promise These are they saith the Lord of Hosts that shall have my special protection at that time when I shall fully execute what I intend against the wickked I will be as chary of them as one would be of his choicest Iewels And whatsoever I lay upon others I will spare and favour them as one would spare his own most dutifull and obedient Sonne 18. Then you that have spoken so carelesly of my providence will change your opinions when you see what difference I put betwixt a righteous and a wicked man between one that serves God and one that serves Him not And a special time when that difference will appear is the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans That is a day when I shall come in judgement against the nation of the Iews and it shall be an image and resemblance of the last day when I shall come in judgement against all the World And that particular day or time is not far off CHAP. IV. 1 FOr behold the day cometh that shall burn as an oven and all the proud yea and all that do wickedly shall be stubble and the day that cometh shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch 2 But unto you that fear my name shall the sun of righteousnesse arise with healing in his wings and ye shall go forth and grow up as calves of the stall 3 And ye shall tread down the wicked for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I shall do this saith the Lord of hosts 4 Remember ye the law of Moses my servant which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel with the statutes and judgements 5 Behold I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. 6 And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers least I come and sâ—ite the earth with a curse CHAP. IV. 1. FOr behold that day of the fearful destruction of Ierusalem is coming on that shall be as burning hot as an oven kindled by the wrath of God And then all the proud contemners of my service and blasphemers of my Providence and all others the workers of iniquity shall be like stubble that is easily inflamed And this hot time that comes on so fast shall put them into such an all-devouring heat saith the Lord of Hosts that neither root nor branch shall be left to any of that wicked crew that shall dare to sin against me with such a high hand 2 But the rising Sun shall be the blessing of you that fear my name ever more and more encreasing your joy and comfort The true Son of Righteousnesse shall warm and refresh your hearts while the wicked perish in the fire of my wrathful displeasure And as they like stubble shall quickly be enflamed and consumed so your heat of solace shall be as quick from your Messias For he shall flie to gou with salvation under his wings to heal your broken hearts and set you into a sure way of eternal life He shall do it with such an effectual and apparent recoverie of your spiritual health that you shall show it in the vigour of the body and be of as good liking and in as thriving a way as the fatted calves and oxen that are purposely fed and kept up in their stall to make them plump and tender 3 And you shall have full power over the wicked that now trample and domineer over you and they that shall be left of them like ashes out of the furnace of Gods wrath and the flames of that sad punishment that was named before them shall you tread down like ashes under the soles of your feet This shall ye do in the day wherein I shall put these things in execution saith the Lord of Hosts which are told them before-hand that they may prevent them or be without excuse 4. In the mean time while you are in expectation of this Son of Righteousnesse and so ordering your lives that you may escape the fire of his anger when he comes in judgement against your City and Nation Forget not to observe the law which I delivered in Mount Horeb to my servant Moses as a Rule and Direction for all the children of Israel Square your selves according to those Statues and Iudgements which you had from him 5. And that you may know when the time of your glorious Sun-rising is come upon you ye shall discover it by the morning-star that appears just before Him For observe and you shall see that I will send you his Fore-runner in the power and virtue of Elijah the Prophet that in a zeal and austeritie of life like his shall labour to restore the true worship of God amongst you before that great and terrible day of the Lord come upon your Nation that shall give you the greatest blow that ever yet was given 6. And coming in a time wherein there will be many Sects and much diversitie of Opinions He shall labour to convert and reconcile the hearts of Parents to their children and children to their Parents directing all to their great Master and Teacher their promised Messias and in Him to the Truth it self And therefore will I send him upon this employment that so he may make way to the appeasing of my wrath least I come and utterly destroy the whole land For onely that romnant which shall prevent my judgement by true repentance shall be plucked like Lot out of Sodom and delivered from that common calamity that shall then attend the destruction of Ierusalem A Catalogue of Books printed for and to be