and oil And it was I that gave her that rich plentie of silver and gold which she thought fitter to bestow in the service of Baal then in mine 9. For that unseasonable abuse of what I gave her I will come to her again with an armie of enemies raised up against her and by them I will take away the corn and the wine which I had given her in the right season of them And when she thinks she is in a fair way of enjoying my wool and my slax which she would not acknowledge to come from my bountie I will snatch them both so sodainly and so far out of her reach that she shall not have enough so much as to cover her nakednesse 10. So shall I give way to the discoverie of her follie and shame in the open view of them that she most shamefully doted upon in the time of her plentie And neither they nor any other shall then be able to deliver her out of my hands 11. There shall I put an end to all her jollity to all her festival daies and new Moons and Sabbaths and all her solemn feasts because she looked more to her outward worship in them then to her inward sanctitie 12. And then also her vines and her fig-trees shall vanish in a general desolation which she never dreamed of when she was wont to boast of them as of presents bestowed upon her or made surer for her use by the benefit of her union with those her unfortunate Lovers But I that could not be acknowledged for the true founder of that her happinesse and the onelie means to preserve it will now show that I was so by turning those pleasant vineyards and other so profitable delights into a rude forest and when they are so taken from their unthankful mouths the verie beasts of the field shall eat them up or their rude destructive enemies that may be described by a parable of wild beasts 13. Such will I make my sad visitation of those merry daies wherein she honoured her Baals instead of her own Husband burned her incense to them and for their sakes like a proud strumpet tricked her self up in her gaudie ornaments her ear-rings and her jewels In which garb she footed it after those her dearest dieties and thought little of what I deserved or what I could bring upon her for all this saith the Lord. 14. For this good behaviour of hers shall not I use her kindlie conduct her fairly into some solitary wildernesse in a loving posture and in that privacie accost her in some amorous language to the solace of her good heart yes I warrant you I will lead her thence to her kind Assyrian Adulterers that shall prune her vines to the purpose She shall have her fine valley of pleasure turned into a valley of Achor a dismal place And there will I first open the way to her new instruction wherein she shall learn a new lesson that she never learned before And because she hath formerlie been so musicallie merrie in their sweet companie Let her there learn to sing her meriments over again if she can and trie if her voice will be framed to as merrie a tune as ever she warbled out in her younger daies and equal her merry sits that she had after her safe deliverie out of Egypt 16. But alas in that sad time her mouth will not rellish those sweet and merry ditties nor will she have any mind to her old language of Baal Though it signifie a Husband yet because it is the name of her Idol too I can tell her she will then be so warie as rather to use the terms of Ishi then Baali in the ordinarie salutations of a Husband 17. For I will teach her mouth to leave her wonted names of Baalim They shall have small comfort in the use of that name hereafter which so much abused it heretofore 18. After the amendment which shall attend this alteration I will make a league and covenant in their behalf and such as shall tend to their good It shall be a covenant with the beasts of the field and the fowls of the aire and the creeping things of the earth And then for a covenant with men too I will put as clear an end to their former wars and dissentions as if in their sight I should break the bow and the sword and all the instruments of battel And they shall quietly take their rest without any fear of danger 19. I will adde this too by way of a kind Apostrophe to my people If thou wilt keep thy faith with me for the time to come though thou hast gone a whoring after other gods yet will I espouse thee to my self again for ever And that espousal shall be made by my goodnesse and by moderation of my judgements and that in loving kindnesse and in much mercy 20. And it shall be faithfullie done with full resolution of keeping all promises on my behalf and by that thou shalt know me to be Iehovah i. that he to whom thou art espoused is the powerful God that ever doth reallie make good what he hath said which is the chief notion and reason of the name of Iehovah V. 21 22. Then shall there be as much plentie of corn and wine and oil and all necessaries as can be desired by my people Israel which shall now have the name of Jezreel as being a holy seed and a Mother-Church And no blessing that can come from heaven or earth shall be dutifullie asked in her behalf but it shall be as readilie granted 23. And I will disseminate and disperse her far abroad in the earth with happie enlargement like seed that is cast about with expectation of a large increase And as I will therein make good the best notion of Iezreel so in great mercy I will change the names of Loruchamah and Loammi into Ruchamah and Ammi For she shall tast of my mercy and be my people and resume the priviledge of calling me her God CHAP. III. 1. THen said the Lord unto me Go yet love a woman beloved of her friend yet an adulteresse according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods and love flagons of wine 2. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and for an Homer of barley and an half Homer of barley 3. And I said unto her Thou shalt abide for me many dayes thou shalt not play the harlot and thou shalt not be for another man so will I also be for thee 4. For the children of Israel shall abide many daies without a King and without a Prince and without a sacrifice and without an image and without an Ephod and without a Teraphim 5. Afterward shall the children of Israel return and seek the Lord their God and David their kings and shall fear the Lord and his goodnesse in the latter dayes
CHAP. III. AFter this it pleased God to injoyn me once again to love a woman that had been dearly affected by her dearest friend her husband and yet had been false to him in no lesse a fault than whoredom And this was another typicall expression how great love God had shewed to the children of Israel who most ungratefully neglecting him cast their affection upon strange gods for love of those stagons of wine which being offered to such false Gods were then tasted with pleasure by their Idolaters 2. Conformable to this divine command the custome of the Jewes being to purchase their wives with mony or money-worth I procured such a wife at the set price of fifteen pieces of silver and a Homer and a half of barley 3. And I agreed with her that she should live a good while as a widow forsaking the love of all others reserving her self all that while for me as I would reserve my self for her 4. For this was also a type of the children of Israel that should expect my wonted favourable protection for many dayes abiding in the mean while without a King of their own nation and a peculiar Prince of their own Nay it was a figure of more than so that they should not onely want their former way of Polity and Government of the common-wealth but the wonted liberty also of those Ecclesiasticall rites and customes which they had used before in their sacrifices and pillars and Ephod and Teraphim in all which they took themselves to make sufficient expression of their love and service unto me 5. After which time expired the children of Israel should return by repentance and seek for a reconciliation with their God whom they had so much offended and apply themselves to Zorobabel of the line of David whom they should account as their King and then should they live in the fear of the Lord and acknowledge his great goodnesse and mercy toward them in the latter dayes CHAP. IIII. 1. Hear the word of the Lord ye children of Israel for the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land 2. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth bloud 3. Therefore shall the land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another for this people are as they that strive with the Priest 5. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall also fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy mother 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children 7. As they were increased so they sinned against me therefore will I change their glory into shame 8. They eat up the sinne of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity 9. And there shall be like people like Priest and I will punish them for their waies and reward them their doings 10. For they shall eat and not have enough they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. 11. Whoredome and wine and new wine take away the heart 12. My people ask counsell at their stocks and their staffe declareth unto them for the spirit of whoredomes hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God 13. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountaines and burn incense upon the hils under oakes and poplars and elmes because the shadow thereof is good therefore your daughters shall commit whoredome and your Spouses shall commit adultery 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whâ—res and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall 15. Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Iudah offend and come not ye unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth-aven nor swear The Lord liveth 16. For Israel slideth back as a back-sliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place 17. Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone 18. Their drink is sowre they have committed whoredom continually her rulers with shame do love Give ye 19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices CHAP. IIII. 1. IN the latter dayes it will be so But will you hear what is to be said for the present Hear the word of the Lord ye Children of Israel for the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is none of that truth and mercy and knowledge of God in the land which they pretend to and so no true Acts of Piety 2. But rather by swearing falsly and as falsly denying that which is committed to their trust by murder and theft and adultery they have violently and impudently broke thorow all good lawes And therefore by way of punishment they shall be suffered so long to goe on in the current of those disorders till among the greatest of them that should have kept the people within their bounds one murder shall break out after another and other sinnes of a high nature that deserve death and effusion of blood come on so thick and frequent that you may say they are one contiguous to another 3. Whereupon though they would not mourn for this increase of sinne yet the earth it self seeming to put on her mourning-weeds for the destruction of her fruit shall be as an introduction to their own sorrow for the just increase of their calamities which shall come so hot and thick upon them those especially by Tiglath-peleser and Salmenasser that the inbabitants of the land shall faint under that grief and perplexity which must then be suffered For amongst other miseries such an universall want shall there be of food and nourishment and by the effusion of much blood such a corruption of the air and waters that together with those distressed inhabitants the very beasts of the field and the fowles of the aire and the fishes of their ponds near the sea shall many of them be taken away in that common calamity 4. In all this certainly it will be to little purpose for any man to admonish another whose sinnes have contributed much to this publick misery Therefore he were as good let it alone For this thy people are most of them past cure like those spoken of in the Law that will neither hearken to Prince nor Priest unlesse
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
were p. 298. v. 9. r. the wives p. 346. v. 14. r. of any longer p. 361. v 15. before encrease dele l. p 400 v. 6. r. sore troubled p. 413. l. 2. r. may be p. 463. v. 1. 466 v. 7. r. Darius Notbus as it is truly printed r. 439. where the note in calâ—e paginae gives a reason of it and 442. l. 1. p. 490. v. 9. r. if by his care p. 531. v. 8. r. Angels p. 546. l 2 r. So these Errata in the Notes in calce paginae Pag. 18. l. totum pop Isr. 45. l. in Hâ—ph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 incipe incipere 79 for subest l. subesse 345. l. attondebantur 490 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 588 l. omni cibo 598. l. futurum pro Imperativo A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HOSEA CHAP. I. 1 THe word of the Lord that came unto Hosea the son of Beeri in the daies of Uzzia Jotham Ahas and Hezekiah Kings of Judah and â—n the daies of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel 2. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea and the Lord said to Hosea Go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms for the land hath committed great whordom departing from the Lord. 3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim which conceived and bare him a son 4. And the Lord said unto him Call his name Jezreel for yet a little while and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu and will cause to cease the Kingdom of the house of Israel 5. And it shall come to passe at that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel 6. And she conceived again and bare a daughter and God said unto him Call her name Lo-ruhamah for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel but I will utterly take them away 7. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah and will save them by the Lord their God and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battel by horses nor by horsemen 8. Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah she conceived and bare a son 9. Then said God Call his name Lo-ammi for ye are not my people and I will not be your God 10. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbred and it shall come to passe that in the place where it was said unto them Ye are not my people there it shall be said unto them Ye are the sons of the living God 11. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint themselves one head and they shall come up out of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was made known to Hosea the son of Beeri in the daies of Uzziah Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah and in the daies of Jeroboam the son of Joash King of Israel 2. When first it pleased God to deliver his word by Hosea this it was which he said to that Prophet Go and take to thy self a woman that hath lived long in whoredom and take her children too that have been born to her in that time The fittest type of the children of Israel that have lived long in spiritual whoredoms against their Lord Iehovah 3. And accordingly the Prophet went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim which in the very names signifies the deficiencie of that people and that the two Houses of Iudah and Israel were like two baskets of dry figs in which there were but very few worth the keeping This Gomer conceived and bare a son to the Prophet 4. The Prophet also had a command from the Lord to call the name of his son Jezreel which name referred both to Iezreel the prime City in Israel and to their glorious title of the children of God which title God would shake by disseminating and scattering them in forreign Nations where those undeserved titles should serve them in little stead And this intimated in that name was to begin with a fore-running punshiment which the Prophet had command to expresse in these or the like terms That as a revenge of the innocent blood shed by Iehu in Iezreel God would shortlie send his visitations upon the house of Jehu by such a way as should not be much unlike that bloody slaughter that Jehu had made in Jezreel upon the house of Ahab And that one effect of these heavy visitations should be this That the kingdom of the house of Israel should cease to be any longer in the house of Iehu that Kingdom being thence translated to Sallum of another stock from Zacharias whom he succeeded 5. And this was further added concerning that time That God would then break the strength of Israel by those civil wars that should most appear in the valley of Jezreel 6. After this Gomer conceaved again and bare a daughter which by the like divine command had the name of Lo-ruchamah A name that carried in it the sad doom concerning the house of Israel which God would be so far from sheltring any longer under his merciful protection that he would utterly remove them out of that good land 7. While in the mean time he would gratiously defend the house of Judah in such a way as should visibly appear to be the miraculous work of the Lord their God no strength in the arm of man nor any Art or Instruments of war being ever able to atchieve so great and sodain a deliverie as they should have from the mighty Host of Senacherib the King of Assyria 8. Now after Gomer had weaned Lo-ruchamah she conceived a third time and bare a son 9. And God commanded the Prophet to give that son the name of Lo-ammi Which name implied that they should be no longer his people to enjoy any further happinesse under his service they should rather be the unhappy people and slaves of the Assyrian And God would no longer make his provident protection to speak him their God as he had done 10. Yet should it come to passe that when the children of Israel had increased into multitudes like the sand of the sea which is capable of no number then instead of their name Lo-ammi wherein God disclaimed many of them from being so much as his people they should have the high title of the sons of the living God 11. And then should the children of Judah and the children of Israel so much divided before make one Congregation under one head and Governour which was to be accomplished by Zerobabel in the letter and by Christ in the mystery For then should begin the great day of Jezreel that is of the seed of God or the sons of the living God as they were stiled before
chemarims with the priests 5 And them that worship the host of heaven upon the house tops and them that worship and that swear by the Lord and that swear by Malcham 6 And them that are turned back from the Lord and those that have not sought the Lord nor enquired for him 7 Hold thy peace at the presence of the Lord God for the day of the Lord is at hand for the Lord hath prepared a sacrifice he hath bid his guests 8 And it shall come tò passe in the day of the Lords sacrifice that I will punish the princes and the kings children and all such as are clothed with strange apparel 9 In the same day also will I punish all those that leap on the threshold which â—ill their masters houses with violence and deceit 10 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord that there shall be the noise of a cry from the fish-gate and an howling from the second and a great crashing from the hills 11 Howl ye inhabitants of Maktesh for all the merchant-people are cut down all they that bear silver are cut off 12 And it shall come to passe at that time that I will search Ierusalem with candles and punish the men that are setled on their lees that say in their heart The Lord will not do good neither will he do evil 13 Therefore their goods shall become a booty and their houses a disolation they shall also build houses but not inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards but not drink the wine thereof 14 The great day of the Lord is near it is near and hasteth greatly even the voice of the day of the Lord the mighty man shall cry there bitterly 15 That day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distresse a day of waftnesse and desolation a day of darknesse and gloominesse a day of clouds and thick darknesse 16 A day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities and against the high towers 17 And I will bring distresse upon them that they shall walk like blind men because they have sinned against the Lord and their blood shall be poured out as dust and their flesh as the dung 18 Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of the Lords wrath but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousie for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was revealed to Zephaniah whose very name tells us that God would more clearly reveal by him some of his secret counsail concerning those heavy judgements that were now ready to fall upon the Iews and so needed this nearer and clear Interpreter of his will and pleasure as an other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Ioseph was called by Pharaoh This Zephaniah was the son of Cushi the son of Gedaliah the son of Amariah the son of Hizkiah And he prophesied in the daies of Iosiah son of Amon King of Iudah for even in the raign of that good King so pious and so eminent an example produced little amendment in a wicked and perverse generation Therefore 2. I will even sweep away all together out of this land saith the Lord and so make a quick and fair riddance of so rebellious a nation 3. I will make an end of man and beast I will consume the fouls of the air and the fishes of the sea I will quite take away both the wicked offenders and all their scandalous sins and offences And all by one sin or other being gone out of the good way wherein they promised to walk I will also by one means or other root out every man out of that land of promise which I had bestowed upon them saith the Lord. 4. And even against Iudah as I have done against Israel will I stretch out my powerful and revenging hand and therein against the proudest and worst of them the Citizens of Ierusalem And I will do what good Iosiah in all his care and industrie could not do in that stubborn and rebellious City which should have been a pattern and example to all the rest from that place will I cut off by the sword of my Justice all the reliques of Baal and the name of the Chemarims their downright idolatrous priests and their Cohanims too those priests of their own that will now and then be tampering with the accursed mysteries of Baal 5. Such as can find a time to worship the host of heaven upon the tops of their houses which were made flat for prevention of danger from thence and not to introduce so dangerous and flat idolatrie as that those halters between two religions that think they can do their homage to the true God and to the false and swear by Iehovah and by their Moloch the imaginarie Deitie of the Ammonites which they have now made to be theirs 6. And those also that otherwise and by other vanities and diversions fall away from following the Lord Iehovah and from seeking and inquiring after him alone in such holy places and waies of divine worship as himself hath prescribed 7. Wherein as being in the presence of him and before his all-seeing eye use all the reverence and holy fear and devotion that may best whosoever thou art that would live secure and without all fear and danger of a day of justice and vengeance For such 1 day is coming and it is near at hand when they that offer not such pious and chearful sacrifices to him shall find that he will make a merry and festival day of sacrificing them and bidding such guests to be entertained with that sacrifice as they would be loath to be dressed up for and to be devoured by such hungry companions 8. And in that day of the Lords sacrifice and that feast he will spare none that have not spared to serve and sacrifice to others besides him They must all to the pot the highest as well as the lowest the Princes and their royal race and all the gandy gallants that look so strangely upon it in their rich and costly apparel 9. Amongst all this fine irreligious rout I will not forget to punish them that follow the superstition of the Philistims in not presuming to tread upon the threshould for sooth but rather using the nimblenesse of their feet for a speedy conveyance which is no fit way of entring into the house of their God And with these contemners of their Gods house I will visit those that take too much care for the furnishing and enriching of their Masters house by hook or by crook and by all the violent and deceitful courses that they can imagine 10. And I will give you a more particular discoverie and prediction of what shall happen in three of the chiefest parts of the City in that day A great noise and crie shall then be
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
of my rest to prey upon you and disturb you of your rest For I am now resolved and have peremptorily decreed to gather some of other nations and kingdoms together specially the Chaldaeans and their auxiliaries and by them to pour out my indignation upon these Iews even all the fiercenesse of my indignation For no otherwise then in a kind of fierce zeal shall all the land of Judaea be destroyed 9. But after that affliction I will convert the people to a more penitent and devout and holy language that they may call upon the name of the Lord with more reverence then now is to be found amongst them and joyntly endevour to serve and obey him as they that willingly joyn their sholders together to bear that yoke that he laies upon them which easie yoke is no other then his service 10. And then from the remotest parts of their captivity from as far as those places about the rivers of Cush shall my suppliant and humble servants the off-spring of my people Israel and Judah far and wide dispersed over several nations from thence shall they bring offerings unto me in testimony of their hearty thanks for their joyful return into their own countrie 11. About that time will I take away the shame and grief which thou hadst conceived for thy former great sins and offences committed against me For then shall I by death and miserie have removed from thee those haughty and insulting Countrymen and Priests of thine And then shalt thou offend no more as thou hast done by pride and contempt of my holy places and my Sanctuarie in Mount Sion when those Masters of misrule and ringleaders to the proudest and most presumptious offences are taken away 12. In stead of them I will furnish thee with a meek and humble generation of men though poor which shall trust in the name of the Lord and not in the proud mistake of their own fortunes and abilities 13. This good remnant of my people that return from their captivity shall not return to their great and grievous sin their idolatry nor shall they so accustom themselves again to the speaking of lies and deceit Therefore in all peace and plenty shall they feed well at last and take their rest securely having none to fright or molest them 14. Rejoyce then O daughter of Sion sing and shout for joy O Israel Be merry and chearfull from the bottom of a thankefull heart O Daughter of Ierusalem 15. For God hath taken off those judgements wherewith thou wert afflicted for thy sins He hath removed thy enemies out of thy sight that they may trouble thee no more And instead of those Tyrants Iehovah the the God and King of Israel is in the midst of thee and thou shalt see no more of those calamities which thou hast seen heretofore 16. In those daies it shall be said to Jerusalem and to Sion Fear not nor be any way discouraged Let not thy bands faint or give over till they have raised an other City and Temple wherein to serve the Lord. 17 Iehovah thy God in the midst of thee is of great might and power and of as ready a mind and will to save and defend thee He will rejoyce over thee exceedingly He will acquiesce and solace himself in his love toward thee They that sing for joy shall not have more content and delight then he will take in thee 18. They that were the cause of removing thy merry Feasts and Solemnities will I remove far from thee For they have been but a burden and a disgrace unto thee 19. And take notice of it at that time will I undoe not them onely but all those that have any way troubled and afflicted thee And I will cure them amongst thee that are any way weakened in their fortunes and gather them dayly to their own homes that have been as good as ejected and banished from thence in the long time of their captivity And I will make them famous and renowned in those very places where they have been put to shame and disgrace 20. Again I say it to you all that shall then survive and serve me At that time will I reduce you to your own homes and gather you together to your own friends and acquaintance and I will make you famous and renowned among all the people of the earth so that your own eyes shall see with what advantage I have brought you back again from your captivity A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HAGGAI CHAP. I. IN the second year of Darius the king in the sixth moneth in the first day of the moneth came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and to Ioshuah the son of Iosedech the high priest saying 2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying This people say The time is not come the time that the Lords house should be built 3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying 4 Is it time for you Oye to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie wast 5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your waies 6 Ye have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye cloth you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your waies 8 Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord. 9 Ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it why saith the Lord of hosts because of mine house that is wast and ye run every man unto his own house 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruit 11 And I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oyl and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattel and upon all the labour of the hands 12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him and the people did fear before the Lord. 13. Then spake Haggai the Lords messenger in the Lords message unto the people saying I am with you saith the Lord. 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirt of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and the spirit of Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and did work in
