Rod and the heavie Oxe by the Goad OBSERVATIONS 1 Famine is one Iudgement which God sends upon impenitent Sinners VVhen God is greatly incensed against a People then he sends the Famine which he calls one of his four sore Judgements Ezek. 14.21 it is an Arrow which he shoots against a People of his wrath Ezek. 5.16 The Lord can no sooner call for a Famine but like a faithful Servant it presently obeys 2 King 8.1 hee called for a Famine and it came upon the Land seven years Psal. 105.16 when it comes in extremity it is very sad hence it is called the terrible Famine Lam. 5.10 This will appear in seven particulars 1 It makes men unnatural and cruel even to their neerest Relations as Wife and Children Nature bindes a man to tender and pitty these yet in time of Famine we read of Mothers eating their own Children 2 King 6.28 29. Ier. 14.9 Lam. 4.10 this Curse the Lord threatens against disobedient ones Deut. 28.53.56.57 2 It is a lingring languishing death other Judgements cut men off suddenly but this consumes a man as it were peece-meal Lam. 4.9 They that are slain with the Sword are better than they that are slain with hunger Why so for these pine away for lack of sustenance 3 It makes men faint and feeble and so unfits men for the Service of God in their calling Gen. 47.13 they faint by reason of the famine Hence Bread is called the staffe stay and strength of our natures Levit. 26.26 Psal. 105.16 Isa. 3.1 Ezek. 4.16 take a Staffe from a weak man and he falls to the ground 4 It makes men howl and lament Hos. 7.14 Ioel 2.11 yea rage and be mad Isa. 8.21 5 Hunger burns like a fire which is a most terrible element it wasts the radical moysture Deut. 32.24 Ieremy describing the Famine in Ierusalem tells us that their face was black like a Coal and their skin was black like an Oven because of the terrible Famine Lam. 4.8 5.10 when the Calor nativus hath nothing to feed upon it consumes the Humidum radicale and so the man dyes 6 It brings Poverty with it now extream Poverty is a sore Judgement and puts men upon desperate attempts as robbing killing c. Prov. 6.30 30.8 9. it makes rich men poor and forceth them to sell their Land Catrel Goods Cloath c. Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life The Aegyptians sold all that they had to Ioseph for bread and when all was gone they sold themselves Gen. 47.18 7 It is usually attended with other Judgements as Sword and Plague such great Judgements seldome goe alone Ier. 14.15 16. 24.10 Ezek. 7.15 14.21 Let us then fly from sin which turns that God who is mercy and pitty it self into fire and fury and provokes him to send such terrible Judgements on his people Especially take heed of four sins 1 Intemperance Drunkenness and Gluttony bring the famine on a Land Abuse of plenty loseth plenty when men rise early to follow strong drink then their honourable men are famished Isa. 5.11 12 13. Ioel 1. 2 Covenant-breaking when there was a three years Famine in the dayes of David hee inquired of the Lord what was the ground of it the answer was that it was for Saul and for his bloudy house because he slew the Gibeonites contrary to Covenant confirmed by an oath Iosh. 9.7.15.18 2 Sam. 21.1 Ier. 34.17 18. 3 When men spend the strength which they receive from the Creature in the service of the Devil consuming them upon their lusts or in sacrificing to Idols as the Israelites did here they served Baal with the Corn and Wine which God had given them therefore God took it from them 4 Contempt of the Word the wayes and Worship of God God oft punisheth our abuse of Spiritual food with the want of Corporal They that hate his Messengers shall dye by the Famine Ier. 11.21 22. so when men preferre their own interests before Gods and can dwell themselves in seiled houses but the House of the Lord must lye wast this brings a Curse upon their Crops and Labours Hag. 1.6.9.10 2.17.18 19. 2 Since it is the Lord that sends cleanness and want of bread amongst us let us be patient under it let us be dumbe and silent because the Lord hath done it There is no evil in the City of this kind especially but the Lord is the Author and orderer of it it comes not by Accident but by Divine appointment it is the Lord that sends Famines to Cities and Kingdoms and the rather we should bee patient when we consider that our Famines are nothing to what our sins deserve 2 Nothing comparatively when we consider the seven years Famine in Aegypt when for five years together there was neither Earing nor Harvest Gen. 41.40 45.6 In the three years Siege of Samaria the people within did eat their own Children and fed upon Dung 2 King 6.25.28.29 an Asses head was sold for eighty peeces of Silver which is ten pound in our coyn and the fourth part of a Kab of Doves dung for five peeces of Silver now a Kab contained four pound and five ounces and the fourth part was thirteen ounces and for this they gave ten shillings and upward But no famine was like Ierusalems famine as wee may see in the Lamentations of Ieremy when the Children cried for bread and there was none to give them those that were cloathed in Scarlet embraced the Dung-hill their beautiful Nazarites were blacker than Coals and the pittiful Mothers became Butchers of their own Children As the Lord said to his people Goe to Shiloe so say I Go to Germany and to Rochel and consider what God hath done to them for their Sins there you shall see Doggs Cats and Rats sold in the Markets and men and women fighting for them There you shall see Women eating their own Children the living feeding upon the dead and digging up dead Corps out of their Graves that they might feed upon them Beggers coming to doors have been killed and eaten yea the skins of Horses Sheep and Oxen have been their food let us take heed lest Germanies Heresies Blasphemies Apostacies Drunkenness c. be found in England lest Germanies Plagues come hither also O let us be an obedient people let us not fight against God with his own blessings nor abuse his plenty to his dishonour but serve him with gladness of heart in the abundance of all things for it is Piety that breeds plenty Psa. 81.12 13. Isa. 1.19 if there bee but a sincere will and desire to obey we shall eate the good of the Land and in time of famine wee shall be fed Psal. 33.19 34.10 37.19 Iob 5.20 Prov. 10.3 Isa. 33.15 16. 2 Live by faith and then in an holy security at destruction and famine you may laugh Iob 5.22 Faith answereth all distrustful cares and feares as Abraham did
may justly provoke the Lord to blast thy Corn indeed Little better is that of the Popish Processions about the Fields with Flaggs and Banners and Bables The best and only remedy in this case is humble penitential Prayer 1 King 8.37 38 39. to such the Promise runs If Blasting Mildew Locust or Caterpillars be in the Land if Gods people shall pray and know every man the plague of his own heart that is his Sin which is the cause of all other Plagues then will the Lord hear in heaven and forgive and heal the Land 2 Chron. 6.28 29 30. 2.7 13 14. 2 Obs. Loss of fruit is a punishment for sin and a sign of Gods displeasure against a people Fruit Corn Cattel Trees all fare the worse for sinful man God turns a fruitful Land into a Wilderness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein Psal. 107.34 and therefore when the Lord is angry with a People we read how he brake their trees with hayl and destroyed their Vines and Fig-trees Exod. 9.25 10.5 Deut. 28.16 17 18.39 40. Psal. 78.48 105.33 we should therefore over-look second causes and see Gods hand afflicting us in these losses Many impute that to Winds Frosts Blasts c. which are indeed the finger of God pointing to our abuse of the Creatures which provokes him to take them from us It will be our wisdome therefore when ever the Lord gives us plenty to take notice of Gods hand and praise him and when we want them to be humbled before him and to beg the restoring of them at his hand who gives to all that ask in faith liberally and upbraideth no man VERSE 10. I have sent among you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt your young men have I slaine with the sword and have taken away your horses and I have made the stink of your Camps to come up into your nostrils yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. IN this Verse we have a Fourth and Fifth Rod where-with the Lord chastned this stubborn people viz. the Pestilence and the Sword Before they were smitten with the Famine which rich men many times feel not now follows the Plague and Sword as usual Concomitants on the former hence all these three are so oft joyned together in Scripture These meet with the rich as well as the poor yea the Sword ayms principally at rich men Souldiers doe not use to enquire where dwells the poor man but where dwells the Vsurer the rich Oppressor c. the poor scape best many times in such combustions Ier. 39.20 Q. The Question will be what Pestilence this was and when it fell upon Israel A. 1. It is conceived that the Pestilence of Aegypt here meant was not any one particular Plague but a complication of Plagues and specially the Fifth and Tenth Plague of Aegypt which brought Murrain on the Cattle and Mortality on men First there was so great and so grievous a destruction of Cattel that all the Horses Asses Camels and all the Cattel of Aegypt dyed Exod. 9.6 9. 2 All their first-born dyed there was not a house in which there was not one dead Exod. 12.29 Psal. 78.50 51. so it was amongst this people there was a sore slaughter both of men and horses The Prophet seems to allude to the dayes of King Iehoahaz King of Israel when the King of Syria made so great a slaughter amongst them that of the whole Army of Israel there were left but fifty Horse-men ten Chariots and ten thousand Foot all the rest were destroyed and made like the dust by threshing 2 King 13.7 Hereupon the Air was corrupted and the loathsome stench of so many dead Bodies helpt to bring the Pestilence amongst them In this Verse wee have these parts considerable 1 The Judgements inflicted which are two 1 The Pestilence 2 The Sword 2 Here is the nature of this Pestilence it is not an ordinary one but it is a most noysome grievous deadly Pestilence such a one as God inflicted upon his professed enemies the Aegyptians when Man and Beast suddenly dyed Ieroboam when he was in Aegypt learnt the Worship of the golden Calves this he taught to Israel and having made them like the Aegyptians in Idolatry and Sin the Lord now makes them alike in Judgement I have sent amongst you the Pestilence after the manner of Aegypt The words in the fountain are I have smitten you with Pestilence in the way of Aegypt it is an Hebraism used in other places as Isa. 10.24 26. Ezek. 20.30 and is as much as after the manner of Aegypt as our Translation renders it well q. d. As I sent sore Plagues upon the Aegyptians in like severity will I deal with you who have walked in their obstinacy and Idolatry 3 Here is the special Object or the Persons slaine by the Sword and these are their young and strong men Your young men have I slaine with the sword Young men are for Warre and more fit for service than old men by reason of their strength spirit boldness and activity Old men are for counsel and young men for action Young men in the height of their bloud sin with more heat and violence and so their sins are more displeasing unto God and therefore he oft cuts them off in the height of their sin 4 Here are two Adjuncts and Concomitants which usually attend upon Warre the first is the loss of horses I have taken away your horses and carried them into captivity with your haughty young men who trusted in them These are the strength of the battail but the Riders being taken the Horses must needs be taken with them 2 Loathsome stench and noysome smells I have made the stench of your Camps to come up into your nostrils partly by such as dyed of the Plague and partly by the multitude of men and horses that were slain and lay unburied and so infected the air 5 Here is the old complaint continued still yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. Though yee have been thus sadly smitten with all my great Rods yet all my labour is but lost upon you for you still contemn the remedy of your recovery and have not yet returned unto me saith the Lord. OBSERVATIONS 1 When lesser Rods will not mend a people God usually comes with greater Blasting Mildew Palmer-worms did not work upon this People and now comes Pestilence and Sword Gods great Rods to destroy them utterly 2 Obs. Iudgements especially great ones seldome goe alone Sword Plague Famine often goe together As men multiply Sins so God multiples Plagues and as they have variety of sins so he hath variety of punishments as I have shewed before on Vers. 8. Obs. 2. 3 Obs. Parity of Sin brings parity of Iudgement The Aegyptians were obstinate Idolaters no Plagues could work upon them therefore God destroyed them And this was Israels case they were obstinate Idolaters like the Aegyptians and now God
But why doth the Lord call upon his people to prepare themselves when their hearts were hardned and he tells us that the way of man is not in himself and that the preparation of the heart is his work and not ours Psal. 10.17 Besides he had decreed here to carry them into captivity and hee tells them as much and therefore all their repentance was but vain Ans. 1. The Lord had some elect and hidden ones both called and to be called amongst them and to these he principally speaks for all Gods commands are effectual in beleevers they are not an empty sound as they are in the ears of unbeleevers but there goes forth a power from god inableing them to obey if he command them to beleeve hee inables them so to doe If he command them to prepare to meet him by repentance there goes forth a power from him which inables them so to doe As when our Saviour commanded Lazarus to arise there went forth a power from him that raised him Moti movemus acti agimus when the will is regenerate and made pliable then it readily obeyes all Gods commands be they never so hard or harsh to flesh and bloud yet they can doe all things Evangelically through Christ that strengthens them God gives them his preventing assisting co-operating persevering grace Iob 11.13 14. 2 Such commands as these shew us our duty not our ability and must make us in the sense of our own inability prepare our selves to sue unto him for preparation 3 Such commands make the wicked more inexcusable who had power in Adam to obey all Gods commands but they in him have lost it and by their daily obstinacy and falling away from God and his wayes they have justified that grand Apostasie of our first Parents 4 The threatnings of God are not alwayes absolute and irrevocable but for the most part they are conditional and to be understood with this exception viz. except they repent and amend and this condition is sometimes expressed as Ier. 18.7 8. Ioel 2.13 14. and sometimes suppressed and concealed as Ionah 3.9 Yet forty dayes and Niniveh shall bee destroyed that is if they repented not So here though Israels case seemed desperate yet the Lord bids them turn and he would be propitious to them 5 Admit the Judgement be irrevocable and Gods people must notwithstanding their repentance bee Captives to the Assyrians yet their repentance had not been fruitless for they should have escaped eternal misery 2 In this Life the punishment of such Penitents is oft mitigated though not totally removed Hence we usually see that in times of publick Calamity it goeth best with the best men to them these are but fatherly Chastisements when to the wicked they are fore-runners of greater wrath A Ieremy Ezekiel Daniel may goe into Captivity but it is for good as the Lord said sometimes of his People I will send them into the Land of Caldea for good Ier. 24.5 such mourners shall be marked for Mercy when Judgement comes Ezek. 9.4 4 Here are the Persons to whom this Exhortation is applied and directed and that is to the ten Tribes who are often called by the name of Israel as being his off-spring 1 King 14.18 2 King 3.3 10.32 hee names them twice and ingeminates the title the better to awaken them and quicken their attention as also to shew his great affection to them as David named Absolon twice whom he loved So our Saviour speaking to Ierusalem doubles the title O Ierusalem Ierusalem Mat. 23.37 to awaken them to shew his tender love and compassion to them and to shew his anger against their sins he Pathetically cries out O Ierusalem Ierusalem which killest the Prophets c. q. d. Thou that hast been the place which God hath honoured with his special presence and chosen above all the places of the earth for his habitation to fix his name there art thou become a den of Devils and Murderers So the Lord here the better to rouze these Israelites out of their security and impenitency by an Epanodos doubles their name saying Thus will I doe to thee O Israel and because I will doe thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel 5 Since we are backward and averse to this duty of Returning he backs his Exhortation with a double Motive 1 The first is a drawing Motive taken from the consideration of Gods readiness to pardon Penitents Hee is thy God prepare to meet thy God hee is thine by Profession though thou hast walkt unanswerably to it And 2. he is Thy God in Covenant with thee and so ready to receive thee if thou wilt but truly turn to him The second is a driving Motive and is drawn from the consideration of Gods Almighty Power vers 13. who was now marching against them This power the better to awaken them he sets forth by six Royalties 1 He formeth the Mountains 2 Creates the Winds 3 Knows mens Thoughts 4 Maketh the Morning-darkness 5 Treads upon the high places of the Earth 6 He is the Lord of Hosts OBSERVATIONS 1 When lesser Iudgements will not mend a People God usually comes with greater When Blasting Mildew Famine Pestilence and Sword can doe no good then look for a Thus will I doe unto thee that is I will utterly destroy thee for remedies are in vain when the sore is so desperate So Isa. 1.5 Why should yee be smitten any more q. d. your case is desperate and incurable and therefore I will trouble my self no more with you but will now utterly destroy you And this is that which highly aggravates Englands Sin we have been long incorrigible under lesser Judgements and therefore what can we now expect but that the Lord should come with a Thus will I doe unto thee O England and because I will doe thus unto thee prepare to meet thy God O England 2 Obs. God will not stick to punish his owne people and that severely when they sin against him Where he bestowes the greatest Priviledges there he inflicts the greatest Judgements He is sharper with them than with Heathens because they are nearer to him and so their sins doe more dishonour him The sins of a David doe more dishonour God than the sins of many uncircumcised Philistims God will be sanctified of all his nigh ones Levit. 10.2 He dwells amongst his people and cannot endure their provocations We can endure dung in our fields but not in our houses we can bear with briars and thorns in the Wilderness which we cannot endure in our inclosed Gardens Such sin against great light and great love and therefore will bee surely and sharply punisht for their iniquity Amos 3.2 as wee see in Eli David Hezekiah Zachariah Ierusalem Esa. 22.1 Dan. 9.12 3 Obs. Ministers must apply the Word unto their people Thus will I doe to thee O Israel This is the only way to convince and convert men what is spoken in general to all few will
dignissima that he speaks of the Natural VVinds because immediately before he spake of the Mountains from whence Philosophers conceive that these VVinds proceed and the word Ruach is oft put for the Natural VVinds as Exod. 10.13 19. 15.10 Iob 28.25 2 The Socinians and their followers take this word for a Spirit and that Spirit to be the Holy Ghost this they doe to destroy the Deity of the Holy Ghost See here what windy idle addle conceits Hereticks have and what feeble sandy foundations they build upon they catch at any chrotchet which may please their humours For it is plaine here that the Prophet speaks of the created VVind or if they will needs read it Spirit yet it is a created Spirit Hee createth Ruach the Wind or the Spirit But the Holy Ghost is not made or Created but proceedeth from the Father and the Son and is God blessed for ever as is abundantly proved by others As for the Natural causes of the VVind Philosophers differ Some conceive that the Sun drawing up Vapours and Exhalations and they falling down again by violence become Winds by the coldness of the middle region 2 Others conceive that the aire being pent up in the Vaults and Caves of the earth having a vent doe break forth and so spread into Winds and for this they bring Psal. 135.7 Ier. 10.13 51.16 Hee causeth the Vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth he maketh Lightning for the rain and bringeth the wind out of his treasuries That is say they out of his Vaults and Concavities wherein it is kept as in a Treasury But God himself who hath made the Wind tells us plainly that we know not whence it comes nor whither it goes Ioh. 3.7 we may therefore well be ignorant of that which God in his wisdome hath hidden from us An humble ignorance in deep Mysteries whether Natural or Supernatural whether in the works or the Word of God is better and safer than proud curiosity VVe have many Reasons to bless God for the Wind. It is indeed a common Blessing but yet we could not live without it 1 If the Aire be thick dark and unwholsome the VVind cleareth and purgeth the aire for the health of our Bodies and for the preservation of the Creatures They dispel noysome Vapours and therefore are called Scopae mundi the worlds Beesoms with which God sweeps his great House the world 2 If we want Rain the Winds carry the Clouds and bring us rain at the Prayers of Elijah after three years drought the Heavens were darkned with Clouds and Wind whence came a great rain 1 King 18.45 3 They cool the Aire in the heat of Summer and help to refresh us 4 They help our Ships to sayl and bring Commodities from all Nations to us and help our Mills to grind our Corn. 5 They serve for the Miraculous help of Gods Church and People When the Lord had brought Israel by a strong hand out of Aegypt hee caused the Sea to goe back by a strong East-wind and made the Sea dry land for his people to pass thorough Exod. 14.21 6 They help to execute Gods Iudgements on the wicked VVith an East-wind the Lord brought Locusts and Grashoppers on Aegypt to devour their fruit Exod. 10.13 19 and by a VVest-wind hee drove them away again Theodosius praying against his enemies the winds brought back the enemies Arrowes on their owne heads which made Claudian cry O nimium dilecte Deo cui militat aether Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti Ascribe not then great VVinds to Conjurers Witches Devils c. The Winds are Gods servants and doe readily obey his commands Psal. 148.8 Matth. 8.26 and not the Devils Satan without Gods leave cannot raise so much wind as will toss a feather He could doe nothing in this kind against Iob till he had a Commission from God Iob 1.16 19. 3 This is not all for the Prophet descends to man and tells us that since God made him he also can tell him his thoughts meditations and purposes He can tell what Language men have in their hearts and what they talk within themselves as the rich fool did Luke 12.17 Our words are not so intelligible to men as our thoughts are to God Christ knew what was in man hee knew their thoughts Ioh. 2. ult and therefore he answered his enemies many times not according to their words but according to their thoughts Matth. 8.20 yea God knows our thoughts before we think them and our conceits before we conceive them hee understands them afarre off Psal 139.2 he being intimo nostro intimior nearer to us than our flesh is to our bones hee knowes our thoughts in Posse from all eternity so great is his Omniscience As a man that knoweth what Roots he hath in his Garden though there be no flower appearing yet he can say when the Spring comes this and this will come up So it is here God knowes our frames our Principles our Projects and what the issue will be nothing is hid from his All-seeing eye The words are diversly read 1 Some refer the Affix to God thus Hee declareth to man his owne mind and meditation and tells him what hee intends to doe Esay 41.26 Amos 3.7 thus he revealed his mind to Abraham before hee would destroy Sodome and Christ reveals his secrets to his Disciples Iohn 15.15 2 The Septuagint mistaking the Original read it thus He declareth unto man his Christ Meshicho Christum vel Unctum suum but the word is Masecho what is his thought But the proper scope of the Text is to convince the Israelites that they had not to doe with men but with the Omniscient God who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins and knoweth the hidden things of man even the most secret turnings and windings ploddings and purposes of the Soul so as he cannot be deceived neither will he be mocked A man may know much by himself but God knowes more our Consciences may accuse us of some things but God is greater than our Consciences and knoweth all things Q. But how doth God declare unto man his Thoughts Ans. Divers wayes 1. Sometimes he discovers and disappoints the most secret aymes and intentions of men and so makes their thoughts visible to the world 2 By his Ministers they opening the Word of God which is a Soul-searching Word doe discover to men the thoughts and intents of their hearts Heb. 4.12 3 Sometimes without the Word God by his Spirit checks men and convinceth the Conscience of the vanity and sinful imaginations which are in them He maketh the morning darkness The Prophet goes on still to shew the Almighty Power of God who can turn the brightest morning into dreadful darkness and the most glorious day into a dismal night If he be angry he can make the morning not only dark but darkness it self in the Abstract that is exceeding dark 2 Others read the words
sin yet mourn withall for the hardness of mens hearts so did our Saviour Mar. 3.5 so Lot reproved the Sodomites yet calls them brethren Gen. 19.7 and Moses in his zeal was angry at the people for their Idolatry yet prayes for them Psal. 106. So Amos here sharply inveighs against the sins of this People yet takes up a Lamentation for them Amos 5.1 and here intercedes for them Our zeal must be mixt with love though we may and must sometimes reprove men sharply Titus 1.13 yet must we not forbear praying for them 1 Sam. 12.23 so did the Vinitor intercede for the barren Fig-tree Luke 13.6 7 8 9. every Minister must be Adamas magnes he must harden his face like a flint and have browes of brass to oppose the wicked yet must he withall be a Load-stone by his amiable tender and compassionate carriage to win them to Christ lying in the breach for them and running hazards to save them from destruction Ezek. 22.30 3 As it is the duty of all the godly so especially of Gods Ministers to sympathize with Gods People in their misery and to intercede for them at the Throne of grace We must not only preach but also pray for our people as it is their duty to pray for us 2 Thes. 3.2 3. so it is our duty to pray for them especially in their troubles it is both commanded Joel 1.13 2.17 Ephes. 6.18 and commended to us by the examples of the Saints Abraham intercedes for Sodom Moses for Israel Exod. 32.31 32. Ieremy for the Iewes Jer. 18.20 yea so zealous was he in praying for them that the Lord is faine to bid him hold Ier. 7.16 How earnestly did Paul pray for the Iewes though they were his deadly enemies Rom. 10.1 Phil. 1.4 9. Colos. 1.3 9. 1 Thes. 1.2 As Natural fathers so Spiritual ones in a spiritual sense should lay up a stock of prayers for their People Thus the living are commanded to pray for the living Iam. 5.16 but we have neither Precept nor President of any that ever prayed for the dead now whatsoever is not of faith is sin but such Prayers have no foundation in the Word of God therefore they cannot be of faith Such prayers doe neither avayl the Saints in Heaven nor the Damned in Hell because both have an irrecoverable doome past upon them as is fully proved by a Learned Pen. 4 Our Prayers must be Argumentative Prayers We must stirre up our selves that we may lay hold on God using Arguments to move the Lord to pitty us So doth Amos here and so did Abraham Gen. 18.2 3 c. and Iacob Gen. 32.11 12. and Moses Exod. 32.11 12 13. Ezra 9.9 Neh. 9. Dan. 9. David Psal. 79.6 7. 88.9 to 13. 90.13 14. 130.3 4. especially we should press the Covenant so doth Amos here and David Psal. 74.20 5 In our Prayers we must plead mercy and not merit The Prophet here beggs for pardon and forgiveness because they were low so doth David Psal. 79 8 9. our Merit is Gods Mercy it must needs be so since all our righteousness is as filthy raggs Hence Nehemiah when he had done great things for God yet being conscious to himself of many infirmities he beseecheth the Lord to spare him according to the greatness of his mercy Neh. 13.22 So Daniel a man highly beloved yet beggs for mercy and for pardon Dan. 9.18 23. 6 VVe must be earnest with God for the pardon of our sin So is the Prophet here O Lord I beseech thee pardon the sin of this People He knew right well that sin was the cause of all their sorrow and when this peccant humour was once removed the effect would cease and therefore the Church prayes Take away our iniquity and receive us graciously Hos. 14.2 the godly can bear any suffering but not sin When the Plague lay upon the people David cries Take away the sin of thy Servant and then the Plague will cease 7 Gods owne people by profession may be brought to a very low condition both in Temporals and Spirituals So it was with Israel here which made the Prophet question By whom shall he arise He was brought so low that thee could neither raise himself neither was there any other that could help him up their strength was so exhausted that there was no visible effectual means of their restauration We may say of all Creature-comforts as Iob said of Wisdome Iob 28.12 13 14. Where shall Wisedome be found the Earth saith it is not in me and the Depth saith it is not in me c. so where shall ayd in troublous times be found The Earth saith It is not in me Friends say It is not in us and Riches say It is not in us c. It is only to be found in the Almighty we are never so little or low but he can help us there is nothing too high or too hard for him though Salvation be not in our Hills yet it is in Gods hand Ier. 3.23 he is the Lord of Hosts and hath all power at command and therefore the Prophet betakes himself to his Prayers as his best refuge O Lord I beseech thee spare thy people This is one reason why the Lord lets things run to extremity that he may drive us to our Prayers as we may see in Hesters case Now if ever we would raise a Land out of the duâ—t 1 We must raise our Prayers be servent in them it is none but wrastling Iacobs that shall become prevailing Israels Hos. 12.4 2 Raise your Faith this layes hold on God and ingageth him in the Quarrel whilst Creatures oppose Creatures they may make some resistance but when Omnipotency comes against impotency there is no abiding See what great things faith hath done Heb. 11. 3 Raise your Holiness grow therein be holy in all manner of conversation God never yet destroyed an holy obedient people such holy ones are the glory of a Land and upon all this glory there shall be a defence Isa. 4.5 VERSE 3. The Lord repented for this It shall not be saith the Lord. HEre we have the success and good effect of the Prophets Prayer he prayes in faith and is heard the Lord holds his hand and saith it shall not be so willing is the Lord to be intreated for to spare his Church and People The Lord repented for this He changed not his eternal Decree but suspended the full and final execution of it according to his eternal Decree When God is said to repent it is an usual Anthropopathy and speaking after the manner of men according to our capacity Gen. 6.6 Exod. 32.14 Ier. 26.19 for God is not as man that he should repent 1 Sam. 15.29 and therefore it is added exegetically This shall not be it was no change in God but only a stopping of the execution of the Judgement threatned according to Gods Decree such threatnings being conditional as I have