sold by Thomas Davies at the Bible over agninst the little North Door of St. Pauls Church THe Historie of this Iron Age wherein is set down the true state of Europe as it was in the year 1500. also the original and causes of all the Wars and Commotions that have happened together with a description of the most memorable Battels Sieges Actions and Transactions both in Court and Camp from that time until this present year 1659. illustrated with the lively Effigies of the most renowned persons of this present time folio Bp. Andrews his Sermons which he preached at St. Giles Cripplegate and elsewhere with a Preface written by Mr. Th. Pierce Minister of Brington in Northamtonshire folio A Commentary upon the whole Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Ephesians wherein the Text is learnedly and fruitfully opened with a Logical Analysis Spiritual and Holy Observations Confutation of Arminianism and Popery and sound edification of the diligent Reader by Mr. Paul Bain sometimes preacher of Gods Word at St. Andrews in Cambridge The fifth Edition To which is added the life of the Author and a Table of all the Doctrines folio A Commentary on the most
knowledge of the way of our Salvation To make such antient and useful and holy Writers speak plain English I thought it needful not onely to advise with the Latine and Greek Fathers and other Interpreters Expositors and Criticks that have gone before us and to acquaint my self with the Storie of those times to which they chiefly refer but besides that to labour to understand that Idiome and Dialect which the Holy Ghost pleased to make use of as best understood and affected by them to whom those writings were first intended And from whom they cannot be so profitably conveyed to us if we studie not the stile and garb of that Original Language their little stock of ambiguous words their concise elleiptical Sentences and other short and emphatical expressions All which appearing to us somewhat strange and unusual must be carefully and discretely examined before they can be fitted to the right sense and mind of the place of Scripture And as well as these we must both ponder and labour to expresse their intelligent and convincing waies of proposing Rhetorically inlarging what they would say by strange Allegories and Hyperboles by bould and unusual Metaphors that no other Nation hath ventured upon by delightful Prosopopoeias and Paronomasies wherein they are more rich and copious and happie then any other Tongues By their Dialogismes and Colloquies not in the Psalms and Canticles onely but in several other places that the Reader shall now and then sodainlie fall upon without any plain item given for distinction of the persons that are the Interlocutors By their frequent Transposition of letters and words By sodain Apostrophes and Mutation of Persons and Numbers when a man would least expect it To which I may adde their many other schemes and ornaments that are set down in a kind of Poetical libertie Such as we may evidently see Isai. 14. 9. c. in the description of the Tyrant of Babylon's entertainment after his death afforded him by those of his Military Profession that had gone before him to their long home Such another we find in Ezekiel c. 32. 21. c. in the like gratulation that other Men of the sword gave to the great King of Egypt in his descent to the same place No man would understand these literally or as a Paraphrast or Interpreter propose them down-right in that way If we desire more examples in these Figurative Relations after a Divine Poetical way we may see them in the Royal Prophets Description of Almighty Gods sodain approach in great Majesty as riding upon a Cherub or upon the wings of the wind Psal. 18. 7 8. c. This the Evangelical Prophet follows in his swift cloud Isa. 19. 1. More may appear in the Prophet Habakkuks questions about the manner of Gods coming out of Egypt toward the Holy Land chap. 3. 8 9. c. And the Prophets Isai Ieremy Ioel and Haggai's deliverie of the overthrow and desolation of Nations Isai. 34. 4 5. Ierem. 4. 23. c. and v. 28. Ioel. 3. 15. Haggai 2. 21 22. After whom St. Iohn goes the same way Apoc. 6. 12 13. We have yet more in Iob's manner of teaching us Gods providence and protection over his servants Iob 1. 6. c. which is paralleld 3. Reg. 22. 19. Dan. 7. 9. and elsewhere And what I said of Iob puts me in mind of his description of Leviathan chap. 41. 9 10. and Salomons eloquent Periphrasis of old age Eccles. 12. To which we may adde the Copie that the holy Psalmist first set to what we observed before out of Habakkuk which we find Ps. 77.17 c. and 114. 