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
that of His Kingdom and that of His Priest-hood 14. There shall be crowns also as for the High-Priest so for the honorable memorie of others that have found favour with God for their good endeavours about the outward Temple now in hand by name for Helem for Tobijah for Iedajah and for Hen the Son of Zephaniah And these crowns shall be hung up in the Temple of the Lord as a memorial of them with their names to that purpose expressed upon the crowns 15. And to help on the work and the ornaments and honour of the Temple many foreiners and people of remote countries shall come and contribute towards this building as the praeludium to the whole crowds of Gentiles that shall help to build up the spiritual Temple And by this you shall know that I Zacharie that relate the prophesie of these things am a true Prophet of the Lord and have my Commission from the Lord of Hosts for what I promise to you judge of me by the event Provided alwaies that you be diligent in obeying the commands of the Lord your God For this promise runs under that condition CHAP. VII ANd it came to passe in the fourth year of king Darius that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the nineth moneth even in Chisleu 2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech and their men to pray before the Lord. 3 And to speak unto the Priests which were in the house of the Lord of hostes and to the prophets saying Should I weep in the fifth moneth separating my self as I have done these so many years 4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me saying 5 Speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh moneth even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me 6 And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did not ye eat for your selves and drink for your selves 7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Ierusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her when men inhabited the South of the plain 8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah saying 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Execute true judgement and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother 10 And oppresse not the widow nor the fatherlesse the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine evill against his brother in your heart 11 But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear 12 Yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone least they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts 13 Therefore it is come to passe that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of hosts 14 But I scattered them with a whirl-wind among all the nations whom they knew not thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned for they laid the pleasant land desolate CHAP. VII 1. NOw in the fourth year of King Darius the second year after they had begun the structure of the Temple the word of the Lord was again revealed unto Zacharie in the fourth day of the ninth moneth which is called the Moneth Chisleu and containes part of November and of December And it did so upon this occasion 2. There was sent to the Temple and to the Priests there about that time Serezer and Regem-melech and some Attendants upon them to tender their humble devotions before the Lord in the behalf of those that lived out of the City and had sent them thither upon that service 3. And withall a message they had to the Priests that ministred in the Temple of the Lord of Hostes and to the Prophets who were to advise and direct them in matters of scruple or controversie This Message came in the name of the People who being desirous to be satisfied in some doubts about fasting in which it seems all had been well if their care to make it a true and acceptable fast unto God had been as much as their desire and power to enact it and enjoyn it as a holy Fast and being all considered as one body they ordered their message to be delivered in these or the like termes Shall I continue the times of fasting and mourning which I imposed upon my self under the captivity and have since most strictly observed whereof that is one in the fifth Moneth upon the tenth of July in the sad remembrance of the destroying and firing of the Temple by Nebuzaradan Captain of the guard to Nebuchadnezar Shall I still afflict my self and observe my wonted abstinence from pleasant meats and other matters of delight like a Nazarite for that day as I have now kept it upon the return of that day for many yeares 4. Then as I was saying came the word of the Lord of Hostes unto me furnishing me with an answer to that question of the People after some things to be premised upon occasion of their Fast and saying unto me 5. Speak to all the people of the land and among them to the Priests too to those of Jerusalem as well as to those out of the Citie that have sent these men hither and say When you fasted and mourned in the fifth Moneth in remembrance of the destruction of the Temple and in the seventh Moneth in memoriall of the death of Godoliah and so in the other Moneths in like pretended humble service for these seventy years of your captivity Did I require those Fasts or when they were voluntarily undertaken did they tend as they should do to my honour and glory by your true humbling and bettering of your selves upon those dayes For your Fasts without that are in themselves nothing so pleasing and acceptable to me as you may vainly conceive 6. For as at other times when you eat and drink at your liberty no advantage accrews to my honour out of that feasting of yours barely in it self considered without any other consequence of your due returnes of thankfulnesse and obedience for the blessing of that plenty so at these times when you fast that fasting in its self adds nothing to me nor is it any way considerable in my esteem 7. Should you not rather have observed the divine commands so plainly and openly delivered unto you by the Prophets that have gone before us when Ierusalem was at ease and abounded in peace and plenty And when the Cities and Townes all about her when the more mountainous and Southern parts that were then entirely possessed and when with them the lowest and fruitfullest countries in the
which I was wounded in the house of my friends 7. Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones 8. And it shall come to passe that in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried they shall call on my name and I will hear them I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God CHAP. XIII 1. ALl this mourning wherein their eyes become like fountains of teares if it be seasonably undertaken may end in a great blessing For even them shall a fountain be opened to the House of David and the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the mourners that were named before as a particular instance for the rest a fountain that shall wash away the guilt of all their sins though they be such as have made them most foule and polluted Soules 2. And then also will the time come saith the Lord of Hostes wherein I will begin to take away the very name of Idolatry from off the Earth by the conversion of the Gentiles so that in many places there shall be no more mention of Idols And with them will I make the false Prophets and the Divinations by help of unclean Spirits to vanish out of the lands that have been polluted with them 3. And such shall be the common zeal against Idolatry and false Prophets that if a man should yet venture upon that way of pretended Prophesie even his own Parents shall be ready to call for Justice against him and tell him that he is not worthy to live because he broacheth false doctrine under the colour of a message in the name of the Lord. Thus shall his own Father and Mother that were the meanes of his life become the meanes of his death too and in a zeal like that of Phineas presently run him through as one not to be suffered any longer to breath after such a fault against the God of the spirits of all flesh 4. And in these dayes you shall see it often come to passe that the divulgers of false and erroneous doctrine under the pretence of a Vision to usher in what they teach or foretell shall soon be confuted and made ashamed of those waies Neither shall they venture any more to take the outward Habit of a Prophet as a sufficient cloak for their deceiving and misguiding of others 5. Nay when any one of them is examined whether he be a Prophet or no he shall not dare to avouch it but he shall rather confesse and say I lay no claim to the spirit of Prophesie I am but a plain Husband-man fitter for plowing than prophesying and one man or other hath still trained me up that way and had me as a servant under him in that kind of drudgerie from my youth upward till now 6. And if any one say but what is the meaning of these markes that have taken such deep impression in thy hands Are they not such marks and figures as the false-Prophets have that acknowledge themselves devoted to some false Gods Or shall we call them blows or wounds that have been otherwise received Then to purge himself from all suspition of Idolatrie he shall say These were blows indeed that have made some impression in me for the better the signes of such correction as I deserved while I was in the house of my Friend Therefore I shall take them for no other than love-tokens 7. But now I will go on with the Prophesie of the death of the Messias to show what more the Lord is pleased to have foretold concerning those passages of his Passion that will be like a sword to pierce him to the heart Arise O sword against the Shepherd of my flock saâ—th the Lord of Hostes and against my dear Companion that is nearest to my love Smite the Shepherd and let the Sheep be scattered Yet for the same hand that dispersed them with that sword will I return my gentle hand to that little innocent stock that forsook their good Shepherd out of mere infirmity while the storm fell about them 8. And for the greater flock through the whole Earth this shall come to passe saith the great Iehovah that of those that shall professe themselves to be of my fold two parts therein will be cut off and perish for want of perseverance but a third part in it shall continue to the end in obedience unto me 9. And that third part will I lead along under a fiery triall for by many temptations I will prove them of what mettall they are as the Goldsmith makes proof of his silver and gold to see what drosse there is in them till they are refined as he would have it And he that under this tryall will call upon my name and so endeavour to improve himself I will acknowledge he is one of my people and he shall persevere to professe me to be his God CHAP. XIV 1 BEhold the day of the Lord cometh thy spoil shall be devided in the midst of thee 2 For I will gather all nations against Ierusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and residue of the people shall not be cut off from the Citie 3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Ierusalem on the east and the mount of Olives shall â—leave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west and there shall be a very great valley and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountaines for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal yea ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the dayes of Vzziah king of Iudah and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee 6 And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark 7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to passeâ— that at evening time it shall be light 8 And it shall be in that day that living waters shal go out from Ierusalem half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall it be 9 And the
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
