gather the Elders and all the inhabitants of the land into the house of the Lord your God and cry unto the Lord 15 Alas for the day for the day of the Lord is at hand and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come 16 Is not the meat cut off before your eyes yea joy and gladnesse from the house of our God 17 The feed iâ—â—rotten under their clods the garners are laid desolate the barns are broken down for the corn is withered 18 How do the beasts grone the herds of cattel are perplexed because they have no pasture yea the flocks of sheep are made desolate 19 O Lord to thee will I cry for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wildernesse and the flame hath burnt all the trees of the field 20 The beasts of the field cry also unto thee for the rivers of waters are dried up and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wildernesse THe Prophecie of Ioel was directed chiesly against Iudah as Hosheahs against Israel For though he name Israel twice yet he understands not there the ten Tribes distinct from the Kingdom of Iudah but takes it as a general name to all the Jews He begins with threats and motives to repentance and so makes way for unspeakable comfort in the coming of the Messias and the necessitie of yeelding obedience unto him CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was made known to Ioel the son of Pethuel 2. Hear ye this you aged men that are supposed to have encreased your knowledge with your years And give special ear to it all you that are inhabitants of the land of Judea And tell me if you have heard the like of what I shall now deliver either in your daies or in the daies of your forefathers 3. I shall speak that which you may well transmit to your children and they to theirs and so one age to another generation succeeding them 4. And I shall begin with four several sorts of terrible locusts You read but of one sort of them in Egypt here are more to be wondred at and all of them greedy destroyers not of our enemies land but of our own nor of the land onely but of the people In such manner shall these come That what the Caterpiller leaves the Grashopper shall devour And what the Grashoper leaves the Canker-worm shall eat up And what the Canker-worm leaves the Locust shall devour 5. Here is sad news to wake up the drunkards you that are in that number this will make you all turn your mad mirth into weeping and howling You that were of all others most soundly lulled asleep for in the destruction of the vineyards the sweet wine will be taken away from the mouths of such lustie bibbers 6. And that you may know what kind of creatures these locusts may be whether worms or men I will now use a plainer language to ler you understand what God himself saith of his people And this it is A nation shall certainly come upon my land or rather a mixture of several destructive nations as greedie and mischievous as any locusts a people excelling in strength and number A generation of locusts that will bite to the purpose For their teeth will be like Lions teeth and their grinders will have the strength of the strongest Lions in that part 7. This kind of monstrous creature will fearfully destroy Judea which I account as my own vineyard that my right hand hath planted And with that all my best fruit will be used at the pleasure of the destroyer among them my fig-trees will be barked and pilled and carelessely thrown about not a bough retaining so much as his own colour 8. For this well maiest thou O Judea take up as heavie a mourning and lamentation as a young woman would do that girds her self with sackcloth and sadly composeth her self to bewail the losse of her dearest consort the husband of her youth 9. No other way canst thou lament for thy Priests or they for themselves They that continually wait at the altar of the Lord to intercede for thy welfare and present thy thankful acknowledgements cannot otherwise expresse the absolute losse of that corn and wine that should daily supply the meat-offering and drink-offering for the house of the Lord and so the better inable them for the continuance of divine service in that place 10. The Priests mourn not alone The grounds are so wasted and lie so rude and untilled that they also seem to have put on their mourning apparrel And there is too much cause they should do so for the devastation of the fair corn-fields and withering of the vines and total losse of the oyl 11. At this sight how can the Husbadmen but hang down their heads for shame and the vine-dressers cry out for sorrow It must trouble them all to see the fruit of the earth so destroyed the wheat and the barly and the whole harvest of the field 12. The vines specially they have been so abused that they seem to blush at it as if they were ashamed to be seen in such a case The figs are no lesse spoiled and corrupted And with them the pomegranate the palmtree and the apple tree and all other trees of the field are withered and decayed And in them the joy and delight of the Sons of men is taken away and vanished out of our sight 13. Now therefore O ye Priests that have nothing else to offer come offer and present your sad souls before the Altar And gird your bodies with sackcloth or other mournful attire and let your howling be heard you that attend upon an empty Altar and are tain to lay aside your solemn Musick Lie all night in sackcloth you Ministers of my God For meat and drink offerings and outward sacrifices you must look for none You have onely your patient and obedient hearts to be made a fit sacrifice for the Lord of Heaven and earth that gives and takes away and restores again at his pleasure 14. Nor will this sacrificing of your selves be enough You must think what is fit to be done by the people too To appease the wrath of God Proclaim a publick and solemn Fast Let a full assembly be called Gather your Senators together to advise and enact what is to be done And all the Inhabitants of the land to obey their commands Gather them to the house of the Lord your God the house of prayer and there with penitent and unanimous hearts cry earnestly unto him and say 15. Alas for the day the great day of the Lord that comes on apace the day of vengeance and the destruction of Ierusalem the day of destruction that is appointed by God himself who is all-sufficient and will not be wanting to execute his own just decrees 16. Do we not see a type of it already set before our eyes Do we not read some lines of it in our present miserie and scarcitie that
added in speculation of that To shadow the time of his coming before which the general Peace and plenty of all things shall seem to usher in the great Peace-maker I may speak to the cattel such as we heard awhile ago crying out for want of food and tell them that our happinesse in the near approach of the Messias shall not begin without some comfort to the very beasts of the field For The Pastures of the wildernesse shall put on the face of joy and the colour which they delight in And the trees if they show not the same colour shall show such plenty and variety of fruit as shall best expresse them to be in a flourishing estate Among them the Fig-tree and the vine that we most enquire after shall show the choicest fruit in their kind that we could expect from them 23. And while the earth and trees and dum Creatures partake of so much refreshment much more shall our hearts be enlarged with spiritual joy and comfort Therefore do you Citizens of Jerusalem and inhabitants of Judaea or you rather that make up the true Israel of God and members of the holy Church whereof Ierusalem is a type Do you studie how to expresse the solace and content that must needs follow upon the coming of the Messiah the true Doctor and Teacher of Righteousnesse which under the same name shall bring you the best rain and showers from Heaven in the preaching of his holy word both the first rain that helps up the first hopes of fruit and the latter rain which shall in due time secure us of a happy harvest in the higher and more spiritual sense of the successe of the Gospel 24. Such a happy harvest under the Messias his Kingdom will fill all places with plenty of spiritual food The richest flower of the best wheat the most and best liquor from the choicest Vine and Olive will be but poor emblemes and figures of it 25. This plenty will obliterate the memory of your former greatest famine or what other misery happened to the body from those mighty armies of hungry locusts the Grassehoppers Cankerworms Caterpillers and Palmerworms that I sent among you This plenty will be abundant recompense for those times of want and distresse 26. For if you will bring souls hungry and thirsty and longing to be refreshed with the best cordials and the true manna the food of life that came down from Heaven It is to be had without money You may freely eat and be fully satisfied and have cause enough to return all possible praise and thanksgiving to the Lord your God for those wonderful unspeakable mercies which may further oblige you to a confident and constant devoting of your selves to his service without any more revolting or forsaking of him as if you were ashamed of your profession 27. To which end you shall see enough to make you know that I am in the midst of Israel and I am the Lord your God and no other beside me whether we understand it of our Saviours corporal presence and dwelling here as God and Man or of his invisible assistance and government of his Church Therefore I might well say that you shall be sufficiently obliged to his service and to such a trust and confidence and joy in Him as shall make you triumph in your holy Calling rather then any way be ashamed of it 28. After these times of your enjoying the happy sight of the Messias I will also send down my holy Spirit in a visible form and bestow his Spiritual Graces in such abundance upon all sorts of men though they are but flesh and blood that some even illeterate persons men and women of your own nation shall show the power of a divine prophetick spirit to the speedy and successeful propagation of the gospel To which in the fuller progresse there shall not a little be added by that which in dreams and visions shall be revealed not onely to some of the elder but to some also of the younger sort 29. And as no sex or nation so neither any rank or order of men bond or free masters or servants shall be excluded from this high priviledge of partaking of the gifts of the Holy Ghost 30. Not long after this prosperous beginning and divulging of the gospel many prodigious signs will appear as presages and forerunners of the fearful destruction of Ierusalem the sad punishment of their rebellion and unbelief wonders in heaven and earth beside the effusion of much blood in the slaughter of many men in several places and the flames of fire and pillars of smoak that will appear in the burning and destroying of many Towns 31. Upon which there will follow such a dark and dismal aspect and alteration of the glorious light above as will plainly fore-speak a sad and bloody confusion and alteration in the Jewish state that under the Romans exceeding and compleating that under the Chaldeans of the great and terrible day of the Lords coming in judgement against this sinful nation 32. Yet in all this misery as the severity of God will be seen in the destruction of obstinate sinners so his mercy and succour will not be excluded from any that call upon Him with an obedient faith Sion and Ierusalem shall not then want such a means of deliverance And that mercy shall be continued for ever to the remnant of the Iews that will obey the voice of their Messias in the Gospel the voice of their Lord God that shall call them to repentance CHAP. III. 1. FOr behold in those dayes and in that time when I shall bring again the captivity of Iudah and Ierusalem 2 I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the vally of Ieboshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land 3 And they have cast lots for my people and have given a boy for an harlot and sold a girle for wine that they might drink 4 Yea and what have ye to do with me O Tyre and Zidon and all the coasts of Palestine will ye render me a recompense and if ye recompense me swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head 5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold and have carried into your Temples my goodly pleasant things 6 The children also of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians that ye might remove them farre from their border 7 Behold I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them and wil return your recompense upon your own head 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Iudah and they shall sell them to the Sabeans to a people far off for the Lord hath spoken it 9 Proclaim ye this among the gentiles prepare war make up the mighty
of a false sentence or the not executing of a just law when it is in their power to do it 8. It were well if they would amend this fault and resolve to do Justice in awe and reverence of that all-seeing eye and powerfull Majesty that created all the glorious lamps of Heaven Among them He made the Pleiades or Vergiliae a constellation of seven stars that ushers in the delights of the spring and the fittest time for navigation and Orion that appears about November and threatens tempestuous or at least inconstant weather as the name it self imports It is He that can turn the shadow of death the most dismall and palpable darknesse into the clearest morning and on the contrary the brightest day into the blackest night which allegorically expresseth another power of his to turn the saddest calamity into the truest felicity and again the fairest prosperity into the greatest misery It is He that can call the waters out of the Sea drawing them in vapours into the clouds by the heat of the Sun and poure them down again upon the earth in pleasant and comfortable showres where and whensoever he pleaseth It is He whose name is Iehovah which name showes the independance of his own essence that gives being to all other and the constancy of his performance of whatsoever he hath promised 9. It is he that doth often in such measure refresh and inable a weak man which hath been laid wast and desolate that he overcomes the strong It is he that brings it so about that a feeble man laid desolate shall invade and take a strong place of defense All these Instances of his power might well perswade the Israelites that He is able to releive those that are oppressed and wronged in their courts of Justice 10. Yet have not they been well advised of this For they have showed their malice against him that for their injustice hath reproved them openly in the very gates of their Cities that are their usuall places of Judicature There have they made it known how they use to abominate him that speaks sincerely ex animo and to the purpose as if he understood the case in hand 11. Now because you of Israel have thus unjustly oppressed and trampled upon the poor not onely in your Courts of Justice as you call them but in other places at your own price taking from them burdens of wheat which they got as a reward of their day-labour and for the releif of your family Therefore you that by such unjust meanes have built you sumptuous houses of hewen stone shall not come to possesse and enjoy them nor shall ye stay so long in the land as to taste the wine of those fair and lovely vineyards which you have planted upon the like purchase 12. For I observe your manifold transgressions those specially wherein you afflict the just defenders of the poor and by your bribery and other waies keep the needy from their right in that very place wherein they have most reason to expect it 13. Therefore in such evill and corrupt times he that is wise will spare his giving you any more good admonitions at his own perill which he sees will do no good upon men wholly wedded and devoted to their own waies of unlawfull gain and injurious to them that rebuke them for it 14. The thought of this may perswade you while the punishment is yet deferred to bethink your selves of doing that which becomes the people of God and by all meanes avoiding such foule faults that you may live and escape the dangers that hang over your heads Do this in time and the Lord God of Hostes will be with you as you use to boast that he is in the midst of you and will preserve you from any great danger 15. Avoid sinne with a perfect hatred of it and do that which is good in pure love of vertue and goodnesse Above all take care for the free course of Iustice in the publick places of judgement Then happily the Lord of Hostes will be mercifull to the poor remnant of the children of Israel now under the power of the tribe of Ephraim the son of Ioseph 16. For to no other end doth the Lord God of Hostes threaten so much but that your Repentance might timely prevent his judgements and lay hold of his mercy This is the intent of that which the Lord hath said that there shall be mourning not in your houses onely but in all your streets and lamentation in all your high-waies and publick places Where the generall calamity shall joyn whole troupes of them together in the sad tone of Alas Alas what will become of us Then shall they that dwell in Cities invite the Husbandmen to bear a part in their Lamentation and they that for their skill in those sad waies of Mourning were wont to be hired to do it in the Funerals of the richer sort of men shall be called in not to personate a mourner or act a part for money but more really and seriously to expresse that sorrow which equally concerned them all 17. And in all the Vineyards where you were wont to have such merry shoutes and chearfull acclamations at the close of a happy Vintage there also shall you eccho your dolefull sighes and outcries to one another While I passe thorough thy land to take vengeance of all thy wickednesse saith the Lord. That they who would not honour me for my favours and blessings may acknowledge me at least in my righteous Judgements 18. Then woe to them they will be of all other the most unhappy and miserable that to their Idolatry Injustice and other clamorous sins venture also to adde the sinnes of Unbeleif Impatience and open contempt of those many Prophetical admonitions that have been used to reclaim them and in that wicked disposition are not ashamed to say Oh when will the day of the Lord come which the Prophets have so often sounded in our eares Is it the day of our death or of the doom that the whole nation must expect to be executed upon them And will it be so terrible as they seem to conceive We would fain see in earnest what that day will prove and whether the Prophets were not much mistaken in their Predictions For will God ever in such manner forsake his holy land and the children of Abraham Isaac and Iacob his dearest Saints Oh that the time were come when we might try the love of God and see the day of the Lord which is so talked of Alas poor soules why are you so willing to see it If you knew what it will be to you you would not be so earnest to hasten it forward For it will be a black and dismall day a time of extream misery and calamity without the mixture of any light somnesse and comfort And do you long for such a sad cloudy stormy day 19. In that day terrours and troubles will come so thick upon
