appeared with it the likenesse of a huge massie weight of lead that was brought thither to be laid upon it And this other sight withal a woman sitting upon the middest of the Ephah impudent enough and no whit ashamed or afraid to own such a weight of iniquity 8. And while I was looking upon her and observing the pride and shamelessenesse of her posture the Angel informed me who it was This is the lively portraicture of the Jewish Impietie saith he from whence all those robberies and perjuries that we named before had their rise and their growth till they called to heaven for vengeance And at that word he took her and thrust her into the midst of the Epha and laid a great weight of lead upon the mouth of the Ephah to exclude her from getting out from that which she seemed so ready to return to as to a creature of her own 9. No sooner had I withdrawn my eyes from this sight to look up again but I perceived there two women coming forward suppose the two nations the Assyrian and the Babylonian by which God was pleased to revenge himself of this so great a measure of sin And they came with such speed as if they had come upon the wings of the wind which figured the sodain execution of Gods wrath that accordingly came upon our nation for our many offences And the wings seemed to be like the wings of a stork another expression of that sodain transmigration and deportation out of our Country And these two flying women lift up this Ephah we spake of between heaven and earth as we lift up a burden that is presently to be removed from where it is 10. Then I asked the Angel that discoursed with me whither they intended to remove that heavy weight of impiety to what place of punishment and execution of Justice 11. The place saith he which they are going to provide for that purpose is the land of Babylon where they shall be set fast upon their own basis the sure footing which themselves were the cause of sure enough for stirring thence till God of his own mercy make way for their removal And this Vision and representation of what they have suffered already may be a fair warning that the like sins or sins in the like measure bring not the like punishment upon their heads again CHAP VI. 1 ANd I turned and lift up mine eyes and looked and behold there came four chariots out from between two mountains and the mountains were mountains of brasse 2 In the first chariot were red horses and in the second chariot black horses And in the third chariot white horses and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses 4 Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me What are these my Lord 5 And the angel answered and said unto me These are the four spirits of the heavens which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth 6 The black horses which are therein go forth into the north-countrey and the white go forth after them and the grisled go forth toward the south-countrey 7 And the bay went forth and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth and he said Get ye hence walk to and fro through the earth So they walked to and fro through the earth 8 Then cryed he upon me and spake unto me saying Behold these that go toward the north countrey have quieted my spirit in the north-countrey 9 And the word of the Lord came unto me saying 10 Take of them of the captivity even of Heldai of Tobijah and of Iedajah which are come from Babylon and come thou the same day and go into the house of Iosiah the son of Zephaniah 11 Then take silver and gold and make crowns and set them upon the head of Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest 12 And speak unto him saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Behold the man whose name the BRANCH and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 13 Even he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory and and
plain had the same benefit of a quiet and secure repose and a rich habitation 8. And the word of the Lord came again unto me saying 9. Thus spake the Lord of Hostes by former Prophets saying In your publick places of Judgement proceed according to the rules of true Iustice and Equity without any regard to silthy lucre or to the prejudice of Affection And in your private actions and commerce with one another show that kindnesse and compassion that should be expected among Brethren of the same stock and alliance and of the same Religion and Profession 10. Let there be no injuring or oppressing of the widow the orphan the stranger or any that are poor and afflicted amongst you And do not so much as in your hearts devise or conceive any mischeivous intention against one another All this I commanded your Fathers by the former Prophets 11. But they would not hear of that ear they shrunk up the shoulder and in plain rebellion turned their backs upon their good guides and followed those courses that would make their cares duller for any holy counsaile that called for this obedience 12. And thus by degrees they made their hearts as it were in a set opposition to all exhortations of obedience as hard as flint or any the hardest and most durable stone that there might be no admittance for the voice of the law and the precepts which the Lord of Hostes sent them by those that were to that purpose raised up and enlightened by his holy Spirit for such were all your former Prophets And this wilfull and obstinate rebellion of theirs could not but draw down the heavie and just indignation of the Lord of Hostes. 13. And accordingly you see it came to passe that as they suffered God to call upon them and would return him no answer of obedience so when their own miseries forced them to call for divine assistanee then did I refuse to answer their desires saith the Lord of Hostes. 14. And I dispersed them in mine anger as if it had been with a mighty whirl-wind into severall nations which they never knew before and their own land after their deportation into other parts was left waste and desolate like a wildernesse behind them There was not so much as a passenger to be seen either going thither or returning from that place that had been so much frequented Such and so heavie was the solitude and barrennesse of that land that had been accounted the delight and Paradise of the whole earth CHAP. VIII 1. AGain the word of the Lord of hostes came to me saying 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts I was jealous for Zion with great jealousie and I was jealous for her with great fury 3 Thus saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and Ierusalem shall be called a Citie of truth and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain 4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Ierusalem and every man with his staffe in his hand for very age 5 And the streets of the citie shall be full of boyes and girls playing in the streets thereof 6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts 7 Thus saith the Lord of hostes Behold I will save my people from the east-countrey and from the west-countrey 8 And I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and they shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and in righteousnesse 9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Let your hands be strong ye that hear in these dayes these words by the mouth of the prophets which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid that the temple might be built 10 For before these daies there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction for I set all men every one against his neighbour 11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former daies saith the Lord of hosts 12 For the seed shall be prosperous the vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her encrease and the heavens shall give their dew and I will curse the remnant of this people to possess all these things 13 And it shall come to passe that aâ—â— ye were a curse among the heathen O house of Iudah and house of Israel so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing fear not but let your hands be strong 14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath saith the Lord of hostes and I repented not 15 So again have I thought in these dayes to do well unto Ierusalem and to the house of Iudah fear ye not 16 These are the things that ye shall do Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates 17 And let none of you imagine evill in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. 