Worship his Word his Ordinance his Prophets his People and to all that is good Rom. 8.7 Col. 1.21 VER 17. Therefore thus saith the Lord thy Wife shall be an Harlot in the City and thy Sons and Daughters shall fall by the Sword and thy Land shall be divided by Line and thou shalt dye in a polluted Land and Israel shall surely goe into Captivity forth of his owne Land IN this Verse we have a dreadful Judgement denounced against this High-Priest of Bethel consisting of many Branches 1 Constupration of his Wife and that openly 2 Loss of his Children 3 Loss of his Lands 4 Loss of his Liberty and 5 Loss of Israel Loe this is the fruit of silencing Preachers and forbidding Gods Ministers to Prophesie 2 Here is the confirmation or ratification of all this Dixit Dominus the Lord hath said it who will certainly doe it Thy Wife shall be an Harlot in the City Interpreters are divided about the meaning of these words some take them Actively and the Original seems to favour it viz. that his Wife should be an open Harlot and a common Strumpet not so much forced by Souldiers as voluntarily addicted to it Others take the words Passively that she should be violently forced and ravished by the Assyrians when they should take the City according to that threatning against disobedient ones Deut. 28.30 So Iob 31.10 Isa 13.16 Lament 5.11 But if it were violent and involuntary where were the Harlotry Thy Wife shall be an Harlot and to shew her impudency she should act it not in the house or in the fields or in a forreign Land but openly in the City This is the first Punishment the second follows 2 Thy Sons and thy Daughters shall fall by the sword Wicked Parents bring a Curse upon their Children not only their Cattel but all their Relations fare the worse for them 3 Yet this is not all Thy Land shall be divided by Line Conquerours were wont to divide every one his Lot and portion by Lines and Cords for of old they used Cords instead of Measuring-Rods to divide their Land Hence the Lines in Scripture are put for the Inheritance or portion allotted to every one by Line Deut. 32.9 2 Sam. 8.2 Psal. 16.6 Micha 2.5 Thus he should not only lose his Heires but his Inheritance also And thou shalt dye in a polluted Land This is the fourth Punishment Thou shalt dye a Captive in Assyria which was polluted with Heathenism and Idolatry This is reckoned as a Judgement Levit. 26.38 against Pashur Jer. 20.6 and Coniah Jer. 22.25 26. The Land of Promise was called the Holy Land and in comparison of it all other Nations were called and counted unclean and they looked upon it as a misery to be buried in a strange Land and not in Canaan And Israel shall goe into Captivity Not only thou but all Israel whom thou hast helpt to deceive and hast hardned in their Idolatry and Sin shall goe into Captivity with thee and this men get by following Idolaters and Impostors when the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch Israel shall surely goe into captivity God will no longer bear with them since King and Kingdom are setled upon their Lees and had so long sinned together now the Lord tells them that they should suffer together and goe Captives into Assyria as we see 2 King 15.29 17.6 18 23 24. 18.11 since they had abused that good Land which the Lord had given them now it should spew them out for their Idolatry OBSERVATIONS 1 God useth to retaliate Sinners and to pay them in their owne coyn This we see here excellently exemplified in Amaziah 1 He inticed Israel to Idolatry which is Spiritual Harlotry therefore his Wife shall be an Harlot 2 He had destroyed those that were Gods Children by external profession therefore his Children were destroyed 3 He made his Goods his God and was all for gain therefore now he shall lose all 4 He that had polluted Gods People shall now dye in a polluted Land He that would not follow the true God to his Salvation shall follow false ones to his own destruction 2 Silencing and persecuting of Gods faithful Ministers is a God-provoking Sin Thou sayest Prophesie not what follows therefore thy Wife thy Children thy State thy Self and the Land of thy Nativity shall smart for it Now if Amaziah paid so dear for endeavouring to silence one faithful Amos what may they expect who doe actually blow out many burning and shining Lights c. let such remember Pashur Jer. 20.2 3 4. and the men of Anathoth Ier. 11.21 22 23. and Ieroboam the first with his withered hand which was smitten for stretching it forth against the Prophet 1 King 13. and Elimas the Sorcerer who was smitten blind for opposing the truth Acts 13.10 11. never any man hardned himself against God especially in this kind that ever prospered Iob 9.4 Amaziah had many other sins as Idolatry Superstition Covetousness c. but this Persecuting of Amos was his fatal sin and ruined both him and his 3 Wicked Parents bring a Curse upon their Posterity God oft punisheth the sins of the Fathers upon the Children to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him Exod. 20.5 34.7 Deut. 28.18 32 41. Ier. 29.32 Hieron on Exod. 34.7 in my Com. on Hos. 13. ult p. 80. and Dr. Gorge Lam. 5.7 the seed of evil-doers shall never be renowned Isa. 14.20 4 Goods ill gotten seldome prosper Treasures of wickednesse profit not Prov. 10.2 Amaziah had scraped much wealth together but his enemies became his heirs And so it is with many Usurers and oppressing Cormorants who treasure up riches for their enemies 5 Marriage is lawful in Ministers as well as others The Apostle tells us that Marriage is honourable not only in some but in all sorts and degrees of men Heb. 13.4 Marriage is honourable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in all men and God himself hath appointed it for the comfort of all degrees Gen. 1.28 2.18 and bids him that cannot contain marry 1 Cor. 7.2 9. none can vow that which is not in his owne power but continency is the gift of God Matth. 19.11 all cannot receive this saying and therefore not only Amaziah here but the Priests and Prophets in the Old Testament had Wives Zachariah the Priest hath an Elizabeth to his Wife and shee descended of the Daughters of Aaron Luke 1.5 Ieremiah was the Son of a Priest Ier. 1.1 and Hophni and Phineas the Sons of Eli the Priest 1 Sam. 1.3 and Iohn Baptist the Son of Zachariah the Priest yea many of the Apostles had Wives as Peter Philip Iames and Barnabas Mat. 8.14 Acts 13.2 Saint Ambrose affirms that all the Apostles were married save Iohn and Paul and the Apostle expresly saith that he had power to marry as well as Cephas 1 Cor. 9.5 and he allows a Bishop to have one
is here rightly stiled a famine Man consists of two parts of Soul and Body and both these must be fed the body which hath its Original from the earth is maintained by earthly nourishment but the soul which is spiritual must be fed with the spiritual food of Gods Word for as bread is the stay and staff of mans body and the body cannot live without it so Gods Word is the support of the soul and it cannot live without that hence it is called Food Ier. 3.15 15.16 Iohn 21.15 17. Act. 20.28 'T is here and here onely that Christ the bread of life is revealed unto us Iohn 6.35 Prov. 9.1 to 7. 'T is in the Gospel that wee have a feast full fraught with spiritual delicates Psal. 65.4 Isa. â—5 6 55.1 2. Hence David makes such bitter lamentation for want of it Psal. 42.2 3. and 84. and 't is made one note of Gods people that they mourn for want of the holy Assemblies Zeph. 3.18 Lam. 1.4 7. and 2.6 7. and 4.1 and 5.18 Iâ—â— esteemed the word of the Lord above his necessary food Job 23.12 He did not only esteem it above Lands and livings above gold and silver but even above his appointed food without which he could not live He did more earnestly desire it more heartily delight in it and more highly prize it than he did his necessary food without which he could not â—ubsist He had rather lose his usual meals than lose his opportunities of meditation on the Word of God Hence 't is that Gods Ministers are called Stewards 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Titus 1.7 which must dispense this Bread of Life according to the capacity of their Hearers They must give Milk to Babes and strong meat to strong men for Gods Word is both Semen Pabulum it is the seed by which we are new-born Iam. 1.18 1. Pet. 1.23 and the food by which we are nourisht after 1 Pet. 2.2 by this the dead are inlivened Ioh. 5.25 the dark inlightned Psal. 19.8 and the sorrowful comforted Isa. 40.1 2. This shewes the great necessity and benefit of the preaching of Gods Word and should make us prefer it unto our chiefest joy But to this point I have spoken at large in a set Treatise 2 Contempt of Gods Word brings a famine of the Word The Lord here suites his Judgements to his Peoples sins He had in great mercy raised up for this people of their owne Sons for Prophets and taught them not by strangers but by Children that came from their owne loyns yet they ungratefully said to the Prophets Prophesie not Amos 2.11 12. and commanded this our plain-dealing Prophet to preach no more at Bethel but to goe see some other Countries Amos 7.12 13 16. Hinc illae Lachrymae This brought the famine amongst them VVhen God shall bestow the preaching of the VVord upon a people which is the choycest gift which he can bestow on the Sons of men and they shall loathe this Mannah and vilifie those that bring it it is time the Lord should cease giving when such gifts are scorned and cease loving when his love is contemned The Iewes that stoned the Prophets killed the Apostles and crucified Christ for this great contempt they have been a people of Gods Curse this sixteen hundred years When men grow weary of truth it is just with God that they should be left to error and when they are weary of a faithful Amos that they should have a flattering Amaziah When men will not receive the truth in love God will give them over to strong delusions that they shall beleeve lyes A dreadful Curse 2 Thes. 2.11 q. d. Since I have given them Light and shewed them my Truth and the way to Heaven but they have rejected it therefore there shall come false Prophets and shall cry down Ordinances Sabbaths c. and you shall beleeve them that shall set up humane inventions and you shall follow them When Children abuse their Bread and play with it and trample it under feet it is time for Parents to take it from them To bring these things à Thesi ad Hypothesin and to apply this contempt of the Word to our seâ—ves it may make us tremble to think whither we are fallen Since the Apostles times the Gospel never shone so brightly as it doth at this day and never was it and the Ministers of it more openly vilified and that by many old Professors who are turned blasphemers than at this day and therefore wee may justly fear that the Lord will punish our abuse of Light with the darkness of Popery and take his Gospel from us and give it to a people that shall yeeld him better fruits of it than wee have done Sad tidings alwayes follow the contempt of the glad tidings of the Gospel and they that think they have too much Preaching shall at last have none at all When Ierusalem began to abuse the Prophets they were quickly made a desolation 3 The loss of the Word of God is the sorest losse No famine like this famine no judgement like this judgement Lam. 1.4 it is the heaviest that can befall a people on this side Hell which made Luther say I would not live in Paradise without the Word but with it I could make a shift in Hell it self David knew this full wel and therefore in the midst of all his wants he was most sensible of this and begs it as that one thing necessary that he might dwell in the House of the Lord Psal. 27.4 It is true Corporal famine is very terrible and brings people into sad perplexities and extremities as you may see Lam. 1.11.19 2.12 20. 4.4 9. 5.16 but this Spiritual famine is farre worse For 1 That and other Judgements pinch but the body but this pines the soul now as the soul is more noble and excellent than the body so its Judgements are farre more dreadful because Spiritual It is sad when men shall cry for bread and they have a Stone given them for meat and they have a Serpent for drink and their Pastors or Impostors rather give them Poyson 2 That may be a means to bring a man home to God but this increaseth and confirms the separation between God and the soul. 3 That kills but the body at worst but this destroyes both body and soul. So that as our Saviour said in another case about fearing of men so may I say about fearing of â—amines fear not that famine which can but kill the body but I will fore-tell you what you should fear Fear that Famine which can destroy both body and soul yea I say unto you fear that 4 Here is a Thirst added to the famine a thirst of water Though God sometimes punisheth Cities with famine yet they may have water to drink but if they want both bread and especially water the distress lyes very heavy for Thirst if it be in extremity is one of
the VVord of the Lord and should not find it But this is too lax and general and is against the context which applies it to the ten Tribes vers 14. OBSERVATIONS 1 Those that will find the Lord when they seek him must seek him whilst he may be found Isa. 55.6 Psal. 32.6 2 Cor 6.2 VVe must walk in the light whilst we have the light the night comes when no man can work Ioh. 12.35 36. This people here lost all for want of seeking in a right manner and season they sought the VVord but it was when it was too late 2 The scarcity of the Word many times makes it to bee more highly prized by us VVhen this Mannah fell thick about this people they regarded it not but now they have lost their Prophets they can run from Sea to Sea to seek them Those Sermons and Ordinances which people vilify now when God removes them they will magnifie and praise them It is with those good wayes of God as it is with good men whilst they be alive amongst us we are ready to stone them but when they are dead we are ready to Idolize them Usually Gods blessings are more esteemed and valued by us when they are Rare and we want them than when we surfeit and abound with them Things that are very rare are very precious Isa. 4.1 13.12 Hence we read of dayes wherein the VVord of the Lord was rare and then it was precious in those dayes and why because there was no open Vision there was not a known Prophet in those dayes to teach the people and this made the Ordinances so precious then 1 Sam. 3.1 The Commonness of the Sun of VVater Food Rayment Health VVealth Peace Liberty Sleep Senses c. make them little esteemed whereas if the Lord should deprive us of any one of them we should quickly know the worth of them Lament this thy folly and beseech the Lord to make thee know the worth of his blessings by the enjoying rather than by the wanting of them 3 When people want the Word of God they should goe from place to place yea from Land to Land rather than pine and perish for want of instruction In times of Dearth we see how farre people will travel for food for their Bodies as Iacobs Sons did from Canaan to Aegypt and shall not we take more pains for our immortal Souls If the Queen of Sheba a person of great wealth and worth went above a thousand miles to hear the VVisdome of Solomon how farre should we goe to hear a greater than Solomon Luke 11.31 How farre will men ride and run for the profits and pleasures of their bodies and shall not we be at more pains to save our Souls In the dayes of Christ the people followed him from City to City on the Week-dayes to hear him and he never reproved them for it but fed their souls and bodies Luke 6.17 VER 13. In that day shall the fair Virgins and the young men faint for thirst IN the two precedent Verses the Prophet threatens a Spiritual famine now follows a Corporal famine and destruction from which none should escape neither the Young mans strength nor the Virgins Beauty should any whit avayl them in that day In this Verse we have 1 A Judgement threatned and that is Thirst they should faint for thirst The question will be what is meant by Thirst here 1. Some take it literally for corporal thirst which in those hot Countries where they wanted water was a very grievous thing Poor that want bread yet have water many times to refresh them but when a people have neither bread nor water it must needs go hard with them 2. This Thirst sets forth the great poverty and extream want of all things which this people should be brought into so the word is used Deut. 28.48 Isa. 44.3 for great afflictions and the terrour of that final judgement which was coming upon them They should not have so much as a little water to quench their thirst but they should faint for thirst as men use to do in such cases Psal. 107.5 Isa. 51.19 20. This sense I take to be the most genuine 3. Yet others take Thirst Metaphorically for Spiritual Thirst Gods wrath should burn them and burden them and yet they should have none to refresh and comfort them in their trouble VVe have a Comment on this Text in Hos. 2.3 4. where the Lord threatens to strip these Idolatrous Israelites naked as in the day when they were born and to make them a wilderness and set them in a dry Land and stay them with thirst that is he would destroy them with the scorching heat of his wrath not tempered with any grace or comfort So great should their misery be that they should want both corporal and spiritual refreshing 2. Here are the persons which should perish and those are the prime and flower of the Land the very hope of posterity The beautiful Virgins and the Young Men. These usually sin with an high hand in open contempt of God and his word they sin with more height and violence of affection than elder persons use to do and therefore the Lord threatens them especially Virgins use to be spared by men for their tenderness and beauty but God is no respecter of persons and young men are strong and can better shift for themselves yet these even these for all their beauty vigour and strength shall faint and dye sorrow and perplexity shall cover and overwhelm them as the word signifies and if these cannot hold out what shall become of children and old persons This shews the generality of the Judgement and that none shall escape 3. Here is the time when all this shall come upon them 'T is in that day viz. when Israel shall go into captivity and be carried out of his own Land by the cruel Assyrians when Samaria should be taken and Gods Prophets scattered then shall they faint for thirst OBSERVATIONS 1. Where spiritual Iudgements go before there corporal Iudgements follow after Such as contemn spiritual bread shall want corporal Before we read of a spiritual famine now follows corporal distress of the choicest and fairest of both sexes So true is that of Solomon Prov. 13.13 18. Whoso despiseth the Word shall be destroyed yea poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction 2. Beauty is vanity Prov. 31.30 Isa. 3.24 40.6 7. 'T is a brittle thing what disease almost doth not make â—t fade and wither however it may take with vain man yet it moves not God If beautiful Virgins will sin against God even the fair Virgins shall faint Many have beauty that have not piety Prov. 6.25 11.22 Saul and Absolom were goodly personages yet wicked men Of the two better have Piety without Beauty than Beauty without Piety An upright pure soul in a black decrepit body is excellent God many times makes up outward deformities with
we do the works of Abraham Iohn 8.39 Rom. 9.7 8. Let our Ancestors be never so gracious unless we follow their gratious example and walk in their steps we are no better in Gods esteem than Ethiopians and out-casts yea the piety of predecessors is so far from justifying any in their sins that it aggravates them in that they had such good patterns set before them and yet they would not follow them A Noble Pedigree is little worth where the line of well-doing continues not and 't is much more glory to begin the honour of ones house than either to end it or not encrease it What did it profit Châ—m that he was the Son of Noah or hurt Abraham that his Father Terah worshipped Gods of Clay or hurt Timothy â—hat he was born a Gentile Honesty how mean soever the birth be knows no disgrace The Prince of Satyrists though a Heathen yet hath spent a whole Satyr to very good purpose against those that boast of their Noble Pedigree when themselves have nothing that is truly Noble in them 2. Priviledges abused increase wrath Mat. 11.20 21 22 23. Rom. 2.9 1 Cor. 10.2 3 4 5. Heb. 2.1 2 3. When men ungratefully abuse their mercies and the God of their mercies 't is just with God to strip them of those mercies But of this at large elsewhere 3. Sin debaseth a people and makes glorious Nations like to unglorious and contemptible Heathens Whilst Israel walked up to his priviledges he was exalted but when he offended in Baal and fell to Idolatry he died and lost his reputation with God and Man both at home and abroad Hos. 13.1 Ezek. 16.3 4. The changes in Nations aud translating of Kingdomes from one to another are not casual but providential There is the finger of God in them all 'T is he that destroyed the Canaanites and brought in Israel 'T is he that cast out Israel and brought in the Assyrian he rooted up Iudah and brought in the Chaldean and rooted up the Chaldeans by the Medes and Persians and brought the Philistines and Syrians out of Caphtor and Kir He puts down one and sets-up another in the Throne and none may say unto him What dost thou Deut. 2.21 4.21 5. External favours and deliverances are no Arguments of Gods internal love and favour to a people Uncircumcised Philistines and Idolatrous Syrians may be delivered from a Caphtor and a Kir and yet these preservations may be to them but reservations to greater wrath Pharaoh was delivered from many plagues yet his heart being hardened at last hee perisht in the Sea All things come alike to all and there is no judging of Gods favour by these external things Eccles. 9.1 2. The Sun of prosperity shines as well on the barren Wildernesse as upon the fruitful Pastures VERSE 8. Behold the eyes of the Lord God are upon the sinful Kingdome and I will destroy it from off the face of the Earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Iacob saith the Lord. THe Prophet goes on in the confirmation of what he had denounced against Israel by an Argument drawn from the Justice of God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity with the least approbation and who will not acquit persons or Kingdomes that persevere in their wickednesse Behold the eyes of the Lord are upon the sinful Kingdome to punish and destroy it In the words wee have 1. A note of Attention Behold 2. The matter to be attended and that is 1. A judgement threatned God will destroy Israel from the Superficies on face of the earth that is he will extinguish their memorial from amongst men and root them out of the world so that they shall never have more the face of a Nation upon Earth The like expression we have Exod. 32.12 Deut. 6.15 Warnings could not mend them now Judgements shall rid the world of them 2. Here is the reason why the Lord will thus destroy them and that is because they are a sinful Kingdome or as the words are in the fountain they are a sinning Kingdome a Kingdome even composed of sin and drowned in iniquity A Kingdome that sinned not through weakness but wilfulness whose sins were not infirmities but enormities They fell not by the violence of temptation but 't was their trade to be sinning they were wholly given up to it both Superiours and Inferiours had for many years been a race of Idolaters persisting obstinately in their wicked waies no wooing nor warning no mercy nor menaces could work upon them they were incorrigible and incurable and therefore the Lord now resolves to ease himself of them Quest. But who is meant here by the sinful Kingdome A. Some conceive that by Kingdome here is meant any sinful Kingdome indefinitely but I conceive that Amos being sent more especially to prophesie against the Idolatry of the Kingdome of Israel doth directly and primarily speak against the Idolatry of the Kingdome of Israel for Idolatry is called The sin by way of eminency as I have shewed before on Amos 8. ult now Israel persevering as in other sins so especially in this great sin of Idolatry is here called Mamlachah Hachattaah Hoc regnum peccans this sinful Kingdome the article Ha is emphatical and the Text saith not Mine eyes are upon a sinful Kingdome indefinitly but upon This sinful Kingdome viz. of Israel and then secondarily it includes the Kingdome of Iudah which had deeply corrupted it self and not long after they also were carried Captives to Babylon 3 Here is the certainty of the judgement The Eyes of the Lord are intent upon them for this purpose see Vers. 4. before he hath set his face in anger against them to destroy them 4 Here is a mitigation or qualification of the Threatning Yet he will not utterly destroy the house of Iacob but in the midst of judgement he will remember mercy and having purged out the dross and destroyed the prophane body of the people and rebellious rout he will preserve the penitent as a remnant for himself according to his promise made of old to Abraham Isaac and Iacob Lev. 26.40 41 42. Though the Lord beat Heathenish Nations to dust and stock up the wicked root and branch and though Israel deserved a total destruction yet for his own Name sake he will not deal so with his Church and chosen he never utterly destroyes them but leaves some remnant to praise him and to shine like lights in the midst of a perverse people and if he do bring them into Captivity yet a remnant both of Israel and Iudah shall return again according to that precious promise Ier. 30.3.10 â—o the dayes come that I will bring again the Captivity of my people Israel and Judah saith the Lord and will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers and they shall possess it This was fulfilled when a remnant of Israel returned out of Assyria and
he catcheth with his hook or thorn and puts into his bagge they shall not need Carts to carry you away Fish-hooks shall doe it It is a Metaphor frequent in Scripture as 2 King 19.28 Iob 41.1 2. Ezek. 19.4 29.9 38.4 2 Here is the aggravation of their misery they shall not only perish themselves but their posterity shall suffer with them You shall be taken away with Hooks like Thorns and your posterity with Fish-hooks q. d. you shall be like Fishes which are industriously caught easily pulled up and suddenly carried away on a Thorn or Fish-hook yee shall bee no more like fat Kine which abide in their Pasture but I will root up you and yours you shall be carried into Captivity As the Fisher driveth the Fish out of his holds and then catcheth and killeth it so shall the Assyrians violently pull you out of your holds and habitations for the slaughter OBSERVATIONS 1 Obs. Swearing in it self is not unlawful God himself who cannot sin yet swears by his Holiness so Isa. 45.23 62.8 Ier. 51.14 Heb. 6.13 but of this at large elsewhere 2 Obs. God is Holiness it self It is essential to him and therefore it is here put for himself The Lord hath sworn by his Holiness that is by himself Holiness in Angels and Men is Accidental they may lose their Holiness and yet bee Creatures still but Holiness is so con-natural to God that hee may as soon cease to bee God as to be holy But of this elsewhere 3 Obs. It is a very hard thing to convince secure Sinners of an approaching Iudgement God is constrained to swear here to assure them of the certainty and infallibility of his Threatnings As in times of Adversity and Temptation men are hardly brought to beleeve the Promises Psal. 116.11 so in times of Prosperity it is hard to convince men of the truth of Gods Threatnings I spake to thee in thy prosperity and thou wouldest not hear Jer. 22.21 4 Obs. Sin and Punishment are inseparable In the first Verse we had their Sin and in this second their Punishment as men have their daies of sinning so God hath his dayes of punishing for sin Deut. 28.16 17 c. Psal. 37.13 Ier. 46.21 50.27.31 Ioel 1.15 Luke 19.43 Revel 18.8 No sooner had Ahab killed Naboth and taken possession of his Vineyard but presently the Lord sends Elijah with a whole volley of Judgements against him 1 King 21.16 to 25. 5 Such as oppress others shall at last bee oppressed themselves Look what measure men mere to others God will raise up some that shall mere the like to them again These fat Beasts did goar the poor and get their estate from them now the Lord raiseth up the Assyrian against them who with their Hooks should pull them out of their estates and habitations as Fishes out of the water God loves to pay Sinners in their own coyn and to retaliate the wrongs which they have done to others Thus Adonibezek confesseth that as he had done to others so God had requited him Iudg. 1.7 such as shew no mercy to others shall have none themselves Iam. 2.13 Babylon that had tortured and abused the Saints must have double given her Revel 18.6 the Sodomites that burnt with lust were burnt with fire from heaven Gen. 19.5.24 Iosephs Brethren that sold him into distress were at last distressed themselves and acknowledge Gods Justice in it Gen. 4.21 Davids Sin in numbering the people was punisht with diminishing of the people Hereby God doth more sensibly convince men of their Sin when they may read it in the punishment Thus those who are disobedient to their Parents God raiseth up of their Children that shall rebel against them Those that abuse their first Wives are oft-times punisht by the second and those Servants that were false to their Masters shall be punisht with Servants that will be perfidious to them Let us therefore by the punishment labour to finde out the Sin that brought it and judge our selves for it and we shall not be judged of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.32 6 Obs. When a People are ripe for ruine they shall suddenly and easily be destroyed God staies but till the sins of a People be full and then he suddenly brings them down Gen. 15.16 look how easily the Fisher pulls up his little Fish with his Hook and carries it away so easily did the Assyrian carry away this Idolatrous people into Captivity now that their day was come There is no power or policy against God hee can destroy the stoutest enemy with the greatest facility Isa. 25.11 if he be angry with a People he wants not Fishers Hooks Hunters to pursue them and carry them away Ier. 16.16 Hab. 1.14 15 16. 7 Obs. Children many times fare the worse for their wicked Parents The Parents are taken away with hooks and the Posterity with Fish-hooks root and branch must be stockt up It is just with God to cut off the wicked with their seed as we kill the Wolf with her Litter and the Fox with her Cubs Deut. 28.41 Hos. 13.16 But of this at large elsewhere VERSE 3. And yee shall goe out at the breaches every Cow at that which is before her and yee shall cast them into the Palace saith the Lord. THe Prophet continues his Threatning as appears by the Copulative And yee shall goe out of the Breaches Hee amplifies their calamity by that fear and consternation which should surprize them the walls of Samaria being broken down those Grandees which before went in great state and order should now confusedly like so many frighted Beasts flee out at every breach to save themselves so that in this Verse we have as in the former 1. A Commination or Judgement threatned Yee shall goe out at the breaches 2. A confirmation of this Commination saith the Lord. The better to awaken them he adds this again that they had not to doe with man but with the Almighty who will not be mocked nor dallied withall The Prophet goes on in directing his speech to the Nobles Judges and Counsellours of the Land though he spare not the inferiour sort yet because the Rulers were the ring-leaders in sin therefore he bends his speech principally against them 1 Here is the Title which he gives them viz. Gowes a blunt term but a fit one this is implied in the feminine Gender Una quaeque scil vacca as verse the first q. d. you look upon your selves as great men but in my eye yee are as so many fat Beasts and not one of you shall escape Gods revenging hand 2 King 17.20 2 Here is the misery that attends these wanton luxurious Beasts they shall be so full of fear that they shall run out at the breaches of the walls leaving all their riches behind them The words admit of some difficulty and therefore I shall open them distinctly Yee shall goe out of the breaches viz. Which the enemy hath made