your thoughts are of me and my mercy and protection over you and yours I shall raise up against you the fierce and nimble Chaldèans that are now your confederates and whom of all other you would least suspect to be ingaged in such undertakings And they according to their innate cruelty and agility shall sodainly and barbarously over-run this land stretching their victorious armies into every corner and where they please possessing themselves of many fair habitations that are none of theirs 7. Whatsoever you now conceit of them cruel and terrible they will then appear to be as they are indeed and the rather because their will shall be their law and out of their proud mouths shall proceed those imperious commands and decrees that you shall not dare to controll 8. When they are once mounted on horseback to set upon you the nimble pace of the Leopards shall not have more speed then their horses And to adde furie to their speed their hungry appetites shall be more eagerly bent upon the prey then you have seen the greedy wolves that steal out in the evening to satisfie their hunger So shall their horse-men be affected spreading and disfusing themselves over the best part of your Country and from the remote parts of the Babylonian Empire falling upon you with that hast and soddainnesse that you would think neither the ravenning wolf nor the hungry eagle her self should be able to exceed 9. No otherwise shall they encourage one another and proceed to their violent mischievous attempts then with such furie and unhappy successe as if a pestilent east-wind did set them on to consume all before them And when all is done if you would know the number of them that shall be carried into captivity and so by escaping a present death reserved to a further miserie you may as well desire to have the number of the sands on the sea-shore 10. All this while there is little hope of opposition to be made against them by King or people As for your Kings first if such should be your Commanders abroad the proud Chaldean doth rather scorn and deride then any way dread that sacred name And for your people or any strong forts and Bulwarks at home that you conceive them able to make by way of resistance in as much scorn will he look upon them and never doubt by the raising of a muddie frontier against it to make an easie surprisal of your strong defence 11. Which done his haughty spirit will be the readier to passe all the bounds of moderation with as little difficulty as he brake through your military works and so to go on to a further degree of wickedness ascribing this goodly successe of his bold enterprises to no other Deity then one of his own making And that is his own valerous policie which is the idol that he will magnifie above all that is called God But O my Lord God the true Deitie whose power and wisdom is over all my Holy Lord who art from all eternity to oll eternity and by whom onely we hope to be preserved from death and destruction Hast not thou set him up hast not thou raised this Babylonian Tyrant as the executioner of these thy judgments upon us Hast not thou inabled him thus to chastise us and thus to prevail over the rock of our strength that power of ours that we accounted to be most impregnable 13. Surely thou art of purer eies then to see and approve the wicked designs of our cruel and malitious enemies that entitle their own prowesse to all their Trophies and Triumphs over us Why then dost thou seem by their prosperous atchievements to favour so great sinners and to keep silence and wink at it while the wicked Chaldeans do thus consume thy own people that are far more righteous then they 14. Were we but onely as other men yet shall we not as men have a more peculiar aspect of thy loving providence But we are thy people And while we are in the troublesome Sea of this world where the greater fishes are ever ready to devour the lesse Shall there be no more regard had of our lives then is of ordinary Fishes and other inferior Creatures that have no such ready addresse as we have to the Gvide and Ruler and defender of mankind 15. Shall Nebuchadnezar and his rude Souldiers have liberty to fish where they will and take all for fish that comes to their net Shal such cruel fishers of men that pursue their ruine and destruction have so good success attending their nets and hooks their projests and devises that therein they shall go on to triumph and applaud themselves 16. And that therefore they shall be encouraged to sacrifice to their own nets and impute all their victorious successes to the virtue of their own power and policy by which they are inriched with so many fat booties that increase upon them while they devour us and our substance and at their pleasure feed greedily upon that which is none of theirs 17. And for all this shall they be still suffered to expose and extend their nets more and more And while they make no spare wilt thou also defer to revenge our slaughters and oppressions by the deserved punishment of that barbarous people guilty of so many so gross sins as they are CHAP. II. 1. I will stand upon my watch and set me upon the tower and will watch to see what he will say unto me and what I shall answer when I am reproved 2 And the Lord answered me and said Write the vision and make it plain upon tables that he may â—un that readeth it 3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time but at the end it shall speak and not lie though it tarry wait for it because it will surely come it will not tarry 4 Behold his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him but the just shall live by his faith 8 Yea also because he transgresseth by wine he is a proud man neither keepeth at home who enlargeth his desire as hell and is as death and cannot be satisfied but gathereth unto him all nations and heapeth unto him all people 6 Shall not all these take up a parable against him and a taunting proverb against him and say Woe to him that increaseth that which is not his how long and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay 7 Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee and awake that shall vex thee and thou shalt be for booties unto them 8 Because thou hast spoiled many nations all the remnanâ— of the people shall spoil thee because of mens bloud and for the violence of the land of the city and of all that dwell therein 9 We to him that coveteth an evill covetousnesse to his house that he may set his nest on high that he may be delivered from the power of evill 10 Thou hast consulted shame to thy
they should have done as if they endeavoured your ruine rather than your amendment and so hindered as much as in them lay the good hopes of your recovery and your return to this place and to my service 16. Therefore this now is the mercifull resolution of the lord I will return with a gracious aspect upon Ierusalem and I will prosper the building of my Temple there saith the lord of Hostes. And let them be as sure of it as if they now see their Carpenters drawing out their lines for the whole work that not the Temple onely but the Citie of Jerusalem too shall be re-edified and made like her self again in her walls and gates and other places of ornament and defense that are fit for so great a City 17. And add this moreover when thou preachest to my people and say Thus saith the Lord of Hostes My Cities in Judah shall be so stored and filled once again with all good things as a vessel is that is ready to run over and burst with abundance of liquor And the Lord will again comfort Sion and show his loving kindnesse to Ierusalem as a place that he hath selected and picked out for the object of his love 18. After this lifting up mine eies I presently saw four hornes 19. And I said to the great Angel that discoursed with me what mean those horns that I see And he answered These horns are four severall Nations all enemies to Judaea and ready like wild beasts to tosse and molest her upon every advantage and so to hinder the good work which she intended about the Temple And these were the Cuthaeans the Ammonites the Arabians and the Philistims 20. Then the Lord shewed me four Carpenters well furnished with hatchets and sawes and other instruments of their Art as it were to cut those Hornes shorter that made so great a show or to help forward the building of the Temple 21 Then said I what come these men to do and he answered The hornes that you saw are severall nations that would fain tosse and scatter Iudah from place to place and like horned Beasts have so gored and pushed at that weak people that they dare not turn head against them or make any resistance Now these Carpenters are come as friends that God hath raised up for you to fray away and disperse them and all such like among the Gentiles that shall presume to lift up their hornes against the land of Iudah to make another dispersion of that afflicted people And things being so quieted you may the better attend the work about the house of God CHAP. II. 1 I Lift up mine eyes again and looked and behold a man with a measuring-lâ—ne in his hand 2 Then said I whither goest thou and he said unto me To measure Ierusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof 3 And behold the angel that talked with me went forth and another angel went out to meet him 4 And said unto him Run speak to this young man saying Ierusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattel therein 5 For I saith the Lord will be unto her a wall of fire round about and will be the glory in the midst of her 6 Ho ho come forth and flee from the land of the north saith the Lord for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of the heaven saith the Lord. 7 Deliver thy self O Zion that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon 8 For thus saith the Lord of hosts After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye 9 For behold I will shake mine hand upon them and they shall be a spoil to their servants and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me 10 Sing and rejoyce O daughter of Zion for lo I come I will dwel in the midst of thee saith the Lord. 11 And many nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people and I will dwell in the midst of thee and thou shalt know that the Lord of hosts hath sent me unto thee 12 And the Lord shall inherit Iudah his portion in the holy land and shall choose Ierusalem again 13 Be silent O all flesh before the Lord for he ie raised up out of his holy habitation CHAP. II. 1. AFter what was told me of the four Carpenters and as it were in confirmation of that Another vision caused the lifting up of mine eyes where I beheld a man with a measuring line in his hand A resemblance of Nehemiah that was to take care for the employment of the builders of the City 2. To this man I presently applied my self and said unto him whither art thou going And he returned me this answer I am going to measure Ierusalem that I may see what is the breadth and what is the length of it 3. You may take notice that in the mean while the great Angel with whom I had been entertained in discourse before withdrew himself from the place where he then stood and another Angel went out to meet him and receive his commands 4. To whom this was that which the great Angel gave first in charge Make hast saith he and deliver this Prophesie to that young man Zachariah the young Prophet and say Ierusalem shall be once again so populous that many of her Citizens shall be fain to inhabite in the suburbs and in the little villages all about them because neither they nor their cattle and other wealth shall be able to be conteined within the walls In all which Jerusalem shall be but a type of a greater accesse of true converts to the Church of God which is the true Jerusalem the mother of us all 5. And to this Ierusalem and to that which is figured by it will I be like a wall of fire round about her to defend her from all outward assaults And within the Citie I will be a glory to her in the many and miraculous expressions of my power and Majestie 6. You therefore that account your selves in the number of the children of Israel and are yet in the land of your captivity Come O come quickly to us out of those Northern climates saith the Lord. For I will dilate and extend your habitations towards the four winds of Heaven and much inlarge the borders of your possession saith the Lord. 7. Therefore make hast Come away come away you Citizens of Sion Delight not to continue your captivity and prolong the time of your banishment from your Jerusalem but speedily come out of Babylon you that hitherto have continued in that place Come out of your places of idolatrie and seat your selves in the spatious limits of the true Church of God 8. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the great Deliverer and Defender of his Church Come after
plain had the same benefit of a quiet and secure repose and a rich habitation 8. And the word of the Lord came again unto me saying 9. Thus spake the Lord of Hostes by former Prophets saying In your publick places of Judgement proceed according to the rules of true Iustice and Equity without any regard to silthy lucre or to the prejudice of Affection And in your private actions and commerce with one another show that kindnesse and compassion that should be expected among Brethren of the same stock and alliance and of the same Religion and Profession 10. Let there be no injuring or oppressing of the widow the orphan the stranger or any that are poor and afflicted amongst you And do not so much as in your hearts devise or conceive any mischeivous intention against one another All this I commanded your Fathers by the former Prophets 11. But they would not hear of that ear they shrunk up the shoulder and in plain rebellion turned their backs upon their good guides and followed those courses that would make their cares duller for any holy counsaile that called for this obedience 12. And thus by degrees they made their hearts as it were in a set opposition to all exhortations of obedience as hard as flint or any the hardest and most durable stone that there might be no admittance for the voice of the law and the precepts which the Lord of Hostes sent them by those that were to that purpose raised up and enlightened by his holy Spirit for such were all your former Prophets And this wilfull and obstinate rebellion of theirs could not but draw down the heavie and just indignation of the Lord of Hostes. 13. And accordingly you see it came to passe that as they suffered God to call upon them and would return him no answer of obedience so when their own miseries forced them to call for divine assistanee then did I refuse to answer their desires saith the Lord of Hostes. 14. And I dispersed them in mine anger as if it had been with a mighty whirl-wind into severall nations which they never knew before and their own land after their deportation into other parts was left waste and desolate like a wildernesse behind them There was not so much as a passenger to be seen either going thither or returning from that place that had been so much frequented Such and so heavie was the solitude and barrennesse of that land that had been accounted the delight and Paradise of the whole earth CHAP. VIII 1. AGain the word of the Lord of hostes came to me saying 2. Thus saith the Lord of hosts I was jealous for Zion with great jealousie and I was jealous for her with great fury 3 Thus saith the Lord I am returned unto Zion and will dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and Ierusalem shall be called a Citie of truth and the mountain of the Lord of hosts the holy mountain 4 Thus saith the Lord of hosts There shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of Ierusalem and every man with his staffe in his hand for very age 5 And the streets of the citie shall be full of boyes and girls playing in the streets thereof 6 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these dayes should it also be marvellous in mine eyes saith the Lord of hosts 7 Thus saith the Lord of hostes Behold I will save my people from the east-countrey and from the west-countrey 8 And I will bring them and they shall dwell in the midst of Ierusalem and they shall be my people and I will be their God in truth and in righteousnesse 9 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Let your hands be strong ye that hear in these dayes these words by the mouth of the prophets which were in the day that the foundation of the house of the Lord of hosts was laid that the temple might be built 10 For before these daies there was no hire for man nor any hire for beast neither was there any peace to him that went out or came in because of the affliction for I set all men every one against his neighbour 11 But now I will not be unto the residue of this people as in the former daies saith the Lord of hosts 12 For the seed shall be prosperous the vine shall give her fruit and the ground shall give her encrease and the heavens shall give their dew and I will curse the remnant of this people to possess all these things 13 And it shall come to passe that aâ—â— ye were a curse among the heathen O house of Iudah and house of Israel so will I save you and ye shall be a blessing fear not but let your hands be strong 14 For thus saith the Lord of hosts As I thought to punish you when your fathers provoked me to wrath saith the Lord of hostes and I repented not 15 So again have I thought in these dayes to do well unto Ierusalem and to the house of Iudah fear ye not 16 These are the things that ye shall do Speak ye every man the truth to his neighbour execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates 17 And let none of you imagine evill in your hearts against his neighbour and love no false oath for all these are things that I hate saith the Lord. 18 And the word of the Lord of hosts came unto me saying 19 Thus saith the Lord of hosts The fast of the fourth moneth and the fast of the fifth and the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Iudah joy and gladness and chearfull feasts therefore love the truth and peace 20 Thus saith the Lord of hosts it shall yet come to passe that there shall come people and the inhabitants of many cities 21 And the inhabitants of one city shbll go to another saying Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord and to seek the Lord of hosts I will go also 22 Yea many people and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord of hostes in Ierusalem and to pray before the Lord. 23 Thus saith the Lord of hostes In those daies it shall come to passe that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Iew saying We will go with you for we have heard that God is with you CHAP. VIII 1. ANd the commands of the Lord of Hostes were thus expressed further upon the same occasion and to make way for a satisfactory answer to their question 2. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes. As my great wrath and justice upon my own people followed upon the greatnesse of those sins which were mentioned before so now the greatnesse of my jealousie for Sion the seat on my Jewish Church and my great anger no now against her but for her shall be
Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one 10 All the land shall be turned as a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Ierusalem and it shall be lifted up and inhabited in her place from Benjamins gate unto the place of the first gate unto the corner-gate and from the tower of Hananiel unto the kings wine-presses 11 And men shall dwell in it and there shall be no more utter destruction but Ierusalem shall be safely inhabited 12 And this shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Ierusalem their shesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet and their eyes shall consume away in their holes their tongue shall consume away in their mouth 13 And it shall come to passe in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them they shal layhold every oneon the hand of his neighbour his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour 14 And Iudah also shall fight at Ierusalem and the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together gold and silver and apparel in great abundance 15 And so shall be the plague of the horse of the mule of the camel and of the asse and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents as this plague 16 And it shall come to passe that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Ierusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King the Lord of hosts and to keep the feast of Tabernacles 17 And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Ierusalem to worship the King the Lord of hosts even upon them shall be no rain 18 And if the family of Egypt go not up and come not that have no rain there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 19 This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles 20. In that day shal there be upon the â—els of the horses HOLINESSE VNTO THE LORD and the pots in the Lords house shall be like the bowls before the altar 21. Yea every pot in Ierusalem and in Iudah shall be Holinesse unto the Lord of hosts and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them feeth therein and in that day there shall be nâ— more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts CHAP. XIV 1. BUt before these things come to passe there is a sad day of the Lords wrath coming on that will more particularly touch thee O Jerusalem For they of the Gentiles shall make havock of all the Countries about thee and make division of those spoiles in the middest of thy land 2. And I will muster up all sorts of people to fight against Ierusalem and by their forces the Citie shall be taken upon which advantage the houses shall be plundered and the women ravished And the one half of the City shall go out and deliver themselves up as Captives for very fear and famine but as for the rest they shall show themselves more valorous and religious in defense of their Temple they shall neither be iusticed nor forced out of the Citie 3. After this the Lord Himself that suffered these Nations for a time to come thither and show their spite and furie against Jerusalem shall appear for his People and fight against those barbarous Nations as he hath often heretofore at the red Sea and elsewhere showed himself the Lord of Hostes and in our defense chose himself a day of Battle and Victory 4. In that day shall the feet of him that shall be leader of those Nations against Jerusalem stand upon Mount Olivet which hath the prospect of the East-part of the Citie that he may thence spy out a fit place wherein to pitch his camp And by his command they shall dig so much toward the East and West of that Mountain that it shall seem to have a great cleft and rupture in the middest Which earth being so digged and removed from thence to be used for severall military designes against the North and South part of the City there shall seem to be a very great Valley made out of that which was before a great part of the Mountain 5. Then shall you flee like men affrighted at the valley made as it were in a mountain For that valley so made out of the mountain shall reach as far as Asel the place that hath the name from the vicinity of that Mount Even so shall you flie from the sight of this vast rupture as you fled from the great Earthquake which made such a rupture in the same mountain in the dayes of Vzziah King of Iudah But then shall the Lord my God the Lord of hosts himself come to your defense and all his heavenly Host of holy Angels with Him 6. But in that day of their trouble and affrightment before the Lord shall thus appear there shall be no light of comfort and refreshment but cold and quaking horrour fear and astonishment 7. But this shall be as one day or a time whereof God hath determined in his foreknowledge and speciall providence and which I cannot well tell whether I should call it a Day or a night For the Day is a time of comfort but this shall have none the night is a time of rest and quiet but this shall have none Yet it shall come to passe toward the Eve and expiration of this sad time that when you would think your Sun is setting and the hope and joy of your life quite vanishing away then shall arise a new glimpse of recovering your former happinesse for you shall espie a light of comfort and joy appearing to you in the approach of those Angels of light that God shall bring for your succour 8. Then shall come a time of Peace and works of Peace You shall then have Aquaeducts and usefull passages for running water made from Ierusalem some of them towards the Eastern Sea the lake of Asphaltites and some of them towards the Western or Syrick Sea And they shall be constant supplies of water for your ordinary occasions as well in Summer as in Winter 9. And then shall of Judaea be free from the imperious commands of forrein Nations as when the Lord vouchsafed to stile Himself your King and you his People So shall you then be in all your land under that one gracious Lord whose name and his onely is honoured in Judaea no Usurper having power over you 10. This time of Peace shall make you populous All the places about Iudaea shall be compassed about with inhabitants even in the plaines and more desert places that have not yet been