give them Their unthankfulnesse for the contrarie benefits deserve no lesse Give them that which sufficientlie crosseth the fair omen of their name barrennesse Let it suffice that they shall have a barren womb and drie breasts For that other is a more sad and fearful punishment to give up their children to the mercie of the enemy when their growth and strength promise much help and comfort to their Parents 15. Yet I must confesse they deserve no such mitigation of their punishment when I call to mind all their wickednesse in Gilgal That very place might have put them in mind of the favours which I showed them there presently after their miraculous passage through Iordan and first entrance into the land of promise There I forgave the long neglect of their circumcision and did not onely take away that reproach but began my work of higher mercy and protection over them in that land This place therefore of all other should have been made a place of thankful acknowledgements and good resolutions of amendment of life and holy obedience for the future They should never have chose to make the Devila Chappel where they were first obliged to show their service to me The circumcision of their flesh there should have been seconded with the circumcision of their hearts and expressed in such actions as might have gained more of my love But they have so ordered it that I cannot but hate those things that have been done in that place And me thinks I hear God saying thus of thom For the wickednesse of those their doings and specially the erection of a house there for idolatrie I will drive them far from my house and show them no more tokens of my love The rather because all their Princes and Governors that should have prevented these mischiefs have bin as deep as any other inrebellion against me 16. We have now seen the stroke of justice come so heavily upon Ephraim that the verie root of that fair and far-spreading tree is like to be dried up and withered Or if they of Ephraim do bring any store of fruit and so hold out like their name yet that is a heavy sentence which God himself hath spoken in these sad terms I will slay the most amiable fruit of their womb that which they so much long for place so much affection upon when they have it because they spoil their fair beauty with the imitation of their fathers ugly sins 17. Thefore my God will cast them off with scorn because they have not been obedient unto him And they shall be scattered about like vagabonds among other nations All which I speak not as desirous to deliver a curse but as bound to make known a Prophesie against this nation CHAP. X. 1. ISrael is an empty vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars according to the goodnesse of his land they have made goodly images 2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty he shall break down their altars he shall spoil their images 3 For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us 4 They have spoken words swearing falsly in making a covenant thus judgement springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field 5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven for the people thereof shall mourn over it and the priests thereof that rejoyced on it for the glory thereof because it is departed from it 6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Iareb Ephraim shall receive shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsell 7 As for Samaria her King is cut off as the some upon the water 8 The high places also of Aven the sin of Israel shall be destroyed the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars and they shall say to the mountains Cover us and to the hills Fall on us 9 O Israel thou hast sinned from the daies of Gibeah there they stood the battail in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them 10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows 11 And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the corn but I passed over upon her fair neck I will make Ephraim to ride Iudah shall plow and Iacob shall break his clodâ— 12 Sow to your selves in righteousnesse reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousnesse upon you 13 Ye have plowed wickednesse ye have reaped iniquity ye have eaten the fruit of lies because thou didst trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men 14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battel the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children 15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickednesse in a morning shall the King of Israel be utterly cut off CHAP. X. 1. ISrael is like a Vine that lies wast and fruitlesse to Him that is true owner of it Her enemies help to lay it wast and they that should dresse her and look to her by their carelessenesse leave it without good sap and moisture which makes the fruit accordingly little enough and bad enough Yet even that little fruit which Israel hath he makes use of for himself to be sent spent after his own humour And which is worse the more God encreaseth him with the fruits of temporal prosperitie in a goodlie soile He is so far from returning a thankful acknowledgement to God the good Author of it that he doth so much the more increase the number of Altars and Statues in remembrance of his false gods that do nothing for him and bestow the more cost upon them 2. Thus the heart of Israel is now clean departed from the observance of their dutie Therefore shall they be laid fullie desolate And he that I will make the instrument of that desolation will break those Altars of theirs in pieces and spoile their Statues 4. For nothing will reduce them to their dutie unto God and their King Hosheah But this will be their conclusion we will neither have Hosheah nor any other King over us For we that durst forsake the service of God what should we fear the forsaking of the Kings service who hath no great power now to do any thing for us nor much power to do any thing against us if we be resolute and hold close to our selves 4. In the progresse of such a violent and treasonable conclusion they will not stick at a false oath and covenant Therefore to answer
tremble from the west 11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria and I will place them in their houses saith the Lord. 12 Ephraim compasseth me about with lies and the house of Israel with deceit but Iudah yet ruleth with God and is faithful with the Saints CHAP. XI 1. IN the first times and tender age of the people of Israel I loved him as my son and my first born And as I gave him the honour of that title in Egypt so with a fatherly affection I brought him out from thence and made him in that a type of my own natural Son that was in due time to be brought out of the same place 2. In those first and the following times did Moses Aaron the Prophets and other my Messengers call them to works of Piety and to obedience unto me But how did they requite it The more they called so much the readier were the Israelites to turn their backs upon their Teachers and walk quite another way from their good instructions and leaving my service to sacrifice to their Baals and burn incense to their graven images 3. Yet was it I that nursed them in their younger daies and taught them gentlie how to go sure and safe holding them up by the arms or carrying them in my own arms as tender nurses use to carry and hold their children so did I preserve them from all danger when they were least able to help themselves But they would not consider that I therefore showed this care and providence of mine that I might so cure them of their national disease their itching after the worship of other gods that could not preserve them 4. I drew them to me as men would draw their dearest friends with the strongest bands of love and affection And after I had been so good a friend to them as to take off their Egyptian yoke and the bridle which their hard Masters had put into their mouth then I filled their mouths with plenty of quailes and mannah as it were of food from heaven i. dropped out of the air unto them 5. Though in their latter daies they returned into Egypt by seeking help from thence notwithstanding I will so order it that they shall return thither no more upon that errand but the Assyrian shall rule over them because they would not be converted unto me that I might be acknowledged for their King 6 7. And do they not deserve this when the war being begun in their own Cities by civil dissentions and having consumed the strongest and chiefest of them because they followed their own devises and not the good counsels that I gave unto them by my Prophets yet for all this they that were called my people made no hast of their conversion unto me but were like men that knew not what to resolve of though all the messengers that I sent called them never so earnestly to return to the High God still as if all were agreed together not so much as one of them would rouse up himself and follow that call 8. How shall I give thee up to thy deserved punishment for these things O Ephraim How shall I deliver thee over O Israel unlesse I should give thee up as once I gave up Admah and make thee like unto Zeboim in thy fearful and utter ruine But my heart is quicklie altered from the execution of so heavy a sentence and all my bowels of compassion are at once moved to repent of that and take another way 9. I will do nothing against thee in the fiercenesse of my anger I will not return to that thought of destroying Ephraim in such a manner For I am a merciful God that can easily remember my covenant with thy Fathers and continue my desire of thy happinesse Nor do I forget how I have been often hallowed in the midst of thy Assemblies and I would encourage thee to return to the same acknowledgement and performance of thy bounden dutie Therefore I will not fall upon any of thy Cities with that severitie and specially upon Ierusalem the place set apart for my worship 20. And if they will walk confidently and obediently after me I will defend them against all that persecute them I will be like a roaring Lion and at that voice they shall tremble that come from the Sea or any of the remotest parts to follow after them 11. They shall quake like the stork the bird that comes out of Egypt and like the Assyrian-dove shall they fly back into their own nests with all the speed that may be And there will I settle them quietly saith the Lord. 12. This will I surely do for them Yet doth Ephraim fetch me about with nothing but lies and the house of Israel with deceit fair promises of amendment and few or no performances Only the best is Iudah doth yet hold out stoutly in the daily worship of the true God and deales faithfully with his holy Prophets under their good King Hezekiah CHAP. XII 1 EPhraim feedeth on wind and followeth after the Eastwind he dayly increaseth lies and desolation and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians and oil is carried into Egypt 2 The Lord hath also a controversie with Iudah and will punish Iacob according to his waies according to his doings will he recompense him 3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb and by his strength he had power with God 4 Yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed he wept and made supplication unto him he found him in Bethel and there he spake with us 5 Even the Lord God of hostes the Lord is his memoriall 6 Therefore turn thou to thy God keep mercy and judgement and wait on thy God continually 7 He is a merchant the balances of deceit are in his hand he loveth to oppresse 8 And Ephraim said Yet I am become rich I have found me out substance in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sinne 9 And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in Tabernacles as in the dayes of the solemn feast 10 I have also spoken by the Prophets and I have multiplyed visions and used similitudes by the ministry of the Prophets 11 Is there iniquity in Gilead surely they are vanity they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal yea their altars are as heapes in the furrowes of the fields 12 And Iacob fled into the countrey of Syria and Israel served for a wi fe and for a wife he kept sheep 13 And by a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt and by a Prophet was he preserved 14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly therefore shall he leave his blood upon him and his repreach shall his Lord return unto him CHAP. XII 1. EPhraim feeds himself with the hopes of that which is
horrible storm and tempest to the ruine and devastation of the Country of Ammon 15. Which shall be the sadder and more irrecoverable by the captivity of the King and his Princes and their titular Deitie and his Priests For Moloch himself for all his Royal title shall escape no better then the meanest of the people that must yeeld to the furie of the war For The Lord hath spoken it CHAP. II. 1 THus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Moab and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because he burnt the bones of the King of Edom into lime 2 But I will send a fire upon Moab and it shall devour the palaces of Kerioth and Moab shall die with tumult with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet 3 And I will cut off the Iudge from the midst thereof and will slay all the Princes thereof with him saith the Lord. 4 Thus saith the Lord For three transgressions of Iudah and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have despised the Law of the Lord and have not kept his commandements and their lies caused them to erre after the which their fathers have walked 5 But I will send a fire upon Iudah and it shall devour the palaces of Ierusalem 6 Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Israel and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shooes 7 That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor and turn aside the way of the meek and a man and his father will go in unto the same maid to profane my holy Name 8 And they lay themselves down upon cloathes laid to pledge by every Altar and they drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God 9 Yet destroyed I the Amorite before them whose height was like the height of the Cedars and he was strong as the Oakes yet I destroyed his fruit from above and his roots from beneath 10 Also I brought you up from the land of Egypt and led you fourty yeares thorow the wildernesse to possesse the land of the Amorite 11 And I raised up of your sons for Prophets and of your young men for Nazarites Is it not even thus O ye children of Israel saith the Lord 12 But ye gave the Nazarites wine to drink and commanded the Prophets saying Prophesie not 13 Behold I am pressed under you as a cart is pressed that is ful of sheâ—ves 14 Therefore the flight shall perish from the swift and the strong shall not strengthen his force neither shall the mighty deliver himself 15 Neither shall he stand that handleth the bow and he that is swift of foot shall not deliver himself neither shall he that rideth the horse deliver himself 16 And he that is couragious among the mighty shall flee away naked in that day saith the Lord. CHAP. II. 1. THus saith the Lord. Because Moab hath fil'd up the same measure of sin with the Ammonites therefore I pronounce the same punishment to them of Moab who to their other sins added that which showed their arrogance and malice to Edom in burning the bones of one of the Kings of Edom and so most inhumanely and barbarously mingling the ashes with the lime and mortar that they used in dawbing and plaistering of their walls which was an act of much pride and scorne and contempt and a contumelious way of revenge 2. Therefore I will raise up an insolent and cruell enemy against the country of Moab that shall kindle such a war as shall be the sudden fearfull and totall ruine of Kerioth their chiefest City for such is commonly a destruction by fire And in the hurry and tumult of that war shall many of the Moabites die amidst the confused noise of the trumpets and shouts of the enemy and their own sighes and groanes and heavy lamentations 3. So will be cut off from Moab and especially from Kerioth or the chief Cities in the heart of the Countrey their eminentest Governours and Commanders and all their Princes and the greatest of their Nobility shall have their share in this punishment that shall sweep them all away saith the Lord that neither can nor will be hindred or intreated in the execution of this sentence upon Moab 4. And while these acts of Divine Justice appear among