and Iob 12.2 26.2 3. and Solomon to the young man Eccles. 11. 9 and the Church to her enemies Lam. 4.21 Rejoyce O Edom and be merry but know that thy feasting shall be turned into fasting and thy mirth into mourning So Ier. 22.20 46 9 11. 51.8 11. Zech. 11.13 Paul used them 1 Cor. 4.8.10 2 Cor. 11.19 2.12 13. yea the Scripture affords many Sarcamus which are biting taunts they are somewhat like an Irony but that they are somewhat more bitter as Gen. 37.19 Exod. 14.11 Nahum 3.14 2 Obs. Wee must shun those places where Idolatry is set up Israel must not once goe to Bethel and Gilgal where Idols are Hos. 4.15 Amos 5.5 what Solomon sayes of the Corporal Harlot may fitly be applied to the Spiritual one Prov. 5.8 Remove thy way farre from her come not nigh the door of her house As we shun Pest-houses so should we shun those infectious places Such as partake with the wicked in their sins shall share with them in their plagues Revel 18.4 not only Corah Dathan and Abiram but their followers also perisht with them Numb 16. It is dangerous for men to hear Quakers and Seducers for by your example you doe not only incourage others so to doe but you make your selves accessary to their sin and punishment what Solomon saies of all the wicked in general holds true in this particular Prov. 4.14 15. we should take heed of going in the way of evil men avoyd it pass not by it turn from it and pass away See how the Holy Ghost useth variety of expressions to the same purpose and all to make the matter sink deeper into our hearts 3 Obs. Idolatry and Sin debase places Bethel and Gilgal formerly famous for the Worship of God yet now become infamous for Idolatry Gods people must not once come there As sin debaseth persons and makes them that they can never excel Gen. 49.4 so it debaseth places too and turns Bethel the House of God into Beth-aven the house of vanity and iniquity Hos. 4.15 what Michal said of David falsly Thou hast made thy self vile 2 Sam. 6.20 that is most true of all Sinners they make themselves and the places where they live vile and contemptible 4 Obs. There is no inherent holiness in places if there had Bethel had not been Beth-aven nor Rome become an Harlor Places are not holy per se simpliciter but only propter usum by reason of the praying preaching and dispensing of the holy Sacraments there The place doth not commend the Prayers but the sincere affection of him that prayeth neither doth the place sanctifie the Prayers but the Prayers the place Churches are made of Wood and Stone and so are uncapable of Holiness Christ came to redeem and sanctifie Souls not seats The Legal Ceremonial Typical Holiness of places is by the coming of Christ abolished now the substance is come and the shadows are gone in Gospel times there is no difference of places in respect of Holiness God will now be VVorshipped in every place Mal. 1.11 Ioh. 4.23 1 Tim. 2.8 the Field and the House are now as holy as the Church yea Paul and Silas pray in Prison and are heard Acts 16.25 so that Churches in themselves are no more holy than other places but it is the Ordinances of God and the Assembly of Gods People met there to celebrate those Ordinances which for that present make it more holy and more to be esteemed by us than all other places or peeces of ground whatsoever Psal. 84.10 and therefore they should be kept sweet and decent though not pompous and gaudy The Heathen Poet could say It is vanity to have gold in Temples Here then is the difference between us and the Papists they make Churches to be holy per se in respect of the ground and building but we in respect of the end and holy use for which they serve viz. for the Service of God and the Assemblies of his People but the exercises of Religion being ended and the Congregation dissolved there is no more inherent Holiness remâ—ining in it more than in another place 5 Obs. It is a great provocation to set up Idols there where wee have received signal mercies God had done great things for his people at Bethel it was the place where hee appeared to his people and Gilgal was very famous for many Mercies at Gilgal they were Circumcised there God rolled away the reproach of Aegypt from them there they had the Passeover and there was Sacrificing c. now to multiply transgressions at Gilgal and to have all their villany acted there Hos. 9.15 must needs be a great aggravation of their sin and hasten wrath To sin against signal Mercies doth double the sin It is said of the Israelites that they provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea Psal. 106.7 where God shewed them a remarkable Mercy in leading them safely thorow the Sea and drowning their cruel enemies yet there they provoked him at the Sea even at the red Sea it is spoken Emphatically even at that Sea which God had carried them safely thorow Thus they made a Calfe in Horeb Psal. 106.19 where the Lord appeared unto them gave them his Law and Made a Covenant with them yet here they provoked him to wrath to their own destruction Deut. 9.8 it greatly aggravates sin when it is committed in a Canaan and in a Land of Righteousness to deal unjustly Isa. 26.10 Wee of this Land have received many signal Mercies if wee goe on to abuse them as wee have done of late years what can we expect but signal judgements 6 Obs. Wicked men grow worse and worse They fall away more and more they doe not only sin but they multiply sin they think it not sufficient to worship the golden Calves at Dan and Bethel but they must to Gilgal also and there VVorship Baal which was the vilest and highest Idolatry for those that worshiped the Calves worshiped God but in a false way but those utterly forsook the true God to worship Baal whom they made their God as appears by that of Elijah If Baal be a god implying that they esteemed him so When wicked men begin to fall they know not where they shall rest they have no foundation but run from error to error till at last they end in Atheism But of this at large elsewhere Evil men and deceivers grow worse and worse though they be wearied in their wicked wayes yet they will goe on Ierem. 9.3.5 they are in this like the lewd VVoman Lassata non satiatia they never come to their Maximum quod sic in sinful wayes Prov. 23. ult Sin and Error is endless it knowes not when nor where to stop Hos. 10 1. 13.2 Ahaz that at first burnt Incense to Idols at last burnt his Children to them 2 Chron. 28.3 Error minimus in principio fit maximus in fine The cloud that
not returned to me saith the Lord. 4 VVe have had Sword Plague and Famine amongst us and yet yee have not returned unto me saith the Lord. 5 And now the Lord seems to threaten greater Judgements and to deal more severely with us for our obstinacy and impenitency and yet we are as stupid and stubborn as ever and never once think of returning to him that smites us O that the Lord would awaken every soul of us out of this deep and deadly sleep oh that every one would now goe into his Closet and there seriously ask his soul What have I done Against what light and love against what wooings and warnings against what Mercies and Judgements have I rebelled None so beloved of his God as I and none that hath so abused his love as I have done Oh that we could now take shame to our selves for our stubborn standing out so long against so good and gracious a God! oh that we could judge our selves for our rebellion and loathe our selves for our great provocations then would the Lord repent of the evil he intended against us and we might hope to see better days than yet we have seen 6 Obs. Hipocritical turning is no turning in Gods esteem This People did sometimes howl in their misery and fast and pray Hos. 7.14 but it was but counterfeit and therefore the Lord chargeth them still with this Yet have yee not returned to me saith the Lord. False things in Scripture are counted as no things A wicked man is accounted as no man Ier. 5.1 the streets of Ierusalem were full of men but because they were not good men God calls them no men Thus the wicked are said to have no heart i. e. no good heart and so as good have none at all Hos. 7.11 VERSE 7.8 And I also have with-holden the rain from you when there were yet three months to the Harvest and I caused it to raine upon one City and caused it not to raine upon another City one peece was rained upon and the peece whereupon it rained not withered So two or three Cities wandred unto one City to drink water but they were not satisfied yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. THe Prophet descends to the enumeration of new Judgements two of which were the Causes of the Famine The first was Drought and want of Rain vers 7 8. The second was Blasting Mil-dew and the Palmer-worm vers 9. This People were like Clouds without water and yeelded no obedience to God but followed Idols and now his clouds have no water for them When God is against us all are against us so that here we have a second Scourge where-with the Lord chastised this people that he might bring them home to himself viz. Drought and Barrenness he had before punisht them with Famine and want of Bread now he punisheth them with Thirst and want of Water Thus the Lord tried all conclusions to better them but in vain as will appear by the sequel In this Verse we have 1. The efficient cause of this Judgement viz. the Lord I have with-holden the rain from you viz. the latter rain which that hot Country had most need of I have forbidden it to fall upon you saith God 2 Here is the continuance of the Judgement it was not for a week or two but for three months even till the fruits of the earth withered and were destroyed and this the Lord did the more deeply to affect them with their sins One months want of rain in that hot Country especially should have startled them two months should have astonisht them but three months should have fully awakened them yet such was their gross senslesness and stupidity that they laid it not to heart And therefore the Lord the better to set forth his patience and this peoples impenitency sets forth his dealings particularly with them and tells us how he brought the Famine the Drought the Palmer-worm and the Pestilence c. upon them He came not suddenly upon them but gave them space to repent and time to consider their wayes and the tokens of his displeasure against them But such was their obstinacy and malice that nothing could work upon them their Disease was too strong for the Physick and their Maladies for Gods remedies his labour was lost upon them 3 Here is the juncture of time when this rain was with-held from them viz. three months before Harvest which was about March for about the latter end of May in that hot Country was their Harvest this was called the latter rain and was very needful to fit fill and ripen the Corn for Harvest For the better understanding of this we must know that the Land of Canaan was not like the Land of Aegypt for in Aegypt they seldome or never had any rain Zech. 14.18 for the River Nilus did once a year over-flow the greatest part of their Country and so did mellow and soften the earth for all the year after But Canaan was a mountanous place and could not be so watered and therefore the Lord took more special care of it and watered it with rain from Heaven Deut. 11.10 11. In this Land there were two more especial seasons for rain viz. the former rain about September when the Seed was sown that it might take the better rooting and the latter rain in the Spring time when the Corn was grown up and earing to fit it for the Harvest and this was called the latter rain which is said to fall in the first month that is in March which with them was the beginning of the year Ioel 2.23 Hence are those frequent expressions in Scripture of the former and the latter rain Deut. 11.14 Ier. 5.24 Hos. 6.3 Zech. 10.2 Iam. 5.7 for in Harvest it seldome or never rained in those hot Countries and therefore when Samuel by Prayer had obtained rain in Harvest they looked upon it as a prodigious thing 1 Sam. 12.16 17 18 19. now the want of either of these rains was sad but specially the latter when a man shall see his Corn sown grown up and then when he expects a Harvest after all his pains for want of rain to have it wither and dye before his eyes this must needs be grievous to him 4 Here is the accurateness of Gods Judgements he distinguisheth between City and City Feild and Feild I caused it to rain upon one City and not upon another As hee commanded the Sun to shine on Goshen and not on Aegypt so he commands the rain to fall on some and not on others These things came not by chance but by providence it is I faith the Lord that commanded it to rain upon one parcel of ground and not upon another 5 Here is the effect of this Judgement it makes them run from City to City for water vers 8. but in vain for they could not get enough to satisfie their necessities They were sensible of bodily wants but insensible of Spiritual wants
Pestilent curiosity of tormenting fear and deadly slavery The learned and laborious Knight hath long since condemned this Devillish Art take it in his own words Astrologia eventu fallax usu superstitiosa à Barbaris nationibus importata bonis temporibus Graeciae ignota etiam malis Roma pulsa Ars quod in arte turpissimum est nullis texta principiis nulla subjux demonstratione nullo constans syllogismo Against this cursed Art see Arch-Bishop Abbots Thesis tertia Fulleri Miscelan l. 1. c. 16. p. 99. Spanheim Dub. 33. P. 2. p. 331. Brochman Cas. consc p. 88. folio Gataker against Lilly Lord Virulams Advancement of Learning p. 147. Weemse Vol. 4. p. 21 c. Barclaies Argenis chap. 17. Calvin Opuscula Tract adversus Astrologiam p. 801. Vicars against Heyden Waterhouse Defence of Humane Learning p. 30 c. VERSE 8. So two or three Cities wandred unto one City to drink water but they were not satisfied yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. RAin in the Land of Canaan where Israel dwelt it being a very hot Eastern Country was very necessary not only for the fruites of the earth but also for the quenching of thirst both of Man and Beast especially if it be true which some learned men affirm viz. That there were but few Springs here and no considerable rivers but only Iordan this made them glad to keep Rain-water in Cisterns for all uses being most afflicted with Thirst and Drought if it rained not This made them run from one City to another to seek water for as hunger so thirst breaks thorow all diâ—ficulties Those Cities that had no water did run to those Cities that had either Spring-Water or Rain-water but they were not sufficed saith the text so great was the Drought and so many that wanted that they could not get water enough to relieve their necessities no not in those places where they had heard that it had rained This shewes the great straight that they were in no digging nor delving for Water at home could help them no new nor old Springs could supply them but they were forced to leave their houses and to goe from City to City to seek water and yet they could not be satisfied for the Wells or Water which might supply one City yet could not supply so many This one would think should have awakened them and brought them to Repentance no doubt but it did afright them and made them sad but yet they were not bettered by their sadness for they went on still in their sins and superstitions dangerously and desperately without any returning and therefore the Lord upbraids them once more with a yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. OBSERVATIONS 1 Sin and specially the sin of Idolatry brings a People into great straights The Earth here languisheth the Corn withereth and men run up and down for water to quench their thirst and yet cannot get it and why is all this why for the sin and Apostacy of this people 1 King 8.35 17.1 2 Obs. God hath variety of Iudgements in store wherewith to punish a rebellious people If want of Bread will not mend them he will try what want of VVater will doe and if neither of these will work yet he hath the Pestilence and Sword to follow Great Judgements are like great men they seldom goe alone they have many attendants Hence when the Lord had threatned many sore Judgements against his People hee tells them that if they will not be reformed by these things he will yet plague them seven times more according to their sins yea and seven to that and seven to that Levit. 26.18.21.24.28 seven times that is many times and more extreamly than formerly if one Judgement will not work upon Pharaoh he hath nine more that shall and if lesser will not stir and mend him he hath greater that shall end him Exod. 11. 12. God hath not only written Judgements but also many unwritten ones to send upon a rebellious people Deut. 28.61 3 Obs. True repentance is a very difficult thing It is not so easily wrought as many imagine This people here had Line upon Line Sermon upon Sermon Prophet upon Prophet and Plague upon Plague and yet you see the charge lies against them still that they had not yet returned to the Lord. The change of nature is no easie thing it is an act of Omnipotency now true repentance is no less than the changing of the nature it is not only a change of the words or of the works but of the heart and inward man it is the changing of a Lion into a Lamb of a VVolf into a Sheep of Fire into VVater and of Darkness into Light Isa. 11.8 Ephes. 5.8 None can change Nature but the God of Nature no rods or afflictions of themselves can doe it they rather stupifie men or else make them fret and so drive them further from God till he by his grace doe sanctifie them and set them home upon our hearts they will never better us how many are corrected but are never taught but when the Lord teacheth Mortification Sanctification Humiliation and obedience by our sufferings then happy are we Psal. 94.12 VERSE 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 yee not returned unto mee saith the Lord. WE are now come to the third Scourge which God used for the amendment of this People and that is the smiting of their fruit which grew in their Fields Gardens and Vine-yards They had abused them to Luxury and Idolatry and now they lose them God had given them Corne to supply their necessity and Vines and Figgs and Olives for delight but their sins deprived them both of the one and the other In the words we have 1 The Person smiting and that is the Lord it is I your Creator Preserver Deliverer that hath blest you so long that now doth blast you It is I that have smitten you 2 Here is the Rod with which hee smites them consisting of three Lashes 1 Blasting 2 Mildew 3 The Palmer-worm Blasting and Mildew that may have relation to the Corn and be one cause of the Famine before mentioned Vers. 6. and the Palmer-worm may have relation to the fruit God used variety of Judgements that they might the better see his hand in all and not attribute things to Fate or Fortune to Stars or second causes Blasting is a Curse threatned against a disobedient People Deut. 28.22 it usually comes from an East-wind which is a scorching drying Wind withering the Corn and making it look yellow Gen. 41.6 Mildew is the spoyling of the Corn by excessive moysture making it look pase so that it never comes to maturity for the natural greenness is gone before it bee ripe and the colour is faded The Palmer-worm is a noysome devouring
Worm it is one of Gods great Armies which he sends against a rebellious People to destroy their Vine-yards and Fig-trees that is the fruites of their Vines Fig-trees and Olives by a Metonimy of the subject These are worse than Locusts for that feeds only on the tops of the ears of Corn as he flies but the Palmer-worm sticks close to the Fruites and Flowers they light on and will not off till they have consumed them It makes clean work leaving nothing behind it These Israelites that neglected their Souls yet used great care and pains about their Vines Olives Gardens and Orchards but all your cost and care saith the Lord shall be lost and become a prey to the Palmer-worm 3 Here is the time when the Lord smote them and that was in the very flower and prime when Gardens and Vineyards c. were increased and loaden with fruit when they were multiplying then he blasted them or the multitude of your Gardens and Vineyards did the Palmer-worm devour so the Margin of our Bible 4 Here are the Persons whose fruites were smitten viz. the rebellious Israelites included in the Pronoun Possessive yours yours yours your Gardens your Vine-yards your Fig-trees your Olive-trees it is for your sins and your sakes that these are smitten 5 Here is the unsuccessfulness of these rods upon them yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. One Judgement should have wrought upon them or a second at least but when a third and fourth shall come and yet a people shall not be wrought upon it argues the height of obstinacy and malice and that such Persons are exceedingly blinded and besotted by the Devil to their own destruction it is a God-provoking Sin thus still to sin against the remedy of their recovery and therefore the Lord still layes his finger on this sore and oft complaines of it as here so elsewhere Isa. 9.13 Ier. 3.10 5.3 8.5 Hos. 7.10 Hag. 2.17 How oft doth he require the amendment of this fault making many promises to incourage them Ier. 3.1.7.14.22 and threatens them if they will not Ier. 15.7 and yet still they continue impenitent OBSERVATIONS 1 God wants not Hosts and Armies of Creatures to subdue a stubborn and rebellious people He hath the Host of Heaven and the Hosts of the Earth at his beck and if he but hiss or stamp or give the least intimation to them they are presently up in armes against us Isa. 5.26 7.18 Frost and Snow Hayl and Tempests are all his servants ready prest to doe his will Exod. 9.23 Psal. 147.16 17 18. Hag. 2.17 with these hee can destroy our Fruites in the bud or in the blade or when they are come to maturity yea when they are in the Barn he can send Lightning and consume them If hee be angry with us he can call for an Army of Insects and contemptible Animals and by these he can destroy us When Pharaoh rebelled against him the Lord sent an Army of Froggs Flies and Lice against him and by these hee vext him Exod. 8.2.16.21 the Lord hath Hosts of Men and Angels at command but hee chuseth rather to confound his enemies by these contemptible Creatures that he may exalt his own power and abase proud man hee hath the Cankerworm the Palmer-worm the Locust and the Caterpiller these are called his great army which he sends against a disobedient people Ioel 2.11.25 Obj. We are not troubled with an Army of Locusts Palmer-worms c. these were proper to those Eastern Countries Ans. It is true literally our cold Southern Climate is not subject to the annoyance of these yet if the Lord bee angry with us he can send even these upon us for South and East are alike to him Mystically and Metaphorically hee hath troubled us with an Army of Locusts Caterpillars Canker-worms c. yea in kind he sent a strange Grub which devoured only the Barley which is most abused by Drunkenness in many parts of the Land in the year one thousand six hundred forty nine yea and he can and will if England goe on to fin after the rate that it hath done of late years bring in an Army of Forreigners fierce and savage men whose Language we understand not who shall shew no mercy to the Old nor pitty to the Young what is said of the Natural is most true of these Metaphorical Palmer-worms they are the last and the worst of evils they sweep all away before them and make clean work where they goe Ioel 2.3 and this is that Judgement which the Lord seems at this day to bee preparing for England and yet we are not affected with it The Churches enemies are strongly united and have made a kind of Universal peace amongst themselves Gebal and Ammon and Amaleck the Moabites the Ismalites the Hagarens c. France Spain Italy Curland Holland Denmark c. are all confederate and united and the Churches of Christ who should joyn to their Dove-like simplicity Serpentine wisdome when in this juncture of time they should be most strongly united they are most sadly divided both within and without the King of Denmark with the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg joyn with Papists against the Protestant interest and so doth the Hollander What sad Massacres have been in Savoy and Poland is well known to the world and Plots are preparing for the destruction of the Protestants both in France and Switzerland and England that was alwaies wont to preserve the Protestant interest and assist it in all Nations yet is so sadly divided and crumbled into so many Factions and Fractions into so many Divisions and Subdivisions that without a Miracle of Mercy we are like to bee made a prey to the Common adversary who labours with all his might to divide us that so he may destroy us Let us then serve the Lord with one shoulder and with one consent let us not provoke this great God who hath so many Armies in store ready to execute his Judgements on us Ier. 15.3 Hee is the best friend and the saddest foe if he be for us all is for us but if he be against us all creatures are against us We should therefore make peace with this great Lord-General of all Armies and then they will all be at peace with us when our wayes please the Lord he will make even our enemies to be at peace with us Prov. 16.7 the men of Tire and Sidon desired to be at peace with Herod because their Land was nourisht by the Kings Land Acts 12.20 all we have we have it from God we are Tenants at will to him and therefore should be careful to preserve his favour Many when Blasting and Mildews are abroad goe not to God but to a Bush for ayd They will May their Corn and stick up a Bush thinking by this means to keep it from Blasting a Heathenish custom to be abhorred of all such as acknowledge the Providence of God Such Atheistical practices
enemies sword This is Gods usual method as hath been experienced in all ages When men will not hearken to the voice of Gods messengers it is a certain sign that God intends to destroy them 1 Sam. 2.25 2 Chron. 25.20 Prov. 29.1 2 Obs. Where sin goes before there sorrow follows We read before of this peoples Idolatry bribery cruelty now comes weeping wailing lamentation c. Wicked mens mirth ends in mourning See more on Amos 8.3 VESSE 17. And in all Vineyards shall be wailing for I will pass thorow thee saith the Lord. THese Israelites boasted much that God was with them and he would never leave them who were his Covenant-people The Prophet tells them that God would abide no longer with them but would now pass thorow them in wrath and not only the Citizens and Husbandmen but even the Vinitors also should mourn for the spoyl that should be made among them In the time of Vintage there was wont to be great mirth and jollity Psal. 4.7 they sung merrily and did shout for joy Isa. 16.10 Ier. 25.30 yea but their sins had marred their mirth so that now they shall have weeping instead of singing In all Vineyards shall be mourning All had sinned and now all shall suffer 2 Here is the reason of their mourning viz. because the Lord will pass thorow them he will not dwell nor abide amongst them in love and favour as they vainly fancied but he would pass thorow them like an enemy and execute justice on them Isa. 27.4 The Prophet seems to allude to the Lords passing thorow Egypt when he sent an Angel to smite all the first-born thereof and thereby filled every house with wailing and lamentation Exod. 11.4 and 12.12 so I will pass thorow you with plagues and will cause the destroying enemy to pass thorow all your land saith the Lord. OBSERVATIONS 1 Sin incenseth God against a people And makes him pass thorow them in wrath like lightning doing general execution upon them terribly suddenly irresistibly But of this before on vers 6. 2 Obs. Generality of sin brings generality of plagues Citizens Husbandmen Vinitors all had sinned and now weeping and wailing shall be amongst them all But of this see Amos 6. ult VERSE 18. Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light WE are now come to the third part of this Chapter where the Prophet inveyes against two sorts of sinners The first are mockers and deriders of the Prophets threatnings The second are such as trusted in their Ceremonies and Sacrifices Vers. 21 22 23. In the precedent Verse the Prophet had told them that the Lord would pass thorow them in wrath these impudent sinners in a taunting sarcastical way ask the Prophet when this would be q. d. You Prophets tell us of a dark and dismal day a day of wrath and trouble which will come upon us but we see nothing comes if God be in earnest let him make speed and come when he will we fear neither him nor thy threatnings nor do we beleeve that ever such a day will come or if it do come yet it will not be such a dreadful day as you speak of for God will not forsake his people which he hath spared so long from destruction Thus these desperate Atheists being wholly drowned in security sensuality and carnal delights scoff at the Threatnings and jest at Gods judgements neither fearing the one nor expecting the other but esteeming the words of the Prophet as wind and his comminations as a vain mockery To these Flouters at the Threatnings and mockers at the Lords long-suffering the Prophet answers Wo to you that desire the day of the Lord it will come too soon upon you without wishing for did you but know the terror of it you would never desire it To what end is it for you thus to speak Did you but know what kinde of day it is that is hasting on you you would not so much desire it you will think it comes too soon when it comes the Devils thought so Matth. 8.29 when God comes he will come as an armed enemy against you to your utter destruction so that you have great cause to fear and by repentance to prevent rather than to desire that day yet these hypocrites either as conceited of their own innocency and confiding in their priviledges desired this day or else in mockery and scorn they cry When will that day come which Amos so much talks of we would fain see it So you shall saith the Prophet time enough to your sorrow For it is a day of darkness and not of light and therefore woe be to you that thus scoffingly desire the day of the Lord you will finde it no jesting matter when it comes it will be a dark and dismal day to you though now you make your selves merry with it By a day of darkness here is meant the time in which God would destroy the Kingdome of Israel according as the Prophets had fore-told Allegorically and allusively this is true of the day of Judgement it will be a day of darkness and terror to all wicked men but literally this day of darkness and not of light that is this day of exceeding darkness as the Hebrew Idiom imports as we may see Amos 9.4 I will set mine eye upon them for evil and not for good The denial of the contrary hath a great emphasis in it q. d. I will bring upon them all manner of evil but no good So here It shall be a day of darkness and not of light that is it shall be a very dark and dismal day in which they shall finde no light of comfort from the Lord but wrath shall come upon them to the utmost In that day the Lord will exert his power in executing his vengeance on the Kingdome of Israel for all their Idolatry Apostacy Security Hypocrisie c. The various and inevitable calamities of this day are elegantly set forth in the next verse where the Prophet shews how the judgements of God should beset them round so that if they escaped from one evil yet another should apprehend them and if they fled from a Lion yet a Bear which is more savage should devour them It is usual in Scripture to call a day of Adversity misery and distress by the name of Darkness as Iob 20.16 and 23.17 and 30.26 Isa. 5.30 and 21.12 Ioel 2.2 Zeph. 1.14 to 18. Hence the doleful condition of the damned is called utter darkness As light signifies prosperity joy and comfort Hest. 8.16 Iob 18.6 and 38.15 Psal. 97.11 and 112.4 So darkness signifies calamity and sorrow as I have shewed on Amos 8.9 Quest. But why doth the Prophet denounce a Woe against those that desire the day of the Lord when it is the earnest desire of the Saints in Scripture that the day of the Lord would come and they dayly pray Thy Kingdome