give them Their unthankfulnesse for the contrarie benefits deserve no lesse Give them that which sufficientlie crosseth the fair omen of their name barrennesse Let it suffice that they shall have a barren womb and drie breasts For that other is a more sad and fearful punishment to give up their children to the mercie of the enemy when their growth and strength promise much help and comfort to their Parents 15. Yet I must confesse they deserve no such mitigation of their punishment when I call to mind all their wickednesse in Gilgal That very place might have put them in mind of the favours which I showed them there presently after their miraculous passage through Iordan and first entrance into the land of promise There I forgave the long neglect of their circumcision and did not onely take away that reproach but began my work of higher mercy and protection over them in that land This place therefore of all other should have been made a place of thankful acknowledgements and good resolutions of amendment of life and holy obedience for the future They should never have chose to make the Devila Chappel where they were first obliged to show their service to me The circumcision of their flesh there should have been seconded with the circumcision of their hearts and expressed in such actions as might have gained more of my love But they have so ordered it that I cannot but hate those things that have been done in that place And me thinks I hear God saying thus of thom For the wickednesse of those their doings and specially the erection of a house there for idolatrie I will drive them far from my house and show them no more tokens of my love The rather because all their Princes and Governors that should have prevented these mischiefs have bin as deep as any other inrebellion against me 16. We have now seen the stroke of justice come so heavily upon Ephraim that the verie root of that fair and far-spreading tree is like to be dried up and withered Or if they of Ephraim do bring any store of fruit and so hold out like their name yet that is a heavy sentence which God himself hath spoken in these sad terms I will slay the most amiable fruit of their womb that which they so much long for place so much affection upon when they have it because they spoil their fair beauty with the imitation of their fathers ugly sins 17. Thefore my God will cast them off with scorn because they have not been obedient unto him And they shall be scattered about like vagabonds among other nations All which I speak not as desirous to deliver a curse but as bound to make known a Prophesie against this nation CHAP. X. 1. ISrael is an empty vine he bringeth forth fruit unto himself according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars according to the goodnesse of his land they have made goodly images 2 Their heart is divided now shall they be found faulty he shall break down their altars he shall spoil their images 3 For now they shall say we have no King because we feared not the Lord what then should a King do to us 4 They have spoken words swearing falsly in making a covenant thus judgement springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field 5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth-aven for the people thereof shall mourn over it and the priests thereof that rejoyced on it for the glory thereof because it is departed from it 6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Iareb Ephraim shall receive shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsell 7 As for Samaria her King is cut off as the some upon the water 8 The high places also of Aven the sin of Israel shall be destroyed the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars and they shall say to the mountains Cover us and to the hills Fall on us 9 O Israel thou hast sinned from the daies of Gibeah there they stood the battail in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them 10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them and the people shall be gathered against them when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows 11 And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught and loveth to tread out the corn but I passed over upon her fair neck I will make Ephraim to ride Iudah shall plow and Iacob shall break his clodâ— 12 Sow to your selves in righteousnesse reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he come and rain righteousnesse upon you 13 Ye have plowed wickednesse ye have reaped iniquity ye have eaten the fruit of lies because thou didst trust in thy way in the multitude of thy mighty men 14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy people and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled as Shalman spoiled Beth-arbel in the day of battel the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children 15 So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickednesse in a morning shall the King of Israel be utterly cut off CHAP. X. 1. ISrael is like a Vine that lies wast and fruitlesse to Him that is true owner of it Her enemies help to lay it wast and they that should dresse her and look to her by their carelessenesse leave it without good sap and moisture which makes the fruit accordingly little enough and bad enough Yet even that little fruit which Israel hath he makes use of for himself to be sent spent after his own humour And which is worse the more God encreaseth him with the fruits of temporal prosperitie in a goodlie soile He is so far from returning a thankful acknowledgement to God the good Author of it that he doth so much the more increase the number of Altars and Statues in remembrance of his false gods that do nothing for him and bestow the more cost upon them 2. Thus the heart of Israel is now clean departed from the observance of their dutie Therefore shall they be laid fullie desolate And he that I will make the instrument of that desolation will break those Altars of theirs in pieces and spoile their Statues 4. For nothing will reduce them to their dutie unto God and their King Hosheah But this will be their conclusion we will neither have Hosheah nor any other King over us For we that durst forsake the service of God what should we fear the forsaking of the Kings service who hath no great power now to do any thing for us nor much power to do any thing against us if we be resolute and hold close to our selves 4. In the progresse of such a violent and treasonable conclusion they will not stick at a false oath and covenant Therefore to answer
ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands Ye are our gods for in thee the fatherlesse findeth mercy 4 I will heal their backsliding I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him 5 I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall grow as the lillie and cast forth his roots as Lebanon 6 His branches shall spread and his beauty shall be as the Olive tree and his smell as Lebanon 7 They that dwell under his shadow shall return they shall revive as the corn and grow as the vine the sent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon 8 Ephraim shall say What have I to do any more with idols I have heard him and observed him I am like a green firre tree from me is thy fruit found 9 Who so is wise and he shall understand these things prudent and he shall know them for the waies of the Lord are right and the just shall walk in them but the transgressour shall fall therein CHAP. XIV THere is yet one way the way of serious and timely repentance to prevent or qualifie all this Come then O Israel Return again unto the Lord thy God by true repentance as thou hast taken from him by thy great offences 2. Take this form of confession into your mouths and say to him with a true penitent heart Take away the punishment of all our iniquities O Lord and pardon our offences And gratiously accept of that good service which we deserve to offer unto thee in all submission And though we have hitherto beenâ— fruitlesse in our actions yet now let the fruit of our lips our thankful acknowledgements be rendred as a pledge of our future obedience 3. We will make no more addresses to Assyria when we would be saved from our enemies We will seek no more succour from the Egyptian Horse wherein that nation excels We will never hereafter give that honour to idols the work of our own hands which belongs onely to God For thou art the true and sure refuge of all that are afflicted The very Orphans and they that are most destitute of help are wont to find pitie in thee when all other hopes forsake them and a pitie accompanied with such a loving affection as a dear mother bears to the fruit in her womb 4. Upon this humble submission of theirs I would give them this merciful answer saith God himself that I will upon their amendment of life cure them of all their strange aversions from me I will embrace them most lovingly with a free and hearty affection So easily would I be content that mine anger should be wholly turned from them 5. I will be to Israel like the hopeful dew the pledge of a plentiful encrease s He shall slourish like the fair lilly and take as deep root as the trees of Lebanon 6. His children like t olive-branches shall spread and dilate themselves all abroad For his excellencie shall be every way like that of the olive not in the green and long-flourishing boughs onely but in the goodnesse and fatnesse of the fruit that pleaseth God and men And his name and good report among other nations shall be as sweet as the smel of frankincense 7. So that many that upon their fame will come to live under the shadow and protection of Israel shall be converted to the worship of the true God And their newness of life shall be with as much fruit as the corn that dies in the ground and is again quickened with the advantage of much increase It shall be compared to the growth of the fruitful vine and the memorial of them shall be like the fragrant and pleasant wine of Lebanon that is never remembred but with high commendation 8. But for all these good promises of theirs and presages of mine how comes it to passe that Ephraim doth still continue his worship of idols I am readie to hear and help him in the time of need which they cannot and so carefully to look to him that he shall not cease to flourish like a green sirre tree For thou hast never done any thing O Ephraim but it hath been found that I have answered it to thee with the fruit of a high reward 9. Will any of you now be so wise as to consider these things Will any be so prudent in their actions as if they took full notice of the passages of the mercy and justice of God Though you will not do so yet are all the counsels and actions of God full of equity And as all his waies are just so all that are just will walk in his waies But the wicked and unjust are so far from walking in them as they should do that they cannot hold out long without discoverie of their great faults and relapses wherein they fall foule from him and his waies though they may pretend to walk in them A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF IOEL CHAP. I. 1 THe word of the Lord that came to Ioel the son of Pethuel 2 Hear this ye old men and give ear all ye inhabitants of the land Hath this been in your daies or even in the daies of your fathers 3 Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children another generation 4 That which the palmer-worm hath left hath the locust eaten and that which the locust hath left hath the canker-worm eaten and that which the canker-worm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten 5 Awake ye drunkards and weep and howl all ye drinkers of wine because of the new wine for it is cut off from your mouth 6 For a nation is come up upon my land strong and without number whose teeth are the teeth of a Lion and he hath the cheek-teeth of a great Lion 7 He hath laid my vine wast and barked my fig-tree he hath made it clean bare and cast it away the branches thereof are made white 8 Lament like a virgin garded with sack-cloth for the husband of her youth 9 The meat-offering and the drink offering is cut off from the house of the Lord the Priests the Lords ministers mourn 10 The field is wasted the land mourneth for the corn is wasted the new wine is dried up the oyl languisheth 11 Be ye ashamed O ye husbandmen howl O ye vine-dressers for the wheat and for the barley because the harvest of the field is perished 12 The vine is dried up and the fig-tree languisheth the pomegranate-tree the palm-tree also and the apple-tree even all the trees of the field are withered because joy is withered away from the sons of men 13 Gird your selves and lament ye Priests howl ye ministers of the Altar come lie all night in sack-cloath ye ministers of my God for the meat-offering and the drink-offering is withholden from the house of your God 14 Sanctifie ye a fast call a solemne assembly
off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord. 9 For lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth 10 All the sinners of my people shal die by the sword which say The evill shall not overtake nor prevent us 11 In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his cumes and I will build it as in the daies of old 12 That they may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this 13 Behold the daies come saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the tâ—eader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them 15 And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God CHAP. IX 1. I Come now to a vision that chiefly concerns Ierusalem and the two Tribes I saw in the spirit a glorie representing the Majesty of God not appearing between the Cherubims as formerly he used to do but nearer the end of the Temple as if he were departing from that sacred place and leaving his Sanctuary by degrees For I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar of the Holocausts as ready to slay those wicked men of Judah that had highly provoked his Justice and Anger to be showed amongst them and to make such a sacrifice of them as he never calls for but when he comes to be revenged of great sinners And he said to some Angel attending at that time or as exciting the army of the Chaldaeans Smite the lintel of the door in such a manner that the posts may shake which signified a great blow by his own command to be given to them that were thought to be most eminent and most able to support and give aid to the Temple and the whole nation to whom it belonged He said moreover Cut them all or strike all through in thâ— head piece q. d.. Let them that are in the highest place the guides and governours of the people have the first and greatest blow that in them others may see their doom And after that I will slay the last of them also the lowest of the people with the sword of a cruel enemie and with such a slaughter that He who thinks to secure himself by flight or any other way of evading the stroke of the enemie shall no way escape that unlesse he fall into their power for a worse punishment of long captivity Which doth not yet exempt him from their striking hand when they shall have a mind to command his life 2. And if there were any way to escape the enemie yet none of them should escape me For who can run so far or so fast that divine vengeance shall not overtake him Where is such a secret corner to be found wherein that will not find him out If any of them could dig as deep as hell to fit themselves with a dark and obscure lurking place thence should my powerful hand pluck them out If they could climb as high as heaven far enough out of their enemies reach thence also would I tumble them down 3. If they could lie scouting and sculking in the unfrequented caves and holes upon the top of high Carmel where no enemy would search for them yet there would I hunt them out and cast them down from thence If it were possible that they could conceal themselves from my sight in the bottom of the sea I have Whales and Serpents of the deep that should pursue them and bite them and fright them out of that refuge 4. Could they be so subtle as to prevent the captivity of their enemies and be gone into theirs or some other land before they come near them yet thither will I bring the sword of those verie enemies to cut them off and spoil all their plots For the eye of my favour and providence shall not watch over them for good I will rather be intent upon what may help on the just and severe punishment of all their sins 4. Where then shall they think to be safe in the time of his anger that offend such a powerful God whom nothing will be able to resist He is the Lord God of Hosts whom all things obey as an Army ever ready for the execution of his mercie or justice of such power that if He do but touch a land with that touch he can make it melt like wax before Him and all the inhabitants of the land miserablie and lamentably to fade away and consume by some calamity that shall overwhelm them and drown them in sorrow and destruction with a sodain inundation like that of the River Nilus in Egypt when it breaks over ' all the banks 6. He fills Heaven and earth with the Majesty of his Glorie In Heaven he hath built his several Ascents by which we may climb to the speculation of it The nearest to us are the heavenly Orbes that are created and moved by Him and their peculiar degrees of elevation one above another Over those Orbes is his spacious Court and glorious Palace in a higher Heaven and in that his Royal Throne where he sits as in the highest Ascent of Majestie Vpon the earth if we consider not the whole globe together as one bundle and a little one too or a little handful in the eye of God we may observe the several bundles of united creatures that he hath placed over the earth which is as it were the foundation of all the rest As first that of the Elements that have their proper bounds then out of them that of the Vegetables and sensible and rational creatures that have their several waies of combination yet altogether make but a little handful before him that can measure the heavens and the earth with a span He calls for the waters of the sea in his anger by a deluge or in his love to ascend up in vapours that he may poure them down again into the lap of the earth to make her fruitful in all manner of store He that doth all this well may he have the name of the Lord and Commander of all 7. Therefore account not your selves onely to be the servants For in that respect what priviledge have you above all his creatures or above all other nations You that descend from
speak what God had put into his mouth 11. Yet not venturing rashly to make away an Ebrew and so near a Servant to the great Creator and Governour of all things they advised with himself what was fittest to be done to him that they might appease the wrath of God and so quiet the raging Sea which seemed still more and more to swell and beget more trouble to them 12. Then spake the Prophet as from the oracle of God and told them that their safety could not be otherwise procured than by casting him over board and so committing him to the mercy of God And that this their execution of divine Iustice upon him would calm and still the roaring Sea which called aloud for vengeance against him and would not be silent but upon his patient offering himself to the mercy of Almighty God and so becoming some means of their deliverance from what himself had been a main instrument to bring upon them wherein he was a type of Christ that offered himself to a crueller death for the salvation of the world 13. Neverthelesse Jonas his readinesse to die for them melted the hearts of the rude Mariners I wish our Saviours offering himself for us could work the like effect in us all They resolved now to venture themselves a little further for his sake rather than secure themselves by his death And casting about in their minds all the waies by which they might preserve him they pitched upon this as the likeliest to try whether by rowing the ship to dry land they might not save themselves and him too But after much labour they see that they could not do it For the more they strived to gain the land the more fiercely did the wind and weather beat them into new danger upon the Sea 14. At last though forced unto it yet they would not be executioners of the death of a Prophet till they had prayed to Almighty God whose power the Prophet had made known to them that they might not be called to account for the losse of his life nor his innocent blood any way laid to their charge because all these things the extraordinary tempest the event of the lottery and Jonah's own confession appeared plainly to fall out and be wholly ordered and directed according to his own divine dispensation and holy will and pleasure In all which prayer of the Mariners they were no types of the cruelty of the Jewes to our Saviour when he died for us 15. After this but much against their wills they took up Jonah that willingly yeilded himself and cast him into the Sea which being done there followed a sudden and great calm The boisterous waves and whistling winds were laid As the fury of Death and Sathan was quelled upon our Saviours exposing himself to Death for our Salvation 16. These things wrought in the Seamen a wonderfull Fear and Reverence of the true God the Creator and Lord of all things Of whom they might have heard something in Joppe and other places of the holy land but these passages concerning Jonah and the words that he spake to them wrought so powerfully in their hearts that upon their safe landing again they offered sacrifice to the Lord after the way of Israel according to the vowes which they had made unto him when they were in danger adding other vowes which they intended afterwards to perform at their first opportunity 17. But God that is able to rescue us in all places and useth to be a present help in the greatest times of difficulty by his good providence and mercy had prepared a whale to swallow up Ionah alive and be as his prison or his keeper for a time And Ionah continued in the belly of the Fish three dayes and three nights and so again became a type of our Saviour that was three dayes and three nights in the heart of the earth CHAP. II. 1 THen Ionah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly 2 And said I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of hell cried I and thou heardst my voice 3 For thou hadst cast me into the deep in the midst of the seas and the flouds compassed me about all thy billows and thy waves passed over me 4 Then I said I am cast out of thy sight yet I will look again toward thy holy temple 5 The waters compassed me about even unto the soul the depth closed me round about the weeds were wrapt about my head 6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains the earth with her bars was about me for ever yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption O Lord my God 7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord and my prayer came in unto thee into thine holy temple 8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy 9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanks-giving I will pay that that I have vowed salvation is of the Lord. 10 And the Lord spake unto the fish and it vomited out Ionah upon the dry land CHAP. II. 1. JOnah in the time of his abode within the Whale considering the miraculous securitie that he had being scarce out of the very mouth of one danger of being swallowed up by the sea and yet presently in the middest of another in the bellie of a vast and monstrous Fish did not forget to make his humble and yet confident prayer to the Lord his God a kind of Prophetical assurance of his deliverie from the Fish as well as from the Sea 2. And he framed his prayer to this purpose I cried unto the Lord out of that fearful affliction of mine that streightly compassed me about on every side and by the life yet left in my bodie with some degree of inward repose and quiet in my soul I quickly and easily perceived that he had accepted and answered my prayer Yes O my Gracious and Merciful God Out of the innermost parts of the Whale wherein I lay as in a kind of Grave or a shadow of darknesse like Hell it self for the time Even thence I cried and thou wert pleased to give ear to the voice of my groaning in my importunate prayer 3. Though what relief could I then in any reason have expected when thou hadst cast me into the innermost receptacles and bosome of the vast Seas where the overflowing of the waters circled me about and which was more terrible unto me my accusing thoughts in reflection upon thy heavy displeasure and my rebellious sin were like so many waves and surges that passed over me and afflicted my heavy soul. So that what the Royal Prophet once speak in a figure I find in a more literal and both sensible and spiritual way made good upon me 4. How could I then but take up those other words of the same Prophet wherein betwixt hope and discomfort he complains that he was cast