1.2 c. They that meet with such divine Rhetorical or Poetical places cannot well paraphrase them to the Reader in another language unlesse they take some libertie from that holy Rhetorick and Poetrie which they have before their eyes in such a Description or such a place of the Original Copie In imitation of which many learned Authors in several languages have excellently expressed many places of holy writ When we meet with such high Pathetical streins in sacro Codice we should reverently receive and deliver them as the issue of divine Prophetical Raptures And while I in some places endeavour to do so I hope I shall be so interpreted by all good Christian intelligent Readers Who though they love a Translator that will keep close to the footsteps of his Author yet they will expect that a Paraphrast should inlarge himself according to the true scope and sense of the place and follow the meaning of the Text closer then the words For instance when in some of the forecited places of Scripture I read of the Sun and Moon darkened the falling of the Stars the turning of the earth into the old Chaos c. If I am a Paraphrast to an indifferent intelligent Reader it will be enough without particular mention of the Sun Moon Stars or Chaos to expresse the disgrace and downfall of the principal Governors and chief men of that place and the confusion and disorder of the common people For that is the meaning of it And these figurative speaches among the Jews were so easily interpreted out of the usual tearms of the Oriental countries that when Ioseph had dreamed that the Sun and Moon and eleven Stars did reverence to him his Father could presently of himself paraphrase upon the dream and tell the meaning of it For what is this dream saith he Shall I and thy Mother and thy Brethren come indeed and fall on the ground before thee This was so readily said by the good Patriarch because they were the chief of his family and so as eminent in his house as the Sun Moon and Stars in the Firmament Many are the instances that I could give in the like kind if I would venter to be tedious But I have delivered the Sum and Substance of what I chiefly desired to say Which with the whole work I humbly and willingly submit to the judgement of the more judicious and learned Readers specially to those that understand the Hebrew tongue and the difficulty of many Hebrew Texts which is very great For though all those things that tend directly to our eternal happinesse are plainly and fully set down in sacrâ paginâ yet some passages of holy Scripture there are that cannot easily be fathomed Which made a skilful Divine and Reverend Father of the Church say that some sacred texts are so shallow that a lamb might passe over them without danger and yet some so deep that the greatest Elephants the wisest Clerks would be troubled at them St. Gregories expression is like it that some go down easily like drink other like meat must be broken and cut and chewed before we can make them fit nourishment Those places Divines above all other men must be desirous to apprehend as fully as they may I say as they may because I think some of those places will pose the subtillest ablest and most practised and
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
corner of the Countrie to another from the entring in of Hamath near Epiphania to that which is called the river of the plain or of the wildernesse because of the barren and desert places through which it runs that you may be pursued in the very place which you boast that you have added to the Kingdom of Israel CHAP. VII 1 THus hath the Lord God shewed unto me and behold he formed grashoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth and lo it was the latter growth after the Kings mowings 2 And it came to passe that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land then I said O Lord God forgive I beseech thee by whom shall Iacob arise for he is small 3 The Lord repented for this It shall not be saith the Lord. 4 Thus hath the Lord God shewed unto me and behold the Lord God called to contend by fire and it devoured the great deep and did eat up a part 5 Then said I O Lord cease I bseeech thee by whom shall Iacob arise for he is small 6 The Lord repented for this This also shall not be saith the Lord God 7 Thus he shewed me and behold The Lord stood upon a wall made by a plumb-line with a plumb-line in his hand 8 And the Lord said unto me Amos what seest thou And I said A plumb-line Then said the Lord Behold I will set a plumb-line in the midst of my people Israel I will not again passe by them any more 9 And the high places of Isaac shall be desolate and the Sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid wast and I will rise against the house of Ieroboum with the sword 10 Then Amaziah the Priest of Beth-el sent to Ieroboam King of Israel saying Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel the land is not able to bear all his word 11 For thus Amos saith Ieroboam shall die by the sword and Israel shall surely be led away captive out of their own land 12 Also Amaziah said unto Amos O thou Seer go flee thee away into the land of Iudah and there eat bread and prophesie there 13 But prophesie not again any more at Bethel for it is the Kings chappel and it is the kings court 14 Then answered Amos and said to Amaziah I was no Prophet neither was I a prophets son but I was an herdsman and a gatherer of Sycomore fruit 15 And the Lord took me as I followed the flock and the Lord said unto me Go prophesie unto my people Israel 16 Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord Thou sayest Prophesie not against Israel and drop not thy word against the house of Isaac 17 Therefore thus saith