little Wheel sets the great one a going A little Defeat at first may become a total Rout at last Per scelera ad scelus one sin usually makes way for another Sin and error is endless wicked men when the Devil drives know not where nor when they shall stop or stay Prov. 23. ult Hos. 10.1 13.2 Ier. 9.3 5. Sin hath no foundation but runs on and multiplies in infinitum Ahaz that at first burnt Incense to Idols at last burnt his children to them 2 Chron. 28.3 as these Jews did theirs to Moloch It concerns us then to keep close to the Rule for if wee swarve never so little from that we shall suddenly run our selves into a Labyrinth of Superstition sin and error 3. Fore-fathers must not be followed in sin These Israelites forsook the Rule to follow their Fore-fathers in their Idolatry and now they perish with them But of this before 4. Idolaters are deeply in love with their Idols They hug them they carry them they kiss them Hos. 13.2 In Ier. 8.2 we have five expressions to set forth the strong affections which Idolaters bear to their Idols They love serve seek worship and walk after them as if they could never do enough for them They had as lieve part with their lives as part with them Iudg. 18.24 Yee have taken away my gods saith Micah and what have I more q. d. you have even taken all since you have taken away mine Idols which are so near and dear to mee They are married to them no wonder then if they love them Hos. 4.17 Besides they are gods of their own making Exod. 32.1 and 't is natural to every one to love its own workmanship 5. Idolatry besots men It makes men worship Posts and Pictures Stars and Planets Dogs and Cats Onyons and Leeks any thing save God As those that are given up to corporal uncleanness care not with whom they commit it So 't is in spiritual Whoredome Affection blindes the judgement and besots men Idolatry is a bewitching flesh-pleasing-sin which steals away the heart and therefore is compared to fornication Ezek. 23.2 to 18. which infatuates and steals away mens hearts The Whore of Babylon hath all alluring Ceremonies Altars Images Gorgeous Vestments Musick c. with many other inchantments to seduce men Rev. 17. 1 2 4. Hence we read of the delectable things of Idolaters Isa. 44.9 The sight of the Sun Moon Stars and all the host of Heaven should have convinced them of the Majesty and Glory of their Creator and have induced them to worship him but they being besotted and blinded by sin and Satan worshipped the creature instead of God and serve those which were made for their service Besides what man that is well in his wits will trust in such gods for safety as cannot save themselves from fire and spoil All their Idols the Calves and all Hos. 10.5 6. were carried away by the Conquering Assyrian according to the custome of Conquerers which was to carry away the gods of the Conquered Nations Ier. 43.12 6. God hath many Hosts and Armies at command Hee hath the Host of Heaven 1. Angels 1 King 22.19 Luk. 2.13 2. Hee hath Sun Moon and Stars even the Stars in their kinde shall fight against Sisera Judg. 5.20 These Stephen calls the Host of Heaven 3. All creatures are his Hosts and Armies ready to execute what ever he commands Iob 25.3 Amos 9.6 Fear therefore to offend this Lord of Hosts But of this before 7. To worship the Host of Heaven is a great sin Hence the Lord upbraids these Israelites both fathers and children with this sin and threatens to send them into captivity for it This the Lord oft forbade them Deut. 4.19 and blames them for it 2 King 17.16 2 Chron. 33.3 5. Ier. 8.2 3. 19.13 44.17 Ezek. 8.16 and commands that he should dye that did it Deut. 17.3 4 5. Iob calls this kinde of Idolatry a denying of God and a sin to be punisht by the Judges Iob 31.26 27 28. How much greater is their sin which worship gods of their own making gods of Wood and Stone Crosses Crucifixes Images c. Idols which their own heads invented and their own hands have made yea that with five words of consecration can create their Creator and then worship the works of their own hands How great this Idolatry is Costerus the Jesuite shall tell you if saith hee Christ be not really and corporally present in the Eucharist then are the Catholicks the grossest Idolaters in the world 8. Will-worship is displeasing unto God When men make Gods to themselves they make Rods for themselves God will rid his hands of such and send them beyond Damascus yea beyond Babylon there they shall live in misery and slavery serving sin and Satan in the want of all things who would not serve God with joy and gladness of heart in the abundance of all things The Israelites of old made a golden Calf and worshipped the works of their own hands but it cost many of them their lives Exod. 32.27 'T is a good Rule De Deo nil sine Deo In Gods worship we must do nothing without the warrant of his Word Deut. 12. ult Mat. 28.20 all must be done according to the Pattern even to a Pin Exod. 27.19 hence 't is said nine times in one chapter That all was done as the Lord commanded Moses Exod. 39.1 5 7 21 26 29 32 42 43. VERSE 27. Therefore I will cause you to go into Captivity beyond Damascus saith the Lord whose Name is the God of Hosts WEE have all along seen Israels sin wee are now come to their suffering I will cause you to go into Captivity The Lord had freely given them the holy Land for their Inheritance to the end that they might serve him with gladness of heart in the abundance of all things but since they had defiled that good Land with their abominations the Lord resolved to rid the Land of them and to send them into captivity beyond Damascus which was fulfilled when Salmaneser took Samaria and subdued the Kingdome of Israel to himself 2 King 17.6 c. q. d. Since your Fore-fathers were bad and you are worse treading in their Idolatrous steps and out-going them in sin therefore I will bring upon you the judgements threatned driving you out of your own Land and despersing you in forein Countries In the words we have 1. A judgement threatned and that is banishment and captivity I will cause you to go into captivity 2. Here is the extent of this captivity 't is beyond Damascus saith Amos beyond Babylon saith Stephen 3 Here is the meritorious and procuring cause of this suffering and that is their sin implied in the Illative particle Therefore you have been Idolatrous superstitious hypocritical c. therefore you shall go into captivity 4. Here is the confirmation of this commination 't is not I but the Lord whose
name is the God of Hosts that hath said it and he both can and will do it unless by timely repentance ye prevent it I will cause you to go into Captivity beyond Damascus q. d. I will send you packing farther than the people of Damascus for the Syrians of Damascus were carried captives but to Kir 2 King 16.9 but you shall be carried captives far beyond them even to Persia and the Region of the Caspians Ezra 8.17 2. And more genuinely whereas they looked on Damascus the Metropolis of Syria a City of praise i. e. a renowned goodly wealthy strong City Isa. 7.8 8.4 Ier. 49.25 as an impregnable fortress and frontier defence for all their Country and they might think to get shelter there the King thereof being their confederate the Prophet tells them that Damascus should not save them for they should be carried captives beyond Damascus even into the farthest and remotest parts of Assyria beyond Babylon Quest. But how shall we reconcile Amos and Stephen Amos saith they shall go beyond Damascus but Stephen saies they shall go further even beyond Babylon Act. 7.43 Ans. 1. Some conceive it might be some mistake of the Scribe beyond Babylon for beyond Damascus but there is no ground for such a conceit 2. The Answer is easie the difference is onely verbal not material in words but not in sense What the Prophet spake somewhat darkly Stephen declares more clearly according to the truth of the history and the verity of what was done and 't is a known Rule that the Penmen of the New Testament do give the sense though not the very words of the Prophets which they quote when they cite places they do not translate but explain and expound them rather Luke writing in Greek followeth the Greek Version which then was so common amongst them 3. Peradventure the Prophet might mention Damascus that he might not add affliction to the afflicted and utterly dismay them had he told them they should go beyond Babylon the very thoughts of their banishment into such a forein Land so far distant from their native Country would have broken their hearts and therefore he conceals what St. Stephen utters Ye shall go beyond Babylon and so they did for they were dispersed into Persia Media and Assyria This was fulfilled in part by Salmaneser King of Assyria 2 King 17.6 but fully by Esar-haddon 2 King 17.23 24. OBSERVATIONS 1. Idolatry is a Land-destroying sin This great sin brings with it great destruction This cast Israel here out of all 2 King 17.22 23. This is a Covenant-breaking and a God-provoking sin what ever sin hee bears with hee cannot hee will not bear with this As I have elsewhere shewed before And did the Lord punish Israel for this sin and shall England think to escape No no parity of sin will bring parity in punishment How are we infatuated and given up to strong delusions to beleeve lyes The lyes of Popery Arminianism Socinianism Anabaptism Quakerism c. Yea have wee not Judicial Astrologers Satans familiars who sacrifice to Moloch and Chiun and all the host of Heaven that make the stars their Gods and Guides by them they can calculate mens nativities help men to their stollen goods cast figures yea fore-tell if you 'l beleeve them famine sword pestilence peace plenty and what not what is this but to draw mens hearts from confiding in God to trust in lying vanities and shall not the Lord visit for these things and doth not his wrath burn against us for that wee have Sorcerers like the Philistims Isa. 2.6 The good Lord quicken the hearts and strengthen the hands of our Magistrates against all the workers of iniquity before Gods wrath break forth upon us and it be too late The end of the Fifth Chapter AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical OBSERVATIONS UPON The Sixth Chapter of Amos. VERSE I. Woe to them that are at ease in Sion and trust in the Mountain of Samaria which are named chief of the Nations to whom the house of Israel came IN this Chapter the blunt Prophet raiseth his stile grows Rhetorical and is very eloquent as St. Austin from this very Chapter hath long since observed not with a fantastick frothy affected eloquence but with a grave and decent elegancy of speech suitable to the dignity of the matter which hee treats of Hee that makes the dumb to speak and out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hath ordained strength to confound his enemies can by his Word and Spirit make a stammering Moses a rustical Amos and silly fisher-men fluent of speech No matter what the Instrument is if God be but the Teacher In this Chapter is contained the Sum of Amos his fifth Sermon where we have sin and sorrow security and misery attending each other 1 Here is a reprehension of Iudah and Israel for their carnal security sensuality V. 1. to 6th 2 For their stupidity and sottishness in taking no warning by the example of their rich and populous neighbour Cities which God had destroyed for their sins Vers. 2. 3 For their contempt of Gods Threatnings which brought forth oppression and tyranny Vers. 3. 4 For Pride Luxury and Riot especially in their Rulers and rich men Vers. 4 5 6. 5 For Inhumanity want of sympathy and brotherly compassion towards such as were in distress Though the whole Land was depopulated and all the open Country was exposed to the fury of the merciless enemy yet because their fenced Cities whereof Ierusalem and Samaria were the chief were at present free they lived at ease and never regarded the miseries of others Vers. 6. 6 There was amongst them perverseness obstinacy and rebellion Vers. 12. 7 Perverting of Justice Vers. 12. 8 Carnal confidence and gloriation in that which could not help them Vers. 13. The Lord had born long with these their great provocations and used all means to amend them but all in vain and therefore now follows their woe and punishment As first Captivity banishment and deportation out of their own Land Vers. 7. 2 Detestation of them and their priviledges Vers. 8. 3 Desolation and destruction of their Cities by the Sword confirmed by Gods Oath Vers. 8. 4 Desperation and sinking under their carnal confidences They should be so terrified that they should not once dare to make mention of the name of the Lord. Veâ—s 10. 5 The Pestilence should rage so terribly that if a numerous family be reduced to ten those ten shall dye and for want of others a mans Uncle shall bury him Vers. 9 10. 6 An Epidemical and general destruction of rich and poor Palaces and Cottages none shall escape but as all had sinned so all should now be punisht for their sins from one end of the Land to the other A forein enemy like a violent flood should over-run the whole land from North to South and from one side to the other Woe to them that are at ease in Sion In this first
Emphatically sets a Woe upon their heads Woe to them that are at ease in Sion 3. Gods Ministers must denounce Woes against the wicked As they must proclaim promises to the penitent so they must denounce judgements against the obstinate They must make a difference to some they must shew lenity and to others severity Iude 22 23. What dreadful woes do all the Prophets denounce against impenitent sinners Christ who was love it self and in whom there was no gall nor guile yet how many dreadful woes did he denounce against the hypocritical Pharisees even eight woes together Mat. 23.13 14 15 16 23 25 27 29. If men will be so bold as to proclaim their wickednesse Ministers must be so bold as to proclaim their woes 4. Woe and sorrow is the portion of secure sinners Both Legal woes and Evangelical woes temporal spiritual and eternal woes The Law cryes Woe to such sinners and so doth the Gospel but Gospel-woes are the sadder of the two for if the Law say woe to us yet the Gospel may say mercy to us but if the Gospel say woe to us where shall we finde mercy 'T is true sinners may laugh and be merry in the acting of sin but woe and weeping is in the conclusion Luk. 6.25 The end is death Rom. 6.21 As all the promises of Grace and Mercy hang over the heads of the godly and drop blessings upon them which way soever they go so clouds of wrath hang over the heads of the wicked dropping judgements upon them even in their highest prosperity when they think themselves most free from misery The mirth of every secure sinner that goes singing to hell is no better than madnesse for where security goes before destruction ever follows When men cry Peace Peace then comes sudden and swift destruction Luk. 12.19 20. 1 Thes. 5.3 Secure Laish became a booty to its enemies Iudg. 18.27 Carelesse Ethiopians shall be made afraid Ezek. 30.9 And carelesse Daughters shall be troubled Isa. 32.9 10 11. God is much displeased with a people when the fire of his wrath shall beset them round about and yet they remain unhumbled and insensible Isa. 22.12 13. and 42. ult 5. God usually fore-warns us of woe before hee sends woe Hee first cuts men down with the sword of his mouth before he cuts them off with the sword of his hand Hee delights not to take sinners at an advantage but loves to exercise his patience towards them that they might repent as wee see in both the destructions of Ierusalem the one by the Caldeans which was fore-told by the Prophets and the other by the Romans which was fore-told by Christ. But of this at large elsewhere 6. Carnal Confidence ruines a Land When men forsake God and trust in men and mountains in Kings and Kingdomes in Guards and Garrisons both they and their creature-confidences shall perish for as there is no policy so there is no power or fortifications that can defend us against God Prov. 21.30 31. Use means wee may but we must not Idolize them prepare armies and strong-holds but not trust in them They are branded that trust in Riches Psal. 52.7 9. and cursed that trust in men Jer. 17.5 6. 7. Ingratitude is a God-provoking and a Land-destroying sin God had made this people the head of the Nations and chose them for himself from amongst the Nations but they fought against God with his own blessings and as they were increased so they sinned against him abusing the good Land which hee had given them to Idolatry riot and excess till at last the Land spewed them out VERSE 2. Pass yee on to Calneh and see and from thence go to Hemath the great then go down to Gath of the Philistims bee they better than these Kingdomes or their borders greater than your borders THE Prophet goes on to awaken Israel and Iudah out of their security and to drive them from their carnal confidence in their Mountains Ammunition and fortified Cities to this end hee sets before them Gods Judgements on the Assyrians Caldeans and Philistims those Idolatrous and Heathenish Nations whose bounds were larger and their Cities stronger than theirs Hee instanceth in three Calneh Hamath and Gath. 1. Calneh this was an ancient wealthy great City built by Nimrod after the Flood in the Territories of Babylon Gen. 10.10 It was afterwards inlarged by the Parthians and called Ctesiphon and was made the Metropolis of the Kingdome 2. Hamath called here the great and mighty City to distinguish it from a City of that name in the Land of Israel Iosh. 19.32 35. It lay on the North side of Israel and was a boundary of the promised Land Numb 13.21 34.8 Zach. 9.2 'T was built by Antiochus and thereupon called Antiochia and was the Metropolis of Syria 'T was destroyed by the Assyrian for all its power and greatness Isa. 10.9 3. Gath a strong City of the Philistims well known to Israel for its enmity against them 2 Sam. 1.20 'T was at last taken its walls were broken down and it made tributary to others 2 Chron. 26.6 These bordering famous Cities were well known to them and therefore the Lord instanceth in them though under them synecdochically other flourishing Cities which were made a desolation may also bee included Hee bids them See and diligently consider the downfall of those places that their falls might make them fear and flye from security oppression and carnal-confidence lest they bee ruined as these were and they bee made an example unto others since they will not bee warned by others Bee they better than these Kingdomes or the borders of their Land greater than your borders These words admit of some difficulty Some make the Interrogation a Negation q. d. Are these Nations better than yours in no wise for do but compare your Kingdome of Iudah and Israel with those Kingdomes your Cities with their Cities and your borders with theirs and it will easily appear that none of those Nations are better than your Nation for either they are Tributary to others or ruined God hath done more for you than for them in many respects the greater is your sin and the sorer will your punishment bee if you abuse so pleasant a Land and such rich mercies to the dishonour of him that gave them Thus they bring in the Lord upbraiding them for their ingratitude that they had not rendred according to the mercies hee had shewed them This sense is good and many learned men go this way and though it must bee acknowleded that if wee look on Canaan Israels Land with all its priviledges it was the glory of all Lands Ezek. 20.15 yet other Nations might surpass it for strength and greatness of Cities for largeness of borders and for amenity and fruitfulness of soil as Babylon did But with submission to better judgements I conceive the Interrogation to bee here an Assertion and the genuine sense of the place to bee
precious Psal. 56.8 their Desires are precious Psal. 10.17 their Names are precious and their Death is precious Psal. 112.6 116.15 Now if we must pray for all men even for Pagans then much more for these precious ones if we must pray for our enemies Matth. 5.44 and must be affected with their miseries Psal. 35.13 14. then much more for our friends If the Prophet wept for Moab and Babylon what should wee doe for Zionâ— Esay 16.11 and if Abraham were so importunate for wicked Sodom and all the people must lament for Nadab and Abihu two notorious wicked men who perisht for their Sin Levit. 10.6 how tender should we be of Sion and if we must sympathize and be sensible of the sorrowes of a particular good man Iob 2.13 how much more when a community of good men suffers And if Gods Servants have been affected with Impendent Judgements that were but in the Clouds and afarre off how should we bee affected with the present miseries of Gods people When Elisha fore-saw the evil that Hazael would doe to Israel some years after he wept and Daniel ch 8.11 12 13. fore-seeing the misery which would come upon Ierusalem two hundred years after his death he was even sick with sorrow vers 27. How would those Saints have wept in our dayes to have seen these present real evils which press and oppresse the people of God To incourage us let us know that this work never goes unrewarded God takes the kindness we shew to his people as done to himself he is fed when they are fed Matth. 25.35 36. The Kenites kindness unto Israel was rewarded four hundred years after 1 Sam. 15.6 Wee never please God better than when we seek the good of his people though we forget such labour of love yet he will not Heb. 6 10. Laban was blest for Iacobs sake and Pharaoh for Iosephs Rahab that hid the Spies was hid her self Obadiah that sheltred the Prophets of the Lord was himself sheltred by God Ebedmelech for the kindness which he shewed to Ieremy had his life for a prey God hath a Book of remembrance wherein he records all that we doe for him or his Mal. 3.16 How sad then is the condition of those that are sensless and regardless of Sions miseries So themselves can but live in wealth and ease they never regard the afflictions of Ioseph like Gallio they care for no such matters Christ looks upon such Luke-warm Newters as his profest enemies he that is not with him is against him Matth 12.30 and Meroz was cursed not for hurting but for not helping Gods people in their troubles Iudg. 5.23 and so was Edom Obad. 11 12 13 c. But most sad is the condition of those that instead of praying for Gods people they persecute them and adde affliction to the afflictions of those whom he hath wounded These may forget their owne cruelty but God will not he hath not only said but sworn it that he will not forget their cruelty Amos 8.7 He punisht Amaleck four hundred years after for his inhumanity towards Israel 1 Sam. 15.2 3. In all Ages God hath shewed himself terrible to such he will spoyl the spoylers of his People If Pharaoh pursue Israel God will pursue him If Edom shed Israels bloud God will have Edoms bloud Ezek. 35. Let us then every one sympathize with Sion and give the Lord no rest till he make our Ierusalem the praise of the earth Isa. 62.1 Every one in his place must help and doe something for Gods afflicted Ioseph Those that can pray must pray those that are in Power and Authority and have parts must assist in their places Souldiers that can fight must fight for Gods Church At the building of the Tabernacle every one did something In the body Natural each part is serviceable to the head The Church of Christ throughout the Christian World is in deep distress and cryes as the men of Macedonia did Come and help us Let us therefore by our Prayers and Tears come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty Inquire how it fares with Sion as Eli and Nenemiah did 1 Sam. 4.13 Neh. 1.2 and then pray for them accordingly Psal. 122.6 Isa. 45.11 Ier. 51.50 Get affectionate desires Psal. 14. ult Isa. 64.1 Affectionate prayers Psal. 25. ult 51.18 and Affectionate endeavours in your places as Magistrates Ministers c. for the good of Sion here and then you shall rejoyce with Sion hereafter VERSE 7. Therefore shall they goe Captive with the first that goe Captive and the banquet of them that stretched themselves shall be removed WE have before seen the Sin of the Rulers of Israel we are now come to the several branches of their Punishment whereof the first is Captivity and deportation out of their owne Land The Lord had borne long with them and waited many years for their returne but they abused his Patience and turned his grace into wantonness and therefore now he is resolved to put an end to all their Pastimes and pleasures In this Verse we have 1. A Iudgement threatned and that is Captivity Yee shall goe into captivity 2 Here are the Persons which must goe into Captivity and those are the secure Grandees and Voluptuous Rulers of Israel They shall goe Captive with the first that goe Captive of the Inhabitants of those Cities for the Country was spoyled and many of them captivated before But the Rulers who were the prime offendors and had been first in sin should now bee first in punishment They shall have the primacy amongst the Captives they shall goe in the front of them and lead them the way into Captivity As in Dignity and Luxury they went before others so now they shall have precedency in Punishment as you may see 2 King 17. Before they were all for the head of the Oyntments and now they should have the head in Punishment They must have the head and chief delights and now they shall have the head and chief of sorrows 3 Here is the Time when they should goe into Captivity and that is suddenly Now shall they goe i. e. it shall not be long but the Assyrian shall carry them out of their owne Land into Captivity in Gods due time it shall come to pass It was about sixty years after that the Captivity came which was but a short time comparatively it is said even now to come upon them because Gods decrees are sure and what he determines to doe is as sure as if it were already done Thus to shew the certainty of Babylons downfall it is said Babylon is fallen Revel 14.8 that is It shall as certainly be destroyed as if it were already done Her fall is decreed by God and is already begun in the hearts of Gods people and shall from henceforth be more and more advanced till it be utterly destroyed So the Lord had decreed the Captivity of this People and exercised them with
behold to incite both our Attention and Intention it calls for our ears and eyes 3 Here is the matter to be marked and that is the command and charge of God to destroy his people for their provocations The Lord commandeth and he will smite the City q. d. you have not to doe with an impotent man but with an Omnipotent God who as he hath made all things so he hath them all at his beck to help or hurt us as pleaseth him Hee needs not Armies he needs not Instruments to confound his adversaries it is but speaking and it is done Psal. 44.4 148.5 Q. How doth the Lord smite the City when hee only commands that it should be done A. It is a Rule Quod quis per alium facit per sel facere videtur In that the Lord commands the Assyrians and Chaldeans to destroy vers 14. he is said to doe it himself because they were but his rods and the instruments in his hand to chastise his people whoever be the Actor yet God is the Author 4 Here is the Universality of this destruction he will bring down great and small he will cause the Assyrians and Babylonians to smite the great house with breaches and the little house with clefts The word which we render Breaches signifies also droppings which by little and little rot the house and so make breaches and ruptures in it but in this place it properly signifies ruptures and breaches They were all incorrigible and incurable both great and small and therefore now they shall be punisht and perish together both houses and inhabitants Their Palaces and great Houses in Sion and Samaria should have a great down-fall and the lesser houses should chop and chink and moulder away By these expressions the Prophet intimates that both noble and ignoble should perish together as they had overthrown the Law and all equity vers 12. so now God overthrows them Some conceive that the Prophet here alludes to some Earth-quake which should make breaches and clefts in their houses but the Prophet confutes these and tells us that it shall be done by the hand of an enemy vers 14. Others Allegorize and apply this to the two Kingdoms of Israel and Iudah which are called two houses Isa. 8.14 By the great house say they is meant the Ten Tribes which did excell in wealth and dignity By the lesser house is meant the Kingdome of Iudah which was little compared with Israel the Kingdom of Israel should be so ruined by the Assyrians that it should never be repaired but the Kingdom of Iudah should only have some clefts and chawns made by the Babylonians which were in part made up again after the seventy years Captivity in Babylon by Ezra and Nehemiah OBSERVATIONS 1 Matters of moment must especially be marked Great Judgements were coming upon this People and the Lord by an Ecce Behold labours to awaken them to the consideration of them The birth of Christ is a matter of great moment and therefore the Angels come with a Behold Luk. 2.10 the seasons of grace are matters of great moment and therefore a double Behold is set upon them 2 Cor. 6.2 Our Original Sin is a matter deeply to be thought on and therefore it hath an Ecce setupon it Psa. 51.5 and so on the Day of Judgement Iude 7. Revel 22.7 2 Warre and Pestilence are Gods Servants which come and goe at his beck and commandment As all Creatures are his Servants Winds and Seas and Sun obey him Iob 9.7 so all Armies are his he is Lord of Hosts and if he but stamp or hiss for an Enemy or call for a Pestilence on the Land they readily obey Isa. 7.18 19. Levit 26.25 Ier. 47.6 7. he can destroy the most potent enemy by the most impotent and contemptible means as Froggs Flies Lice Psal. 105.31 If he say to such and such Diseases Go seize on such a man or such a woman they go if he bid them cease they cease We should not therefore bribe the Sergeant but compound with the Creditor Run not in your sickness and distress to Physick or Friends but make peace with God in the first place and then all shall be at peace with you We should also be patient under all Dispensations looking at Gods hand in all seeing him ordering and disposing all for the good of his This will make you dumbe and silent when you see it is the Lord that doth it 2 Sam. 16.10 Psal. 39.9 Ioh. 18.11 3 Obs. Universality in sin brings universality in suffering The generality of this people were corrupt and now they are generally ruined As rich and poor were Idolaters Apostates and Prophane so now they should be ransackt and ruined together 4 Obs. Sin brings a curse on our dwellings and layes famous fabricks in the dust as I have shewed before on verse eight VER 12. Shall Horses run upon the Rock Will one plow there with Oxen for yee have turned judgement into gall and the fruit of righteousness into hemlock IN the precedent Verse the Lord threatned a general Judgment against these general Sinners but they trusting to their owne strength and glory feared no Judgements but conceited that the Lord who had taken them into Covenant with himself and adopted them for his owne peculiar people and adorned them with many Priviledges above the rest of the Nations round about them would not deal so sharply with them as the Prophet threatned but would take some gentler course plowing them still by his Prophets and labouring to reclaime them by their Ministery To this the Lord answers in this Verse by a Prolepsis he prevents this evasion and vain conceit telling them that it was to no purpose to take any more pains with them or to correct them with gentler rods for they remained still obstinate and perverse falling away more and more growing worse and worse so that he did but plow the rocks and so break his Plows without any increase and sow the sands losing his labour on them and therefore he is now resolved that his Spirit should no longer contend with such rockey rebellious Sinners nor his patience wait any more upon them The Interrogation is a strong Negation Shall Horses run upon the rock or Oxen plow there No they will not they are not fit places for such purposes and doe you think that I will alwaies sing to deaf men and bestow my cost and care upon such rockey and hardned Sinners that will bring forth no fruit It is a Proverbial speech and signifies lost labour and therefore we use to say of such as labour in vaine They goe about to plow the rocks and sow the sands Interpreters vary much in their Exposition of this first branch of the verse See five various senses in a Lapidâ— and six in our large Annotations that which I have given with submission to better judgements I conceive to be most genuine and best agreeing with the