the Heathen least Judah because of the open profession of the true Religion and worship of God among them should take themselves to be in a fair way of escaping the like severe revenge that God might take upon their sins thus saith the Lord concerning his own people Because Iudah presumed to make up such a high measure of sinne as cried to heaven for Justice therefore they also shall have their doom run in the same termes Specially because they forsook the most holy lawes and statutes of God as if they contemned that to which they had promised obedience aud were chiefly led by their own phansies and lying vanities and strange inclination to idolatry as the ill example of their Forefathers and their many revolts toald them on and deluded their foolish hearts 5. Therefore Nabuchadnezar's puissant and victorious army shall raise an unquenchable fire in Iudaea that shall not end without the firing of the Temple and the Palaces and other costly pieces of building in their Mother-City of Ierusalem by Nabuzaradan 6. Which severity threatned to be exercised upon the two Tribes among whom was the Temple and the purer worship of God may terrifie the kingdom of Israel and be a clear evidence of their speedier and heavier ruine Of whom thus saith the Lord. For the full measure of iniquity made up by the Israelites and running over I will make good the sad irreversible Sentence passed against them and foretold by severall Prophets The rather because of their extream and cruell Avarice which blinded their eyes and induced them not onely to circumvent and defraud but down-right to sell men better than themselves and righteous persons at poor rates as if the least summe of money or a pair of shooes were more highly to be prised than the keeping of a poor man from perpetuall servitude 7. Nor will I conceale some other of their faults In respect of their malice they are as stomachfull against the poor as if they could eat them up like bread And their pride is such that they think it not enough to throw them as low as the dust of the earth unlesse they take of that dust and cast it upon their heads as a signe of greater scorn and contempt where they cannot so insult over the poor yet at least that they may be doing of some mischief if they meet with modest humble and quiet men they disturb them in the way that is in the course of their life and occasions of their severall
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
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
these three unwelcom prophesies likely to be many waies prejudicial to him his fellow Priests if it should be known and believed by the people He sent to Ieroboam the son of Joas then King of Israel saying Amos hath done that which tends to rebellion and hath ventured to do it within thy own kingdom in the middest of thy leige Subjects the house of Israel divulging such strange prophesies and in such plain terms as the land cannot and should not endure being they do apparantly tend to intestine sedition and are sufficient to provoke the people to usurp that authoritie for the punishment of Amos which properlie belongs to the King or such as he shall please to impower Therefore it were not amisse to advise quicklie what shall be done with such a one 11. For thus saith Amos of the King King Ieroboam shall die by the sword and of the people he saith Israel shall be led away captive into a strange land as if God would cast off your Majestie and his people and forget the great cost and diligence which is bestowed in Bethel upon his publick service 12. Thus Amaziah accused the Prophet Amos with much subtiltie and impudence and verie falslie for he said nothing of the person but of the house of the King Yet least this his malicious accusation of the Prophet should not succeed according to his desire he fell to foul words and menacies and said Heark you you Seer You had best be packing hence into Iudah and there get a poor living as you may by your heretical doctrine and false prophesies For here is no place for such as you are 13. Let us hear no more of you at Bethel For here is the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court Therefore it cannot but be verie dangerous for you to hanker hereabouts but in Iudah I believe your prophesies against us may passe with the good liking and applause of all 14. To this virulent and threatning speech Amos made answer with an humble but an undaunted spirit and said to Amaziah I did neither usurpe nor ambitiously affect the place or title of a Prophet nor had I by birth or succession or education in the Schools of the Prophets any claim or pretense unto it For indeed I was brought up among flocks of sheep and herds of cattel not in the Schools not in the Court but as a gatherer of sycomores for bruit beasts rather then an instructer of men 15. Though it pleased God to take me from following the stock and lay this necessitie upon me of prophesying to his people of Israel Therefore I must obey the divine calling rather then your pleasure and advise or the command of the King if he should so injoine me as you would have him For who shall excuse me when he saith Go prophesie unto this people 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou that saiest Drop not thy Prophetical words against Israel We desire not that one drop of them should fall upon our nation For we take them to be no drops from heaven but meerlie from your own lips 16. Therefore as imperious and peremptorie as thou art I will prophesie a little plainer of what will nearlie concern thee Thus saith the Lord. Thy wife in this very City shall have her body abused before thy face by the Assyrian souldiers This will rub the memorie of that spiritual whoredom that hath been practised and maintained by thee as chief Priest in this Citie Thy sons also and thy daughters all nuzled in the same idolatrie shall be cut off by the Assyrian swords And thy idolatrous Country shall be divided by line among those strangers which the King of Assyria will send hither And thou shalt die not in this holy Citie as thou accountest it but in a prophane land among the heathen And all Israel as I foretold shall be carried captive from hence into Assyria for contenming the fair predictions and gracious admonitions that were afforded to them CHAP. VIII 1 THus hath the Lord God shewed unto me and behold a basket of summer fruit 2 And he said Amos what seest thou And I said A basket of summer fruit Then said the Lord unto me The end is come upon my people of Israel I will not again passe by them any more 3 And the songs of the Temples shall be howlings in that day saith the Lord God there shall be many dead bodies in every place they shall cast them forth with silence 4 Hear this O ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the land to fail 5 Saying When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the shekel great and falsifying the balances by deceit 6 That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the wheat 7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Iacob Surely I will never forget any of their works 8 Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt 9 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and I wil darken the earth in the clear day 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring up sackcloath upon all loins and baldnesse upon every head and I will make it as the mourning of an onely son and the end thereof as a bitter day 11 Behold the daies come saith the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread not a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say Thy God O Dan liveth and the manner of Beer-sheba liveth even thy shall fall and never rise up again CHAP. VIII 1. A fourth vision likewise did the Lord God show unto me And behold It was a basket of ripe summer-fruit 2. And that I might the more heedfully observe the meaning of the vision the Lord said What seest thou Amos I answered A basket of ripe summer-fruit Then the Lord said unto me The end is coming upon my people of Israel For as when fruit is fully ripe men use to pluck it from the tree least it should rot and corrupt the sooner so they being ripe for judgement shall be taken from their Countrie I will passe by their sins no more in such patience
when thou stoodest like one of another side while strangers carryed away all thy Brother Iacob's forces into captivity and forreigners entred the gates of most of his Cities and cast lots upon Ierusalem which of them should make the first assault against that their mother-City when all this was done thou that shouldst have been one of her best friends didst openly show thy self to be one of her greatest enemies i. one of them that had a hand in all those severall passages of cruelty 12. But thou of all other shouldst not have endured so much as to look upon the strange usage of thy brother in that heavy time much more shouldst thou have absteined from triumphing over the children of Iudah in the day of their destruction and most of all shouldst thou have feared to make thy own mouth a witnesse of thy proud and insolent insulting over their affliction in the very day when it fell upon them 13. Thou shouldst not have been so forward as others to rush into the gates of my Peoples forts and cities in that time of their calamity and then specially have made thy self a spectator of those evils that came so thick upon him like a fearfull storm in a sad and gloomy day and which is yet worse to have appeared as a party which those that laid violent hands upon his substance in that day 14. Nor shouldst thou have stood in the crosse wayes where many paths meet upon that advantage to cut off such of thy Brethren as had escaped the enemy nor shut up such as otherwise had remained free and at liberty in those distressed times 15. For after all these daies of yours the Lord will have his day too a day of vengeance And it is not long before that day will come upon all those nations about Judaea that have been so cruell to them And then as thou hast alone to others it shall be done to thee thy reward shall return upon thy own pate 16. And as you of Edom shall drink of the cup of my anger because of my holy mountain and the holy land of Judaea which you have persecuted So shall all those nations that joyned with you ever taste of the same cup till they have drunk it up and be as if they had never been 17. But in mount Sion there shall be a great deliverance from the scourge that shall then be brought upon others by Sennacherib and it shall continue a place sanctified and set apart for divine service and then shall they of the house of Iacob that secured themselves for that time in Jerusalem return to a quiet possession of their severall tenures in the land of their inheritance 18. Then you that helped to encrease the flames of those wars that set Judaea into a combustion shall find that the house of Iacob will prove a fire and the house of Ioseph a flame and the house of Esau like stubble before them And they shall kindle them and devour them till there be none remaining of the house of Esau that shall be able to do any great harm to the house of Israel For the Lord hath spoken it 19. And they of Israel shall possesse the South of Edom with mount Seir and the plain with the land of the Philistims And with them shall they possess the Countrey of Ephraim and of Samaria and Benjamin shall have Gilead for his possession 20. And those few forces of the children of Israel that return after their captivity shall possesse whatsoever belonged to the Cananites as far as Sareptah of the Sidonians And they of Ierusalem which shall return from their captivity shall possesse the parts about Sepharad or the furthest bounds with the Cities of the South 21. And they that have delivered themselves out of the captivity shall not onely come again to their antient right in mount Sion but in their posterity they shall go as Iudges and Governours into the mountaines of Esau. And then the kingdom of Israel shall be under God alone and under the power of no forreign Kings A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF IONAH CHAP. I. 1. NOw the word of the Lord came unto Ionah the son of Amittai saying 2 Arise go to Nineveh that great city and cry against it for their wickednesse is come up before me 3 But Ionah rose up to flee unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord and went down to Ioppa and he found a ship going to Tarshish so he paid the fare thereof and went down into it to goe with them unto Tarshish from the presence of the Lord. 4 But the Lord sent out a great wind into the sea and there was a mighty tempest in the Sea so that the ship was like to be broken 5 Then the mariners were afraid and cried every man unto his God and cast forth the wares that were in the ship into the sea to lighten it of them but Ionah was gone down into the sides of the ship and he lay and was fast asleep 6 So the Ship-master came to him and said unto him What meanest thou O sleeper arise call upon thy God if so be that God will think upon us that we perish not 7 And they said every one to his fellow Come and let us cast lots that we may know for whose cause this â—evill is upon us So they cast lots and the lot fell upon Ionah 8 Then said they unto him Tell us we pray thee for whose cause this evill is upon us what is thine occupation and whence comest thou what is thy countrey and of what people art thou 9 And he said unto them I am an Hebrew and I fear the Lord the God of heaven which hath made the sea and the dry land 10 Then were the men exceedingly afraid and said unto him Why hast thou done this for the men knew that he fled from the presence of the Lord because he had told them 11 Then said they unto him What shall we do unto thee that the sea may be calm unto us for the sea wrought and was tempestuous 12 And he said unto them Take me up and cast me forth into the sea so shall the sea be calm unto you for I know that for my sake this great tempest is upon you 13 Nevertheless the men rowed hard to bring it to the land but they could not for the sea wrought and was tempestuous against them 14 Wherefore they cried unto the Lord and said We beseech thee O Lord we beseech thee let us not perish for this mans life and lay not upon us innocent blood for thou O Lord hast done as it pleased thee 15 So they took up Ionah and cast him forth into the sea and the sea ceased from her raging 16 Then the men feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice unto the Lord and made vowes 17 Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Ionah and Ionah was in
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