the Lord Thy wife shall be an harlot in the city and thy sons and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and thy land shall be divided by line and thou shalt die in a polluted land and Israel shall surely go into captivity forth of his land CHAP. VII 1. NOw I shall acquaint you with some afflictions which by way of punishment had fallen heavily upon the people if I had not interposed my earnest praiers as I was their Prophet For The Lord God was pleased to show me a vision It was in the Spring time when the earth was yet in her prime and glorie in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth of the fruit of the earth after the mowing of the hay or cutting down of the corn that belonged to the King Jeroboam the son of Joas Then appeared to me God himself forming of locusts that could never come at a worse time to do mischief to the fruit of the ground and were as an Embleme of his gathering a vast and pernicious armie that would quickly over-run and destroy a fruitful and pleasant land 2. And it came to passe When the locusts seemed very busie in cosuming the grasse and other fruit of the land and had done much harm already to it I said Lord God be favourable and gratious to thy people Let not these locusts that use to make the way to a terrible famine prove a Prophetical prediction of a numerous and destructive Hoste that shall for our sins invade and lay waste so rich and flourishing a Country For who shall then raise up again the Posteritie of Iacob which are already much exhausted and brought low by former calamities 3. Upon my humble petition the Lord repented of this great judgement saying it should not proceed He would alter or mitigate the intended burden of the vision by making Pul and his Souldiers be content to be appeased with money and voide the Kingdom 4. 5. I must not conceal another vision at which I was more amazed a vision and prediction of a more furious enemie that consumed all before him like a flaming fire an element that hath no mercie And in this manner it was revealed unto me by the Lord God himself Behold he called to his Angels and other Ministers for a judgement by fire to be brought upon his people This fire was so violent that it seemed to be devouring the great deep i. readie to lick up and consume manie of the people that are often compared to the manie boisterous and raging waters of the great deep and it had already devoured part of them or of the Countrie Then said I O Lord God stay thine anger For how shall the children of Iacob subsist after this Such a heavie judgement will so exhaust them that they will hardlie ever be able to recover their strength again 6. So the Lord repented of this also I will not now go on with this way of revenge saith the Lord God 7. Another time the Lord showed me a third Vision in this manner Behold the Lord stood upon a wall made by line and there was a line in his hand 8. And that I might give the more heed to it the Lord God said unto me Amos what seest thou And I said I see a line Then saith the Lord Behold I will now make use of the strict line of Iustice in examining the faults of my people Israel I will not so easily passe them by with such connivence as I did before taking little notice of many offences 9. Upon my strickt marking of what is done amisse it will soon follow that the high places of Israel erected to the honour of their false gods will be made desolate and the titular Sanctuaries consecrated to the calves in Dan and Bethel will be laid waste And before that I will rise against the house af Ieroboam the son of Joas with the sword And Zacharie his son shall perish by the sword of Shallum and in him shall that familie be extinct and the Kings of Israel decay more and more till they are quite ruined by the Assyrian 10. When Amaziah the chief idolatrous Priest of Bethel understood of
and crie mightily unto the Lord the men out of true remorse of conscience and hearty sorrow the beasts as forced to it by hunger upon keeping them from their usual food and that every man should repent renouncing and forsaking all their evil courses and specially the violence injustice and oppression which they had exercised before and which now they should wash off from their hands by Charity and restitution of what was injuriously taken away or detained from any other which is one of the clearest and most evident fruits of repentance 9. To all which they might be the rather induced because they had no reason but to hope that this message of the Prophet proceeded not from any irreversible decree for their utter destruction but rather as an invitation to repentance and amendment of life whereby the merciful God might be moved to reconciliation and reversement of that heavy punishment which they had deserved 10. This command of the King which seconded the preaching of Iudah was so readily obeyed that God to whom all hearts are open seeinng their sorrow and repentance accompanied with a serious and real intention of amendment in forsaking their evil waies and exercising themselves in all good works specially in the virtues opposite to their violence and oppression He also repented of the punishment