strength it was their constant practise to rejoyce in a thing of nought and to trust in their owne strength By Horns here is meant the power dominion glory and excellency of a people It is a Metaphor taken from horned Beasts whose strength and beauty lyes in their horns So Deut. 33.17.1 Sam. 2.1.10 Iob 16.15 Psa. 92.10 112.9 132.17 148.14 Thus they said viz. in their hearts and thoughts at least for what words are to us that thoughts are to God his Word and Spirit search the inward parts of the Soul Ier. 17.10 1 Cor. 2.10 they thought they had made themselves strong and impregnable by their own power The Prophet seems to allude to the power and success which Ieroboam the second one of the Kings of Israel had in whose reign Amos Prophesied This King was very succesful and prosperous he inlarged the borders of the Kingdom and took divers Cities from the Syrians 2 King 14.25 27 28. So Iudah was very succesful under King Uzziah as appears 2 Chron. 26.1 to 17. these Victories and Successes made them proud and lift up their horns as if by their owne power and policy they had got the victory Thus they rejoyced in a thing of nought as if by their owne strength they had inlarged their borders and could now defend themselves against forreign envasions The Interrogation is a strong Affirmation Have we not taken to our selves horns by our owne strength See what impious Arrogance aud Vam-glorious boasting here is every word gives a crake Have not we taken Have not we taken to us have not we taken to us Horns yet more Have not we taken to us Horns by our owne strength They did all God did nothing he is not in any of their thoughts I have read of Pope Adrian who having built a stately Colledge at Lovaine caused this to be written in golden letters over the gate Utretch planted him there was he born Lovaine watred him there he got Learning and Caesar gave the increase for he made him a Cardinal one wittily comes after and subscribes Hic Deus nihil fecit God had nothing to doe here So these men ascribed all to themselves and shut out God Though the Lord by an Almighty hand had brought them out of Aegypt into the Land of Canaan and drove out the Canaanites before them and by a strong hand preserved them in that good Land yet so proud ungrateful and dis-ingenious were they grown that they sacrificed to their owne Net and assumed all to themselves saying Have we not gotten these Victories by our owne strength The Lord can now no longer bear with this Sacrilegious robbing him of the honour which was due to his Name and therefore in the next Verse he tells them That he will raise up a Nation against them that shall utterly destroy them OBSERVATIONS 1 The Creatures excellency is all but vanity Take the Quintessence of all the Riches Power Pomp Beauty Morality and delights of the World and put them in one scale and put Vanity in the other and they will prove lighter than vanity and therefore they may well be called things of nought But of this at large elsewhere 2 Obs. Such is mans corruption and madness that he rejoyceth in things of nought He dislikes what is truly good and delights in vanity Psal. 4.6 7. Hence Solomon spends the whole Book of Ecclesiastes in disswading men from this folly and madness St. Chrysostom tells us that if he had a voyce like Thunder and a mighty Mountain for his Pulpit and all the Men and Women in the World for his Auditory he would chuse that Text to preach on Psal. 4.2 O yee sons of men how long will yee love vanity 3 Gods Word is a critical word It discovers the thoughts and intents of mens hearts and layes their inside open so great is its power and efficacy Gods Word resembles God as he is the only Heart-searching God so his Word is the only Heart-searching Word It pierceth to the very Marrow and discovers to us our most secret thoughts and affections Heb. 4.12 and can tell us whether we delight in things of nought 4. Wicked men ascribe that to their owne power and policy which is due to Gods Power and Grace If they have success and victory they presently lift up their Horns and push at God that they may the better Sacrifice to their own Net and burn incense to their drag Hab. 1.15 16. Thus Senacherib King of Assyria boasted of his power and success as if he could conquer not only Ierusalem but its God also Isa. 36. Thus that Heathen that went forth to Battle being admonished to call upon the Gods answered that it was for cowards to pray as for himself he was resolved to try his own strength in Battle he did so and was slaine Let others kiss their own hands Iob 31.27 and ascribe all to Idols and themselves but let us with all the Servants of God ascribe the glory of all we are or have to God alone for what have we that we have not received from him 1 King 8.24 Psal. 20.7 44.5 6 7 8. 89.9 10.17 18. it is by the grace of God that we are what we are 1 Cor. 15.10 VER 14. But behold I will raise up against you a Nation O house of Israel saith the Lord the God of Hosts and they shall afflict you from the entring in of Hemath unto the river of the Wilderness THese words contain the Conclusion of the fifth Sermon which Amos made to this People We have seen their Sin before we are now come to their Suffering This people gloried in things of nought and would not beleeve the Prophets words but now they should be taught by blows and bee made to feel what they would not fear and therefore the Prophet begins with a but But behold q. d. you think by your own strength and power to subdue your enemies but I will raise up against you the Assyrian a mighty Nation that shall chase you from one end of the Land to another The Lord had told them before of Judgements in general that should come upon them for their sins now he comes to particularize the Judgement he tells them who shall inflict it on whom and how farre They had forsaken God and cast him off and now he forsook them they trusted to their own strength but God sends against them a stronger than they that should subdue them But I will raise up against you a Nation c. In the words we have 1. The Adversative Particle But. 2 The Note of Attention Behold 3 The matter to be attended I will raise up against you a Nation viz. the Assyrian against Israel and the Babylonian against Iudah for the bounds here set for the promised Land do imply both Kingdoms primarily Israel and Samaria and secondarily Iudah and Ierusalem as I have shewed on Vers. 1. The Kingdom of Israel was overthrown by
Salmaneser King of Assyria and the City and Temple of Ierusalem by Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon these God raised up to cool their courage and abate their pride 4 The Lord tells them what this Nation shall doe to Israeâ— They shall afflict them they shall press and oppress them by violence and Tyranny they shall hem them in and so straiten them that none shall escape 5 Here is the extent of this affliction and how farre it shall go and that is from Hemath which was situate in the North border of Canaan looking Eastward vers 2. Unto the river of the Wilderness that is to Sichor a river of Aegypt in the South looking Westward and parting the Land of Israel from the Land of Aegypt Numb 34 5 8. Josh. 13.3 5. 15.47 1 Chron. 13.5 it is called the river of the Desart because it came out of the Desart some think it was the river Nilus but the bounds of Canaan never extended so farre Ieroboam had re-gained those bounds to Israel they were proud of the Prize but about thirty years after Tiglath-Pileser re-gained it all from Israel and laid it to the Assyrians and not long after comes Salmanesar the King of Assyria and takes Samaria and subdues the whole Kingdom of Israel About one hundred years after Iudah was carried captive into Babylon according to that woe denounced against them ver 1. When Warrs arise yet some use to escape but here the Lord threatens that they shall be opprest from one end of the Land to another Though the Country were large and spacious and there were many ways to escape yet the enemy should befet them so strictly that there should be no escaping but all should goe into Captivity As all had sinned so all should now suffer for sin So that this verse seems to be a kind of Antithesis and check to their Carnal confidence in their own strength and success q. d. it is true your King Ieroboam hath recovered your borders but I will send one that shall recover all from you again He restored all from Hemath to the Sea of the Plain and I will send the Assyrian who shall wast Israel from Hemath to the Sea i. e. from North to South and from East to West and then shall you see how infirm your firmness was when your Valour shall be turned into weakness your Glory into shame and your Mirth into mourning 6 Who is it that saith all this why it is one that can and will perform it It is the Lord the God of Hosts who hath the Army of the Assyrians and all other Armies at his beck and command vers 8. OBSERVATIONS 1 Pride goes before destruction In the precedent verse we read of Israels Pride and Carnal-confidence and now see their fall When pride is in the faddle destruction is on the crupper Dan 4.30 we read of Nebuchadnezzars pride and ver 31. we read of his fall Children that hold by their own coats pull themselves down by his own strength shal no man prevail 1 Sam. 2.9 Ezek 28.9 2 The Lord is true in all his Threatnings Not one word shall fail of all that he hath spoken against a rebellious people Hee threatned to send the Assyrian against Israel here he did it He threatned to send the Babylonian against Iudah and they came at last 3 When people are rejoycing and most secure then usually Iudgements are nearest In the precedent verse they were rejoycing and in this verse comes their ruine When the old World was buying selling marrying and merry-making then came the Floud and swept them all away Mat. 24.38 39. When Bellsring Canons roar Fires flame and there is nothing but mirth and jollity then may destruction be at the door When men cry Peace peace then comes sudden and swift destruction 1 Thes. 5.3 2 Pet. 2.1 4 It is God who raiseth up enemies against a rebellious people I will raise up a Nation against you War is one of Gods sore Judgments which he sends against a people of his wrath Ezek. 14.21 when men will not serve God with gladness and sincerity in abundance then he makes them serve their enemies in want and misery Deut. 28.47 48. Isa. 42.24 25. The Assyrian is but Gods â—tod his Staff his Axe his Saw to scourge beat hew and divide they are but Instruments it is God that is the Agent 5 Universality in sin brings universality in suffering As the Land had been â—ilted from corner to corner with uncleaneness so now it should be answerably filled with punishment National Sins bring National Plagues Ezra 9.10 11. When all the old World was corrupt then came the Floud and swept them all away When all Sodom and all Ierusalem were given to wickedness then came Judgements and destroyed them Multitudes in sin are so far from Patronizing the sinners that it hastens wrath 6 Sin brings a people into a desperate condition It brings them into such straits that they know not which way to turn themselves The Land of Canaan was spacious and there were many ways of escaping but their sins had brought things to that pass that they were surrounded with enemies and there was none to deliver them 7 As Kingdoms have their times of flourishing so they have their times of fading too Israel flourisht and was succesful under Ieroboam but they fade and fall in the reign of King Hoshea The Grâ—cian Babylonian and Persian Monarchies which were sometimes famous through the world are now mouldred away and come to nothing and so shall the Roman 8 God usually retaliates Sinners and pays them in their own coyn This people had for a long time pressed the Lord with their sins Amos 2.13 and now themselves are prest and opprest with Judgments Sodom and Gomorah that burnt in lust were burnt with fire Nadab and Abihu that offered strange fire perisht by strange fire from the Lord. Asa that set the Prophet in the Stocks had a disease in his feet Babylon that shed the bloud of Saints hath bloud given her to drink Hee that on earth denied a crumb of Bread in Hell shal not have a drop of water Luk. 16.24 25. They that delight in left-hand blessings Prov. 3.16 shal be placed with the Goats on the left hand Mat. 25.33 and those that delight in darkness shal be sent to darkness 2 Pet. 2.17 They that say unto God Depart now he will say unto them Depart at the last Day He that will not owne Christs truth now shall not be owned by him then They that trample upon the Saints here the Saints shall tread them under their feet hereafter Micha 4.11 12 13. 7.10 so that all the wicked at last shall be compelled to say with Adonibezek Judg. 1. As I have done so hath the Lord rewarded me The Aegyptians that worshipped creeping things were punisht with Froggs and other creeping things Demosthenes and Tully that were proud of their Eloquence perisht by it
Milo that gloried in his strength was ruined by it Absolom that was proud of his Hair it helpt to hang him 2 Sam. 18.9 Let every one then take notice of his sin by the suffering and silence murmuring We have now seen the Sins that ruined Israel viz. Idolarry Superstition Apostasie Oppression Luxury Tyranny Injustice and Carnal-confidence c. If these Sins reign in England what can we expect but that the Lord should send some Assyrian upon us to avenge the quarrel of his Covenant on us c. FINIS AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical OBSERVATIONS UPON The Seventh Chapter of Amos. VERSE 1 2 3. 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 loe it was the latter growth after the Kings mowings And it came to pass after they had made an end of eating the grass of the Land then I said O Lord forgive I beseech thee by whom shall Jacob arise for hee is small The Lord repented for this it shall not be saith the Lord. THis Chapter contains the Sixth Sermon of Amos wherein are three Visions to which are annext the issue and operation of them vers 10 11 12. The Prophet had before plainly and clearly set down Gods Judgements against this People that none might complaine of obscurity yet now hee comes to speak more mystically in five Types and Visions if by any means he might work upon them Two Visions weâ— have Chap. 8.1 c. 9.1 c. and three in the nine first Verses of this Chapter setting forth the patience and long-suffering of God towards this rebellious People The three Types or Similies are of Grashoppers Which adumbrare three Judgements Famine War and utter destruction Fire Which adumbrare three Judgements Famine War and utter destruction A Plumb-line Which adumbrare three Judgements Famine War and utter destruction The first Judgement which Amos saw was an army of Grashoppers Locusts or Green-worms which should devour the Grass and Corn and this shadoweâ— out the want of all things vers 1 2. 2 That of Fire devouring the great deep denotes Warre with the miseries that attend it vers 4. Both these had ruined Israel but that at the mediation and intercession of the Prophet they were kept off for a time vers 2 3 5 6. the duty of a faithful Pastor is to Pray and Preach Amos doth both these he shewes them their Sins and Gods Judgements due unto them for them yet withall he prayes for the averting of them and was heard for that time till at last the malady was past cure 3 That of a Plumb-line in the hand of God signified the utter overthrow both of the Oeconomical Political and Ecclesiastical estate of the Kingdom God had measured out a time for them to repent in but they were become incurable and therefore the Lord here threatens to spare them no longer and to pass by them no more vers 8. nor yet to accept of any more mediation for them and therefore we doe not read that ever the Prophet interceded for the averting of this Judgement as he had done for the former so long as there was hope hee prayed for them but since they were incorrigible he forbears 4 We have the slanderous accusation of Amaziah the Priest of Bethel who being netled with the Prophesie and freedome of speech used by this blunt and down-right Prophet against both King and Kingdom stirs up King Ieroboam the second against Amos under pretence of being a seditious turbulent person and one that had conspired against the King vers 10 11. Amos hath conspired against the King 2 The more to incense the King against him he aggravates his Crimes as first that he acted this Treason not secretly but openly He hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel 2 That the People were much troubled at his Doctrine to the hazard of the Kingdome The Kingdome is not able to bear his words 3 Here is Amaziahs fraudulent advice under pretence of love and kindness he would nor have Amos come any more to Bethel lest he should run himself into danger and therefore he adviseth him to pack out of the Kingdome with all speed and to get into Iudeah his owne Country and to Prophesie there Vers. 12. 4 We have Amos his bold reply to this false Prophets calumniations vers 14 15. where he asserts and justifies his calling shewing 1 Negatively that he was no Prophet nor Prophets Son 2 Affirmatively That he was an Herdsman 3 How he was called to be a Prophet he came not of his owne accord to the work but the Lord said to me Goe Prophesie vers 15. 4 Here is Amos his Charge to which he was primarily sent and that was to the ten Tribes vers 15. Goe Prophesie to Israel he durst not therefore forsake his Charge assigned him by God and flee into Iudea as Amaziah would have had him but he resolved to stand his ground and keep to his Commission and preach to Israel though he dyed for it as he did being slaine say some by Amaziahs Son 5 Here is a five-fold Judgement threatned by Amos against this Persecuting Prelate vers 17. he should suffer in his Wife in his Children in his Possessions in his owne Person and in the whole Kingdome which he should see goe into Captivity VER 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 loe it was the latter growth after the Kings mowings IN this Chapter we have three Visions the first whereof is that of devouring Locusts which left little or nothing behind them Where we have 1 The Person revealing the Vision to the Prophet and that is the Lord Thus hath the Lord God shewed me in a Prophetical Vision the Judgements which he is about to bring upon Israel This he mentions to procure the more authority to what he spake that they might see they were not figments or dreams of his owne inventing 2 Here is the Vision it self or what the Lord shewed him and that is Grashoppers and behold he formed Grashoppers He did not call out Grashoppers already made but he saw the Lord forming and framing a new Army of Grashoppers out of the dust of the earth or the like which to Gods Omnipotency was as easie as to bring out an Army of Grashoppers already made Obj. But most call these Grashoppers Locusts and so the very same word is rendred Isa. 33.4 so that what shall we call them Grashoppers or Locusts I answer both that is they are Grashopper-Locusts To clear this you must know that there were several sorts of Locusts mentioned in the Scripture some were silent and some vocal some good and for food Mat. 3.4 Others were obnoxiouâ—â—nd hurtful as here in the text and of these there were three sorts 1 Locust-Solhem Levit. 11.22 2 Locust-Horgel
Levit. 11.22 3 Locust-Hagab Levit. 11.22 And this last is the Locust-Grashopper in the text It was a devouring Insect that went in great multitudes together eating up all before them and so bringing a Famine on the places where they came Ioel 1.4 6. 2.11 they are called a Nation and an Army of Vermine for their swarmes and multitudes Q. A second Quere is VVhether these Locusts must be taken Literally or Metaphorically properly or symbolically Ans. 1. They may be taken literally for an Army of Insects which devour the fruites of the earth and so cause a famine this is most genuine here and it was one of those rods with which God chastned Israel Amos 4.9 as for War he speaks of that vers 4. but this especially relates to famine and some Judgements begun before the time of Ieroboam the second 2 Others take them Metaphorically for any kind of devastation or wasting whatsoever or else for the Assyrians which like so many Locusts should over-run the Land of Israel and devour all before them Hence the Assyrian is compared to a Razor which should shave them even to the skin Isa. 7.20 3 Here is the Time these Locusts were formed and that is 1. Generally in the beginning of the shooting up of â—he latter growth 2. More particularly It was the latter growth after the Kings mowings After the first fleece was mowed off for the use of the Kings horses which was wont to be sooner than the common mowth Locusts love not to feed on ripe and hard things their delight is in young and tender things and therefore they are very destructive to Immanths and new-sowen fields These hurtful Vermine God sent in abundance amongst them And here againe Interpreters differ 1 Some take this mowing or shearing of the Grass for the grazing with the Kings sheep whose feeding is called a cropping of the grass But this hath no rooting in the text for though the word doe signifie shearings yet it is used for mowen grass Psal. 72.6 2 Others take it for the mowing not only of Grass but of Corn also in the Fields for Husbandmen especially in those fruitful regions used to mow their luxuriant Corn that it might thicken and stand the better and if this latter blade were eaten by Insects or Locusts the Harvest was lost and Famine ensued The vulgar Latine mistaking the Original render it Serotinus imber the latter rain but the word is Lekesh herba serotina sive cordum the latter mowth and not the latter rain and here again some fly to Metaphors and conceive that this mowing adumbrates the devastation of Israel by the Assyrian as â—â—elds when they are mowen and their fleece is gone are naked and deformed so God would raise up the Assyrian that should rob them of their riches and fleece them for their sins The flourishing Grass notes the flourishing condition of Israel but they abusing that condition the Lord mowed them 1. More lightly and overtly by Pul King of Assyria 1 Chro. 5.26 2. More severely by Benhadad King of Syria who afflicted them very sore and gained much of their Land and riches from them 3 There was a latter growth in the dayes of Ieroboam the second when Israel began to flourish and recover its losses 2 King 14.25 but after this they grew worse and worse till the Lord swept them out of the Land and would hear no more prayers for them OBSERVATIONS 1 Formerly God revealed his mind to the Prophets as hee did here to Amos by Types and Visions Jer. 1.11 24.1 Ezek. 1. Heb. 1.1 See more of this Amos 8.1 Obs. 3. 2 All our afflictions come from God It is he that forms the Locusts sends Fire metes out the very Time Quantity Quality and Duration of all our sufferings whatever it be it is he that forms it Ier. 18.11 there is no evil of this kind in the City but the Lord doth it Amos 3.6 This must make us patient and silent since it is the Lord that doth it Psal. 39.9 3 God hath Armies of Insects and little contemptible Creatures wherewith to punish disobedient people He needs not men to destroy us he hath Froggs and Flies Lice and Locusts and these shall doe it Exod. 10.14 Deut. 28.38 42.2 Chron. 7.13 Psal. 78.46 Ioel 1.4 much of Gods might is seen in these little Armies they all fulfill the word of Gods command Let none then murmure at second causes but still look up to the first lest by fretting at our troubles we double them 4 Naturally we are very stupid and sensâ—lesse under Gods hand Though he smite us yet we grieve not Isa. 9.12 13. Ier. 5.3 and though his hand be lifted up against us yet we will not see Isa. 26.11 The Judgement it self here was visible and yet they had not eyes to see it yea though the Prophet held it forth to them by a sensible Type and useth a double Ecce Behold â—oe to excite them and quicken attention No wonder that our Saviour cryed O hard and slow of heart not to beleeve what God hath spoken by his Words and Works Luke 24.25 5 When People are most prosperous many times they are nearest a fall Israel had success and victories but a little before there was a shooting up of the latter growth they lived in peace and plenty forty one years they were grown rich proud and secure and then comes the Locust and devoures them no sooner had they gotten a little greenness but the Assyrian devours it As Herbs when they come to flower begin to wither or as the Sun when it comes to the Zeâ—ith then it declines so man in his best estate is altogether vanity Psal. 39.5 not only in his worst estate when Old age hath seized on him but in his flourishing and most prosperous condition man is but a vaine thing Be jealous then over your selves when you abound with those Creature comforts be like Pigeons when they fare best they are most fearful It is good to think of War in times of Peace and of Famine in times of Plenty we know not what changes may come in the world it is good to fear the worst as Iob did Iob 3.25 6 Gods Iudgements usually are gradual As men sin gradually and grow from one degree of wickedness to another so God is gradual in his punishments First he begins with lesser rods and they being slighted he brings forth greater and plagues men seven times more according to their sins 1. He begins here with Locusts and destroyes the fruites of the earth 2. He takes away part of their Land from them 3. He takes away the whole Kingdom and sends away the people into captivity VERSE 2. And it came to passe that when they had made an end of eating the Grasse of the Land then I said O Lord forgive I beseech thee by whom shall Jacob arise for hee is small THe Prophet understanding the Mystery of the Vision and seeing how
us much in this duty of Prayer The Lord repented also for this this also shall not be vers 6. I will hold my hand saith God the fire which I threatned shall not yet come the Land shall not be deâ—troyed at this time So gracious is the Lord and ready to forgive and so quickly he repents him of the evil which he intends against his people especially when his Ministers intercede for them Ioel 2.13 he afflicts not willingly Judgement is his strange work and Fury is not in him Isa. 27.4 But though the Lord at the intercession of his Servants may suspend his fiery Judgements here though oft-times hee pleads with them here by Fire Sword Famine c. Isa. 66.15 16. Ezek. 38.22 yet without repentance the fire of the last Day will certainly devour them God will then contend with fire and execute the fierceness of his fury upon the workers of iniquity 3 Obs. Hence note That short Prayers full of faith and fervency may prevail very much with God for a People It is not the loudness or the length or the neat expressions which take with God 1 King 18.26 Eccles. 5.2 Mat. 6.7 7.21 But it is the faith and sincerity of him that prayes poor broken Prayers coming from a broken heart are of great worth in the sight of God Matth 15.25 Eliâ—ahs Prayer was short and pithy and prevailed 1 King 18.36 so Psal. 6.3 My soul is sore vexed but thou O Lord how long viz. wilt thou delay to help me It is an abrupt broken speech but God can pick sense out of our non-sense Prayer is a work of the Heart and not of the Tongue words are but the out-side of Prayer it is the Hearts desire which God eyes and respects and if thy affections fly aloft though thy words doe but creep yet thy faith shall get what thy words cannot yea if thou canst not speak yet if thou canst weep God will hear the voyce of thy weeping Tears have a voyce Psal. 6.8 as well as words The Lord called to contend with fire Or the Lord proclaimed that he would contend with fire or plead that is punish them with fire Thus Hos. 4.1 The Lord hath a Controversie that is a Plea or Process not only verbal but real that is he had Judgements ready to execute on them This contending notes Israels obstinacy we use not to contend or goe to suit till we have tried all other means to get our right yet cannot get it then we are constrained to contend As War so Law is or ought to be our last refuge God had used all means to win this People but in vaine and therefore he is now constrained to contend with Fire and Sword against them Q. But what is meant by Fire here A. Interpreters vary 1. Some take it Literally for some extraordinary fire which should fall from Heaven and consume them as it did Sodom and Gomorrah and Aarons Sons Levit. 10.2 and Iobs Sheep and Servants Iob 1.16 So say some God called his Angels to execute judgement on these wicked men and to contend or plead for him by fire in their destruction 2 By fire others understand a great Drought when the violent heat of the Sun-beams should pierce the deepest parts of the earth below the roots of the Corn and Trees and so should make a perfect famine This extream heat and scorching of the Sun is called a Fire Ioel 1.19 20. A fire hath consumed the Pastures of the Wilderness and a flame hath burnt up all the trees of the field that is the great heat of the Sun like to a fire hath consumed all 3 By Fire may be meant the Wrath of God which was now inflamed against this stubborn People and this is the kindler of all Penal fires and is oft in Scripture called Fire Iob 31.12 Isa. 26.11 Amos 5.6 Heb. 12. ult 4 And most genuinely Fire is here taken Metaphorically for some direful and dreadful Judgement for Fire of all the Elements is most terrible which should consume their men money health strength Iob 15.31 34 More especially here it adumbrates War which should be managed by some fiery furious enemy who like fire should wast and consume all before it So Ezek. 20.48 Behold I will kindle a fire in thee which shall devour every green tree and every dry tree that is all sorts of people both old and young rich and poor the fire of War shall consume them all So Numb 21.28 Isa. 66.15 16. Ier. 48.45 Lam. 2.3 Amos 1.4 7 10. 2.5 OBSERVATIONS 1 When lesser Iudgements will not mend a People God usually comes with greater The devouring Locusts could not stir this people God wil now see what the Fire will doe Great impenitency calls for great punishment Levit. 26.18 But of this elsewhere 2 Sin is the great make-bate between God and his people It breeds contention and dissention between them God hath a Suit and an Action against such Hos. 4.1 God had a Controversie against Israel and cites them to answer the Plea which he had against them for their ignorance cruelty swearing lying c. God loves his Creature as it is his Creature but when it becomes a sinful rebellious Creature he abhors it and delights in its destruction Prov. 1.26 This bred the Quarrel between God and the Old world Gen. 6.2 3. and between him and Ierusalem Jer. 30.15 Hos. 12.2 Micha 6.2 3. Sin bred the first Controversie and Quarrel between God and the Angels and between God and Adam This turns him who is sweetness it self and mercy it self into wrath and fury Isa. 64.5 it is sin that warres against God and therefore no wonder if he warre against it it is directly opposite to his holy Nature Psal. 5.5 and dishonours him in all his Attributes Sinners deny his Omniscience as if he did not see what they doe and his Omnipotence as if he were unable to punish and his Iustice as if he would never call them to an account c. no wonder then if God have a quarrel with such Sin warres against the Lawes of God against the Spirit of God Isa. 7.13 Ephes. 4.30 against the Saints of God against the wayes and Worship of God yea against all that is Gods No wonder then if he contend by Fire against that which so fiercely contends and fights against him and his 3 Warre is a dreadful Iudgement It is one of Gods last and sore Rods Ezek. 14.21 hence it is compared here to fire which is one of the most terrible elements that are If the Lord should contend with Water and send a floud upon the world that were sad but Fire Fire is farre more terrible to the nature of man As Peace is one of the choycest Mercies so War is the saddest Judgement Peace sweetens our blessings and makes them blessings indeed To have Houses Goods Lands and be in continual danger of losing by enemies imbitters all to us Hence when the Lord