fields 5 Therefore thou shalt have none that shall cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the Lord. 6 Prophesie ye not say they to them that prophesie they shall not prophesie to them that they shall not take shame 7 O thou that art named the house of Iacob is the spirit of the Lord straitened are these his doings do not my words do good to him that walketh uprightly 8 Even of late my people is risen up as an enemy ye pull off the robe with the garment from them that passe by securely as men averse from war 9 The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses from their children have ye taken away my glory for ever 10 Arise ye and depart for this is not your rest because it is polluted it shall destroy you even with a fore destruction 11 If a man walking in the spirit and falshood do lie saying I will prophesie unto thee of wine and of strong drink he shall even be the prophet of this people 12 I will surely assemble O Iacob all of thee I will surely gather the remnant of Israel I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah as the flock in the midst of their fold they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men 13 The breaker is come up before them they have broken up and have passed through the gate and are gone out by it and their king shall pâ—sse before them and the Lord on the head of them CHAP. II. 1. THese woes and sorrows that are threatned before are the just rewards of sin And they must look for a great share in that wo that studie to be evil and upon their beds devise iniquity and plot several waies wherein they may bring their wickednesse into act as soon as the opportunity of the morning light and their own power and ability will give them leave 2. This kind of men do no sooner fasten theiâ— covetousnesse upon other mens fields but all the violence that can be must be used for the gaining of them no sooner do they entertain a desire of other mens houses but they think they may take them as their own Such violence and oppression do they use against other men and their houses and whatsoever descends to them by no lesser right then that of inheritance 3. Therefore thus saith the Lord these plots and devices of this family of the house of Iacob shall be answered with somewhat that I will devise against them They contrived the evil of sin and would not be taken off from the execution of it so will I in my thoughts resolve of the evil of punishment from whence none of you shall shrink your necks out of the collar to escape it And I will lay such a yoke upon you that you shall be ready to sink under it and shall not be able to go upright That will be an ill time unto all the time of their going into captivity and bearing the yoke of a forein Prince and Conqueror 4. In that day shall men take up a proverb against you and deliver it in terms of a most bitter lamentation saying We are utterly spoiled and the land that was the lot and portion of my people is changed to other uses And how strangely hath the enemy removed and taken away whatsoever he could carrie with him and now returns again to share our lands and tenements 5. Thus will they abuse us in songs and short parables taken up in scorn and sung as personating of our God and us But now to speak plainly and without parable of our selves there is too much truth in their abusive song For I may say to my dear Country Thou shalt never have any again that shall divide thy several inheritances unto thee as they have done heretofore in the congregations of the Lord. 6. And now since I have told you others mocks against you let me tell you how you were wont to mock us that are your Prophets and say Do not you drop and distil such prophesies into us as other Prophets have used to be free of Well the time will come when such Prophets as you so abused will drop no more of such prophesies upon you like the rain or dew from heaven And when you know what it is to want them you will resolve that no Prophet that comes after shall carry away such reproaches instead of rewards and have his heavenly doctrine answered with such base and ignominious speeches 7. This which I tell you is said to the house of Iacob by commission from God himself And when these and the like threats in our prophesies are declared unto you think ye that the merciful spirit of the Lord is any way shortned and contracted Or doth he these things out of any ill intentions to you Nay are not my words in the mouth of my Prophets intended to the good of every one that walks uprightly for I speak to you now as from God himself and in his person and so I go on to speak to you in the same person 8. They that went awhile ago under the title of my people and called me their God do now as if I were become their enemie rise up in hostile manner against me and they that were indeed my people I speak it to you who have used them so kindly that according to your proverb you have pulled off their robe with their under garments and so left them to the naked world And no otherwise do you take any thing from those that passe on peaceably by you then you do from those that are returned as captives from the battel over whom you have a fairer pretense from the priviledge of war for rifling of them 9. And not the men onely but the weaker sex too do you use after this rude and barbarous manner for you have against all law ejected wives of my people out of their poor houses wherein they took pleasure to be as good women should do without gadding abroad And so do you put them upon the inconveniences which they must suffer that are turned out of doors to shift for themselves and bring up their children as they may and not as they should Wherein you take away for ever that honour and glorie which I should have had from their children if their education had been answerable to the will and means of their godly parents 10. Therefore as you ejected their mothers so will I eject you Come then and prepare your selves to be packing out of this land which your sins have so pulluted It shall be no dwelling place for such as you It shall rather be a means utterly to destroy you and vomit you out as a matter of most filthy corruption that hath been a long time troublesom unto her 12. Is not this a fit people to shake up their best Prophets as they do But I can tell you what Prophets would please
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
over all A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HABAKKUK CHAP. I. 1 THe burden which Habakkuk the Prophet did see 2 O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save 3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance for spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention 4 Therefore the law is slacked and judgement doth never go forth for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous therefore wrong judgment proceedeth 5 Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvellously for I will work a work in your daies which ye will not believe though it be told you 6 For lo I raise up the Chaldaeans that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs 7 They are terrible and dreadful their judgement and their dignity shall proceed of themselves 8 Their horses also are swifter then the leopards and are more fierce then the evening wolves and their horse-men shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from far they shall flie as the eagle that hasteth to eat 9 They shall come all for violence their faces shall sup up as the east wind and they shall gather the captivity as the sand 10 And they shall scoff at the kings and the princes shall be a scorn unto them they shall deride every strong hold for they shall heap dust and take it 11 Then shall his mind change and he shall passe over and offend imputing this his power unto his god 12 Art thou not from everlasting O Lord my God mine holy one we shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgement and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction 13 Thou art of purer eies then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then he 14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them 15 They take up all of them with the angle they catch them in their net and gather them in their drag therefore they rejoyce and are glad 16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net and bnrn incense unto their drag because by them their portion is fat and their meat plentuous 17 Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the nations The Sum of the first CHAPTER of this PROPHESIE THe first Chapter sets out the sins of the time wherein the Prophet Habakkuk did exercise his holy Function and the heavy punishment which they pulled both upon the Iews and upon the Chaldaeans Their sins made up their full measure by neglect and contempt of the very Laws of Kings and Governors and of God himself These strange enormities were answered with a punishment that had matter of as much wonder if it were well observed For that of the Chaldaeans though it came slowly on yet it fell the more heavily upon them to their utter ruine and destruction when they were in the height of all their glory and of their confidence and presumption in their own strength That of the Iews came with more speed and more favour For though it were very sharp for the time yet it spent it self in the compasse of 70 years and left then in a fair and easie pursuit of their former Peace and Liberty when their enemies supposed them to be so low that there was no hope of recoverie And the greatest wonder and terror in their punishment was in respect of those to whom the execution was committed For being inflicted upon them by the Chaldees a fierce and cruel Nation and far worse livers then the Iews it starâ—led the Prophet a little at that way of divine dispensation that suffered Gods peculiar people to be so handled by such lewd and notorious sinners And besides which might trouble them as well as the other did the Prophet the Chaldees that were intended for their scourge and executioners in this calamity were now in Manasses his time when this Prophesie came out in the number of their good Friends and Confederates whom of all other they little suspected for the Authors and Contrivers of their ruine The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION of the first CHAPTER 1. THe sad Prophesie and vision of that burden which Habakkuk foresaw as a heavy punishment that would shortly fall upon the Iews and Chaldaeans and which the heavier weight of their own grievous sins had brought upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The sum of that which the the Prophet received by divine Revelation and which gave occasion to what he delivered amongst his own Countrymen to that effect as followeth 2. O Lord How long shall I make my humble addresses unto thee without any answer How long shall I continue my heavy Cry and Complaint against Injustice and oppression the crying sins of these sad times while thou refusest to relive us 3. Why hast thou reserved me for such wicked daies wherein my eyes cannot but with tears behold the injurious and violent dealing of men in those sins which now walk openly and impudently without any disguise without any shame or care of being concealed Above all the unjust oppression of their neighbours even to desolation presents it self unto me whither so ever I cast mine eyes And yet where there is so much cause of complaint and calling for justice somewhat still there is that obstructs and hinders or rather takes away the course of justice 4. Hence is it that the pulse of the law beats so slowly as if the life of the law which is the execution of her eâ—icts began to draw to an end And therefore either justice cannot appear at all but with too many demurs and tedious siâ—â—ts or if she do all is not right For while the wicked with his malitious plots encloseth and besets the righteous man on every side and so domineers over him that he hath not liberty to follow the dictate of his own understanding All this while Iustice seems to tread inward and comes out lame and distorted by bribes and other by-respects that turn her quite awry and so is she made altogether unlike her self 5. But if justice can hear no better amongst men let them hear the voice of divine justice from Heaven And she will tell them a wonder if that can get her audience For thus saith she Behold and wonder you that make so slight of it in your high pride and scorn and security Wonder and admire at what I shall tell you of the Gentiles by whom I shall bring such a strange work to passe in your daies that if it were plainly told you now before hand you would by no meane be induced to believe it 6. For whatsoever
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