which he threatned to bring upon them and in his tender pitty and compassion kept off the blow that was ready to fall upon their City CHAP. IV. 1 BVt it displeased Ionah exceedingly and he was very angry 2 And he prayed unto the Lord and said I pray thee O Lord was not this my saying when I was yet in my country Therefore I fled before more Tarshish for I knew that thou art a gracious God and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repentest thee of the evil 3 Therefore now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die then to live 4 Then said the Lord Dost thou well to be angryâ— 5 So Ionah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city and there made him a booth and sat under it in the shadow till he might see what would become of the city 6 And the Lord God prepared a gourd and made it to come up over Ionah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief So Ionah was exceeding glad of the gourd 7 But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it smote the gourd that it withered 8 And it came to passe when the sun did arise that God prepared a vehement east-wind and the sun beat upon the head of Ionah that he fainted and wished in himself to die and said it is better for me to die then to live 9 And God said to Ionah Doest thou well to be angry for the gourd and he said I do well to be angry even unto death 10 Then said the Lord Thou hast bad pitie on the gourd for the which thou hast not laboured neither madest it grow which came up in a night and perished in a night 11 And should not I spare Nineveh that great city wherein are more then six scoure thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand and also much cattel CHAP. IV. 1. IN the mean time Ionah instead of rejoycing and blessing God for his mercy toward the sad and penitent Ninivites discovered his great anger and impatience and too much respect and tendernesse of his own honour and credit which he would not have blemished with the wellfare of the Gentiles against whom he had prophesied And a strange thing this must needs seem to be that a Prophet should take it ill that his Prophesie was seconded with their repentance or that their repentance should be crowned with so much mercie and deliverance Specially after himself had suffered so much for his disobedience and backwardnesse to prophesie to them and been delivered out of the verie jaws of death upon his own penitent and humble supplication in his own behalf For this though it may be thought to show his tender love to his own people that by this repentance and successe at Nineve were convinced of what the obstinacie of the Iews deserved at Ierusalem yet is it an evident Argument of great weaknesse in the Prophet and great mercie in God that would pardon such a fault to a weak servant of his who seemed now to envie that favour to the Gentiles which God had long before showed himself willing to bestow though it were to the irritation of the Iews 2. But Ionah would be like his name grieved and murmuring where he should not and displeased with that which pleased God Nor was this enough unlesse he made it appear in his very prayer also where he venters to expostulate with God and to frame his prayer after this manner Why didst thou make me a Preacher or rather a false Prophet to Ninive Is not this the verie thing that made me so loath to undertake that office when I was in Iudaea Is not this the onely reason that moved me to fly from thence to Tharsis that I might be far enough from this unwelcom employment For I said within my self and I knew that I had reason enough to say that thou art a gratious God merciful and slow to anger and of so great kindnesse that thou quickly repentest thee of any evil which thou threatnest to bring upon sinners if they are ready to repent them of their sins 3. Now therefore I pray thee O Lord rid me of my life which is a burden and punishment unto me heavier then death While I foresee the punishment that I may well think will fall upon my own countrie-men for their impenitence which is now made fowler by the repentance and conversation of the Heathen that knew not the goodnesse or pleasure of God so well as they did Therefore I am likely enough for this businesse at Ninive to be hated by the Israelites as well as mocked and derided by the Ninivites that will look upon me as one quite out in his Prophesie 4. Yet the gratious Lord answers not the Prophet according to the heat of his passion or the errour of his judgement but in great mercy and meeknesse proposeth this question Whether he thought that he had just cause to be angry with him for sparing so great a City upon their true repentance Which every good man should rather beg by his prayers then any way be troubled to see it done 5. But Ionah having little to answer in his own defense amd being willing to see what would be the final event of this businesse without any reply left the City and sitting toward the East-side of it made himself a little booth there that he might rest under the shadow of it while he expected what would at last become of Ninive after the 40 daies
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