is Amos the Servant of God and the Seer The Prophets of old were called Seers 1 Sam. 9.9 Isa. 30.10 God inlightned them by his Spirit and made known to them his secrets by Visions hence they were called Seers Numb 6.12.6 Ezek. 1.1 Some make Amaziah here to call the Prophet Seer Ironically by way of scorn and contempt as if the Prophet had been some Fanatick and his Visions vanities But the contexture of the Discourse is against this for Amaziah gives the Prophet his due title but in a flattering way the better to effect his design upon him 2 Lest this Priest should seeme to be mad without reason he now produceth Arguments to perswade Amos to be gone Man being a Rational Creature may sooner be drawn by reason than driven by force Amaziah will try what this will doe Goe flee thee away into the Land of Judah there eate bread and Prophesie there q. d. Be gone with all speed thou hast yet liberty so to doe thou hast now an opportunity of escaping and mayest freely passe without any stopping let it not slip lest it repent thee when it is too late So that this is an Argument à facili 2 Flee with all speed be gone from amongst us for there is no staying long in safety here thou art encompassed here with snares and dangers and therefore if thou lovest thy life pack up and bee gone Citò citiùs citissimè lest thou bee caught and killed So that this was an Argument a necessario 3 Into the Land of Iudah The better to perswade him to flee this Priest hath found out another Topick viz. a convenient place to flee to and that was his owne Country thou camest from Tekoah Amos 1.1 and no man can blame thee for going home againe especially since thou art so hated here There thou wilt dwell amongst thine owne kindred and acquaintance in peace and plenty in love and safety whereas here thou art a Stranger and a blunt Prophet and canst expect none of these things from us As a friend therefore I counsel thee with all speed to be gone for both King and Kingdome are resolved to keep their Calves and if thou come any more to preach here against them beware lest they catch thee and kill thee But Amos fears no such Scar-crows God sent him not to Iudah but to Israel and there he must and will abide It was Ionahs sin to fly to Tarshish when hee should have gone to Niniveh A Minister is not sui juris but must preach when and where his Lord and Master commands him 4 There eate bread that is Get thy living there Gen. 3.19 for if thou stayest here thou mayest starve here is no body will succour of support thee for thou art a burden both to Prince and people Here is nothing for thee to eate here is no profit to be had and by thy preaching so openly at Bethel against the Calves of Bethel thou marrest our markets too But goe to Iudah there thou wilt be maintained like a Prophet indeed there thou wilt live more securely and be maintained more plentifully there is King Vzziah alias Azariah that loves such precise ones as thou art 2 King 15.1 3. and a people that prize men of thy straine and will not suffer thee to want Thus this mercenary false Prophet measures Amos by himself thinking that gaine would intice him away as if Amos had been one of those who Prophesied for a little Lucre for a handful of Barley or a mouthful of Bread Ezek. 13.19 Micha 3.11 so that this is an Argument ab utili 5 Prophesie there Here this subtile Priest Proleptically prevents an Objection whereas Amos might have said what would you have me idle and leave that employment to which God so signally and extraordinarily called me Not so saith Amaziah I doe not bid thee flee that thou mayest be idle or silent for if he had done so his fraud had been too apparent but I bid thee goe to Iudah and Prophesie there where thou wilt have double honour that is both countenance and maintenance both which thou wantest here Thou lovest to be plaine and free against sin why get thee to Iudah there they will be glad of thee and there thou mayest declaime freely against the sins of Israel and threaten us without fear Here thou art molested with Altars and Calves with Idols and Images Amos 3.14 but get thee to Ierusalem and there thou wilt be free from these superstitious fopperies and lying vanities There exercise thy gift of preaching and get thy living by it as I doe by my Priesthoood at Bethel where I live peaceably and plentifully with my Oblations and Sacrifices I shall not envie thee get what thou canst at Iudah doe not thou envie me my Morsels at Bethel 6 He argues adamno and tells him that it was dangerous for him to preach any more at Bethel as for what is past that is pardoned provided thou come no more amongst us at Bethel for it is the Kings Court and the Kings Chappel and he will not endure to be affronted there OBSERVATIONS 1 That wicked men are very sedulous in opposing the faithful Ministers of God What industry and activity doth this Priest of Bethel use to root Amos out of Israel He sends to the King and accuseth Amos for a Traytor and when force will not doe he playes the Fox and under pretence of friendship prswades him to leave his station and to flee the Land So Pharaoh how industrious was he to destroy Israel how active was Haman to have the Iewes destroyed and what a great sum doth he promise to the King to effect it no less than ten thousand talents of silver Hest. 4.9 So Nehemiahs enemies what force and fraud did they use to hinder his repairing of the Temple how faine would they have had him flee as Amaziah would have had Amos here that so he might have reproached him for a Fugitive and one that was conscious to himself of his own guilt and therefore he fled for it Q. The Question then will be whether it be lawful to flee in time of persecution A. In some Cases it may as 1 If a man be but a young beginner and find not strength to bear the brunt and heat of the day he may with-draw for a time 2 If the Persecution be personal against a particular man or Minister and not against the whole Church he may use his liberty So did Moses Elijah David Christ Paul But when Gods time is come that he calls us to seal to his truth even with our dearest lives we must not love them to the death Revel 12.11 but rejoyce that we have any thing of worth to lay down for Christ like the valiant Horse we must goe forth to meet the armed man Iob 39.21 so did that accomplisht couragious Martyr Mr. Fryth when some that loved him had contrived his escape he told them it must not be for saith he if you should leave me
to think that God is delighted as they are with Musick Singing and a little formal sacrificing in the Temple but the Prophet tells them such carnal joy shall end in howling The Lord had given them a little success and they conceited presently that they were highly in Gods favour for wicked men are apt to measure Gods favour to them by present enjoyments and outward prosperity and therefore they goe to singing as Papists now use to doe in their Temples yet with self-respects hence the Prophet thunders out wrath and Judgement against them for those that will not sincerely sing to God in a time of grace shall be forced to howl in a time of wrath Those that will not serve God with gladness of heart in the abundance of all things shall serve him in sadness of heart in the want of all things Deut. 28.47 48. In Nehemiahs time neither Princes Priests nor people would serve God in that fat Land which he had given them therefore they were made Slaves to their enemies Neh. 9.34 35 36 37. So Psal. 106.39 40 41 42. when they fell from God to Idols he sold them into their enemies hands for a prey When the Gospel comes with tenders of grace to a people and they reâ—ect them such shall be slain Luke 19.14 27. 2 Sin brings Gods sore Iudgements upon a people It brings Sword Plague Famine Ezek. 14.21 which lay heaps upon heaps and sweep away thousands in a short space so that there are many dead bodies in all places Sin makes men fall and fly before Gods Judgements as leaves before a mighty wind Isa. 64.6 See more before on Amos 4.10 6.9 3. Want of decent burial is reckoned as a temporal Iudgement upon the wicked They shall cast them out with silence and none shall make lamentation for them as they usually did in those daies But of this at large on Amos 6.10 VERSE 4 5. Hear this yee that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the Land to fail Saying when will the New-Moon be gone that we may sell Corn c. THe prophet having set forth the calamities which were coming upon Israel hee now comes to set forth the ground and cause of these calamities and that was 1. Their oppression cruelty covetousness and unrighteousness towards men vers 4 5 6. 2. Irreligion and Idolatry towards God vers 5 14. They had broken both Tables both high and low and that with an high hand against great light and love and therefore the Lord resolves now to root them out And because secure sinners especially great men are apt to flatter themselves and to think themselves priviledged and that God loves them because he doth not presently punish them therefore the Prophet by an Apostrophe turns his speech unto them and that he might the better awaken them he begins as oft before with an Audite hoc Hear this O yee brutish men that swallow up the poor and needy Hear and fear those threatnings which I denounce against you from the Lord vers 2 3. Awaken at last and see what dreadful destruction is at your doors that by unfained repentance ye may prevent it In this Verse we have 1. The Prophets Alarum to drowsie sinners Hear this 2. Here are the parties alarumed and these are primarily the tyrannical oppressing Rulers of Israel 2. The inferiour sort who sinned in their degree and had their peculiar sins as well as others These covetous Cormorants are here set forth Paraphrastically by their greedy devouring of the poor O yee that swallow up the needy that pant and gape as almost windless after them Amos 2.7 getting their goods eating their flesh drinking their blood and making them live so slavishly that their life was but a lingring death and this they did by laying heavy burdens upon them partly by Bribery and Usury partly by racking their Rents and by inhauncing the rate of food and other necessarie things which they had ingrossed into their own hands and so made the poor to spend what they had and for meer necessity to become their slaves The word in the fountain signifies to soop up to devour and earnestly to pant after a thing As a thirsty man swallows down drink with abundance of eagerness and delight or as the Whale and great beasts swallow the little ones up at a bit Gen. 37.20 41.21 So did these cruel covetous Harpys devour the poor without any pity or compassion Iob 5.5 7.2 Psal. 56.2 57.4 The participle of the Present Tense notes the constancy of their cruelty they were alwaies devouring it was their very Trade to press upon the poor 3. Here is the height of their cruelty they so opprest the poor that they were not able to subsist They make the poor of the Land to fail They used all means to dispatch and destroy them out of the Land that so they might live alone in the Earth Object But sure they were some wicked men whom they used thus Answ. No they were the afflicted meek and lowly of the Land The meek and modest poor are exposed to many miseries and injuries of mighty men thsee cannot resist and so become a prey to them Iames 2.6 5.6 as little fish do to the great ones Unreasonable creatures know whom they may be bold withall and so do oppressors A Crow will stand on a Sheeps back and pull off wooll they durst not be so bold with a Woolf or Mastiff OBSERVATIONS 1. Men are very deaf and hard of hearing especially when they are told of their sins And therefore the Prophet begins with an Emphatical Hear yee this They were deaf and loath to attend because they had no desire to amend Sinners have so many shifts and their deceitful hearts finde out so many evasions that the Lord is fain to bid his Prophet cry and cry aloud that all may hear and be awakened out of their deep sleep So Isa. 58.1 Micah 6.9 2. Ministers must not stick to reprove great men when they are great sinners They must cry with the Prophet Hear this O yee Rulers They do more mischief by their evil example and therefore the Prophet begins with them besides they set their hearts as the heart of God Ezek. 28.6 and think themselves above reproof and above controul and therefore the Lord will have his Prophets reprove them that they may know they be but men 3. Oppressing of the poor is a crying sin It provokes the Lord to a controversie with a Land Hos. 4.1 2 3. and makes him swear their ruine as here vers 14. 'T is an eating up and devouring of men Psal. 14.4 Micah 3.2 3. and therefore oppressors are called Dogs Wolves Bears Lions c. as I have shewed elsewhere 'T is a death far more merciless than present slaying as hanging in chains alive is worse than beheading 4. Wicked men are all for themselves They devour the poor they swallow up the needy
mixt with Chaff Cockle light-corn litte-stones and dust This refuse which is not marketable and is seldome sold but is usually given to Beasts or Birds yet these Muckworms sell this Muck for pure Grain to the Poor who were necessitated to buy this or starve and make them pay as if it were good corn This accumulated cruelty makes the Lord to swear their ruine in the next verse OBSERVATIONS 1 Worldly men are very industrious for Mammon and riches They move every stone for the attaining of it and care not how they come by it whether by right or by wrong on the Lords Day though their hands be tied yet their hearts are on it and on the week-days 1. They get false Weights 2. False Wares 3. They inhance the price of those Wares 4. They get not only the poor mans Purse but his Person too Thus they that will be rich fall into many snares and temptations of the Devil which drown men in perdition 1 Tim. 6. 9 10. and if men be so violent for earth what should we bee for Heaven 2 Life is a precious thing Men will sell their Cattel their Cloathes their Children yea themselves for food to preserve life Gen. 47.20 23.25 Nehem. 5.2 3 5. so true is that Iob 2.4 Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life It is a Proverbial speech some by skin understand a mans cloathing which at first was made of Skins Gen. 3.21 q. d. a man will part with his Cloathes rather than with his Life for the body is more than raiment Mat. 6.26.2 Others by Skin for skin understand riches goods and all the outward estate which are like a Skin to cover and â—ence us from poverty and misery but life is better than all these and hatâ—â—â—en greatly prized by good men Gen. 32.11 Hest. 7.3 and bad men Gen. 25.32 Hest. 7.7 Eccles. 9.4 3 Covetous men are cruel men They buy and sel not only Cattel but men Neh. 9.37 yea righteous men they sell the righteous for silver and condemn the just for a reward Iam. 5.6 anything for money Sell a Boy for a Lust and a Girl for a cup of Wine Ioel 3.3 Some men will transgresse for an handful of Barley or a morsel of Bread Ezek. 13.19 Thus the poor alwayes pay for it especially the meek and modest poor men are apt to goe over the Hedge where it is lowest and to catch the poor by drawing them into their Nets Psal. 10.9 that is into their Debt-books that they may morgage all unto them and at last become their slaves and bond-men As the good man considers the case of the poor and needy that he may be the fitter to releeve him Psal. 41.1 so these mercilesse men consider the poor that they may devour him 4 Men may not debase a Commodity depriving it of its primitive goodness and then sell it for the best at a full value Corn-masters may not cull out the best Grain nor mingle their Grain with refuse and then sell it as they did here for the best We may not mingle Wine with Water nor Drosse with Silver but whatever we would that men should doe to us in equity and justice even so must we doe unto them 5 The world hath a very mean esteeme of the godly They value them no more than their old Shooes and therefore they sell the righteous for a pair of Shooes as if any contemptible rate were good enough for them See how different the judgement of this wicked world is from the Judgement of God The world esteeme the godly as the drosse and dung the filth and off-scouring of the world 1 Cor. 4.13 but God esteemes them as the glory of the world Isa. 4.5 the only excellent ones of the earth Psal. 16.3 he thinketh them too good to live in this wicked ungrateful world Heb. 11 38. 6 Cruelty ends in misery God threatens these Men-sellers and Men-devourers with dreadful Judgements Amos 2.6 8.7 Luke 16.24 Iames 2.13 Though the poor bear it yet God will not alwayes bear it at their hands but swears he will be avenged on them for so it follows VER 7. The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Jacob surely I will never forget any of their works WEE are now come to the Third Part of this Chapter where the Judgements of God both Corporal and Spiritual are more fully set forth unto us 1 The Prophet shewes the certainty of these Judgements in that the Lord doth not only say but swear that he will bee avenged on them 2 As they had been great Sinners so he sets forth the greatness of their Punishment It shall overflow the Land like a mighty floud vers 8. 3 As he had shewed the certainty so he sets forth the suddenness of their sorrows Their light shall be turned into darkness and that at noon-day their mirth into mourning and their high prosperity into the lowest misery vers 9 10. 4 As if all this were not sufficient he yet goes higher and threatens them with a Famine not of bread but which is worse of the Word of God As Spiritual Mercies are the choyceest Mercies so Spiritual Judgements are the farest Judgements 5 Which strikes all dead He tells them that this their loss should be irreparable They shall fall and shall never rise any more vers 14. We have heard of Israels Sin now follows his Suffering and lest any should flatter themselves and think that these Threatnings were but Scar-crows therefore the Prophet the better to awaken these secure Sinners brings in the Lord swearing their destruction q. d. So sure as I live saith the Lord so sure shall yee dye This Oath of God noâ—es both the certainty and immutability of Gods Counsel and Decree to punish Israel where we have 1 The certainty of Israels ruine The Lord hath not only said but sworn it that is he hath most certainly decreed it for Gods Oath is nothing else but Gods immutable Decree severely to punish these cruel Caytiffs and Oppressors of the poor 2 By whom doth the Lord swear why it is by the excellency and eminency of Iacob that is by himself who is the glory and excellency of Israel and by whose favour and free-election they excelled all the Nations of the world Other Nations had dead Idol-gods but it was Israels glory above all the Nations of the World that they had the Lord for their God and were in Covenant with him The Lord hereby tacitly upbraids them for their ingratitude that having such glorious priviledges from him they should yet rebel against him Some by the excellency of Iacob understand the Ark and others the Temple it is true these are called The glory of Israel but since the Lord hath no greater to swear by therefore he swears by himself who is here called The Excellency of Iacob i. e. of his people Israel The Vulgar leaving the Fountain and following the corrupt streams of the Septuagint
and filthy Songs to the corrupting both of themselves and others 4 When all sin all must look to suffer for sin When all sin then all loyns and all heads must be made bald National Sins bring National Judgements VVhen All the Old VVorld All Sodome All Ierusalem had corrupted their wayes then All must perish But of this before 5 In calamitous times we may and must expresse our inward sorrow by outward Vestures and Gestures When Gods hand lies heavie upon a people they must not be stupid and stoical but they must hear the Rod and who hath appointed it Micah 6.9 They must humble themselves under Gods mighty hand laying aside their costly attire and put themselves in mourning weeds It is not sufficient that we grieve inwardly for our sins and Gods Judgements upon us for sin but we must also expresse our sorrow by external signs David wept and put on Sackcloth Psal. 38.11 and so did Ier. ch 9.1 and Nehem. ch 1.4 Iob abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes Iob 42.6 Caut. Yet a Caveat must be here entred we must not rest in bare external weeping or wearing of mournful Vestures but our outward humiliation must expresse our inward humiliation of the heart else hypocritical out-side service is odious to God Isa. 1.11 12 13. 66.3 Matthew 6.2 Luke 16.15 6 Sin is a bitter thing It is bitter in it self and brings forth bitter effects It brings bitter dayes and bitter calamities upon a people Sin like Sathan its Father makes large promises but sorry performances It promiseth pleasure but yeelds pain it promiseth liberty but brings men into prisons it promiseth peace but brings warre Take heed then of the deceitfulnesse of sin Heb. 3.13 7 When a Nation is ripe for ruine God will utterly destroy them His patience will no longer wait upon them but they and theirs shall perish in their iniquity and the end shall be a bitter day The wicked use to promise themselves light but they shall finde darknesse they promise themselves deliverance and joy but they shall finde bitternesse and sorrow even to the end of their dayes VERSE 11 12. Behold the days come saith the Lord God that I will send a famine in the Land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord. 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 THe Prophet had before set forth those sad Calamities and external Miseries which should seize upon the ten Tribes be now proceeds and fore-tells them of farre greater evils which should come upon them viz. not a famine of bodily bread for of that he had spoken before Amos 4.6 but a Spiritual famine of the Word of God which should feed their souls to eternal life This is the Judgement of Judgements usually the last and sorest As the giving of Gods VVord to a People is the choysest Blessing so the taking of it away is the heaviest Curse as having all other Curses attending it It is a sign of Gods rejecting and reprobating of a people when he will not vouchsafe to speak unto them by his Ministers As it is a sign that God hath some people in that place to which hee sends his Messengers Acts 18.9 10 11. so their departure from a place and people is an evident sign of his displeasure against them Acts 13.46 Mat. 10.14.15 In this Verse we have 1. A note of Attention Behold q. d. I shall now tell you of a more direful and dreadful Judgement than ever and therefore it concerns you diligently to attend 2 Here is the Judgement threatned and that is a Famine which is amplified and illustrated by an Antithesis it is not an external corporal famine 't is not a famine of material bread but which is far worse 't is a spiritual famine a losse of heavenly food a want of the bread of life this famine should be so great that they should run from Sea to Sea and from one part of the Land to another and yet should not injoy it The Lord in great mercy had sent his Prophets amongst them to call them to repentance but they like ungrateful and rebellious sinners contemned Gods Ordinances prophaned his holy things and persecuted his Messengers till the wrath of the Lord broke forth and there was no remedy They loathed Gods Mannah and longed to be at their Garlick and Onions in Egypt again They were dead under lively Oracles and barren under fruitful means of grace and therefore the Lord was now resolved no longer to plow such Rocks nor sow such sands but since they would not serve him with gladness of heart in the abundance of all things therefore they should now be made to serve their enemies in the want of all things They that would not hear and obey the Prophets of God in their own Land should now be caâ—t out of all and be made to serve strange gods in a strange Land As God had before exalted them to Heaven in the use of means and given them many excellent Prophets that did fully and faithfully dispense his Word unto them so now their Prophets should be taken from them and they should have a spiritual famine and be made to know the price of Gods mercies by the wanting of them The word Famine implies two things 1. It sets forth the nature of Gods Word 't is the food of the soul. Look what bread and water is to the body that and much more is the Word of God unto the soul. 2. It imports the greatness of the judgement it should be a Famine not a famine of bread that is but a petty-judgement a flea-biting as nothing comparatively to this though the bodily famine simply considered in it self be one of Gods sore judgements as I have shewed before on Amos 4.6 yet that pincheth but the out-side the carkass and may bee sent in mercy to the soul but this famine of the Word is a spiritual judgement that destroies the soul and is a sign of Gods greatest wrath against a people and is usually accompanied with many other judgements 3. Here is the Author of this famine and that is God I will send or I will let it loose I have hitherto chained it up like a wilde beast that it might not hurt you but now it shall out amongst you and destroy you 4. Here is the time when this should be and that is suddenly The dayes come q. d. The time will come and is now at hand when your Sun shall set at noon and a spiritual famine shall surprise you 5. Here is the certainty of all this 'T is not man but the Lord that saith it who will fulfil every threatning upon the heads of these sinners OBSERVATIONS 1. The preaching of the Word is the spiritual food of the soul and therefore the want of it
When by death he takes away his Ministers when people cast dirt upon them the Lord casts dust upon them and hides them in their graves from the revilings of men 2. Mediately 1. By a corrupt Magistracy Thus Ahab and Iesabel persecuted the true Prophets and made them hide themselves in caves So Herod that Tyrant cut off Iohn Baptists head 2. By a corrupt Ministery false Prophets in all ages have been the greatest persecutors of the true Thus Amos here hath Amaziah the high Priest of Bethel against him Amos 7.10 His punishment you may read vers 17. Thus Pashur the Priest smote Ieremiah and put him in the stocks Ier. 20.7 My Lord Annas and Caiphas the High Priest with the Scribes and Pharisees were the greatest enemies to Christ and his Apostles 3. When men are given up in judgement to their own hearts lusts so that they stop their ears against the Word and will not hear Zach. 7.12 4. When men muzzle the mouths of these laborious Oxen and ungratefully change their wages and withdraw the Oyl from the Lamp and pick the tallow from the weik 'T is just with God to starve such souls as would starve his Ministers bodies you must therefore buy the Truth and with the wise men part with your gold and silver for Christ Mat. 2.11 You may buy gold too dear but you cannot buy Christ and his Truth too dear though you part with all your temporals for the Gospel you have made a wise bargain Matth. 13.44 5. Spiritual curiosity and niceness when men have itching ears so that they cannot indure sound Doctrine 2 Tim. 4.4 When nothing will down but quails and picking-meat they are all for flourishes and Rhetorical strains and smoothe things Isa. 30. â—0 The doctrine of Mortification and Self-denial will not down with them 6. Barrenness under the means of grace when we do not answer Gods cost and care then he pulls up the hedge and laies all waste Isa. 5.1 2 3. Mat. 21.43 Rev. 2.3 They that will not work in the day shall lamenâ— their folly in the night they that will not serve God in the injoyment of Ordinances shall serve their lusts in the want of them Let us therefore walk in the light whilst we have the light when the night comes no man can work VERSE 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 finde it IN this verse we have a further aggravation of this peoples misery viz. that they should seek what they had despised and withall they should have a frustration of their expectation They had contemned the Word of the Lord and now God in his just judgement will make them know the worth of his Word by the wanting of it They shall wander from Sea to Sea They shall trouble themselves without any profit They hated the light and therefore now they shall sit in darkness they contemned Gods Prophets and now they shall not be troubled with them formerly God sent in his Prophets rising early to seek them but now since by their sins they had driven both God and his Prophets from them they should run from Sea to Sea that is from the Red Sea Southward to the Mediterranean Sea VVestward which were the bounds of the Land of Canaan Numb 34.3 Iosh. 1.4 Ioel 2.20 Zach. 9.10 Yea they should run from North acrosse unto the East that is in plain English they should run all the Land over and seek the word of the Lord in every corner and quarter of it and yet they should misse of it If the famine be but in one part of a land a man may run to another part of it for aid but when they shall cry for bread in all the parts of the land and there is none to give them that is doleful indeed Q. Here a Question will arise Hath not the Lord promised that those that ask shall have and they that seek shall find and such as hunger and thirst shall be blessed how comes it then to passe that this people seek the Word of the Lord and yet cannot finde it A. The Answer is easie there is a two-fold seeking and thirsting 1 A seasonable serious and sincere seeking after God in his Worship and to such the Promise runs that they shall finde Prov. 8.17 God never sayes to the genuine seed of Iacob Seek my face in vain Isa. 45.19 This Spiritual hungring and thirsting after the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby is an infallible evidence of grace 2 There is a formal feigned late seeking of Gods Word Luke 13.24 only in the time of trouble when pain oppresseth them such may seek but they shall never find and thus it was with Israel here they sought not the Word out of any love to it nor yet to be converted by it but being in trouble and seeing when it was too late what a blessing they had lost they now howl after it as those did for bodily food Hos. 7.14 and as Esau did for the Birth-right when it was too late Heb. 12.17 So these in a blind erroneous distracted manner desired to hear the Word of the Lord from the mouth of the Prophets not to be instructed by it for they hated to be reformed but to get some ease and comfort from them in their distresse for the Prophets were wont to mingle comfort with their Threatnings and to tell the people of God how long their troubles should endure and when they should end Psal. 74.9 But since the Lord spake to them by his Prophets in their prosperity and they would not beleeve that so they might fly from the wrath to come now they should sink under their burden and run to and fro for a Prophet of the Lord to comfort them but they should not have it for as the Lord called and they would not answer so they should now cry and should not be heard Prov. 1.24 25 26 27. so that it is a fallacy to argue thus All that seek shall find and all that hunger and thirst are blest But these did seek therefore they shall find and these did hunger and thirst after the word therefore they shall bee blessed The Major must be limited thus All that seek aright and all that doe truly hunger and thirst after the Word shall be blessed But these did seek aright and did truly hunger and thirst after the Word That is false for by hunger and thirst here is not meant their hungring after the VVord but it implies a want of the VVord as a man that is pined wants food so in Israel there should be a great want of the Prophets to preach the Word unto them Some take the words in an Allegorical Mystical sense and apply it to the Iewes after they had Crucified Christ and stoned the Prophets they should run from place to place to seek