were expired Whether the Citizens would so long persevere in their repentance and if they did not whether Justice would then be showed upon them whom God seemed now willing to spare upon their present conversion and reformation of life 6. Now when the thin slight materials of Jonah his booth began to wither and fade with heat the Lord prepared a gourd or some shrub that used to grow in those parts to come over Ionah like a Canopie to shadow and defend his head from the heat of the Sun which seemed not a little to afflict him And with this refreshment under the gourd Ionah was much delighted 7. But that ease and pleasure was not long to be indulged unto him For the next day betimes in the morning God prepared also a worm which by gnawing at the lower parts of his gourd and so extracting the moisture was the cause that it quickly withered away 8. Moreover at the rising of the Sun God sent a soft and still wind the East that had little or no motion or cooling quality which was the thing that Jonah desired Besides this warm breath the son also with some violence of heat did beat upon the head of Jonah and became so troublesom that it made him ready to faint and show himself wearie of his life plainly professing that it was better for him now to die then to live Which seems to be spoken in a passion as if he thought it an injurie to be deprived of that benefit of the gourd which was gratiously afforded him for a time and considered not that this variety of means might be used to bring him to the acknowledgement of the truth of Gods judgments and the sight of his own offences and demerites 9. Therefore God said unto Jonah Is this well done of thee to discover so much anger and disturbance of thy self for a poor little gourd To which question he gives a rash impatient answer confessing that he was extreamly angry even unto death and did well to be so 10. Whereupon the Lord said again Art thou so affected at the withering of a poor vile gourd of a daies continuance which neither for the coming up nor the growth of it is any way beholden unto thee 11. And shall not I the creator and preserver of all things whose property it is to have mercy upon me above all my creatures shall not I be touched with compassion of so great and populous a City as Ninive wherein beside much cattle there are more then a hundred and twenty thousand innocent children so simple and weak that they cannot distinguish between their right hands and their left and therefore cannot be thought by any fault of theirs to call for this heavy destruction upon them Yet were they all ready to perish in the punishment of their Parents sins had not they timely repented What must you then guesse of the number of men and women of fuller growth that have appeased my wrath by amendment of life Which being done their death and ruine should not be rashly and uncharitably desired to make you seem the truer Prophet who was not to threaten any people but with this implicite condition if they forsook not their sins A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF MICAH CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morasthite in the dayes of Iotham Abaz and Hezekiah kings of Iudah which he saw concerning Samaria and Ierusalem 2 Hear all ye people hearken O earth and all that therein is and let the Lord God be witnesse against you the Lord from his holy temple 3 For behold the Lord cometh forth out of his place and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth 4 And the mountaines shall be molten under him and the valleys shall be cleft as wax before the fire and as the waters that are powred down a steep place 5 For the transgression of Iacob is all this and for the sins of the house of Israel What is the transgression of Iacob is it not Samaria and what are the high places of Iudah are they not Ierusalem 6 Therefore I will make Samaria as an heap of the field and as plantings of a vineyard and I will poure down the stones thereof into the valley and I will discover the foundations thereof 7 And all the graven Images thereof shall be beaten to pieces and all the hires thereof shall be burnt with the fire and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate for she gathered it of the hire of an harlot and they shall return to the hire of an harlot 8 Therefore I will wail and howl I will go stript and naked I will make a wailing like the dragons and mourning as the owles 9 For her wound is incurable for it is come unto Iudah he is come unto the gate of my people even to Ierusalem 10 Declare ye it not at Gath weep ye not at all in the house of Aphrah roll thy self in the dust 11 Passe ye away thou inhahitant of Saphir having thy shame naked the inhabitant of Zaanan came not forth in the mourning of Beth-ezel he shall receive of you his standing 12 For the inhabitant of Maroth waited carefully for good but evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Ierusalem 13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish bind the chariot to the swift beast she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee 14 Therefore shalt thou give presents to Moresheth-gath the houses of Achzib shall be a lie to the kings of Israel 15 Yet will I bring an heir unto thee O inhabitant of Mareshah he shall come unto Adullam the glory of Israel 16 Make thee bald and poll thee for thy delicate children enlarge thy baldnesse as the eagle for they are gone into captivity from thee CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord which was made known to Micah of Moreshah a City in Judaea in the dayes of Iotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Iudah and which he had revealed to him in a vision concerning Samaria and Ierusalem two eminent Cities by whose example the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel were drawn into many grievous sins and disorders 2. Hear all ye people of Judah and Israel Attend to this Prophesie of mine you that dwell in any part of this land how populous and of how great extent soever it is And for my faithfull delivery of what I am enjoyned to say let God himself that sees and hears all from his holy and glorious habitation in heaven hear witnesse against you if I be at any time accused or mistrusted for concealing any part of his will and pleasure 3. For I wish you all to take notice of this that God is now coming out of those high and holy places of his to show himself in the execution of his judgements upon your nation and the highest and strongest places with the
from the dayes of eternity for who can declare his generation 3. Therefore will he give to them of Judah what he hath promised i. a safe return out of their captivity and a place of abode again in their own Countrey till the time wherein she that is to bring forth the Messias shall bring forth that happinesse to the world and till the residue of his brethren for with that title shall he honour the lost sheep which he shall come to seek and reduce to his fold till they shall be converted and united to the rest of the children of Israel and so begin all to make one flock under one Shepherd 4. And he shall never cease to feed and govern that flock by no lesse than a divine power being advanced thereunto in no other name and authority then that of the great Iehovah his God as he shall then stile him when he hath humbled himself to that brother-hood which we named before under that care and government shall that flock of his dwell in joy and safety And good reason because from henceforth this our Prince and Messias shall be magnified and renowned not in Jurie onely but to all the ends of the earth 5. And this peace and prosperity of our nation shalt thou begin and not till then when the Assyrian shall have often entred into our land sometime of himself sometime as an auxiliarie of the Chaldaeans For he shall enter in a proud and hostile manner trampling down our fairest Palaces But this pride and malice shall be the occasion of his utter ruine and so of our more setled peace For we shall at last so far prevaile over the Assyrian by the assistance of Almighty God and his blessing upon our prayers and patience that we shall be the meanes of as great a tyranny over him to be exercised by many severall Governours great Princes and Commanders over men that shall lead them and rule them as easily as Sheep are by their Shepherds 6. And if these may be called Shepherds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as other Kings and Rulers are they shall be such as shall subdue and govern their stocks of Assyrians by the sword and the successors of Nimrod in Babylon with her own naked and terrible weapons Thus shall God punish them and give us a sure peace by delivering us from further fear of the Assyrian and letting us be revenged of him because he would needs enter so cruelly upon our land and so proudly trample us under him in our own borders 7. After this the remnant of Iacob being freed from all such tyranny shall be accounted by many other nations among whom they are seated as the dew which falls from heaven and as the drops of rain upon the grasse which expect not the power or pleasure of man or any son of man for their accesse or recesse from this or that place but are sent thither and blessed there by the sole power and favour of Almighty God 8. And in processe of time the posterity of this remnant of Iacob specially in the time of the Maccabies shall be in respect of their power and authoritie and command among the Gentiles and in the midst of many people as the Lion is among the beasts of the forrest and the young Lion among the flocks of the sheep who when he is pleased to passe thorough them doth tread them down and tear them in pieces without controule of any other that is able to rescue and deliver them in that distresse 9. Thus prosperously shall it fare with thy children and with thee O Israel when thy hand shall no sooner be lift up against thy enemies but they shall be cut off and fall before thee All which about the times of the Maccabies shall be but a figure of greater conquests that they shall have over all nations when after the dayes of the Messias they shall begin to subdue them and reduce them to his spirituall kingdom 10. This mention of Israels prosperity in these times must be accompanied with the Prophesie of thy ruine O Babylon For thus saith the Lord I will cut off the strength wherein thou makest thy boast the multitude of thy horses and chariots Them will I destroy with the riders that were so expert in managing of them both 11. And the best Cities of thy land will I lay waste and throw down all thy strong holds 12. And I will down with thy witch-crafts and thy magicall divinations And thy Soothsayers that were so cunning at them shall have no more to do within thee 13. Thy graven images and thy rich statues will I remove from the midst of thee so that thou shalt give no more worship to those vanities the workmanship of thy own hands 14. Thy superstitious groves and thy wealthy Cities will I utterly destroy 15. And in the fiercenesse of my anger will I revenge my self upon those nations which shall not then hear and obey those Conquerors and Governors which I shall please to set over the kingdom of Babylon CHAP. VI. 1. HEar ye now what the Lord saith Arise contend thou before the mountains and let the hills hear thy voice 2 Hear ye O mountains the Lords controversie and ye strong foundations of the earth for the Lord hath a controversie with his people and he will plead with Israel 3 O my people what have I done unto thee wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me 4 For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt and redeemed thee out of the house of servants and I sent before thee Moses Aaron and Miriam 5 O my people remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal that ye may know the righteousnesse of the Lerd 6 Wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt-offerings with calves of a year old 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall I give my first born for my transgression the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul 8 He hath shewed thee O man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God 9 The Lords voice crieth unto the City and the man of wisdom shal see thy name hear ye the rod and who hath appointed it 10 Are there yet the tresures of wickednesse in the house of the wicked and the scant measure that is abominable 11 Shall I count them pure with the wicked balances and with the bag of deceitfull weights 12 For the rich men thereof are full of violence and the inhabitants thereof have spoken lies and their tongue is deceitfull in their mouth 13 Therefore also will I make thee sick in smiting thee in
the edicts and precepts of Omri that wicked King of Israel are observed with thee more readily than the precepts of the God of Jacob and so are all the workes of the house of Ahab the sonne of Omri after whose advise and example you have so framed the course of your lives as if you intended that I should make you a desolation and all your inhabitants a hissing Therefore shall you bear the reproach of my people They that passe by and see the ruine of your Citie shall lay all the blame and shame of it upon the rapine of her rich Citizens and the lying cozening and dissembling of the other inhabitants CHAP. VII 1 WO is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer-fruits as the grape-gleanings of the vintage there is no cluster to eat my soul desired the first ripe fruit 2 The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none upright among men they all lie in wait for blood they hunt every man his brother with a net 3 That they may do evil with both hands earnestly the prince asketh and the judge asketh for a reward and the great man he uttereth his mischievous desire so they wrap it up 4 The best of them is as a brier the most upright is sharper then a thorn-hedge the day of thy watch-men and thy visitation cometh now shall be their perplexity 5 Trust ye not in a friend put ye not confidence in a guid keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom 6 For the son dishonoreth the father the daughter riseth up against her mother the daughter in law against her mother in law a mans enemies are the men of his own house 7 Therefore I will look unto the Lord I will wait for the God of my salvation my God will hear me Rejoyce not against me O mine enemy when I fall I shall arise when I sit in darknesse the Lord shall be a light unto me 9 I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause and execute judgement for me he will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold his righteousnesse 10 Then she that is mine enemy shall see it and shame shall cover her which said unto me Where is the Lord thy God mine eyes shall behold her and now shall she be troden down as the mire of the streets 11 In the day that thy walls are to be built in that day shall the decree be far removed 12 In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria and from the fortified cities and from the fortresse even to the river and from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain 13 Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein for the fruit of their doings 14 Feed thy people with thy rod the flock of thine heritage which dwell solitarily in the wood in the midst of Carmel let them feed in Bashan and Gilead as in the daies of old 15 According to the daies of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things 16 The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might they shall lay their hand upon their mouth their ears shall be deaf 17 They shal lick the dust like a serpent they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth they shall be afraid of the Lord our God and shall fear because of thee 18 Who is a God like vnto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in mercy 19 He will turn again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depth of the sea 20 Thou wilt perform the truth to Iacob and the mercy to Abraham which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the daies of old CHAP. VII 1. YOu have heard what you should justly have said to God and what he hath said as justly against you Will you now hear what I or any good man might as well say of the sad estate wherein you shall shortly be under the raign of Manasses a most dissolute and idolatrous Prince that will succeed the good Hezekiah Wo is me that I am fallen upon so unhappy an age wherein there are few or none to be seen that love and fear God! I am in a time like that wherein men have gathered in their summer fruits and there are onely a few grape-gleanings left of the vintage a time when there is no cluster to eat I may long and desire with all my soul to taste some of the first-ripe fruits but there is none to be had 2. Such a scarcity of goodnesse is there in this wicked age wherein the best men are all dead and taken out of the earth there is not a just and upright person to be found among men They are all such as lie in wait for blood They hunt every man after his brother and seek his utter ruine and destruction 3. So do they hunt and lay snares with both hands when they are to do mischief but when they do any good for others the very Prince and Magistrate knows how to ask for his reward and the judge for his bribe and retribution from him that hath the cause to go on his side And if a great man speak out of that wickednesse that is in his heart as in some false relation at a trial before the Judge he orders it so that he will thereby intricate and intangle the businesse the more to puzle those that have interest in the thing to be decided by the Judge 4. And for this matter of briberie he that is accounted the best of them is no better then a brier that catcheth at what can be had from all that come near it and he that hath the name of the uprightest man is without that reward no kinder then a thorny hedge that hath prickles to fetch blood out of all that meddle with it But when the day comes which the watchmen thy Prophets have foretold thee of O Jerusalem and the time of thy visitation then shall these men of all other be in great perplexity as a just reward of that intangling and perplexing of causes with their unjust relations and seeking after bribes 5. In such a wicked age for briberie and injustice take heed what friend you trust and put no great confidence in Princes and Magistrates And keep the door of thy mouth from being too open in deliverie of thy secret thoughts to thy own wife that lies in thy bosom whence they are to be picked out 6. For what is done by the rest of thy family may be done by thy wife in time and now adaies it is ordinarie for the son to dishonour his father in disclosing of