What do you now see this likely to be which you have begun in haste to raise up and cannot furnish with such wealth and ornaments as the other had by the beneficence of severall Kings of Judah Doth not this fabrick if it be compared with that seem to be of no great hope and expectation for state and glory 4. But yet be of good comfort O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and thou O Ioshua Son of Iosedech the High-Priest chear up thy self And let the rest of the People of the land be no way discouraged But go on chearfully with the work now in hand For I am with you to blesse and prosper you saith the Lord of Hostes whom all things serve and obey 5. Whatsoever I promised and covenanted to do for you when you came out of Egypt that will I make good in my mercifull protection of you and crowning your obedience unto me with all the blessings of that covenant And my Spirit shall be constantly with you by the ministery of my Prophets and other waies to direct you in this work or what else you shall take in hand for the like advancement of my service Therefore be not dismayed or discouraged at these little beginnings 6. For the time is coming on saith the Lord of Hostes and it is but a little while to be expected it shall be while this Temple is standing when I will once again make as great motions and alterations in the world in the Heavens and in the Earth and in the Sea and in the dry land as ever I did since I began to bring you out of Egypt And you shall find a great alteration and difference from my own workes then to be done and those done heretofore since your coming out of Egypt For the thunder and lightning from Heaven in Mount Sinai when I descended to give the law will be nothing to that opening of the Heavens wherein my holy Spirit shall visibly descend upon the Messias in Jordan and his Apostles in Mount Sion And again the bringing water out of the hardest and driest parts of the Earth or dividing the waters of the red Sea will be nothing to the Earth-quakes at the death of the Messias and his coming out of the grave and before that his walking upon the waters 7. And for the motions or commotions that I named before Those commotions and alterations in all nations shall be such by severall wars and tumults that they shall all be ready to shake and tremble at them But after the appeasing of those stirs the Messias himself the longing desire and expectation and the delight and sweet comfort of all people shall come in person And then will be the time when by his coming into my Temple who is the King of Glory I shall fill this house that you are building this second Temple with glory indeed saith the Lord of Hostes. 8. As for the outward splendour and rich offerings in the first Temple I prize them not so highly as you do And when I please to be honoured with them I can make this Temple as richly supplied as ever Solomon's was For all the silver is at my command and the gold is at my disposall saith the Lord of Hostes. 9. But in far higher respects than those of wealth and splendour shall the glory of this latter house exceed that of the former saith the Lord of Hostes. And the time of that glory shall be a time when I will give peace unto this place saith the Lord of Hostes. 10. In this second year of Darius upon the twenty fourth day of the ninth moneth which took up part of our November and December and by which time the materials being prepared the work began to be set forward with much alacrity the Lord spake again by Haggai the Prophet saying 11. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes Ask now the Priests a resolution of a case put in their own law wherein they are or should be able to decide any scruple in that kind proposed unto them and do it in these termes 12. If a man should carry any holy flesh that being offered up to God hath been sanctified by the altar and carrying it in the skirt of his garment should with that skirt touch any ordinary bread or pottage or wine or oyl or any kind of meat should that which is so touched by that wherein the holy flesh is be therefore holy To this quaere the Priests answered and said No. the common meat would not be sanctified by touching that wherein the sanctified meat was carried 13. Then again said the Prophet Haggai But if any one that is legally unclean by touching of a dead body should in that time touch any of these would that which he toucheth be unclean by the law And the Priests answer was that it would be unclean for the legall sanctity is not so easily communicated by one thing to another as the legall impurity is 14. To which the Prophet Haggai replied and said So is it with the impure and disobedient heart of this people that hath polluted whatsoever they offered upon their new altar which they made in Cyrus his time when they began to lay the foundation of the Temple and would not afterward so proceed in it as I gave them direction Therefore I account no otherwise of this disobedient nation than of a nation impure in my â—ight saith the Lord. And this uncleannesse sticks to every work of their hands and to what soever they have offered at that altar being so polluted with the bold sinne of the neglect of that command of mine to raise the Temple For neither can that which is sanctified impart holinesse to that which is profane neither can that which is unclean but derive the like uncleannesse to that which was holy which showes you a little light wherein you may see the power of your sins above your vertues if you had them 15. And now to see the fruit of your unclean hearts and hands consider seriously with your selves what hath happened to you and what punishment I laid upon you before you setled your selves to this work of re-edifying my Temple and the builders went on with the foundation of it for the promoting of my service 16. From those times of your negligence and disobedience till that time wherein the fabrick was chearfully undertaken When a man came to a heap of corn in which he hoped well to be supplied with twenty measures there he received but ten the half of what he expected according to the usuall proportion of the increase of his feed And when a man came to the presse-fat where he had thought to have drawn fifty vessels out of the presse there he drew but twenty he could never see that blessed increase that he was in hope of 17. The reason was because I turned that blessing into a curse I smote the labours
Zachary the son of Barachias the son of Iddo and thus said unto him Thus shalt thou say unto the Jewes The Lord was very much though very justly displeased with your Fathers whom he therefore delivered up as captives into the hands of the King of Babylon 3. And thou shalt further say unto them Thus saith the Lord of Hostes whom all things serve and obey Return unto me by a true repentance and amendment of life saith the Lord of Hostes and I will return unto you in that favour and mercy and tender care of your welfare which the great sins of your Fathers made me for a time withdraw from your nation saith the Lord of Hostes. 4. Be not you disobedient as your Fathers were whom the former Prophets have earnestly and zealously called upon saying Thus saith the Lord of hostes Repent ye now forsake all your evill waies and your wicked actions wherein you go on to get unto your selves a dangerous habit of sin Yet they would not diligently attend and accordingly obey me saith the great Iehovah 5. But where be your Fathers now that were so refractory and disobedient unto me and what is bâ—come of their false Prophets that soothed them up in their sins Did they live for ever Did I not send one calamity after another to hunt after them and bring them to their graves 6. Notwithstanding all their security and vain hopes of peace and an imaginary protection from me for my Temples sake have not my words and decrees which my Servantt the good Prophets delivered to them by my command proved now to be true Have not those judgements which I so decreed and foretold at the last justly overtaken them so that many of them in a true sense and apprehension of the greatnesse of their sins and the truth of those predictions returned in the end to a sober mind and ingâ—niously acknowledging their errour could not but say Just as the Lord of hostes resolved to do unto us by inflicting a heavie punishment answerable to our grievous sins in all the severall waies and wicked actions wherein we had offended even so hath he made it good upon us This confession my punishments extorted from your Fathers let it be one Motive of your true repentance that so you may escape those miseries which they pulled upon their own heads by not applying themselves unto me by a timely repentance 7. Now within two or three moneths after Zachary had preached this Sermon namely upon the twenty fourth day of the eleventh moneth which is the moneth Shebat and containes part of our January and part of February in the second year of Darius the son of Hystaspes the word of the Lord was revealed unto Zachary the Prophet the son of Barachiah the son of Iddo in this manner as I shall tell it 8. In the quiet silence of the night I saw a vision that promised though in a dark and mysticall way a quiet and peaceable time for the advancement of the work about the Temple and partly discovered how many Angels were ready with the Messias to assist and defend the Church in that time and much more under that figure how many helps would be afforded from heaven for that more spirituall Church whose foundation should be laid in that Citie by the preaching of the Messias and of his Apostles and Disciples In this vision to show the speed and forwardnesse of them that were sent I observed a man riding upon a red horse the very colour of the horse speaking the revenge that he meant to take of the enemies of the Church And he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in a bottom by a river side wherein again as the bottom and the shadow of the trees bid us take notice how obscurely these things are revealed and how little hope appeared from men for the delivery and tranquillity of the Church so the trees being the sweet and humble myrtle were a figure of meek and humble men that were for their holy life accounted as a sweet odour unto God But after the view of this Horse-man came more holy Emblems of our help For behind him as the Captain there appeared other as attendants on red horses and speckled and white as if the red were to signifie those that should attend their great Captain in prosecution of the revenge of the bloody enemies of the Church whereof we spake before and the other two those that came for the punishment of such as were other waies spotted with sin and for the protection of the pure and innocent 9. Then said I to the Captain of this troop of Horse the great Commander of this various armie under the Lord of Hostes Who are these my Lord And that great Angel or Messenger sent from God himself vouchsafeing to answer and discourse with me said I will let thee know what these be 10. Then presenting himself in the form of a man and staying still under the shade of the myrtle-trees he said These are the Armie and Messengers that the great Iehovah sends abroad to compasse the Earth to punish the worser and defend the better sort of men 11. Whereupon the rest in reference to what that great Messenger of the great Iehovah had said while he stood under the myrtle-trees gave this further answer to what I had presumed to ask of Him We have passed thorough the whole circuit of this land and we have taken such order that this all the Countries hereabouts are in peace and quiet and therefore they may safely and securely proceed in the fabrick of the Temple without any fear of disturbance at home or abroad 12. Vpon this occasion that great Messenger from the Lord was pleased to say as the great Mediator for his despised Church O Lord of Hostes how long was it ere thou wouldst have this pitie upon Ierusalem and other the Cities of Iudah which still appear but in their ruines and rubbish and which in thine anger thou didst keep under the Babylonian captivity no lesse than threescore and ten years the very age of a man 13. And the Lord Iehovah himself gave answer to that great Angel that had spoke so to me in most loving and comfortable words 14. Hereupon that great Angel and Embassador that had vouchsafed so far to commmune with me added this further and said Go and preach again unto thy people the Jewes and say Thus saith the Lord of Hostes I have indeed been jealous over Ierusalem and Sion and very jealous over them because of their spiritual adulteries which they have committed against me and I have punished them in some proportion to that jealousie 16. But now my anger shall fall in as great a measure upon those nations that have enjoyed their ease and plenty while you have been under the rod. And I will punish them the rather because whereas I used them like Schoolmasters for your correction onely they added more to your punishment than
their hearts as the young men use to express in their shouts when they bring home the last corn of a plentiful harvest and the young maidens in their Songs and Acclamations at the end of a happy Vintage that hath furnished them with good store of new wine CHAP. X. 1 ASk ye of the Lord rain in the time of the later rain so the Lord shall make bright clouds and give them showers of rain to every one grasse in the field 2 For the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have seen a lie and have told false dreams they comfort in vain therefore they went their way as a flock they were troubled because there was no shepherd 3 Mine anger was kindled against the shepherds and I punished the goats for the Lord of hosts hath visited his flock the house of Iudah and hath made them as his goodly horse in the battel 4 Out of him came forth the corner out of him the nail out of him the battle-bow out of him every oppressor together 5 And they shall be as mighty men which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle and they shall fight because the Lord is with them and the riders on horses shall be confounded 6 And I will strengthen the house of Iudah and I will save the house of Ioseph and I will bring them again to place them for I have mercy upon them and they shall be as though I had not cast them off for I am the Lord their God and will hear them 7 And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man and their heart shall rejoyce as through wine yea their children shall see it and be glad their heart shall rejoyce in the Lord. 8 I will hisse for them and gather them for I have redeemed them and they shall increase as they have increased 9 And I will sow them among the people and they shall remember me in far countries and they shall live with their children and turn again 10 I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt and gather them out of Assyria and I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon and place shall not be found for them 11 And he shall passe through the sea with afliction and shall smite the waves in the sea and all the deeps of the river shall dry up and the pride of Assyria shall be brought down and the scepter of Egypt shall depart away 12 And I will strengthen them in the Lord and they shall walk up and down in his name saith the Lord. CHAP. X. 1. THe Prophesies of your plenty and prosperity presuppose the continuance of your service and devotion Therefore if you would live in plenty and have your husbandry to prosper Let your hearty prayers beg rain of the Lord in the time of the latter rain which you would have for the advantage of your corn For it is God that ordains the cloud for that use It is he that pours you out plentiful shours of rain to help on the increase of all kind of fruit in your fields and for the good of every one 2. For if you forsake this divine help and seek help from your idols your own former experience in that can show you what you may expect For the answers of your idols have ever proved to be mere vanity and their diviners flattered you with visions of that which was but falshood and delusion and so led you on with fine talk sweetned with imaginary hopes or rather dreams of comfort And accordingly they that relied upon those idle prophesies of future solace were carried away captives like silly sheep that had no careful guide and Shepherd to look to them and in the end found nothing but that trouble and miserie which attends such transportations into a strange land 3. Your Princes and Governours should be your watchful guides and Shepherds therefore in such times of supine neglect I was most offended with them as you may read in the strange punishment of some of your Kings And so will I still visete such goats and rams which rather disorder then rule and lead the flock as they should do But the Lord of Hosts will mercifully visit his poor deluded and neglected