inward excellencies Socrates and Esop were deformed in body yet who more wise and witty 3. Sin sweeps all before it It deprives us not onely of bread but also of water too yea it deprives us not onely of corporal but also of spiritual bread It robs us of all our comforts great reason then we have to hate it 'T is like that weed which we call Bishopsweed which frets away all the corn and good grain that grows neer it 4. The sins of young persons provoke the Lord to cut them off Their sins are committed with more wilfulnes heat and violence and so are more displeasing unto God As I have shewed before on Amos 4.10 Obs. 6. 5. 'T is the great misery of wicked man that they have no comfort in their misery VVhen they be scorched with the wrath of God yet they faint for thirst The godly that thirst in a right spiritual manner have Gods Spirit and Ministers to comfort them and pronounce them blessed Mat. 5.6 But the wicked faint and sink under their burdens and have not so much as one shower of Rain from Heaven to quench and allay the flaming fire of Gods indignation Ezek. 22.24 VERSE 14. They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say Thy God O Dan liveth and the manner of Beersheba liveth even they shall fall and never rise up again THe Prophet having reproved them before for their oppression and unrighteousness towards men comes now to denounce Gods Judgements against them for their Superstition and Idolatry towards God In the words we have 1. A Commination or a Judgement threatned and that is the irreparable ruine of the Ten Tribes They shall fall and never rise up again They shall so fall for their cruelty and Idolatry that they shall rise no more If a man fall and yet hath hope of rising again it upholds and comforts him but these Israelites felt into captivity and never were restored Iudah which was the better of the two after the seventy years captivity returned again into their own Land but the Ten Tribes were carried out of their own Land by Salmaneser King of Assyria and never returned any more Amos 5.2 The Lord had tried all gentle means to cure them but all in vain and therefore now he resolves to make a final end with them and to smite them so as they shall fall irrecoverably and never rise up again nor return more to their own Land as appears 2 King 17. To fall and never rise to dye and not live to be set below and not above to sit in darkness and have no light such amplifications in Scripture are vehement asseverations and are not used in vain by God 2. Here is the ground or reason of this Commination and that is their Superstition and Idolatry They sware 1. By the sin of Samaria 2. By the God of Dan. 3. By the manner of Beersheba That is They sware by the Molten Images and Golden Calves which Ieroboam the King of Samaria had set up at Dan and Bethel These Idols are called The sin of Samaria because Samaria was the Metropolis and chief seat of their Kings and they setting up Idolatry at Bethel which was not far from Samaria drew Samaria and all the people of the Land with them and therefore this sin is properly laid at their doors When the people of Israel in Moses his time did worship the golden Calf it is called their Sin Deut. 9.21 I took your Sin that is I took the Molten Calf wherewith you had committed that abominable sin of Idolatry and burnt it with fire and the Scripture frequently calls Idols by the name of sin 1 King 12.29 30. Isa. 27.9 31.7 Hos. 10.8 Zach. 5.8 They thought they had done God an high peece of service in sacrificing and swearing by the Calves but the Lord plainly tells them that 't was their great sin so to do 3. He goes on to prove their Idolatry by their forms of swearing then in use for our oaths are a kinde of confession of our Faith whereby we testifie that hee whom we swear by knows our hearts and is able to punish us if we swear falsly hence swearing is frequently put for religious worship This swearing by Idols and fictitious Gods as Idolaters use to do as if they had no other God to swear by could not but highly provoke the Lord to cast them off who thus ungratefully and dis-ingenuously forsook him the fountain of all their happiness They say Thy God O Dan live or they swear by the life of Dan which yet was a dead Idol and had no life in it This was the usual form of swearing in those daies as you may see Gen. 42.15 Iudg. 8.19 Ruth 3.13 Ier. 12.16 They used the same form of swearing by their Idols as the godly did by the true God Thy God O Dan lives i. e. Let thy Calf live O Dan or as sure as thy Calf lives O Dan. They sware by this Idol as if there were some Deity and Divinity in it when 't was a meer abomination and Idol of their own inventing Hos. 8.5 6. Ieroboam when he came first to the Crown set up two Golden Calves as tutelar Gods the one at Bethel not far from Samaria the other in Dan which was in the North part of Canaan it being one of the utmost coasts thereof 1 King 12.29 30. Ier. 4.15 4. Yet more They swear by the manner of Beersheba Beersheba was a City of Canaan Iosh. 19.2 being the utmost bound of the holy Land toward the South as Dan was toward the North hence from Dan to Beersheba are oft put for the whole Land of Israel from one end to the other they being the utmost borders of the whole Land Iudg. 20.1 1 Sam. 3.20 2 Sam. 3.10 1 Chron. 8.2 ` T was a famous City where the Judges used to sit 1. Sam. 8.2 yet this place was infected with Idolatry as well as Bethel and Gilgal and therefore they are commanded to pass by it Amos 5.5 and yet they swear that the manner of Beersheba lives Or the way of Beersheba lives as 't is in the fountain that is they swear by a strange God whose way Rites Ceremonies and manner of Worship they had set up at Beersheba for by way in Scripture is meant the manner of divine worship and serving of God 'T is here taken in a bad sense See Ier. 32.39 Act. 9.2 18.25 24.14 Thus we see how the whole Land was infected with Idolatry from one side to another there was no sound part in it which serves to justifie Gods Justice in their universal ruine OBSERVATIONS 1 Idolatry it is a sinning sin It is the Sin with an Emphasis and by way of eminency which destroys a Land Deut. 9.21 it is a great sin in it self and the root of many other abominations whatever Sin God bears withall yet he cannot he will not bear with this as I have shewed at
large elsewhere other sins were Causae adjuvantes they helpt to ruine Israel but their Idolatry was the primary cause of that fatal blow and of their final overthrow 2. The Iudgement of men and the Iudgement of God differ much That which man calls here by way of honour a god that God calls by way of dishonour and detestation A Sin and abominable Ier. 16.18 44.4 Thus the world calls Riches Substance Goods Happinesse Psal. 4.6 but the Holy Ghost calls them Vanities Thorns Husks unrighteous Mammon the world calls Pride Decency but God calls it an abomination The world calls Covetousnesse Good-husbandry but God calls it the root of all evil The Masse with all its Superstitious rites Antichrist calls it Divine Service but God saith In vain doe yee worship me teaching for Doctrines the Precepts of men Satan loves not to have Sin goe bare-faced and therefore he usually puts a fair Glove upon a foul hand and calls Vice by the name of Vertue But God hath cursed those that call evil good Isa. 5.20 many think they highly please God and doe him abundance of service by their Superstitious Self-conceited worship but he tells them here it is their sin and shame so to doe So true is that of our Saviour Luke 16.15 That which is highly esteemed in the sight of carnal superstitious men is an abomination in the sight of God 3 Mixture in Gods Worship is a God-provoking Sin When we are partly for God and partly for Baal partly for Christ and partly for Calves at Dan and Beersheba this mingle-mangle and Linsi-woolsie-religion is very displeasing unto God and ruined Israel here They pretended that they Worshipped the true God in and by those Idols which they sware by but because God had commanded them no such way of Worship he utterly disclaims it and severely punisheth them for their pains 2 King 17.33 34. those that are said to fear the Lord and yet serve their owne gods in the very next verse are said Not to fear the Lord. 4 We may not swear by Idols It is a Deifying of them hence the Lord threatens to punish those that swear by them that are no gods Ier. 5.7 Zeph. 1.5 we may not swear by Creatures Matth. 5.34 35 36. Iam. 5.12 nor by any fictitious gods at Dan and Bethel as many Popish ignorant persons amongst us doe when they swear Ber Lady Ber Lakins by St. Anthony by S. Gys by the Masse by Cock by my Fay by my Feiks by my Feikins by my Truly c. All these are Oathes by Idols and by Creatures which our jealous God will not brook at our hands you may mock men with them but God will not be mocked his Curse will seize upon the houses where such swearers dwell Zach. 5.3 We all professe our selves to be worshippers of the true God yet our swearing by them that are no gods is a kind of renouncing the true God by whom only we should swear as him only we should serve God is very tender of his owne Glory and will not suffer it to be given to others Hence wee are so oft commanded when we swear to swear only by the name of the true and living God Deut. 9.13 10.20 Psa. 63. ult Isa. 45.23 65.16 Ier. 12.16 Oathes are one special part of Divine Worship wherein God is glorified in his Attributes of Omnisciency Omni-presence Omnipotence c. We beleeve that he knowes our hearts and is able to punish us if we perform not our Oathes or swear falsly and to this end we call upon him when wee swear Hence Isaiah Propheâ—ying of the calling of the Aegyptians to the faith tells us that in that day five Cities in Aegypt shall speak the Language of Canaan and shall swear by the Lord of Hosts that is they shall shew that he is their God by their swearing by his name Isa. 19.18 5 Superstition is a toylsome thing They goe here to Dan and Beersheba from the North to the South all the Land over after Idols 1 King 12.30 what pains and Peregrinations doe the Papists take in Journies Whippings and other kinds of Will-worship yet many amongst us will scarce goe out of their doors to hear the Gospel of Salvation Blind Idolaters shall rise in Judgment against the men of this Generation who take more pains in going to Hell than many doe for Heaven 6 Great Cities many times are the Seminaries of great Sins The Idolatry which over-spread all Israel is laid here at Samarias door which was the chief City of the Land and the place of the Kings residence from hence as from a fountain all the streams of Prophanenesse Superstition and Idolatry over-spread the Land here it was practised maintained and upheld and therefore Princes and Rulers should have a special care to keep the great Cities of the Land pure that they may be patterns of Piety and Looking-glasses by which the Country round about them may dresse themselves for such as the Mother such usually are the Daughters 7 Idolaters shall be utterly ruined They shall be at last so broken that they shall never rise more A good man may fall into afflictions and trouble seven times in a day yet he riseth again but the wicked shall fall into mischief irrecoverably and never rise more as the Antithesis implies Prov. 24.16 Iob fell into deep distresse yet at last he rose again and his latter end was better than his beginning Iob 42.12 but the wicked are broken as with an Iron Rod and dasht in peices like a Potters Vessel which can never be sodred together again Psal. 2.9 God strikes them through the gall so that all the Physitians in the world cannot heal them Iob 20.25 AN EXPOSITION WITH Practical OBSERVATIONS UPON The Ninth Chapter of Amos. VERSE 1. I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar and hee said Smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake and cut them in the head all of them and I will slay the last of them with the sword hee that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered IN this last Chapter which contains the last Vision and Prophecy of the destruction of Iudah and Ierusalem wee have the summe and substance of the seventh Sermon of the Prophet Amos which consists of three parts 1. A Commination 2. A confirmation of that Commination 3. A Mitigation or Qualification of this Commination with Evangelical promises of consolation and restauration So that this Chapter consists both of Law and Gospel of judgement and mercy which is the best mixture that a Prophet of God can use because all ingenuous natures are wrought upon either by judgements or mercies and those that neither of these can work upon are desperate 1. Here is a continuation of Gods Commination by way of Type or Vision wherein we have 1. The Vision propounded viz. the smiting of the lintel of the Temple door that the
posts might shake Denoting thereby the certainty of their ruine and transportation without any possibility of escaping 2. The Vision is expounded vers 1. where we have 1. The persons that shall be cut off and those are the body of the people the generality of the Land both great and small as all had sinned so all must now suffer for sin 1. He commands Smite them in the head that is cut off Kings Princes and Priests both in Israel and Iudah 2. Rest not there but slay the rest of them with the sword that is cut-off the inferiour sort 3. Here is the certainty and inevitableness of their suffering confirmed by Arguments drawn first from the Omnipresence of God no place what ever can protect a sinful people from his revenging hand and this is set forth 1. Generally vers 1. Hee that flyeth shall not flee away and hee that escapeth shall not bee delivered There is no escaping when God pursues 2. By a notable enumeration of some particular places shewing that they should not escape though they hid themselves 1. In Hell vers 2. 2. In Heaven 3. In the tops of inaccessible mountains vers 3. 4. In the bottome of the Sea 5. In Captivity Though they went into banishment out of their own Land yet there the Lord would command the sword and it should slay them vers 4. So that they were safe neither at home nor abroad neither in their own Land nor in strange Countries 4. Their total overthrow is further confirmed by Arguments drawn 1. From the anger of God vers 4 8. I will set mine eyes upon them for evil 'T is a Metaphor from men in whom the anger of the heart discovers it self in the eyes and face 2. From the might and majesty of God who hath power to punish them and this power is set forth 1. By his Titles Hee is the Lord God of hosts vers 5. 2. By the effects of his power 1. If he but touch the Land it shall melt vers 5. with a touch he can destroy a Land and turn it into us first Chaos 2. He can bring an overflowing flood upon it that shall quickly over-run all vers 5. 3. By his work of Creation 1. In Heaven 't is hee that builds the stories of Heaven By his power and wisdome hee created the Heavens and the several sphears and regions of the Air as so many stories one above another vers 6. 2. In the earth he hath founded his Troops in the earth vers 6. He hath variety of creatures as so many Troops on earth ready prest to serve him and execute his commands they are all his servants Psal. 119.91 3. In the Sea He calleth for the waters of the Sea and they presently cover the face of the earth vers 6. By all which he proves himself to be The Great Iehovah of all the world 5. He confirms the certainty of their destruction from the sinfulness of their condition As first They were dis-ingenuous and ungrateful whereas he had brought them up out of the Land of Egypt and made them his Israel yet they behaved themselves more like Ethiopians than Israeliteâ— and therefore as they had been like to Heathens in sinning so now they should be like them in suffering vers 7. 2. They were very secure and regardless of Gods threatnings contemning the warnings of Gods Prophets and therefore the Lord threatens that they should fall by the sword vers 10. 3. The Prophet having before used Driving Motives drawn from the Judgements of God comes now to Drawing Motives taken from the mercies and comfortable promises of God Before he had brought them to Mount Ebal the Mount of cursing but now he brings them to Mount Gerizim the Mount of Blessing Before he tried them with legal Menaces and dreadful Comminations now he closeth his Prophecy with Gospel-mercies and Evangelical consolations 1. He tells them that an elect remnant should be saved in the midst of these calamities till better daies should come under the Gospel Though the Lord were resolved to punish the body of that rebellious Nation yet he would not utterly destroy them all but would preserve some because of his Covenant and though they might be fifted tossed and tried with many afflictions and go into captivity as well as others yet not one grain should fall to the ground nor any one of Gods elect perish eternally vers 8 9. 2. Here is the happy Restauration of the Church in Gospel-times set forth 1. Under the type of raising up the Tabernacle of David which is fallen vers 11. Though the house of David and the men of Iudah and Israel were sorely shattered and sunk very low by reason of their captivity and other miseries which lay upon them so that they were like a Tabernacle fallen down or a Garden laid open the fence being broken down yet in Christ the true heir of David it should in Gospel-times be restored and repaired 3. According to the custome of the Prophets in Old-Testament times he prophesieth of the glory and happiness of the Church which he sets forth by the magnificence and affluence of outward blessings typifying thereby those spiritual mercies which God would give to the elect remnant after their sufferings 1. He promiseth that the Nations should be subdued under them and their bounds should be inlarged by taking in the Gentiles in these Gospel-times into communion with them vers 12. 2. Great plenty in their fields and Vineyards vers 13 14. 3. Re-edifying of their ruined Cities vers 14. 4. Returning from captivity and banishment and re-establisment in their own Land in despight of all their enemies vers 15. Object But 't is impossible that ever such things should be effected Answ. To men who are led by sense and carnal reason these things may seem impossible but to the Almighty all things are possible Now 't is he that undertakes the work and 't is he that will effect it in his due time 'T is I that will bring them again and I will plant them in the Land that I have given them even I will do this saith the Lord Almighty who am Thy God in covenant with thee VERSE 1. I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar c. THe destruction of this people was shadowed out before by four visions This is the fifth and last by which the Prophet confirms that Commination which he had publisht in the precedent chapters The better to confirm the truth and authority of what he should speak he begins first with his usual Preface Amos 1.1 8.1 I saw the Lord the King of Kings and supream Monarch of all the world whom Israel and Iudah have provoked to wrath with their Idolatry him I say I saw in a trance or Prophetical vision standing which implies two things 1. That he was ready to depart from this rebellious people his gracious presence should now no longer abide amongst them 2. Stat ut vindex he stands ready to pronounce the
us from his All-seeing-eye nor secure us from his All-mighty-hand as appears in the next verses VERSE 2. Though they dig into Hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climbe up to Heaven thence will I bring them down THese Apostatizing Israelites being puft up with their Priviledges conceiting that God loved them because he had given them some success and victories hereupon they grew secure and impenitent promising themselves impunity in their sins which makes the Prophet here to thunder out Gods dreadful judgements against them with vehemency and variety of words and to use very lofty and hyperbolical expressions the better to awaken them and drive them out of their vain conceits In the end of the fore-going verse he had shewed them that though they fled yet they should not escape and this he proves in the three following verses by a notable enumeration of five particular places thereby shewing them that they should not escape though they hid themselves 1. In Hell 2. In Heaven 3. In the tops of inaccessible Mountains 4. In the bottome of the Sea 5. In captivity and banishment out of their own Land yet there the Lord would command the sword and it should slay them They should be safe neither at home nor abroad neither in their own Country nor yet in a strange Land so sad it is for a people to have God for their enemy 1. The first means whereby they thought to hide themselves from Gods revenging hand was by digging and taking great pains to hide themselves as low as Hell We have the same word used Ionah 1.13 where the Mariners are said to row hard to save Ionah the word is Iachteru they digged in the Sea by rowing that is they used the utmost means to save him Quest. The Question will be What is here meant by Hell and Heaven Answ. 1. Some take the words literally thus If it were possible for these incorrigible sinners to descend into Hell or ascend up into Heaven yet Gods hand of Justice should finde them out in the one and cast them out of the other 2. Others take the words in an Hyperbolical sense thus By Hell they understand the most abstruse deep secret places of the earth The word Scheol hath many significations 1. Sometimes 't is put for the grave Gen. 37.35 Psal. 16.10 2. Sometimes 't is put for Hell it self as Iob 11.8 26.6 3. Here it signifies the lowest part of the earth and neerest to the center q. d. Though these wicked men should dig ditches or pits never so deep in the earth to hide themselves so that they should get â—lmost as low as Hell yet this digging and delving should not avail them nor be able to shelter them from Gods wrath for even thence would God take them and deliver them into their enemies hands to be slain Hell is naked before him and destruction hath no covering Job 26.6 Prov. 15.11 Let Adam hide himself amongst the trees and Ionah lye never so close to the sides of the ship yet Gods Almighty hand found out both the one and the other 2. If this will not do and Hell will afford no help they 'l climbe to Heaven and try what that will do but all in vain for thence will God cast them down that the Assyrian may slay them The like Hyperbolical speeches of mounting up to Heaven we read of Gen. 11.4 Deut. 1.28 Iob 20.6 Ier. 49.16 51.53 Obad. 4. Some by Heaven understand high and lofty Refuges and Towers whose tops seemed to touch the Heavens q. d. Let these wicked men seek for refuge in Heaven or Hell above or beneath in Sea or Land yet they shall not secure them in this day of wrath all their hearts their holes and hiding-places are naked before the eyes of him with whom they have to do OBSERVATIONS 1. When God is against a people no place can shelter them from his wrath If men sin against the Lord let them go whither they will the punishment of their sin will finde them out Numb 32.23 Though insolent Edom make his nest in the Stars and think himself out of Gun-shot and free from danger yet his sins will bring him down Obad. 4. God hath a sharp eye and a strong hand to pull men out of their strong holds or to destroy them in them Zimri got into Tirzah a fortified City and then into the Kings Palace and there he burnt himself to death 1 King 16.8 Had we all the power and policy of all the Kingdomes of the Earth for us yet if God be against us these cannot help us Amos 2.14 15 16. Though the wicked mount on high yet at last hee casts them down to the ground Psal. 147.6 'T is not height nor depth Sea or Land Heaven or Hell that can shelter us from Gods fury If God be against us all the elements and all the creatures are against us As when God is for us all are for us Rom. 8.31 and we need not fear Psal. 27.1 56.4 Isa. 43.1 2. There is no flying from Gods Arrests if a man have done wickedly in one place he may escape the Law by flying to another he may get out of our bounds and then he is safe but who can get out of Gods bounds he hath power to arrest us where ever he findes us and he can finde us where ever we are He is higher than Heaven and deeper than Hell and therefore David cryes out Whither shall I go from thy presence Surely no whither Neither men nor Devils are able to go from the common and general presence of God for he fills Heaven and Earth Psal. 139.7 to 13. is a kinde of Comment on this Text and therefore I shall briefly open it vers 7. Whither shall I go from thy Spirit what 's that why he tells you in the next clause Whither shall I flee from thy presence q. d. Thou art an infinite Spirit and I can go no where to avoid or escape thee Vers. 8. If I ascend into Heaven thou art there By Heaven is meant the upper Region of the world and if I make my bed in Hell and go down to the lowest parts of the earth he hold thou art there q. d. Let mee go whither I will thy presence will finde mee out Vers. 9. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the utmost parts of the world q. d. should I fly never so early or swiftly from East to West as the light of the morning doth vers 10. Even there should thy hand lead mee and thy right hand should hold mee q. d. I should still lye under thy divine disposing and government and finde thee efficaciously present with mee Vers. 11. If I say the darkness shall cover mee viz. so as thou shalt not be able to finde mee out then is the night light about mee that is I shall be as little hid from thine eyes as if 't were noon day why so vers 12. for the
mighty hunter before the Lord so many may be said to be mighty drunkards mighty swearers lyars cheaters dissemblers c. before the Lord. But let it alwaies be our care to lead a life worthy of such a presence passing the time of our sojourning in Gods fear This may be 1. A spur to duty 2. A motive to Sincerity 3. A corrosive to sin 4. A cordial in afflictions Remember in all thy distresses hee is an Omnipresent friend He was with Joseph in the prison with Jeremy in the dungeon with Jonah in the Whales belly with Daniel in the Lions den with Israel in Egypt Exod. 3.9 and with Paul before Nero 2 Tim. 4.17 He knows our Tentations our adversaries our abilities and will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength Rev. 2.3 VERSE 4. And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them and I will set mine eye upon them for evil and not for good WEE are now come to the fifth and last Evasion whereby these incorrigible sinners thought to escape Gods hands and that was by yeelding themselves up into their enemies hands upon quarter for their lives and so to escape the edge of the sword To this the Lord answers by way of concession though they should go into capâ—ivity before their enemies or before the faces of their enemâ—es as 't is in the Original whose custome it was to drive their enemies like beasts before them young and old naked and barefoot Isa 20.4 Lam. 1.5 yet thence will I command and commission the sword of their enemies to slay them 2. Here is an Aggravation of all this misery viz. that it should fall upon them in wrath God promised to send Iudah into the Land of Chaldea for good Ier. 24.5 6. but Israel being more grosly wicked the Lord threatens here To watch over them for evil and not for good The expression is emphatical the denial of the contrary makes the speech more weighty so Jer. 21.10 39.16 44.27 q. d. I will bring upon them all manner of evil but no good I will afflict them every where but I will defend them no where but will utterly consume them This was true of Israel who went into captivity and never returned again though many of Judah did return again as we read in the book of Ezra As Gods eye was formerly upon them for good and hee had made them the head of the Nations so now his eye should be upon them for evil and he would make them the Taile and contemptible amongst all He would now deal with them as he threatned to do with disobedient ones Deut. 28.44 63. Before he had been their Guardian and their Keeper Psal. 121.3 4. He that keeps Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps but now he will be their Judge and Executioner Though formerly he seriously and intensively set himself to do them good yet now with as much seriousness and resolvedness he will set his eyes upon them or against them for evil By the Eye of God is meant the Providence of God by an Anthropopathy frequent in Scripture Iob 34.21 Prov. 15.3 Psal. 33.18 34.15 1 Pet. 3.12 which as it watcheth over the good in mercy so it watcheth over the wicked in judgement vers 8. I will set mine eye upon them for evil that is for punishment and for destruction and not for good that is not to do them any good at all nor to bless them OBSERVATIONS 1 Submission to men is but vain unless we submit unto God To yeeld our selves captives to men and make peace with them and yet to rebel against God is to fee the Serjeant and to lye open to the fury of the Creditor Wicked men begin at the wrong end they should first begin with God and humble themselves before him and make peace with him and then all would be at peace with them Iob 5.23 Hos. 2.18 When once our wayes please God he makes our enemies to be at peace with us Prov. 16.7 He can over-rule their hearts so that although they hate us yet they shall not hurt us yea with Esau they shall kiss us instead of killing us Gen. 33.4 2 The sword hath its command and commission from God Jer. 47.6 Ezek. 14.17 I will command the sword and it shall slay them War is one of Gods sore Judgements it is the Arrow which he shoots at a rebellious people But of this at large before on Amos 4.10 3. The Providence of God watcheth over the wicked for their hurt As the eyes of his Providence run to and fro through the whole world for the good of his people 2 Chron. 16.9 Psal. 33.18 and 34.15 1 Pet. 3.12 so where ever the wicked go his eye and his hand follow them for evil Ier. 44. 16 17.18 22. and 24.9 As all works together for good to good men so all works for evil to evil men The Lord doth even study their ruine and purposely watch as 't were all opportunities to do them a mischief As men do obstinately set their faces against Gods Commandements in a way of rebellion so he will set his face against them for evil in a way of destruction Ier. 44.11 Hence we read so oft of Gods setting his face against wicked men Lev. 20.3 and 26.17 Ezek. 14.8 I will set my face against them that is I am highly offended with them and I will make it my work to execute my vengeance on them VER 5. And the Lord God of Hosts is he that toucheth the Land and it shall melt and all that dwell therein shall mourn and it shall rise up wholly like a flood and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt WE have done with the Commination we are now come to the second general part of the Chapter and that is the confirmation of the Commination which is drawn from the Omnipotent Majesty and Power of God who is Lord Paramount of all the world the glorious Creator and Governour of all All depend upon him and observe his beck what he sayes it is done ejus dicere est facere and what he threatens is as easily and speedily effected The better therefore to awaken these drousie sinners and make them fear the Prophet here sets forth the Majesty and Power of God that they might see there was no contending with him and that he was able and would certainly bring to pass what ever he had threatned against them To this end we often finde Moses and the Prophets setting forth the Majesty of God by his Titles Works as that he is the Mighty God the Lord of Hosts the King of Kings c. Sinners are hardly drawn to consider the Glory and Majesty of that God with whom they have to do and therefore the Prophet so oft toucheth on this string Amos 3.6.8 and 4. ult and 5.8 9. In this Verse and the next we have an elegant description of Gods Power and Glory