over all A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HABAKKUK CHAP. I. 1 THe burden which Habakkuk the Prophet did see 2 O Lord how long shall I cry and thou wilt not hear even cry out unto thee of violence and thou wilt not save 3 Why dost thou shew me iniquity and cause me to behold grievance for spoiling and violence are before me and there are that raise up strife and contention 4 Therefore the law is slacked and judgement doth never go forth for the wicked doth compasse about the righteous therefore wrong judgment proceedeth 5 Behold ye among the heathen and regard and wonder marvellously for I will work a work in your daies which ye will not believe though it be told you 6 For lo I raise up the Chaldaeans that bitter and hasty nation which shall march through the breadth of the land to possesse the dwelling places that are not theirs 7 They are terrible and dreadful their judgement and their dignity shall proceed of themselves 8 Their horses also are swifter then the leopards and are more fierce then the evening wolves and their horse-men shall spread themselves and their horsemen shall come from far they shall flie as the eagle that hasteth to eat 9 They shall come all for violence their faces shall sup up as the east wind and they shall gather the captivity as the sand 10 And they shall scoff at the kings and the princes shall be a scorn unto them they shall deride every strong hold for they shall heap dust and take it 11 Then shall his mind change and he shall passe over and offend imputing this his power unto his god 12 Art thou not from everlasting O Lord my God mine holy one we shall not die O Lord thou hast ordained them for judgement and O mighty God thou hast established them for correction 13 Thou art of purer eies then to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous then he 14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea as the creeping things that have no ruler over them 15 They take up all of them with the angle they catch them in their net and gather them in their drag therefore they rejoyce and are glad 16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net and bnrn incense unto their drag because by them their portion is fat and their meat plentuous 17 Shall they therefore empty their net and not spare continually to slay the nations The Sum of the first CHAPTER of this PROPHESIE THe first Chapter sets out the sins of the time wherein the Prophet Habakkuk did exercise his holy Function and the heavy punishment which they pulled both upon the Iews and upon the Chaldaeans Their sins made up their full measure by neglect and contempt of the very Laws of Kings and Governors and of God himself These strange enormities were answered with a punishment that had matter of as much wonder if it were well observed For that of the Chaldaeans though it came slowly on yet it fell the more heavily upon them to their utter ruine and destruction when they were in the height of all their glory and of their confidence and presumption in their own strength That of the Iews came with more speed and more favour For though it were very sharp for the time yet it spent it self in the compasse of 70 years and left then in a fair and easie pursuit of their former Peace and Liberty when their enemies supposed them to be so low that there was no hope of recoverie And the greatest wonder and terror in their punishment was in respect of those to whom the execution was committed For being inflicted upon them by the Chaldees a fierce and cruel Nation and far worse livers then the Iews it starâ—led the Prophet a little at that way of divine dispensation that suffered Gods peculiar people to be so handled by such lewd and notorious sinners And besides which might trouble them as well as the other did the Prophet the Chaldees that were intended for their scourge and executioners in this calamity were now in Manasses his time when this Prophesie came out in the number of their good Friends and Confederates whom of all other they little suspected for the Authors and Contrivers of their ruine The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION of the first CHAPTER 1. THe sad Prophesie and vision of that burden which Habakkuk foresaw as a heavy punishment that would shortly fall upon the Iews and Chaldaeans and which the heavier weight of their own grievous sins had brought upon them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The sum of that which the the Prophet received by divine Revelation and which gave occasion to what he delivered amongst his own Countrymen to that effect as followeth 2. O Lord How long shall I make my humble addresses unto thee without any answer How long shall I continue my heavy Cry and Complaint against Injustice and oppression the crying sins of these sad times while thou refusest to relive us 3. Why hast thou reserved me for such wicked daies wherein my eyes cannot but with tears behold the injurious and violent dealing of men in those sins which now walk openly and impudently without any disguise without any shame or care of being concealed Above all the unjust oppression of their neighbours even to desolation presents it self unto me whither so ever I cast mine eyes And yet where there is so much cause of complaint and calling for justice somewhat still there is that obstructs and hinders or rather takes away the course of justice 4. Hence is it that the pulse of the law beats so slowly as if the life of the law which is the execution of her eâ—icts began to draw to an end And therefore either justice cannot appear at all but with too many demurs and tedious siâ—â—ts or if she do all is not right For while the wicked with his malitious plots encloseth and besets the righteous man on every side and so domineers over him that he hath not liberty to follow the dictate of his own understanding All this while Iustice seems to tread inward and comes out lame and distorted by bribes and other by-respects that turn her quite awry and so is she made altogether unlike her self 5. But if justice can hear no better amongst men let them hear the voice of divine justice from Heaven And she will tell them a wonder if that can get her audience For thus saith she Behold and wonder you that make so slight of it in your high pride and scorn and security Wonder and admire at what I shall tell you of the Gentiles by whom I shall bring such a strange work to passe in your daies that if it were plainly told you now before hand you would by no meane be induced to believe it 6. For whatsoever
or any that have near reference unto him as first to besot him with his strong and inticing liquor and then to make use of that time of infirmitie for the discovery of his nakednesse and the disclosing of any secret which he knowes is best gotten out of him when the warm drink hath sweetly washed away the remembrance of his Duty 16. This wo is for thee O Chaldaean that art so ready to discover and deride the weaknesse of others For thou shalt be fuller of shame than glory when thou meetest with thy reward at last in a worse cup whereof thou shalt be forced to drink deeply when thy turn comes So shall thy nakednesse also come to be discovered when in the midst of thy Pride and Gallantry the right hand of the Lord which cannot be resisted shall hold out that cup unto thee and make thee drink it all off though thou art forced to cast it up again to thy further disgrace And so shall Divine Justice repay thee with that shame and affliction which thou hast abundantly deserved for thy insolent opprobrious dealing with others whom thou hast laid open and naked to all kinds of injury and reproach 17. And deserved again if thou hadst no other fault for thy base sacrilegious and scornfull abuses of the Temple to which the whole Forrest of Lebanon did contribute her best Timber and therefore gave it also the name of another more sacred Lebanon but thy violent profane Army have now turned it again into the likenesse of a ruder Forrest that the wild Beasts have had to do withall That open injury to Lebanon that spoil and havock made there to the very laying it in the dust shall beat those Beasts thy rude Souldiers into dust that behaved themselves there like wild Beasts indeed rather than like men That Impiety in the desolation of my holy house saith the sacred Oracle shall overwhelm thee with a worthy punishment and thy own Houses and fair structures shall therefore be laid as waste and desolate as that which is the openest and vastest Habitation of the wild Beasts of the Forrest The rather because of thy imitation of those savage Creatures in the effusion of blood and ransacking of so many Persons and Places as do now in their ruines give a testimony of thy barbarous proceeding against them all 18. All which Sacriledge and cruell Barbarisine was accompanied with other waies of Irreligion and Idolatry and what fruit and advantage did any of them gain What profit can be shewed from the graven and molten Images He that made them and he that preached them up for Deities were both of them Inventers and Dispersers of Lies Yet could that Maker and Raiser of them adde this folly to the other to trust and repose a confidence upon such mute and false Gods as could not so much as make answer unto their Prayers 19. And this calls for another wo upon that sinfull nation Wo to him that commenceth his Prayer for releif to a piece of wood and calls to the dumb Idol of stone to awake and give him audience The Idol it self might teach him that another Deitie would be looked after if he look for help For who cannot see that though it be fairly guilded over with silver and gold to seem glorious to the eie yet there is not so much breath and spirit within it as can adde life and vigour to that glittering outside 20. But the Lord is not so Heaven is the glorious Temple wherein he dwells and whereof all other Temples are but figures And the Reverence we show in them is a Copy of that Fear and Reverence that is due to Him from all the ends of the Earth CHAP. III. A Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet upon Sigionoth 2 O Lord I have heard thy speech and was afraid O Lord revive thy work in the midst of the years in the midst of the years make known in wrath remember mercy 3 God came from Temon and the holy one from mount Paran Selah His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise 4 And his brightnesse was as the light he had horns coming out of his hand and there was the hiding of his power 5 Before him went the pestilence and burning coals went forth at his feet 6 He stood and measured the earth he beheld and drove asunder the nations and the everlasting mountains were scattered the perpetuall hills did bow his waies are everlasting 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction and the curtains of the land of Midiâ—n did tremble 8 Was the Lord displeased against the rivers was thine anger against the rivers was thy wrath against the sea that thou didst ride upon thine horses and thy chariots of salvation 9 Thy bow was made quite naked according to the oathes of the tribes even thy word Selah Thou didst cleave the earth with rivers 10 The mountains saw thee and they trembled the overflowing of the water passed by the deep uttered his voice and lift up his hands on high 11 The sun and moon stood still in their habitation at the light of thine arrows they went and at the shining of thy glittering spear 12 Thou didst march through the land in indignation thou didst thresh the heathen in anger 13 Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people even for salvation with thine anointed thou woundest the head out of the house of the wicked by discovering the foundation unto the neck Selah 14 Thou didst strike thorough with his stâ—ves the head of his villages they came out as a whirl-wind to scatter me their rejoycing was as to devour the poor secretly 15 Thou didst walk through the sea with thine horses through the heap of great waters 16. When I heard my belly trembled my lips quivered at the voice rottennesse entred into my bones and I trembled in my self that I might rest in the day of trouble when he cometh up unto the people he will invade them with his troups 17 Although the fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the vines the labour of the olive shall fall and the fields shall yeild no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls 18 Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation 19 The Lord God is my strength and he will make my feet like hinds feet and he will make me to walk upon mine high places To the chief singer on my stringed instruments The Sum of the third CHAPTER THe third Chapter in a devout Prayer or divine Hymne set to an Instrument of Musick admires the Justice and Providence and Goodnesse of Almighty God And teacheth us by the holy Prophets example to trust and repose our selves in the will and mercy of God whatsoever it pleaseth him to bring upon us Wherein we cannot but observe that the devout Prophet made
no scruple either at a set Form of Prayer or of putting that Prayer into a Song and having that set to a Musicall Instrument which containes in it not a Prayer onely but a Prophesie of much sadnesse and calamity to his whole Nation I beleive it cannot be said that any were more truely and compassionately affected with it than himself was and I think he was never the lesse affected with it when he made it a part of his solemn Musick Shall I adde this too that though his Prayer could not move God any thing the more by the advantage of the rarest skill in Musick wherein it might be delivered yet if the Prophet or others that used it after him by the help of those solemn and harmonious Tones had their own Devotion any thing the more affected in the delivery then was there Motive enough why he should for theirs or his own sake commend it to some Artist that could fit it to a Musicall Instrument Of the Title of the third Chapter and of the Musicall termes there mentioned 1. A Prayer of the Prophet Habakkuk upon Shigionoth wherein he expresseth his content and acquiescence in the solution of his former doubts from the Divine Oracle comforts himself in the examples of Gods love and Providence over his Church puts his own pious thoughts and Resolutions into a Divine Meditation and refers all to be set to a Musicall Tune As appears by the Shigionoth in the front and the Musicall Selaâ— in the body and again by his Neginoth in the foot of this excellent Song and divine Ditty For Shigionoth first it seems to be some Musicall Tune or Instrument I agree with those that take it to be some erraticall various delightfull Modulation and I think it to be the same Tune or Instrument that the sweet singer of Israel made choice of under the name of Shiggaion in the Title of the seventh Psalm Which is also a Prayer of Davids made upon occasion of some words or actions of Cush the Benjamite i. of Saul that was like a Cush or AEthiopian in this that he would no more change his malice to David than the AEthiopian his skin As for Selah in the third and thirteenth verse of this Chapter that is a Musicall note which serves as a direction for the raising up of the voice in that place wherein it is fixed And I like that which Kimehi joynes with it the elevation of the heart too We never meet with it but in the Psalmes of David in whose time it seems to have been taken up as a word of Art and after him in this Prayer of Habakkuk Then for the word Neginoth It is properly referred to Instruments of Musick especially those that were played upon with the fingers and had the Voice joyned with them as in the solemn Hymnes and other Musicall Service of the Jewish Church And he that had a more extraordinary skill in that way and was the chief in composing or overseeing that kind of Melody is called here by the Prophet Habakkuk in the conclusion of this Prayer and by the Royall Prophet in the Title of the fourth Psalm Menatseach Binginoth One thing more I have to say before I come to the Prayer it-self that in this Chapter as it may well be expected where such Musick is the holy Prophet in expressing his Meditations seems to use a kind of Divine Poetry And he must follow that kind of Poeticall expression that will follow the Prophet in this Musicall Chapter The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the Prayer it self beginning at the second verse 2. WIth fear and reverence have I heard that answer O Lord wherein thou art pleased to reveale the execution of thy Iustice. First upon the Jewes by Chaldeans and then more heavily upon the Chaldeans themselves by other Nations when thy own People after the expiration of seventy years shall be graciously delivered from Captivity In the interim of those years of their captivity be thou the life and comfort of thy Church the speciall work of thy own hands and let thy People feel the benefit of thy presence In that sad compasse of time O make thy self known to them that need thee most and in the midst of thy Anger and Justice remember Mercy 3. Remember thy tender mercies showed unto us of old in our miraculous delivery from the Egyptian bondage when after our safe conduct into the wildernesse out of the reach of our enemies Thou camest in such Majesty from Teman and madest thy holinesse shine forth in such beauty from mount Paran The first appearance of thy glory diffused in self over the air above filling it after an extraordinary manner with Thunder and Lightning the forerunners of thy divine approach and the Earth below was abundantly made happy with the just occasions of Praise and thankfull acclamations 4. For in great Light and Splendour and Glory were all the waies of God's most gracious appearance a Figure of that greater Light and Glory which is altogether invisible and inaccessible to poor Mortals But for our weaknesse they were so shadowed and qualified as might best fit the eyes of them that were then entertained with those wonders 5. And as such Lustres were a pledge and testimony of comfort to his own people so as a terrour to their Enemies fearfull Death and Destruction went before Him and He left behind Him the foot-steps of Horrour and speedy consumption 6. At last when he rested in his holy Ark in the land of Promise he divided that Land by lot for their inheritance At his appearance the Nations were so troubled They that had dwelt so long in those Mountainous Countries were much distracted with the sad apprehension of their likelihood to be now roused and expelled out of those ancient Seates and forced to submit to new Lords and Masters brought thither by Him in whose Power are all the Actions and alterations of the world 7. It was not for any good deserts of ours but for the wickednesse of those Nations that they were so rooted out by the hand of Justice That apparently removed not the Cananites onely out of their dwelling but the Midianites for their sinne When it troubled the tents of Cushan afflicted their whole land and made them content to pack away with their portable Houses to other places of mansion where they might be found 8. But still as the way of thy Justice was observable over other Nations so was thy Mercy O Lord over us to the very alteration of the ordinary course of Nature We found that in our passage thorough the Red Sea and thorough the River Jordan The waters seemed to start aside at our coming towards them and for very fear to give way to us Was it thy anger O Lord against the proud waves that forced them thus to shrink back Was the Sea afraid of thy triumphant approach Was it the noise of thy Chariots and the prancing of
heard from the Fish-gate which is in that part which you call the City of David Then a sad and doleful howling from the second part of the City And as woful and crashing a noise from the highest and most eminent part wherein is the Temple and the Palace places that have been often acquainted with sweeter sounds 11. When the three chief places in Ierusalem have thus begun to expresse their sad condition then you that dwell in the hollower part of the City may second them with as doleful an eccho to bewail the ruine of the multitudes of Merchants thereabouts and the many fair heaps of silver that they must leave behind them 12. Then will I suffer every rich corner in Ierusalem to be as narrowly searched and ransacked by the Chaldaean souldiers as a man would peep and prie into the closest places with the help of candles that he might be sure to let nothing escape him that he hath a mind to bear away And so shall my justice meet with those that have lived in ease and plenty and without any disturbance like wine that hath been long setled on the lees without any removal out of one vessel into another These are they that soothed up themselves in their own foolish perswasion that God took no great care of humane affairs either to reward or to punish us here below according to our good or bad life and conversation 13. But this is the day wherein I will confute them by exposing their ill-gotten goods as a prey to the enemie and bringing their houses wherein they nestled themselves so securely to utter ruine and fearful desolation or at least by changing the owners so that other men shall dwell in those goodly buildings which they have erected and drink up the fruit of those costly vineyards which they had planted for themselves 14. This great day of the Lord is near very near and withal it flies swiftly towards us as a time that hath quicker wings then ordinarie to convey it self It will be such a bustling day that you may hear it as well as see it and the stoutest man that hears the approach of that day will not passe it over so quickly but that he will be heard to expresse the bitteruesse of the day in most bitter lamentations 15. This day will be a day of wrath and a day of trouble and yet a day wherein we shall be so streightned and penned in that there will be no way of evasion It will be a day of desolation of utter desolation without hope of recoverie to most of them A dark and gloomy day without the least appearance of comfort and a cloudie and thick-cloudie day wherein the heavens whither we use to cast up our eyes for relief will seem continually to frown upon us 16. A day that will fright us with the sound of the trumpet and the alarm of war against the strongest Cities and highest Towers that we have 17. In this day saith the Lord I will cause men to be in such pressure and such streights that they shall see no more then blind men which way to turn themselves or what course to take that may rid them out of this distresse And in the midst of those streights because they have sinned against the Lord their enemies shall make no more scruple of shedding their blood then of treading upon the dust that is under their feet and their bodies shall have no better esteem then the dung of the earth 18. In this day of Gods wrath their silver and gold shall not be able to purchase their ransome but the whole land shall be sodainly consumed by the fierce and jealous wrath of the Lord wherein he will make a full and speedy riddance of all that dwell in the land CHAP. II. 1 GAther your selves together yea gather together O nation not desired 2 Before the decree bring forth before the day passe as the chaff before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords anger come upon you 3 Seek ye the Lord all ye meek of the earth which have wrought his judgement seek righteousnesse seek meeknesse it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lords anger 4 For Gaza shall be forsaken and Ashkelon a desolation they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day and Ekron shall be rooted up 5 Wo unto the inhabitants of the sea-coast the nation of the Cherethites the word of the Lord is against you O Canaan the land of the Philistines I will even destroy thee that there shall be no inhabitant 6 And the sea-coast shall be dwellings and cottages for shepherds and folds for flocks 7 And the coast shall be for the remnant of the house of Iudah they shall feed thereupon in the houses of Ashkelon shall they ly down in the evening for the Lord their God shall visit them and turn away their captivity 8 I have heard the reproach of Moab and the revilings of the children of Ammon whereby they have reproached my people and magnified themselves against their borders 9 Therefore as I live saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall he as Sodom and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah even the breeding of nettles and salt-pits and a perpetual desolation the residue of my people shall spoil them and the remnant of my people shall possesse them 10 This shall they have for their pride because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts 11 The Lord will be terrible unto them for he will famish all the gods of the earth and men shall worship him every one from his place even all the isles of the heathen 12 Ye Ethiopians also ye shall be slain by my sword 13 And he will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria and will make Nineveh a desolation and dry like a wildernesse 14 And flocks shall lie down in the midst of her all the beasts of the nations both the cormorant and the Bittern shall lodge in the upper lintels of it their voice shall sing in the windows desolation shall be in the thresholds for he shall uncover the cedar-works 15. This is the rejoycing city that dwelt carelesly that said in their heart I am and there is none beside me how is she become a desolation a place for beasts to lie down in every one that passeth by her shall hiss and wag his hand CHAP. II. 1. THe day so foretold being so terrible and so near at hand Make an exact scrutinie and examination of your selves first and then of what else may conduce to your safety O nation little worthy the love and good liking of those that know your waies 2. Do this before Gods peremptorie and irrevocable decree produce the certain and final resolution for this day which shall be like one of his fanning and winnoing daies wherein he will separate