18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying 19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts The fast of the fourth moneth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Iudah joy and gladness and chearfull feasts therefore love the truth and peace 20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts it shall yet come to passe that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities 21 And the inhabitants of one city shbll go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts I will go also 22 Yea many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hostes in Ierusalem and to pray before the Lord. 23 Thus saith the Lord of hostes In those daies it shall come to passe that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Iew saying We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you CHAP. VIII 1. ANd the commands of the Lord of Hostes were thus expressed further upon the same occasion and to make way for a satisfactory answer to their question 2. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes. As my great wrath and justice upon my own people followed upon the greatnesse of those sins which were mentioned before so now the greatnesse of my jealousie for Sion the seat on my Jewish Church and my great anger no now against her but for her shall be
account of then as of things polluted rather then sanctified to my service But you will say yet further What is that pollution wherein we are said to offer contempt unto thee And I must tell you it lies in those base words of yours that the Table of the Lord is so despicable a thing that we need not be very scrupulous of sacrificing and offering any thing there though it be not so perfect and without blemish as is required 8. And so when you bring a lamb or any other creature that is blind to be offered up in sacrifice that is no great harm O by no means in your opinion it is not And when your offering is of that which is lame and sickly there is no ill in so doing as you seem to imagine But go and bestow such a blind and lame and sickly present upon your Prince and Governour and see if he will accept kindly of it and be of your opinion that it is a present good enough for him saith the Lord of Hosts Sure he will not What shall then be said of those poor contemptible sacrifices so unfit to be brought in your addresses to me and as types and figures of that immaculate lamb that must take away the sinnes of the world 9. Now therefore it onely remains that in lue of them you present your selves before him in humble prayer that he would please to be merciful to us all who are all of us likely to fare the worse for these great sins For it is plain that this great fault hath been committed by you And therefore while you continue in it do you think that you can be acceptable in his sight at whose altar you serve or that he shall accept of such offerings of yours saith the Lord of Hosts 10. Nay if these be thought fit sacrifices for my Temple which of you will do me that acceptable service to shut up your doors and passages to your Sanctuarie that there may be no more fire in vain kindled upon my altar for all your service is in vain while it is tendered in such negligent and scornful manner I can take no pleasure in you that are such sacrificers saith the Lord of Hosts nor will I accept of any such sacrifices from your hands 11. But I will tell you what sacrifice I shall delight in In the spirituall sacrifice of a good and spiritual heart For ere long from East to West all the world over shall my Name be magnified among the Gentiles and in every place shall the holy incense of prayer and the pure offering of themselves their souls and bodies be presented unto me For once again I tell you great shall my name be among the Gentiles since it is so slighted and undervalued by you saith the Lord of Hosts 12. But you still go on to pollute that sacred name as much as in you lies as when you say within your selves that the Table of the Lord is no such pure thing nor the offering so pure that is laid upon it neither is that fire which consumes the sacrifice so pure that we need be so nice and dainty about the choice of the sacrifice 13. Nor is this contempt among the Priests onely that do attend the sacrifice but it is the fault of you among the people too that bring it to the Priest For you have been heard to say when you have brought the sheep or what else was sent into that Court of the Temple where you were to leave it O what a wearisom businesse is this How am I tired with the weight of this burden And then you have puffed and blown at it as if that you brought had been so fat and plump that the bringing of so heavy a burden had almost taken away your breath This you have said in a jesting and scornfull manner puffing at my sacrifice and indeed slighting of it saith the Lord of Hosts Nay such things have some of you brought to be offered as have been stolne or purchased by rapine and oppression and you have sent into the Courts of my Temple lame and weake sickly creatures to serve for an offering and so for a poor acknowledgement of the many mercies and favours that I have showed to you And do you think I shall ever be pleased with what is offered by you in such contempt saith the Lord of Hosts 14. No cursed be that subtle and deceitful man that makes a mock at these Acts of Religion and being able to send that which is good and having in his flock a male that is sound and in good liking doth yet when he comes to pay his vows render a poor weak and blemished sacrifice unto the Lord. But I am the great King of Heaven and earth and therefore other kind of presents were fitter for me saith the Lord of Hosts and among the very Gentiles more fear and reverence shall be given unto my Name CHAP. II. 1. ANd now O ye priests this commandment is for you 2 If ye will not hear and if ye will not lay it to heart to give glory unto my name saith the Lord of hosts I will even send a curse upon you and I will curse your blessings yea I have cursed them already because ye do not lay it to heart 3 Behold I will corrupt your seed and spread dung upon your faces even the dung of your solemn feasts and one shall take you away with it 4 And ye shall know that I have sent this commandment unto you that my covenant might be with Levi saith the Lord of hosts 5 My covenant was with him of life and peace and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me and was afraid before my name 6 The law of truth was in his mouth and iniquity was not found in his lips he walked with me in peace and equity and did turn many away from iniquity 7 For the Priests Lips should keep knowledge and they should seek the law at his mouth for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts 8 But ye are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi saith the Lord of hosts 9 Therefore have I also made you contemptible and base before all the people according as ye have not kept my wayes but have been partiall in the Law 10 Have we not all one Father hath not one God created us Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother by profaning the Covenant of our Fathers 11 Iudah hath dealt treacherously and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Ierusalem for Iudah hath profaned the holinesse of the Lord which he loved and hath married the daughter of a strange god 12 The Lord will cut off the man that doth this the master and the scholar out of the Tabernacles of Iacob and him that offereth an offering unto the