where every word hath its weight And that 1 By his Names and Titles He is the Lord Jehovah the Creator and Preserver of all things and therefore his Threatnings ought not to be contemned 2 He is the Lord of Hosts he hath the superiour and inferiour Armies of Heaven and Earth of Sea and Land as it were horse and foot to march against his enemies 3 His Almighty Works set forth his Majesty and Power 1 The Earth which is in it self a most solid firm hard immoveable body yet acknowledgeth the Power and Dominion of its Almighty Lord and Creator and therefore if he do but touch it at least with any of his rods and in displeasure it presently melts like wax before the fire or snow before the Sun 2 If he be provoked to anger he can make a sinful land to mourn by bringing upon them the punishment due to them for their sins he can make both things and persons melt Therefore fear to offend him this must be annexed to every branch of this description of God e. g. He is Jehovah the Lord of Hosts therefore fear him He makes the earth to melt and the inhabitants thereof to tremble therefore do you humble your selves before him 3 If all this will not work upon you yet consider he can drown you and make his floods to go over all the land as he did in Noahs time and as he doth in many Islands and other places at this day See before Chap. 8.8 4 If ye will not fear him for his Majesty and Power that appears on earth then look up to the heavens vers 6. and see his Wisdome and Power there in creating the several Regions of the air as so many stories one above another besides the variety of creatures which he hath on earth as so many Troops ready prest to do him service and his sending of the waters of the Sea upon the earth either by rain or inundation to punish it These all shew the Power and Glory of that God with whom we have to do and therefore should make us fear to offend him and speedily to make our peace with him The summe of all is this Hitherto ye have trusted in your own strength and priviledges and have set light by Gods Threatnings as if they had been but so many scar-crows but now consider O ye infirm and sinful dust and aâ—hes against whom do ye rebel against whom do ye thus harden your selves Is it not against the great and mighty God the Lord of Hoasts the Creator of all things whose Almighty power appears in that with a touch he can make the mighty and massy earth to melt and dissolve like wax before a mighty fire and fill it with such horror that all the inhabitants thereof shall mourn and make it as inhabitable as if it were drowned with a flood OBSERVATIONS 1 God is the Lord of Hoasts See before Amos 4. ult 2 He is an Almighty God See before Amos 4. ult Obs. 1. 3 If God do but touch the earth or its inhabitants in wrath they melt and mourn and fade away If he but touch Mountains Natural or Mountains Metaphorical there is no abiding 1 The earth Natural quakes at Gods displeasure the Rocks and Hills melt at his presence 2 Sam. 22.8 Psal. 18.7 and 144.5 6 7. The massy Mountains which no art or wit of man can move yet Gods bare presence how much more his wrathful presence makes them tremble as Mount Sinai did at the presence of the Lord Exod. 19.18 Iudg. 5.5 Iob 9.6 Psal 68.8 Hab. 3.10 2 The earth Metaphorical that is wicked men that live in the earth the guilt of their sins doth so daunt them that they are not able to stand in Gods presence Ezra 9. ult Adam when he had sinned hides himself from God and Cain runs from his presence Especially at the day of Judgement they will not be able to stand before Gods Tribunal Psal. 1.5 but will cry to Rocks and Mountains to hide them and shall be driven to utter desperation when they think of that dreadful sentence Go ye cursed yea when the Lord appears for his people here these Metaphorical Mountains shall be dissolved and meâ—â— like wax before the fire The Churches enemies are oft compared to Mountains Isa. 64.1 Zac. 4.7 1 Because Mountains are higher than other parts of the earth so are the wicked puft up with pride and think themselves higher than God himself and therefore they set their mouthes against the Heavens and blaspheme him Psal. 73.9 2 Mountains hinder us in our way 3 They are barren it is the low Valleys that are fruitful The Church being troubled with these Mountains seeks to remove them by that Omnipotent Engine of Prayer Isa. 64. 1 2. Oh that thou wouldest rend the Heavens and come down what then why the Mountains that is the Princes and Potentates of the world that now are puft up with success opposing and oppressing the people of God should melt at thy presence and vanish to nothing When God ariseth then the Dukes of Edom are amazed and trembling takes hold on the mighty ones Exod. 15.15 16. Hence 't is that the Church desires that God would arise for then his enemies should be scattered and those that hate him should flee before him and be driven away like smoak which the higher it riseth the more 't is scattered and melt like wax before the fire Psal. 68.1 2. The Sons of Zerviah may be too strong for David but not for the God of David If he do but touch these Mountains they vanish 'T is no trouble to us to breathe why God can with as great facility overthrow the Churches enemies one blast breath word or look from him undoes them Iob 4.9 10 11. By the blast of God they perish and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed And if the Earth melt and tremble when God is angry how sad is the condition of hard-hearted sinners who are viler than the Earth and more insensible than the very senselesse and inanimate creatures yea worse than the very Devils themselves for they beleeve and tremble Iames 2.19 4. The Lord can turn our Land into a Sea and make our arrable sailable so that there shall be no dwelling in it but it shall rise up wholly as a flood and shall be drowned as by the flood of Egypt The water is naturally above the earth so that he can float it and flood it at his pleasure and can easily pull up his â—luces and let in the Sea upon us and bury us in one universal grave of waters Let us then fear to provoke him who hath Wind and Sea at command against us The Lord wonders that any should be so sottish as not to fear him upon this very account Ier. 5.22 Fear ye not mee saith the Lord who have placed the Sand for a bound to the Sea that it cannot pass q. d. Whom will ye fear if ye will
this before Amos 4. ult Obs. 7. VERSE 7. Are ye not as children of the Ethiopian to me O ye children of Israel saith the Lord Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir THe Prophet goes on to confirm the certainty of Israels destruction from the sinfulness of their condition to this end first He labours to convince them of their Ingratâ—tude and Apostasie whereas the Lord had brought them in great mercy out of the land of Egypt where they lay buried as it were in a grave of misery and made them his Israel and peculiar people yet they diâ—â— ingeniously behaved themselves more like Ethiopians and Heathens than his beloved Israel and therefore as they had been like them in â—inning so now they should be like them in suffering In this Verse the Prophet by a Prolepsis prevents two Objections 1 Whereas they boasted that they were Gods people in Covenant and descended of holy Progenitors and therefore God would not destroy them A. To this the Prophet answers that in their wayes and walking they were more like to prophane Heathenish Idolatrous Ethiopians who were strangers from the Covenant of Grace and aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel than Israelites or the seed of Abraham since they did not the works of Abraham but of Infidels and therefore since they had made themselves thus vile by their sins God regarded them no more than the most contemptible Nations in the world and was resolved to deal with them accordingly The Ethiopians were a vile accursed Nation the symbole of servitude Gen. 9.25 Cursed be Cham a servant of servants i. e. a most vile slave let him be Now from this Cham came Canaan and his brother Chus who was the father of the Ethiopians hence they are called Chusiim as in the Text from Cham and Chus Gen. 10.6 The Interrogation is a strong Affirmation Are ye not as the children of the Ethiopian to me q. d. Ye are so there is an emphasis in that word mihi to me q. d. though ye excell other Nations in many priviledges and are honoured by men yet when you come before me what can you bring that is not mine all your feathers and favours are but borrowed and when I have taken mine own from you wherein are you better to me than Ethiopians or the most vile and contemptible Nation in the world In respect of Creation and by nature we are all alike both Saints and Scythians Israelites and Ethiopians we all come out of the same corrupt mass it is onely free-grace which makes the difference and therefore the more God had done for Israel the more humble and obedient they should have been But since they forgat the God of their mercies despised the counsel of his Prophets and hardened themselves in their sins the Lord tells them in plain termes that now he esteemed them no more than the most base and barbarous Nations in the world and this the Lord doth to abase them and make them know themselves who were stuft with such high conceits of themselves and their priviledges though they walked clean contrary to them in which respect they were inferiour to Heathens who never sinned against such light and love as they had done Obj. 2. A second Evasion was this The Lord hath chosen us for his own peculiar people above all the Nations of the world and hath delivered us from Egypt and brought us into Canaan and therefore though we do go on in our sin yet we shall prosper and no Iudgement shall come upon us as this precise Prophet Amos threatneth Ans. 1. It doth not follow that because you have been delivered out of Egypt that therefore you shall go unpunisht for your sin but the contrary since you have received such great blessings therefore you must yeeld answerable obedience remembring that they which have much of them shall be much required and if they offend they shall be sooner and more severely punished Amos 3.2 Dan. 9.12 2. The Prophet tells them that they had no reason to be puft up with this deliverance for the Lord had granted the like external deliverances though not alike in all circumstances to that of Egypt to Heathenish and Idolatrous people whom they lookt upon as Dogs and Swine The Prophet instanceth in two Examples The first is that of the Philistims whom the Lord brought from their slavery in Caphtor Jer. 47.4 The Philistims and Caphtorims are put amongst the posterity of Mizraim the Son of Cham Gen. 10.6 14. 1 Chron. 1.11 12. they expelled the Avims which dwelt in Hazerim which belonged to the Philistines and possessed their Country Deut. 2.23 The second instance is that of the Syrians whom the Lord brought from Kir where they served other Nations These are called Aramites from Aram the Son of Shem from whom they descended Gen. 10.22 these were grosse Idolaters and worshipped many Gods Iudg. 10 6. and especially that noted Idol Rimmon 2 King 5.18 There was a double Kir 1. There was Kir a City of special note in the Land of Moab Isa. 15.1 2. Kir another City situate in Media of which we read 2 King 16.9 Isa. 22.6 Amos 1.5 This was under the dominion of the Assyrians and this is the Kir in the Text. Some make this Kir to be Cyrene but there is no ground for that for Cyrene was situate in Lybia but Kir in Media under the Assyrians which is far distant from Lybia This deliverance of the Syrians from Kir is mentioned only in this place this they had from the Histories of those times which were then well known as they had many other things not mentioned in the Scripture as I have shewed elsewhere Some give the sense thus As the Philistines were ungrateful to God who brought them out of Caphtor and the Syrians when he brought them out of Kir so Israel hath been ungrateful to God who brought them out of the Land of Egypt But the genuine sense and summe of all is this There is no reason O ye children of Israel why I should respect you more than the very Ethiopians that accursed and contemptible posterity of Cham yea why should I make any difference between you and the uncircumcised Philistines or Idolatrous Syrians whom you have equalized yea exceeded in sin If you say that I brought you out of Egypt did not I also bring the Philistines and Syrians out of Caphtor and Kir you have therefore no cause to be puft up with these common favours It is true I have out of mine own free love to you exalted you above the Nations but since by your sins you have abused my favours and abased your selves I do now no more value you than so many Blackmores and Heathens OBSERVATIONS 1. To be born of pious Progenitors cannot preserve an impious people from ruine It will not avail men to say with those Jews Wee have Abraham to our Father unless
excellent fruits of grace in great abundance OBSERVATIONS 1 Gospel-times are blessed times It is the truly Golden Age when all runs Milk and Wine and Honey and all this without price and without money Isa. 55.1 2. Of Christs fulness we all receive grace for grace John 1.16 The weak are now made strong the barren fruitful the Hills are levelled the Vallies enricht the Evangelical Plough makes all mellow and fruitful and fit for Christ. We should therefore blesse the Lord who hath-cast our Lots in this pleasant time of Spiritual riches peace joy and abundant consolation Happy we if in this our day we know the things that concern our everlasting peace before they be hid from our eyes How great then is the folly of those that separate themselves and forsake those fountains and mountains of Wine and living water and goe to stinking Ponds and broken Cisterns of mens inventions that can yeeld them no comfort or refreshing in troublous times 2 Piety brings plenty When men first seek Gods Kingdom as in Gospel-times it is prophesied they should doe Isa. 2.2 3. then Wine and Milk and Honey and all other temporal blessings of peace and plenty shall be given in with the Gospel of Peace The Gospel comes not empty handed especially to an obedient people as we see in Constantines dayes and in Q. Elizabeths dayes when the Gospel flourisht the Nation flourisht with all temporal abundance Piety hath the promise and that vertually is every thing If we be obedient we shall eate the good of the Land Levit. 26.3 5. Isa. 1.19 Hos. 2.20 21 22 23. VERSE 14. And I will bring againe the Captivity of my people of Israel and they shall build the waste Cities and inhabite them and they shall plant Vineyards and drink the Wine thereof they shall also make Gardens and eate the fruit of them THe Prophet having fore-told this People of their misery how their Cities should be ransackt their Land laid wast the inhabitants captivated and slaine comes now to comfort the remnant multiplying words and adding Promise to Promise assuring them of comfort in the end though the body of the People never returned out of the Assyrian Captivity yet the elect remnant should be brought out of this misery into an estate of joy and felicity To the former Promises the Prophet here addes a fourth which brancheth it selfe into four particulars 1 They shall be delivered from Captivity and Banishment I will bring again the Captivity of my people There is a Paranomasy in the words which cannot be translated without loss such elegancies are frequent as I have shewed before This Promise was fulfilled when the Messias came and delivered them from their Spiritual captivity to Sin and Satan and brought them into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God And here the Iewes and their followers are out again taking these Promises Literally which are especially to be understood Spiritually Mystically and Metaphorically For this returning here is an Evangelical returning to Christ when the remnant of the Elect both of Iudah and Israel should be converted which though it be very sparingly now yet in Apostolical times they had many Iewish Converts we read of about three thousand of the House of Israel converted at one Sermon Acts 2.36 37 41. insomuch that St. Iames writes a whole Epistle to the dispersed Iewes and Peter writes two 2 They should have Peace with sweet security and plenty of all things which appears by the fruit es and effects of it As 1. Plantation They should build Cities Plant Vine-yards Make Gardens 2 They should have fruition of all these They should inhabit their Cities Drink the Wine of their Vine-yards And eat the fruit of their Gardens The like Promise we have Isa. 65.21 22. My Servants shall build Houses and inhabit them and plant Vine-yards and eate the fruit of them that is they should peaceably enjoy the blessings of God where still under Temporal blessings are shadowed forth Spiritual and eternal ones As when God was angry with the Iewes he used to terrifie them with legal Curses as before Amos. 5.11 They should build houses and not dwell in them plant Vine-yards but not eate the fruit of them So on the contrary here he promiseth that they should not labour in vaine as they did before when they served Idols and provoked him with their inventions Speaking to the Iewes he tells them still of Legal Blessings which typified Evangelical and Spiritual mercies as was usual with the Prophets for to doe as Mr. Burroughs shewes at large on Hos. 1.11 Lect. 7. p. 183 c. his only fault there is that he inclines too much to that fancy of the Millenaries as Mr. Baily shewes in his Disswasive from the Errours of the Times p. 224 c. And they shall build wast Cities that is they shall restore the pure Worship of God and build up the Elect in their most holy faith They shall plant Vine-yards and Gardens that is particular Churches in which God delights to walk and feed on the grapes of obedience which grow there And drink the Wine thereof that is they shall have comfort in their labours which they should see were not in vaine in the Lord. The Church is Gods Husbandry and the Apostles with their Successors are Gods Husband-men and Vinitors that must plant Churches and water them and as much as in them lyes propagate them all the world over that Christs truth may bee known upon earth and his saving health among all Nations So that this verse is a continued Metaphor taken from such as returned out of Captivity into their owne Country for such are wont to build Cities plant Vine-yards make Gardens c. now the rule must still be remembred that by these are set forth Spiritual blessings OBSERVATIONS 1 When God is at peace with a People then peace plenty prosperity internal and external follow When Gods face shines upon a People then there is a new face set upon things and those that frowned before now smile on us Gen. 32.28 Hos. 2.20 21 22 23. when God is at peace with us he makes all at peace with us 2 Chron. 15.15 17.7 to 12. Psal. 81.12 13 14. Prov. 16.7 Acts 9.31 2. Christ hath redeemed his Elect from the Tyranny of sin and Satan and all the enemies of their salvation Luk. 1.74 Col. 1.13 and 2.14 Heb. 2.14 15. He that brought back the Captivity of his people here hath lead Captivity Captive and hath received gifts for men even for the Rebellious Psal. 68.18 VERSE 15. And I will plant them upon their Land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their Land which I have given them saith the Lord. WEE are now come to the fifth and last Promise which brancheth it self into two particulars 1. A Promise of Plantation and Settlement I will Plant them in their own Land They shall have a settled and sure habitation in
Reproofes belong to great men as well as others 5 9 10. Reproof when hated aggravates sin 181 Retaliation used by God 16 64 65 186 360 Rhetorick in Scripture 293 Righteousness to bee practised 30 Ripe when a people are for ruine 16 Rulers are the Head of a Land 515 516 S. SAcrifices without obedience odious to God 227 229 230 234 Security brings misery 294 555 Self-judging necessary 115 Seek God how that must be done 155 156 A Sensual life odious 307 Sifted Gods Church is many ways 549 Silence when a point of prudence 198 199 Seven how used 187 Silver avayls not in a day of trouble 19 Singing of Psalmes its excellency 316. How to sing 317 Sins of omission dangerous 214 Sin and punishment are inseparable 15. It makes war between God and a people 379. It robs us of our comforts 94. It ruines places 100. It is an evil thing 210. Continuance in it dangerous 190. It must be hated 210. When ripe it ruines men 439 440 545. and ends in sorrow 472. It is bitter 484. and makes the earth to groan 475 Smelling what it notes 228 Superstition to be auoyded 29 Swearing when lawful 15. 336 Sympathize we must with Gods people 143 314 315 371 T. TEntations useful 552 Ten how used 339 Our Times in Gods hand 332. What use to make of it 333. Travelling take heed of it 160. Thoughts known to God 122 127 131. Uses of it 132. Comforts from it 134 Tythes due 23 V. UNiversality in sin brings universality in suffering 359 Unmercifulness a great sin 31 466 Unrighteous dealing sinful 466 W. War sent for sin 90. See seventeen sins which bring it 92. it is sad 380 Wheat how the godly are like it 553 Warning God gives 108 295 Will-worship sinful 29 256 503 Willing we must be in Gods Service 58 Wicked men are like beasts 10. they are the Pests of a place 19. they grow worse and worse 26 27. they are fearful 518. God records their wickedness 473 Winds a blessing 119 120 121 Woe what it signifies 291. Ministers must sometimes denounce woes 294 Word of God is Critical 356 Worldly men are industrious for the world 465 468 Y. YOung men cut off for sin 93 A Table of the Texts explained Pages GEn. 7.19 118 Deut. 24.19 20. 388 Iosh. 14.12 208 Iudg. 9.13 227 1 Sam. 4.18 315 1 Chron. 22.8 91 Iob. 1. ult 346 23.10 134 23.12 487 Psal. 31.15 332 62.1 346 91.10 89 106.7 16 110.3 58 139.7 to 13. 521 222 Prov. 4.14 25 24.16 505 25.3 129 Eccles. 11.1 2. 49.50 Isa 1.5 107 5.1 353 9.17 93 38.1 224 40.15 16 17. 536 537 46.6 321 Ier. 5.1 6 7 5.22 531 5.24 71 16.5 330 Ezek. 42. ult 205 Dan. 9.23 185 Micha 6.8 45 Hag. 2.9 565 Mat. 23.37 106 Luke 6.30 51 6.38 34 16. ult 97 19.8 32 Rom. 5.7 34 12.9 210 1 Cor. 9.19 20. 6 2 Cor. 9.10 36 37 Gal. 1.6 6 Colos. 3.12 48 1 Tim. 6.19 36 Iames 2.19 66 Philem. 2. 29 30 2 Pet. 1.19 97 Revel 14.8 329 Questions Resolved 1 IN what Cases a man may seek to please men p. 6 2 Whether Churches be holier than other places p. 25 3 Whether good intentions bee a sufficient warrant for evil actions p. 27 28 4 Whether wandring Beggers may be releeved p. 52 5 Whether Judicial-Astrology be unlawful p. 72 73 6 Whether a man may fly in time of Pestilence p. 87 7 Whether a godly man may dye of the Plague p. 89 8 Whether wee may use the name of Munday Tuesday c. p. 168 9 Whether costly Oyntments may be used by any p. 305 306 10 When Musick is unlawful p. 310 311 c. 11 Whether Relicks of Saints may be worshipped p. 345 12 Whether we may rejoyce in the destruction of the wicked p. 142 13 Whether Inclosures are lawful p. 461 14 Whether VVeek-day Lectures be lawful p. 466. 497 15 VVhether men may swear by Idols p. 503 16 VVhether Rulers may be called the Heads of a Land p. 516 Courteous Reader these Books are printed for and sold by Henry Mortlock at the sign of the Phoenix in Pauls Church-yard near the Little North-door Folioes A Commentary upon the whole Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians wherein the text is learnedly and fruitfully opened with a Logical Analysis spiritual and holy Observations Confutation of Arminianism and Popery By Mr. Paul Bain A Commentary on the Proverbs Ecclesiastes Canticles and the Major Prophets By Iohn Trap M. A. Quariose An Exposition of the Prophecy of Ezekiel By William Green-hil Some Sermons preached upon several occasions By Peter Sterry A way to Zion sought out and found for Beleevers to walk in By Daniel King Preacher of the VVord near Coventry Funebria Florae or The Down-fall of May-Games By Tho. Hall B. D. and Pastor of Kings-Norton in Worcestershire The loathsomness of long Hair or A Treatise wherein you have the Question stated many Arguments against it produced and the most material arguments for it refelled and answered with an Appendix against Painting Spots naked Breasts c. by the same Author Samue in Sackcloth or a Sermon assaying to restraine our bitter Animosities and commending a spirit of moderation and right constitution of Soul and behaviour towards our Brethren upon 1 Sam. 15.35 Large Octavoes A Treatise of the Divine Promises in five Books In the first A general Description of their Nature Kinds Excellency Right Use Properties and the Persons to whom they belong In the four last A Declaration of the Covenant it self the bundle and body of all the Promises and the special Promises likewise which concern a mans self or others both temporal spiritual and eternal By Edw. Leigh M. A. of Magdalen-Hall in Oxford The Hypocrites Ladder or Looking-glass or a Discourse of the dangerous and destructive nature of Hypocrisie the reigning and provoking sin of this age wherein is shewed how farre the Hypocrite or formal Professor may goe towards Heaven yet utterly perish by three Ladders of sixty steps of his Ascending By Iohn Sheffield Minister of the Word at Swithins London An Improvement of the Sea upon the nine Nautical Verses in the 107. Psalm wherein among other things you have a very full and delightful Description of all those many various and multitudinous Objects which they behold in their Travels through the Lords Creation both on Sea in Sea and on Land viz. All sorts and kinds of Fish Fowl and Beasts whether wilde or tame all sorts of Trees and Fruit all sorts of People Cities Towns and Countries By Daniel Pell Preacher of the VVord A Cavear against Seducers in a Sermon preached by Richard Stand-fast Rector of Christ-Church in Bristol Together with the Blind mans Meditations by the same Author A Treatise of Divine Meditation by that faithful Servant of Jesus Christ Iohn Ball late Minister of the Gospel at Whitmore in Stafford-shire published by Mr. Simeon Ash preacher of the Gospel at Austins London Shimgnu audita
variety of Afflictions by the Syrians and Assyrians till at last they were carried out of their owne Land 4 Here is an Exegesis or further illustration of their misery and the banquet of them that stretcht themselves shall be removed The Prophet alludes to those before vers 4 th who wantonly stretcht themselves upon their beds of Ivory q. d. Those luxurious lazie wantons that gave themselves up to feasting and banqueting to ryot and lasciviousness shall have their mirth turned into mourning and their Organs into the voyce of them that weep Their Banquet shall be removed It is a Meiosis i. e. all their jollity pride and pleasure shall be taken from them and instead thereof destruction and misery shall pursue them so that they shall have neither minde nor Money to make Feasts who were wont to spend all upon their backs and bellies The words are rendred by some thus And the sorrow of them that stretched themselves is at hand This comes from the various rendring of two words in the Original the first is the word Mirzach which the Vulgar render Faction but without any ground at all others Sorrow but the word properly signifies a Funeral-feast for in those dayes they had feasts at Burials as well as at Bridals Ier. 16.7 The word is used but in one place more in all the Scripture and that is Ierem. 16.5 Enter not into the house of mourning or as the Margin renders it goe not to the Mourning-feasts or Banquets which where wont to be kept with abundance of riot pomp and jollity These Funeral-Feasts were first ordained for the comforting of such as grieved for the loss of their friends by death but these here abused them to wantonness and excess The other word which causeth this diversity is the word Sur which signifies to approach or to depart it is here taken in the latter sense according to our Translation The banquet of them that stretcht themselves shall be removed q. d. all your mirth and merriment shall cease and yee shall be carried Captive into a strange Land 5. Here is the ground of all their sorrow and suffering included in the Illative Particle Therefore therefore shall they goe Captive with the first viz. for their security oppression luxury and inhumanity The words being thus cleared the Observations follow OBSERVATIONS 1 Security Luxury and Inhumanity doe bring a People into Captivity and misery These sins ruined the Old World Sodome and Ierusalem Ezek. 16.49 50. and 22.3 to 13. Luk. 17.26 27. And if they be found reigning in England they will ruine it too If we abuse our good Land in dishonouring God hee will cast us out of it into captivity 2 Those that are Leaders in sin many times are Leaders in suffering When such as excel others in gifts and dignity do go before them in iniquity 't is just they should lead them the way into captivity God is no respecter of persons be they Princes or Peasants Soveraigns or Servants that sin against him they shall not escape if Kings offend they have a King above them that will not spare them Psal. 62.14 and 76.12 and 110.5 Isa. 30.33 Hence the Apostle would have Masters to know that if they wrong their servants yet they have a Master in Heaven that will right them Ephes. 6.9 Great men that abuse great blessings shall have great punishment Many Great men think that their greatness should priviledge them in their wickedness when 't is an aggravation of their sin and hastens Judgement 2 Sam. 12.7 8 9 10 11. And therefore we many times finde the poor spared when the richer sort are plundred and slain 2 King 24.12 13. and 25.20 21 22. Ier. 39.10 when those that should bee patterns of Piety become Patrons of impiety prophaneness and luxury going before them in sin it is just with God that they should be punisht before others as we see in Saul Ahab Zedekiah and many Heathen Emperours whom Justice cut off for their luxury and cruelty 3. God turns the mirth of wicked men into mourning Their feasting into fasting and their banquets into funeral-feasts where there is or at least-wise ought to be weeping and mourning Many men drive away sorrow and trouble of mind and cannot endure the thoughts of mourning but though they fly sorrow yet sorrow will not fly them but will suddenly surprize them and damp their pleasures Dan. 5.45 Luk. 12.20 It will be our wisdome therefore Actively and freely to afflict our selves to weep and mourn for our sins Iames 4.8 9. Else we shall be humbled Passively against our wills and God will bring some plague upon us till he have either bended or broken us We should therefore fear to displease him in whose hands are all our times Dan. 5.23 Both of mirth and mourning of rising and ruining of plenty and poverty of honour and dishonour of advancement and abasement of health and sickness of living and dying All our times are in Gods hand Psal. 31.15 And 't is well for us they are so for if they were in other hands we were undone Wee see Iobs times were but a little space in the Devils hands and how sad was it with him He that sate to day like a King how suddenly is he on the Dunghil His Cattel are taken from him his Children slain his Body full of boyls and his Soul full of terrours And thus it would be with us all and worse if we lay at the mercy of Sathan who rageth more now than ever because his time is but short Revel 12.12 2 It would be sad with us if our Times were in mens hands whose mercies are cruelties they would deal with us as Pharaoh did with Israel or Herod with Iohn Baptist. 3 It would be ill with us if our times were in our owne hands it is ten thousand times better that they are in Gods hand For. 1. Now they are in the hands of a most wise God who knowes what is better for us than we doe for our selves 2. They are in the hands of a merciful God who turns all to good to his people and hath promised to pitty and spare us as a man spares his Son that serves him Psal. 103.13 all his wayes are mercy in making promises and truth in keeping them Psal. 25.10 3. They are in Powerful hands hee is able to keep what we have committed to his trust Ioh. 10.28 29. 4. They are in faithful and trusty hands friends may deceive us Micah 7.5 but he is truth it self he cannot deceive nor be deceived 2 It may comfort us in afflictive times that all our afflictions are in Gods hand for matter manner time and measure Revel 2.10 he shall cast some of you not all 2. He shall cast you into Prison not into the grave 3 It is but for ten dayes not ten years God sets them their bounds and sayes to these Metaphorical waves as hee doth to the Natural Hitherto shall yee come and no further He