the chaff from the good corn Do this before the fierce anger of the Lord and this terrible day of the execution of that fierce anger of the Lord come upon you 3. And for you that are of the good corn and not of the chaff you that are of a meeker and gentler disposition then others of the land are and obey his commands in your best devotions and endeavours seek after God and implore his merciful protection over you And still seek after the exercise of goodnesse and meeknesse if so perhaps you may prevail so far as to be hid under the shadow of his defense in this day wherein the fierce anger of the Lord shall be poured out upon several parts of this wicked nation and few or none shall escape 4. For Gaza shall be forsaken by her fearful inhabitants Ashkelon shall be laid desolate and forced to the like And as for Ashdod the enemie shall be so secure of the conquest of that that in the very noon day they shall attempt to drive them out of their own holds and habitations with happy successe And Ekron according to the bad omen in the name it self shall be rooted out 5. Then wo to you of the nation of the Cherethites that dwel all along upon the sea-coast for I can cite the word of the Lord against you And no lesse against you the Cananites and Philistims that are left in the land The word of the Lord from his own mouth concerning you is no other then this that he will utterly destroy your land and all that dwel within it 6. And the Sea coast that is made choice of as the fittest place of habitation for the richest Merchants shall be taken up with no better then cottages for poor Shepherds and folds for their flocks 7. For I have allotted that coast to those of the house of Iudah that shall be left behind in the land when their brethren are carried into captivity that it may serve for the feeding of their cattle They that constantly attend upon their innocent charge all the day shall there have a place to retire to when they are weary In those mansions that belonged to Ashkelon shall those Shepherds of the house of Iudah repose themselves in the evenings when the Lord their God in that conquest of Iudaea by the King of Babylon shall lay his visitation upon the Ashkalonites and reiterating their captivity cause them to be carried again and again into the land of Chaldaea 8. After I have showed this justice upon the land of Iudaea and the remnant of the Cananites in those parts I will then go on to do the like justice upon the enemies of Iudaea of whose wickednesse I have not been ignorant nor have I forgotten it though hitherto I have deferred the execution of my wrath in expectation of their amendment For I heard â—nd took notice of the proud opprobrious speeches of the Moabites and the reviling and blasphemous taunts of the children of Ammon wherein they have reproached my people and with which foul language they presumed to make a most bold and violent invasion upon those territories of the children of Israel which I my self had measured out for them as the lot of their inheritance 9. Therefore as I live saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel I will not fail to make as absolute a ruine of Moab and Ammon as I did of Sodom and Gomorrha Their populous Cities shall lie wast overgrown with netles and over-spread with salt-pits as a place destined to perpetual barrennesse and desolation And the reâ—idue of my people that shall survive and return after their great captivity shall in due time invade and make spoil of the territories of that people and take possession of theirs as they did first so proudly attempt to make themselves Masters of a part of Iudaea 10. This shall be the issue and the reward of their proud reproachful speeches and of their as haughty and insolent attempts against the peculiar people of the Lord of hosts who will therefore show his power and vengeance upon their gods as well as upon them 11. For in so fearful and terrible a manner shall God come in judgement against them that not they onely but their very gods too shall be brought to as poor and miserable condition as men that are ready to be starved for hunger And the like doom shall fall upon many idolaters and their titular gods in other parts of the earth So that multitudes of people shall come out of their Countries to Ierusalem to worship before the true God and such converts and proselytes shall there be from divers places beyond the seas and from the Isles of the heathen 12. You of Cush shall be of this number of which Countrie many shall die by my sword in the hand of Nebuchadnezer 13. And he that I make my Deputy for the execution of my judgement i. the same Nebuchadnezer shall stretch out his hand also as far Northward and make use of my sword in those parts till he hath destroyed the Assyrians and made their royal Ninive a place of utter desolation like a drie and barren wildernesse 14. Flocks of sheep shall have their folds where the Ninivites had their fair houses And all kind of other living creatures too shall find admittance and entertainment about the ruines of that City Both the Pelican and the Owle shall pick oâ—t their nights-lodging about the knops and carved prominent works upon the tops of their houses while other birds securely sing over their several tunes in their windows And yet other signs of desolation shall appear in their doors and thresholds and in their curious seiled rooms where the rich Cedar-work shall be laid open to the injurie of the weather and the use of ravenous fouls of the air 15. This is the end of that jovial citie that dwelt in wealth and confidence of a lasting prosperity and said within her self I am the onely she and none will presume to come in comparison or competition with me How is she now become a verie picture of desolation and a place for beasts to lie down in All that passe by her will hisse and wag their hands at her in wonder and astonishment CHAP. III. 1 WO to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city 2 She obeyed not the voice she received not correction she trusted not in the Lord she drew not near to her God 3 Her princes within her are roaring lions her judges are evening wolves they gnaw not the bones till the morrow 4 Her prophets are light and treacherous persons her priests have polluted the sanctuary they have done violence to the law 5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof he will not do iniquity every morning doth he bring his judgement to light he faileth not but the unjust knoweth no shame 6 I have cut off the nations their towers are
desolate I made their streets wast that none passeth by their cities are destroyed so that there is no man that there is none inhabitant 7 I said Surely thou wilt fear me thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not be cut off howsoever I punished them but they rose early and corrupted all their doings 8 Therefore wait ye upon me saith the Lord until the day that I rise up to the prey for my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms to pour upon them mine indignation even all my fierce anger for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousie 9 For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent 10 From beyond the rivers of Ethiopia my suppliants even the daughter of my dispersed shall bring mine offering 11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed against me for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoyce in thy pride and thou shalt no more be haughty because of mine holy mountain 12 I will also leave in the midst of thee an afflicted and poor people and they shall trust in the name of the Lord. 13 The remnant of Israel shall not do iniquity nor speaks lies neither shall a deceitful tongue be found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid 14 Sing O daughter of Zion shout O Israel be glad and rejoyce with all the heart O daughter of Ierusalem 15 The Lord hath taken away thy judgements he hath cast out thine enemy the king of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evil any more 16 In that day it shall be said to Ierusalem Fear thou not and to Zion Let not thineâ— hands be sâ—ack 17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will joy over thee with singing 18 I will gather them that are sorrowful for the solemn assembly who are of thee to whom the reproach of it was a burden 19 Behold at that time I will undo all that afflict thee and I will save her that halteth and gather her that was driven out and I will get them praise and fame in every land where they have been put to shame 20 At that time will I bring you again even in the time that I gather youâ— for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth when I turn back your captivity before your eyes saith the Lord. CHAP. III. 1. BUt that Israel applaud not themselves too much in the ruine of their enemies royal City let them now hear the woes pronounced against their own Jerusalem Wo to the City that grew fat with her gluttony and polluted with all those sins that accompanie a full table and with all kind of rapine and oppression that were made the means to maintain it 2. She would not hear the voice of those that foretold her ruine if she did not amend She would not entertain any such good instruction before the blow came Nor would she trust in the Lord Iehovah and make her devout approaches and addresses unto her God in the time of her extremities but to the Egyptians and Assyrians and who not rather then to him that was ever her surest friend in the time of trouble 3. And to say somewhat again of that oppression that we named before The threats and menaces of her Princes and Governors within the City were grown to be as high and terrible as the roaring of a lion and her Iudges that instead of doing justice put these unjust threats in execution became like those ravenous wolves that seek out for their prey in the evening when their hunger makes them to be more greedily and fiercely set upon it so that what they lay hold on is presently devoured they leave not so much as a bone to be gnawed and examined again in the morning 4. Their pretended Prophets for their lives and for their opinions too are as various and inconsistent as water that will not stay long in his own bounds but must be kept in by some other bodie that is not so fluid as that And which is yet more they are persidiously wicked persons in betraying that trust which is reposed in them that should be the patternâ— and maintainers of true religion and not the bare outward professors of it for their own private interests And the Priests come not much short of the Prophets for instead of hallowing they pollute the Sanctuary and all holy things and instead of keeping and expounding they do most violently both in their actions and expositions wrest and abuse the sense of the law to what it was never intended by the Law-maker 5. But the righteous Lord whose Laws and Sanctuaries are thus abused observes all that is done in this wicked City and He will not deflect from doing right as they do that should be the Patrons of right and justice in his stead Every morning will he show some examples of his justice upon them that should every day be the executioners of it upon others Thus will God never fail to show his justice And yet the unjust and wicked men that know this are so past shame and fear that they will not repent when they see my judgements upon their own and their neighbour Countries saith the Lord. 6. But when I destroyed those Gentiles for so I may call your ten tribes that had nothing in them of Israel I made their strong towers desolate and their populous streets I laid wast and left none to walk about them Even upon their greatest Cities did I bring that solitude and desolation so that there was not left a man nor any of mankind to dwell within them 7. You should have learned to take heed by their punishment And so I said within my self Surely thou my land of Iudah wilt thence at least learn to fear me by what thou seest inflicted upon Israel Their correction will be thy instruction that the Cities of Judah and other places of her habitation may not be cut off in the same manner but that all the good that in my best and kind visitations I have made profer of may come upon her But they deceived my expectation and instead of rising early to seek me they rose early to currupt their own waies more and more as if they were so eagerly set upon mischief that they would break their sleep to be at it 8. Therefore after my expectation deceived I will give you an item before hand to expect that which you shall not be deceived of i. my rising to answer yours and my rising out of the place
of my rest to prey upon you and disturb you of your rest For I am now resolved and have peremptorily decreed to gather some of other nations and kingdoms together specially the Chaldaeans and their auxiliaries and by them to pour out my indignation upon these Iews even all the fiercenesse of my indignation For no otherwise then in a kind of fierce zeal shall all the land of Judaea be destroyed 9. But after that affliction I will convert the people to a more penitent and devout and holy language that they may call upon the name of the Lord with more reverence then now is to be found amongst them and joyntly endevour to serve and obey him as they that willingly joyn their sholders together to bear that yoke that he laies upon them which easie yoke is no other then his service 10. And then from the remotest parts of their captivity from as far as those places about the rivers of Cush shall my suppliant and humble servants the off-spring of my people Israel and Judah far and wide dispersed over several nations from thence shall they bring offerings unto me in testimony of their hearty thanks for their joyful return into their own countrie 11. About that time will I take away the shame and grief which thou hadst conceived for thy former great sins and offences committed against me For then shall I by death and miserie have removed from thee those haughty and insulting Countrymen and Priests of thine And then shalt thou offend no more as thou hast done by pride and contempt of my holy places and my Sanctuarie in Mount Sion when those Masters of misrule and ringleaders to the proudest and most presumptious offences are taken away 12. In stead of them I will furnish thee with a meek and humble generation of men though poor which shall trust in the name of the Lord and not in the proud mistake of their own fortunes and abilities 13. This good remnant of my people that return from their captivity shall not return to their great and grievous sin their idolatry nor shall they so accustom themselves again to the speaking of lies and deceit Therefore in all peace and plenty shall they feed well at last and take their rest securely having none to fright or molest them 14. Rejoyce then O daughter of Sion sing and shout for joy O Israel Be merry and chearfull from the bottom of a thankefull heart O Daughter of Ierusalem 15. For God hath taken off those judgements wherewith thou wert afflicted for thy sins He hath removed thy enemies out of thy sight that they may trouble thee no more And instead of those Tyrants Iehovah the the God and King of Israel is in the midst of thee and thou shalt see no more of those calamities which thou hast seen heretofore 16. In those daies it shall be said to Jerusalem and to Sion Fear not nor be any way discouraged Let not thy bands faint or give over till they have raised an other City and Temple wherein to serve the Lord. 17 Iehovah thy God in the midst of thee is of great might and power and of as ready a mind and will to save and defend thee He will rejoyce over thee exceedingly He will acquiesce and solace himself in his love toward thee They that sing for joy shall not have more content and delight then he will take in thee 18. They that were the cause of removing thy merry Feasts and Solemnities will I remove far from thee For they have been but a burden and a disgrace unto thee 19. And take notice of it at that time will I undoe not them onely but all those that have any way troubled and afflicted thee And I will cure them amongst thee that are any way weakened in their fortunes and gather them dayly to their own homes that have been as good as ejected and banished from thence in the long time of their captivity And I will make them famous and renowned in those very places where they have been put to shame and disgrace 20. Again I say it to you all that shall then survive and serve me At that time will I reduce you to your own homes and gather you together to your own friends and acquaintance and I will make you famous and renowned among all the people of the earth so that your own eyes shall see with what advantage I have brought you back again from your captivity A Paraphrastical EXPLICATION Of the PROPHESIE OF HAGGAI CHAP. I. IN the second year of Darius the king in the sixth moneth in the first day of the moneth came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet unto Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and to Ioshuah the son of Iosedech the high priest saying 2 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying This people say The time is not come the time that the Lords house should be built 3 Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying 4 Is it time for you Oye to dwell in your cieled houses and this house lie wast 5 Now therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your waies 6 Ye have sown much and bring in little ye eat but ye have not enough ye drink but ye are not filled with drink ye cloth you but there is none warm and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts Consider your waies 8 Go up to the mountain and bring wood and build the house and I will take pleasure in it and I will be glorified saith the Lord. 9 Ye looked for much and lo it came to little and when ye brought it home I did blow upon it why saith the Lord of hosts because of mine house that is wast and ye run every man unto his own house 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew and the earth is stayed from her fruit 11 And I called for a drought upon the land and upon the mountains and upon the corn and upon the new wine and upon the oyl and upon that which the ground bringeth forth and upon men and upon cattel and upon all the labour of the hands 12 Then Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest with all the remnant of the people obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet as the Lord their God had sent him and the people did fear before the Lord. 13. Then spake Haggai the Lords messenger in the Lords message unto the people saying I am with you saith the Lord. 14 And the Lord stirred up the spirt of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel governour of Iudah and the spirit of Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest and the spirit of all the remnant of the people and they came and did work in