flock the house of Judah And when I send them against their enemies they shall not be like weak and silly sheep but I will make them valiant and strong and couragious like the warlike horse whose pride and glory it is to be most forward in war against the troops of the enemie 4. Out of this my flock and people will I bring such as in your civil discords shall be like the corner stones that unite and compact the rest together And out of this others that shall be like nails and pegs that fasten the several parts of the fabrick For they shall be staies and supports to fix or keep up those that are weak and wavering And yet more out of this for your expeditions against a forrein enemy I will raise up such as shall be of as necessary use and strength there as the bow and arrows be in the day of battle And so what Tyrants or oppressours soever would oppose your nation they shall altogether be forced to be gone from you And all these main props and defenders of your state from your temporal enemies shall be but the types and figures of such as shal be used as the means of your deliverie from your spiritual enemies the great Messias himself being the head corner-stone and others to be employed by and under Him for the general good as he shall please to order it 5. And these which I will thus raise up for your defence shall be in your battels like valiant Captains and Commanders that triumph over their enemies and trample them under their feet like the mire in the streets They shall encounter them to the purpose For the great Iehovah is with them as their great Commander and Protector And they that come against them with several troops of Horse wherein they place their confidence shall carry shame and confusion away with them instead of victory 6. Thus will I adde strength and courage to the house of Iudah whence you have your greatest supply for Souldiers of command and protect the house of Ioseph or Ephraim that furnish you with your ordinarie fighting men I will bring them off safe from their battels and make them return with honour This I will do out of my mercy and compassion towards them And so they shall be safe and prosperous as they were in former times before I cast them out of their own Country For I am the Lord their God and I will be ready to hear and supply them with what they want and desire of me 7. And they of Ephraim shall quit themselves like stout warriers and their heart shall be as chearful in
inhabited from Gibeah of Benjamin in the Northern borders even unto Rimmon that lies as far South of Jerusalem And with the addition of her higher Towers and Walls Ierusalem shall seem to lift up her self higher and glory to see her self so fully and richly inhabited in her own place from the gate of Benjamin which leades into the Countrey of Benjamin toward the North and so to the old gate on the West and to the corner-gate that hath so many Towers jetted to the East and thence all along from the Tower of Hananiel which bounds the South of your Citie as far toward Sion as the place where the Kings wine-presses were wont to be And there also shall you have some buildings raised up for your new inhabitants 11. And they which shall then inhabite it in so populous a manner shall find that there will be no more such miserable destructions as have formerly been in that place but Ierusalem shall be inhabited in safety and security for a long time 12. And these shall be the plagues wherewith the Lord shall smite all the people that have come in hostile manner against Her Such a fearfull famine and sicknesse shall he send amongst them that their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet their eyes shall consume away while they are in those strong holds wherein Nature hath placed them for better use then from thence to watch the mischief of others that were better than themselves and their tongues shall moulder away while they are in their own wicked and blasphemous mouths So that they shall walk about like living carcases and ugly noisome spectacles of misery and memorandums of divine vengeance 13. And somewhat else shall happen in those dayes as an addition to their sorrow For great tumults and combustions will God raise among them in those hurries Every man shall be willing to lay hold of his neighbour and by their joynt-hands engage him to be faithfull and secure unto them but that hand of fidelity as he took it shall deceive his trust and be one of the first hands that shall be lift up against him 14. Anâ— which is the worst of it such deceit and contention shall not be onely amongst them but even Iudah too shall pick quarrels against Ierusalem And a means to tempt them to this will be the wealth of all the Heathen round about them that shall be gathered to this place great abundance of gold and silver and apparel that shall be in the tents of the Enemy 15. While that plague of war and famine that is amongst them will breed as great a mortality among the horses aad mules and asses and all the beasts in their tents which shall be like another plague among them 16. But these afflictions and your miraculous delivery shall prove good instructions to many that shall be left of those Nations that marched against Ierusalem For in acknowledgement of Gods Justice upon themselves and his miraculous protection of that place thither will they resort from year to year being made your Proselytes to tender their worship before the King of Kings and the Lord of hosts and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles at least as you do that falling out in a time more seasonable for the undertaking of long â—urnies to Jerusalem 16. And while they do so much that are but Proselytes they read a Lecture of more readinesse to be required in you Therefore whosoever of the Families of this Land shall not come up to Ierusalem out of those countries into which they are dispersed once a year at least to bear a part in the divine service of the great King of Kings and Lord of Hostes no showre of Divine favour shall be expected to be powred upon them 18. As for instance if those Jewish Families that are in Egypt shall not make that ascent and approach hither neither shall that showre of his favour be upon them but in-instead of that some plague raâ—her with which the Lord will strike all those people that will not come up to keep so much as the Feast of Tabernacles after they have taken upon them the profession of his Name 19. This shall be the punishment of those Professours of the Jewish Religion that live in Egypt or among any other Nations and will not come up to the solemn Feast of Tabernacles and then at least bear a part in the publick service of God in that place which he hath chosen for that purpose 20. In these dayes of the strict observance of the worship of God great additions of prosperity shall be heaped upon this People and specially upon the place of Gods service by rich presents from forrein Nations Then the bridles of the war-horses and the rich ornaments about them shall be offered as a holy thing to the Lord and so come into the Treasurie of the Temple as a Testimonie that they acknowledge the victorie in which those horses were employed is to be ascribed to God onely though they seemed to guide and direct the Horses with the bridle in their own hands And not in this way of acknowledgement onely but many other waies too the offerings shall be so rich and frequent that the pots in the Lords house shall be as numerous as the bowles before the Altar whereof you have greater plenty than of any one vessell about the Temple because of the severall uses to which they are of necessitie required both in the offerings and in receiving the blood of the sacrifices 21. And not those pots onely in the Temple but by reason of the great abundance of sacrifices in those dayes every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah will commonly be hallowed to that use which those in the Sanctuary are employed in for that service of the Lord of Hostes that all they that bring their Sacrifice may take of them and seeth their meat in them with which after the Sacrifice they use to entertain the Levites and their Friends whom they invite to the Feast And in those dayes as you shall have such store of Proselytes about the house of the Lord of hosts to help and encourage you in the service so you shall have no Cananites there to draw you from the service of the true God So shall you be all holy and clean without mixture of prophane and idolatrous people as was prophesied long before And withall you shall therein give a type of that happinesse which the whole Church shall have in the last day A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF MALACHI CHAP. I. 1 THe burden of the word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi 21 I have loved you saith the Lord yet ye say Wherein hast thou loved us was not Esau Iacobs brother saith the Lord yet I loved Iacob 3 And I hated Esau and laid his mountains and his heritage wast for the dragons of the wildernesse 4 Whereas Edom saith We are impoverished
but we will return and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of hosts They shall build but I will throw down and they shall call them The border of wickednesse and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever 5 And your eyes shall see and ye shall say The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel 5 A son honoreth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O priests that despise my name and ye say Wherein have we despised thy name 7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar and ye say Wherein have we polluted thee In that ye say The table of the Lord is contemptible 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of hosts 9 And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us this hath been by your means will he regard your person saith the Lord of hosts 10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of hosts neither will I accept an offering at your hand 11 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in the very place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shal be great among the heathen saith the Lord of hosts 12 But ye have profaned it in that ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible 13 Ye said also Behold what a wearinesse is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord. 14 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadfull amonge the heathen CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord by the Prophet Malachi delivered in heavy and threatning words against the Israelites that were returned from the captivity and were guilty of many great sins specially of negligence and misdemeanour in things belonging to the worship of God and of keeping strange wives against those laws and admonitions that should have wrought better upon them 2. I might have expected better fruit from my people of Israel were it but meerly by way of thankfulnesse for my peculiar love and indulgence unto them not above all other nations onely but even above those of the same stock and original with them For I have ever loved you of Israel saith the Lord and you may read it in many arguments of that love But you will say Wherein hast thou showed any particular instances and evidences of that thy special love to us To which I answer that if you look to the root from whence you took your beginning there you may best begin to see the signes of my love For was not Esau brother to Iacob your Patriarch by the same venter Were they not twins and Esau the first-born yet did I show a more tender and fatherly affection to Iacob and his posterity placing you in the land of promise a land flowing with milk and honey and when your sins had cast you out reducing you hither again and shielding you here from all danger by the hand of providence 3. Esau all this while and his posterity the Edomites that came from him may rather see the signs of my hatred and disaffection to them from the very womb For as I foretold that he should be inferior to his younger brother before he was born so afterwards I placed him and his in the barren mountains of Seir no way to be compared with the fruitful land of Canaan And when my Justice had cast him out from thence I did not restore him thither again as I did you into Canaan but I turned those mountains of Seir his antient habitation into a wildernesse and as a testimony of mine anger that which was his peculiar lot and inheritance I gave to the Dragons and other wild beasts of the Desert as a place of habitation for them 4. And I am so far from any intention of restoring them now to those parts that if they of Edom should say We are now in poor condition indeed but we will take courage and return from whence we came and there we will build up again whatsoever the enemie hath laid wast Thus would the Lord of hosts answer to such fool-hardie undertakers If they rebuild them I will find waies to pull them down again and lay them even with the ground And they that see the execution of that justice shall say It was but deservedly done to a Countrie whose bounds and limits were all full of impiety to God and unnatural cruelty to you their brethren and the inhabitants thereof a People whom God had threatned with the effects of his anger and heavy displeasure for evermore 5 Your own eyes shall be the witnesses of the performance of what I thus speak against the Edomites and your own tongues shall makes profession and acknowledgement of this difference that I put between you and them and say Let God ever be magnified and praised for his mercie to the land of Israel which he restored and continues to us with the same bounds and limits that we had before 6. Such hath been my Fatherly affection to you and my anger and severitie upon them Which you should be so sensible of as to expresse it in your thankfulnesse and obedience For Doth not a Son worthily honour his father Is not a servant ready to expresse his bounden duty to his Master If my benefits show my fathèrly love why should not your honour and respect be answerable to them If I defend and maintain you as your Lord and Master where is that fear and reverence of my Name that should be seen in you saith the Lord of Hosts Specially in you my Priests that live upon such things as are devoted to my service and yet are so far from serving me aright that you rather openly contemn and despise my name If you ask wherein you have done any thing in neglect and contempt of me and in derogation to the Honour and Majestie of my name Look into your daily imployments about my Temple and there you will see it 7. For You bring to my Altar such provisions to be there offered up to me as I can no otherwise
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