that glory wherein I shall go before you as your glorious guide and Champion to conduct you safe to your Jerusalem that here and that above For he that sends me as his great Angel of the covenant and commander of his Hosts hath sent me upon this errand amongst the rest to visit the nations that spoiled you to be avenged and to deliver you out of their Tyrannie Nor could you expect any lesse since he that toucheth you toucheth the very apple of his eye He is as sensible of your injuries and sufferings as if they were his own and offered to him in a part of the tenderest touch 9. Therefore you may observe me already shaking my hand over them by way of menace And accordingly them that have heretofore used you as Servants I shall not fail ere long to make servants unto you and some of them more then so as in the time of the Maccabees to be no better then captives taken in warlike manner which shall serve also as a type and figure of those that shall be taken into my service when I send the rod of my power out of Sion and when my spiritual souldiers shall bring them of all nations into the number of the true Israel of God And when they that I send shall compasse so great atchievements you will know assuredly that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me the great Commander not of those troops onely that appeared in the first vision but of all things that are in heaven and earth 10. Rejoyce then and be exceeding glad O daughter of Sion for which thou shalt see and wonder at I will not onely vouchsafe to dwell in this Temple that you are building but I will further be pleased to come dwell with you visibly personally conversing among you in the sacred Temple of my flesh saith the Lord Iehovah 11. And many nations shall apply themselves to the Lord in those daies and like true Proselytes and converts indeed be joyned unto Him as souldiers to sight under his banner and no longer as enemies to him and his Church So shall they become my people as you are and true members of the true Jerusalem And I will abide and dwell in the midst of thee and within thee as my holy Temple and my Heaven upon earth And so thou shalt be more and more assured that it was the Lord of Hosts that sent me unto thee O thou daughter of Sion the Church and Congregation of the true servants of God 12. With this happy successe shall the Lord inherit Iudah again as his peculiar possession in the holy land and again make choice of Ierusalem wherein to show his power and glory 13. Therefore let all men be still and show fear and reverence before the Lord. For he will rise up from the throne of his glory and show himself from his holy habitation to subdue his enemies under his feet and be glorified in his servants CHAP. III. 1 ANd he shewed me Ioshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him 2 And the Lord said unto Satan The Lord rebuke thee O Satan even the Lord that hath chosen Ierusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand pluckt out of the fire 3 Now Ioshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel 4 And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him saying Take away the filthy garments from him And unto him he said Behold I have caused thine iniquity to passe from thee and I will clothe thee with change of raiment 5 And I said Let them set a fair mitre upon his head so they set a fair mitre upon his head and clothed him with garments and the angel of the Lord stood by 6 And the angel of the Lord protested unto Ioshua saying 7 Thus saith the Lord of hosts if thou wilt walk in my waies and if thou wilt keep my charge then thou shalt also judge my house and shalt also keep my courts and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by 8 Hear now O Ioshua the high priest thou and thy fellows that sit before thees for they are men wondred at for behold I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH 9 For behold the stone that I have laid before Ioshua upon one stone shall be seven eyes behold I will engrave the graving thereof saith the Lord of hosts and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day 10 In that day saith the Lord of hosts shall ye call every man his neighbour under the vine and under the fig-tree CHAP. III. 1. NOw the Lord in another vision let me see Iosuah the High-Priest standing before that great Angel or Messenger of the Lord and Satan standing at Joshuah his right hand that he might there show himself to be a Satan i. an adversarie and malitious accusar of him and so like his name 2. And the Lord Iehovah or some Archangel representing his person said unto Satan The Lord rebuke or restrain thee O Satan from prevailing in thy malitious accusation to any prejudice of the High-Priest Even that gratious Lord so restrain thee in the behalf of Jerusalems High Priest that hath in so great love made choice of Ierusalem as a place to be made a special object of his favour and mercy For is not this Joshua whom thou opposest one that hath more need of divine compassion and indulgence as being like a brand plucked out of many sad dangers and fierie trials that befel him in the time of his long captivity And by him plucked out and rescued thence that gave that token of his care and protection over him for the time to come 3. Now Joshuah appeared to me in this vision as one clad in filthy apparrel while he thus stood before the great Angel of the Lord which might be an embleme not so much of his poor estate as of some sin that he had contracted in the time of his captivity For sin represents us no otherwise in the sight of Gods pure eyes then as men covered with rags and pollution 4. Then said that great Angel to the other that stood ready to obey his commands Take away Joshuahs filthy garments from him as a sign of the removal of his sins that had made him appear so unpleasing in the sight of God And then turning himself to the High-Priest See saith he and forget not this mercy wherein I have caused the removal of thy sin which might now have been laid to thy charge and I will cause thee to be arrayed in such new and decent garments the robes of righteousnesse as wherein thou shalt be accepted 5. I have also taken order with my attendants said he that they set a fair mytre upon the head of Iosuah as the High-Priest of the Lord. And this they did
angel that talked with me Whither do these bear the ephah 11 And he said unto me To build it an house in the land of Shinar and it shall be established and set there upon her own base CHAP. V. 1. AFter this lifting up mine eyes again I discovered that which took me up with so much wonder that it may challenge another Ecce and it was a kind of flying book written all in one long scroul 2. And the angel that I mentioned before said unto me What seest thou And I said I see a flying roul containing so much in that one volume that the length of it seems twenty cubits and the breadth ten cubits 3. Then said he unto me This roule or volume is a book of curses or dire punishments and it is gone out to fly through the whole land so far as the children of Iudah or Israel do inhabit For every one of this nation that is guilty of stealing and hath his name for that fault on one side of the book is accordingly to be emptied of his ill-gotten goods and suffer the losse of all in his house besides and every one that forswears and hath his name for that fault upon the other side of the book is emptied of what he got by his perjurie acrording to the evidence of the fault there 4. This roul will I produce saith the Lord of Hosts and it shall come into the house of him that steals and into the house of him that swears falsly by my name And it shall continue in the midst of his house till it have quite consumed it like a fierce and raging fire that consumes or disperseth the very stones as well as the timber 5. Then the Angel that used to discourse with me as my Interpreter and Director for the understanding of these mysteries having gone out for a while returned again unto me to explain a new Vision and said Lift up now thine eyes and observe that which seems to be coming forward towards us 6. At the sight of it I demanded of the Angel what it might be And he replied This is the full measure of an Ephah that now seems to move forward and discover it self an embleme of their heavy sins that have now filled up their measure and therefore must lie no longer concealed and winked at as a great while they did in expectation of their repentance before they brought them up to this height And he added withal that this might serve for a fit resemblance of those sins or sinners through the whole land whose full measure of sin brought that full measure of punishment which you see was visibly inflicted upon the whole nation in this last captivity 7. And you would wonder what a strange sight immediately appeared with it the likenesse of a huge massie weight of lead that was brought thither to be laid upon it And this other sight withal a woman sitting upon the middest of the Ephah impudent enough and no whit ashamed or afraid to own such a weight of iniquity 8. And while I was looking upon her and observing the pride and shamelessenesse of her posture the Angel informed me who it was This is the lively portraicture of the Jewish Impietie saith he from whence all those robberies and perjuries that we named before had their rise and their growth till they called to heaven for vengeance And at that word he took her and thrust her into the midst of the Epha and laid a great weight of lead upon the mouth of the Ephah to exclude her from getting out from that which she seemed so ready to return to as to a creature of her own 9. No sooner had I withdrawn my eyes from this sight to look up again but I perceived there two women coming forward suppose the two nations the Assyrian and the Babylonian by which God was pleased to revenge himself of this so great a measure of sin And they came with such speed as if they had come upon the wings of the wind which figured the sodain execution of Gods wrath that accordingly came upon our nation for our many offences And the wings seemed to be like the wings of a stork another expression of that sodain transmigration and deportation out of our Country And these two flying women lift up this Ephah we spake of between heaven and earth as we lift up a burden that is presently to be removed from where it is 10. Then I asked the Angel that discoursed with me whither they intended to remove that heavy weight of impiety to what place of punishment and execution of Justice 11. The place saith he which they are going to provide for that purpose is the land of Babylon where they shall be set fast upon their own basis the sure footing which themselves were the cause of sure enough for stirring thence till God of his own mercy make way for their removal And this Vision and representation of what they have suffered already may be a fair warning that the like sins or sins in the like measure bring not the like punishment upon their heads again CHAP VI. 1 ANd I turned and lift up mine eyes and looked and behold there came four chariots out from between two mountains and the mountains were mountains of brasse 2 In the first chariot were red horses and in the second chariot black horses And in the third chariot white horses and in the fourth chariot grisled and bay horses 4 Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me What are these my Lord 5 And the angel answered and said unto me These are the four spirits of the heavens which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth 6 The black horses which are therein go forth into the north-countrey and the white go forth after them and the grisled go forth toward the south-countrey 7 And the bay went forth and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth and he said Get ye hence walk to and fro through the earth So they walked to and fro through the earth 8 Then cryed he upon me and spake unto me saying Behold these that go toward the north countrey have quieted my spirit in the north-countrey 9 And the word of the Lord came unto me saying 10 Take of them of the captivity even of Heldai of Tobijah and of Iedajah which are come from Babylon and come thou the same day and go into the house of Iosiah the son of Zephaniah 11 Then take silver and gold and make crowns and set them upon the head of Ioshua the son of Iosedech the high priest 12 And speak unto him saying Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Behold the man whose name the BRANCH and he shall grow up out of his place and he shall build the temple of the Lord. 13 Even he shall build the temple of the Lord and he shall bear the glory and and
that of His Kingdom and that of His Priest-hood 14. There shall be crowns also as for the High-Priest so for the honorable memorie of others that have found favour with God for their good endeavours about the outward Temple now in hand by name for Helem for Tobijah for Iedajah and for Hen the Son of Zephaniah And these crowns shall be hung up in the Temple of the Lord as a memorial of them with their names to that purpose expressed upon the crowns 15. And to help on the work and the ornaments and honour of the Temple many foreiners and people of remote countries shall come and contribute towards this building as the praeludium to the whole crowds of Gentiles that shall help to build up the spiritual Temple And by this you shall know that I Zacharie that relate the prophesie of these things am a true Prophet of the Lord and have my Commission from the Lord of Hosts for what I promise to you judge of me by the event Provided alwaies that you be diligent in obeying the commands of the Lord your God For this promise runs under that condition CHAP. VII ANd it came to passe in the fourth year of king Darius that the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah in the fourth day of the nineth moneth even in Chisleu 2 When they had sent unto the house of God Sherezer and Regem-melech and their men to pray before the Lord. 3 And to speak unto the Priests which were in the house of the Lord of hostes and to the prophets saying Should I weep in the fifth moneth separating my self as I have done these so many years 4 Then came the word of the Lord of hosts unto me saying 5 Speak unto all the people of the land and to the priests saying When ye fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh moneth even those seventy years did ye at all fast unto me even unto me 6 And when ye did eat and when ye did drink did not ye eat for your selves and drink for your selves 7 Should ye not hear the words which the Lord hath cried by the former prophets when Ierusalem was inhabited and in prosperity and the cities thereof round about her when men inhabited the South of the plain 8 And the word of the Lord came unto Zechariah saying 9 Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts saying Execute true judgement and shew mercy and compassions every man to his brother 10 And oppresse not the widow nor the fatherlesse the stranger nor the poor and let none of you imagine evill against his brother in your heart 11 But they refused to hearken and pulled away the shoulder and stopped their ears that they should not hear 12 Yea they made their hearts as an adamant stone least they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets therefore came a great wrath from the Lord of hosts 13 Therefore it is come to passe that as he cried and they would not hear so they cried and I would not hear saith the Lord of hosts 14 But I scattered them with a whirl-wind among all the nations whom they knew not thus the land was desolate after them that no man passed through nor returned for they laid the pleasant land desolate CHAP. VII 1. NOw in the fourth year of King Darius the second year after they had begun the structure of the Temple the word of the Lord was again revealed unto Zacharie in the fourth day of the ninth moneth which is called the Moneth Chisleu and containes part of November and of December And it did so upon this occasion 2. There was sent to the Temple and to the Priests there about that time Serezer and Regem-melech and some Attendants upon them to tender their humble devotions before the Lord in the behalf of those that lived out of the City and had sent them thither upon that service 3. And withall a message they had to the Priests that ministred in the Temple of the Lord of Hostes and to the Prophets who were to advise and direct them in matters of scruple or controversie This Message came in the name of the People who being desirous to be satisfied in some doubts about fasting in which it seems all had been well if their care to make it a true and acceptable fast unto God had been as much as their desire and power to enact it and enjoyn it as a holy Fast and being all considered as one body they ordered their message to be delivered in these or the like termes Shall I continue the times of fasting and mourning which I imposed upon my self under the captivity and have since most strictly observed whereof that is one in the fifth Moneth upon the tenth of July in the sad remembrance of the destroying and firing of the Temple by Nebuzaradan Captain of the guard to Nebuchadnezar Shall I still afflict my self and observe my wonted abstinence from pleasant meats and other matters of delight like a Nazarite for that day as I have now kept it upon the return of that day for many yeares 4. Then as I was saying came the word of the Lord of Hostes unto me furnishing me with an answer to that question of the People after some things to be premised upon occasion of their Fast and saying unto me 5. Speak to all the people of the land and among them to the Priests too to those of Jerusalem as well as to those out of the Citie that have sent these men hither and say When you fasted and mourned in the fifth Moneth in remembrance of the destruction of the Temple and in the seventh Moneth in memoriall of the death of Godoliah and so in the other Moneths in like pretended humble service for these seventy years of your captivity Did I require those Fasts or when they were voluntarily undertaken did they tend as they should do to my honour and glory by your true humbling and bettering of your selves upon those dayes For your Fasts without that are in themselves nothing so pleasing and acceptable to me as you may vainly conceive 6. For as at other times when you eat and drink at your liberty no advantage accrews to my honour out of that feasting of yours barely in it self considered without any other consequence of your due returnes of thankfulnesse and obedience for the blessing of that plenty so at these times when you fast that fasting in its self adds nothing to me nor is it any way considerable in my esteem 7. Should you not rather have observed the divine commands so plainly and openly delivered unto you by the Prophets that have gone before us when Ierusalem was at ease and abounded in peace and plenty And when the Cities and Townes all about her when the more mountainous and Southern parts that were then entirely possessed and when with them the lowest and fruitfullest countries in the
in this acceptable duty of mutual love thus saith the Lord of Hostes of that love and affection wherein your own people yet abroad and others with them shall be drawn to you and to your Countrey You are yet but a few but the time is coming on when many shall come hither form remoter parts and that are now inhabitants of many feveral Cities 21. For they that dwell in one City shall impart their desires to the inhabitants of another City for a journey towards the holy land and they shall say Come let us go thither to tender our humble supplications before the Lord and seek the Lord of Hosts in his holy worship and service and the precepts of his law Then the several parties thus invited shall say every man undertaking it in his own person I shall willingly make one for so good a voyage 22. Thus shall many and mighty nations come to Ierusalem to seek the Lord of Hosts in this Temple which you are building and to be informed by your Priests and Levites which is the true way of his service according to his divine laws and as a good means to that to offer up their hearty prayers for a blessing from the Almighty 23. For thus again saith the Lord of Hosts Ten men of several languages and nations shall then take hold of the skirts of you that are Iews and in that action deliver their desire to you and your Countrie saying Let us attend you to your happy home in the holy land for we have heard how wonderfully God hath been with you restoring you to your former happinesse in your own possessions repressing your enemies and setling the antient forms of his holy worship as he had foretold by his holy Prophets And He that foretells and fullfills such things shall be the God that we would fain serve and obey as you doe CHAP. II. 1. THe burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach and Damascus shall be the rest thereof when the eyes of man as of all the tribes of Israel shall be toward the Lord. 2 And Hamath also shall border thereby Tyrus and Zidon though it be very wise 3 And Tyrus did build hâ—r self a strong hold and heaped up silver as the dust and fine gold as the mire of the streets 4 Behold the Lord will cast her out and he will smite her power in the sea and she shall be devoured with fire 5 Ashkelon shall see it and fear Gaza also shall see it and be very sorrowful and Ekron for her expectation shall be ashamed and the king shall perish from Gaza and Ashkelon shall not be inhabited 6 And a bastard shll dwell in Ashdod and I will cut off the pride of the Philistins 7 And I will take away his bloud out of his mouth and his abominations from between his teeth but he that remaines even he shall be for our God and he shall be as a governour in Iudah and Ekron as a Iebusite 8 And I will enc amp about mine house because of the army because of him that passeth by and because of him that returneth and no oppressour shall passe through them any more for now have I seen with mine eyes 9 Rejoyce greatly O daughter of Zion shout O daughter of Ierusalem behold thy king cometh unto thee he is just and having salvation lowly and riding upon an asse and upon a colt the foal of an asse 10 And I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the horse frrm Ierusalem and the battle-bow shall be cut off and he shall speak unto the heathen and his dominion shall be from sea to sea and from the river even unto the ends of the earth 11 As for thee also by the blood of thy covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no water 12 Turn ye to the strong hold ye prisoners of hope even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee 13 When I have bend Iudah for me filled the bow with Ephraim and raised up thy sons O Zion against thy sons O Greece and made thee as the sword of a mighty man 14 And the Lord shall be seen over them and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet and shall go with whirlwinds of the South 15 The Lord of Hosts shall defend them and they shall devour subdue with sling-stones and they shall drink and make a noise as through wine and they shal be filled like bowls and as the corners of the altar 16 And the Lord their God shall save them in that day as the flock of his people for they shall be as the stone of a crown lifted up as an ensign upon his land 17 For how great is his goodnesse and how great is his beauty corn shall make the young men cheerfull and new wine the maids CHAP. IX 1. A Burdensome Prophesie to the enemies of Israel I shall now acquaint thee O Iudaea with a sad and heavy Prophesie nothing like that prophesie of peace and prosperity which I delivered to thy self And it is the word of the Lord for Hadrach that is it concerns Syria one of thy places of retirement whither thou hast often fled to secure thy self against the assaults of a sodain enemie And it concerns Damascus too the Metropolis of Syria and her best refuge and repose for security whereon she relies when a storm is coming upon her self For The eies of the Lord are upon all men and all should fix their eyes upon him His power and providence and justice watching over others as well as over you the Tribes of Israel that are his peculiar people 2. Hamath also or Antiochia must be brought within the limits and compasse of this prophesie as it borders upon Syria and the maritine parts Tyre and Sidon too though they seem so wondrous wife that they chalenge a greater interest in wisdom then other countries must do 3. Howsoever Tyrus to be like her name hath built her self a strong defence and knowing what are the sinews of war hath heaped up silver like dust and the finest gold in such plenty as if it were with them as ordinary as the mire of the streets like the store that your nation enjoyed in the dayes of Salomon 4. Yet you will wonder in the end how God will bring her to poverty and cast her out of those possessions and give her wooden walls wherein she trusts so much and with them her strong fort another piece of her confidence such a blow as shall cast them altogether into the sea while Tyrus her self with all her rich buildings shall be consumed with fire 5. Ashkelon will trembie to see her neighbours houses thus set on fire and Gaza will be in as much or more perplexity So will Ekron for shame that she hath failed of her expectation presuming
that hard employment as the heart of a strong man newly refreshed with wine Their very children shall take notice of their fathers alacrity and readinesse to the war and expresse it in their own joy and forwardnesse Thus all of them shall heartily rejoyce in the favour and protection of the Lord. 8. I will whistle for them that are not yet returned from Babylon and Egypt as the Shepherd doth for his flock and gather them together into my own fould the place that I haee chosen out for my own worship For I have resolved to redeem and deliver them from their enemies and here they shall be as numerous and as prosperous again as ever they were 9. For I dispersed them obroad into several and remote nations and there they remembred to serve me Therefore now will I remember them and theirs They and their children shall survive and return to their own home and their antient possessions 20. I will bring them back from the land of Egypt and gather them together from the land of Assyria by several waies and instruments of my providence and reduce them to their Gilead that furnished them with rich balms and Lebanon that stored them with strong timber And upon their return they shall swell into such multitudes that upon their own inheritance there will hardly be found room enough wherein to contein them 11. And to accelerate and facilitate their return they shall find passage through the streights of the sea for God shall represse the waves of the sea by his mighty power as if his own stroke made them give way to these passengers And he shall drie up the deeper chanels of the river Euphrtaes i. rather then they shall not have an easie passage the waves shall give back and the deeps shall be dried up to make way for them All which may represent in a figure a more conspicuous conduct over that great river of Assyria in the latter times And as you come forward to your prosperity so the pride of the Assyrian shall go downward and the scepter of Egypt to which you were subject while you were sojurners there shall vanish away the Egyptians shall have no more power and command over you 12. And I will make my people strong and chearful in the Lord their God And all their actions shall they prosperously undertake and finish in that name saith the great Iehovah CHAP. XI 1 OPen thy doors O Lebanon that the fire may devour thy cedars 2 Howl fir-tree for the cedar is fallen because all the mighty are spoiled howl O ye oaks of Bashan for the forrest of the vintage is come down 3 There is a voice of the howling of the shepherds for their glory is spoiled a voice of the roaring of young lions for the pride of Iordan is spoiled 4. Thus saith the Lord my God Feed the flock of the slaughter 5 Whose possessors slay them and hold themselves not guilty and they that sell them say Blessed be the Lord for I am rich and their own shepherds pity them not 6 For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land saith the Lord but lo I will deliver the men every one into his neighbours hand and into the hand of his king and they shall smite the land and out of their hand I will not deliver them 7 And I will feed the flock of the slaughter even you O poor of the flock and I took unto me two staves the one I called Beauty and the other I called Bands and I fed the flock 8 Three shepherds also I cut off in one moneth and my soul loathed them and their soul also abhorred me 9 Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is to be cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of anoanother 10 And I took my staff even Beauty and cut it asunder that I might break my covenant which I had made with all the people 11 And it was broken in that day and so the poor of the flock that waited upon me knew that it was the word of the Lord. 12 And said I unto them If ye think good give me my price and if not forbear so they weighed for my price thirty pieces of silver 13 And the Lord said unto me Cast it unto the potter a goodly price that I was prised at of them And I took the thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. 14 Then I cut asunder mine other staff even Bands that I might break the brotherhood between Iudah and Israel 15 And the Lord said unto me Take unto thee yet the instruments of a foolish shepherd 16 For lo I will raise up a shepherd in the land which shall not visit those that be cut off neither shall seek the young one nor heal that that is broken nor feed that that standeth still but he shall eat the flesh of the fat tear their claws in pieces 17 Wo to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock the sword shall be upon his arm and upon his right eye his arm shall be clean dried up and his right eye shall be utterly darkened CHAP. XI 1. BUt your hearty obedience unto me and to these pleasant daies of victory and prosperity will not last for ever Some daies of heavy suffering there will be and a sad visitation of the Temple and of the City When thou O Ierusalem that hast brought so much of Lebanon within thy gates for the fabrick of thy Temple and other stately buildings that thou maiest borrow the name too of another Lebanon must be forced to open thy gates and with other delights expose all the store which thou broughtest from Lebanon to the pleasure of a cruel enemie that with fire and sword will consume thy Palaces of Cedar and destroy the rich owners of those fair habitations 2. There will be matter of fear and lamentation for you of the poorer sort in the lesser towns and villages that stand so thick about Jerusalem like the firre-trees about the tall Cedars For some of your fairest Cedares in Lebanon the rich and great ones that are nestled so high must fall as how as the ground And the gallant Citizens that looked so big upon it must be humbled and seek abroad for another place of habitation while Jerusalem is laid desolate You were mounted before like the oaks of Basan but you will stoop and howl to see your Lebanon your mighty forrest cut down your populous City where the rich buildings were mounted to the height of the proudest trees in the forrest 3. This lamentation in the forrest will cause the howling of the shepherds l. the ruines about the Temple and City must needs be accompanied with the miserable cry of the Princes and of the Governours both Ecclesiastical and Civil whose glory is quite spoiled
when their glorious City and Temple suffer so much Shepherds did I call them I should rather have called them Lions then Shepherds devourers rather then feeders and governours of the people But now these Lions shall roar and heavily bemoan themselves They that Lion-like did so Lord it and domineer over their own nation shall indure the injuries and abuses of strangers that will domineer over them While the pride of Iudaea that stretcheth her self as far as Iordan is turned to nothing but miserie and desolation 4. The sins and disorders that call for such desolation will make it high time for the Messias to come the true Shepherd of Israel of whose care and government my exercise of my function among you is but a little shadow And to Him thus will my Lord God say when he sends him to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Feed and govern these poor sheep the people of my pasture and the sheep of my hands that by ill guides and pretended Shepherds are so often in danger to become like Sheep ready for the slaughter 5. For their Governors that undertook the care of their wellfare or as they would call themselves the Masters and owners of them are little better then their Butchers that make the best advantage of their sheep though it be by cutting of their throats and selling them to their skin And yet all the while they are never startled at it as at that which makes them guilty of any great offence But when they have so sold them they make a devout face at it and as if they conceived God himself had liberally conferred upon them all that unjust gain and would take no notice of such faults in them they put their applause and hypocrisie into a solemn form of thanksgiving and say Blessed be the Lord that hath given a happy successe to this means by which I am enriched which is no better then to thank God for the successe of their wicked and cruel actions Thus these Rulers and Shepherds in name but Butchers in deed take no pitie and so make no spare of the people when they meet with an occasion that fits their own advantage 6. Neither will I any longer spare them or any in the whole land that countenance or advance their wicked actions saith the Lord But you shall see I will deliver them into one anothers hands to perish by civil dissentions and mutual slaughter And I will give them every man into the hands of a King of his own choice Since they will have no king but Caesar And their ruine shall be such as if they were dashed against the earth and hit that in their fall And I will not deliver them out of the depth of these calamities 7. But now will I instruct this miserablie slaughterd sheep and among them I will speak to you that have the meeknesse and innocence and patience whereof sheep are the best emblemes by representing a visible way of instruction before your eyes For this is that which the Lord saith unto you Long since I took to my self two Shepherds-staves as two waies of happy government of my people the sheep of my fould The one I call Beauty or amiable and pleasant which is the way of protection from all evil and calamities abroad the other I call Bands or Binders which is the way of keeping them at Unity and concord at home Thus I did govern my people at first and it proved happy and successeful to them under their first King of my own choice 8. Then for the ingratitude of the people my simple amd stragling flock within the first moneth of years after that good government of my servant David I began to impair cut off somewhat from the glory of their three chief Shepherds and Governors their Kings their Priests and their Prophets For my love was much taken off from them as theirs was now become somewhat averse and kept not touch with me 9. So that I said within my self I will govern you no more by that gentle way of loving and solicitous care for your wellfare They that are sickly and scabbed sheep let them die of the roâ— and they that are so silly to be snapped up by the wolf let them be snapped up And the rest that neither die of their own inbred maladies nor are cut off by others let them fall into some phrensie and devour one anothers flesh like wolves out of their own sould 10. And accordingly I took my Shepherds staff that I stiled by the name of Beauty or Amiable and cut it in pieces to signifie that since they had broken their obligations of dutie I would also break that part of the Covenant that concerned my self wherein I stood conditionally ingaged to all the flock that should have lived as the people of my pasture and sheep that would follow my voice whithersoever I called them 11. Thus and about that time was the staffe and covenant as good as broken on both sides And in processe of time when the meek and innocent among the sheep observed that it was so such as had observed me too and kept my precepts when they saw that it was my doing and that all these things came to passe by the command of the Lord 12. Then I said unto them as willing to condescend to the giving of a reason of my actions and to make them understand what just cause there was why I should at first begin to do what I did and why I should afterwards more and more go on to desert them If you are indeed well pleased that I should be your Shepherd tell me plainly what wages I shall receive And if you think I deserve nothing cease from that thought trouble your selves no further and say you will give me nothing Now what price do you think they set upon me for so it proved to be rather then a fair sum appointed as a reward of my care and pains That which they weighed out for me was thirty pieces of silver that was the price they set me or rather set upon me This I Zacharie saw in a vision but they will make it good When the Messias is amongst them they will give so much silver to be sure of Him and they will do it really and openly that all the world may know it 13. After this the prophetical vision going on the Lord said unto me Is not this a goodly sum whereat they prise me They might have given it to the potter for one of the worst brickle vessels that you use about the Temple And to the Potter let it go Let it be so cast away as a sum fitter for the reward of some mean employment then as wages for me So I took the thirty pieces of silver as I was commanded in the vision and threw them to the potter that hath his work-house and
but we will return and build the desolate places Thus saith the Lord of hosts They shall build but I will throw down and they shall call them The border of wickednesse and the people against whom the Lord hath indignation for ever 5 And your eyes shall see and ye shall say The Lord will be magnified from the border of Israel 5 A son honoreth his father and a servant his master if then I be a father where is mine honour and if I be a master where is my fear saith the Lord of hosts unto you O priests that despise my name and ye say Wherein have we despised thy name 7 Ye offer polluted bread upon mine altar and ye say Wherein have we polluted thee In that ye say The table of the Lord is contemptible 8 And if ye offer the blind for sacrifice is it not evil and if ye offer the lame and sick is it not evil offer it now unto thy governour will he be pleased with thee or accept thy person saith the Lord of hosts 9 And now I pray you beseech God that he will be gracious unto us this hath been by your means will he regard your person saith the Lord of hosts 10 Who is there even among you that would shut the doors for nought neither do ye kindle fire on mine altar for nought I have no pleasure in you saith the Lord of hosts neither will I accept an offering at your hand 11 For from the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles and in the very place incense shall be offered unto my name and a pure offering for my name shal be great among the heathen saith the Lord of hosts 12 But ye have profaned it in that ye say The table of the Lord is polluted and the fruit thereof even his meat is contemptible 13 Ye said also Behold what a wearinesse is it and ye have snuffed at it saith the Lord of hosts and ye brought that which was torn and the lame and the sick thus ye brought an offering should I accept this of your hands saith the Lord. 14 But cursed be the deceiver which hath in his flock a male and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing for I am a great King saith the Lord of hosts and my name is dreadfull amonge the heathen CHAP. I. 1. THe word of the Lord by the Prophet Malachi delivered in heavy and threatning words against the Israelites that were returned from the captivity and were guilty of many great sins specially of negligence and misdemeanour in things belonging to the worship of God and of keeping strange wives against those laws and admonitions that should have wrought better upon them 2. I might have expected better fruit from my people of Israel were it but meerly by way of thankfulnesse for my peculiar love and indulgence unto them not above all other nations onely but even above those of the same stock and original with them For I have ever loved you of Israel saith the Lord and you may read it in many arguments of that love But you will say Wherein hast thou showed any particular instances and evidences of that thy special love to us To which I answer that if you look to the root from whence you took your beginning there you may best begin to see the signes of my love For was not Esau brother to Iacob your Patriarch by the same venter Were they not twins and Esau the first-born yet did I show a more tender and fatherly affection to Iacob and his posterity placing you in the land of promise a land flowing with milk and honey and when your sins had cast you out reducing you hither again and shielding you here from all danger by the hand of providence 3. Esau all this while and his posterity the Edomites that came from him may rather see the signs of my hatred and disaffection to them from the very womb For as I foretold that he should be inferior to his younger brother before he was born so afterwards I placed him and his in the barren mountains of Seir no way to be compared with the fruitful land of Canaan And when my Justice had cast him out from thence I did not restore him thither again as I did you into Canaan but I turned those mountains of Seir his antient habitation into a wildernesse and as a testimony of mine anger that which was his peculiar lot and inheritance I gave to the Dragons and other wild beasts of the Desert as a place of habitation for them 4. And I am so far from any intention of restoring them now to those parts that if they of Edom should say We are now in poor condition indeed but we will take courage and return from whence we came and there we will build up again whatsoever the enemie hath laid wast Thus would the Lord of hosts answer to such fool-hardie undertakers If they rebuild them I will find waies to pull them down again and lay them even with the ground And they that see the execution of that justice shall say It was but deservedly done to a Countrie whose bounds and limits were all full of impiety to God and unnatural cruelty to you their brethren and the inhabitants thereof a People whom God had threatned with the effects of his anger and heavy displeasure for evermore 5 Your own eyes shall be the witnesses of the performance of what I thus speak against the Edomites and your own tongues shall makes profession and acknowledgement of this difference that I put between you and them and say Let God ever be magnified and praised for his mercie to the land of Israel which he restored and continues to us with the same bounds and limits that we had before 6. Such hath been my Fatherly affection to you and my anger and severitie upon them Which you should be so sensible of as to expresse it in your thankfulnesse and obedience For Doth not a Son worthily honour his father Is not a servant ready to expresse his bounden duty to his Master If my benefits show my fathèrly love why should not your honour and respect be answerable to them If I defend and maintain you as your Lord and Master where is that fear and reverence of my Name that should be seen in you saith the Lord of Hosts Specially in you my Priests that live upon such things as are devoted to my service and yet are so far from serving me aright that you rather openly contemn and despise my name If you ask wherein you have done any thing in neglect and contempt of me and in derogation to the Honour and Majestie of my name Look into your daily imployments about my Temple and there you will see it 7. For You bring to my Altar such provisions to be there offered up to me as I can no otherwise
came to make peace by presents and offerings unto me as to the Lord of Hostes. 13. But there 's another fault too that you have committed upon occasion of this marrying of strange women i. You show so much love to them and so little to your own wives that you make them cover the altar of the Lord with teares and disturb the sacred Temple with bitter lamentations so that I can have no more delight in your offerings nor can I take any thing well from your hands though it be purposely brought thither to appease my wrath and make you acceptable in my sight saith the Lord. 14. And why so will you say Because the Lord Iehovah is a witnesse between thee and the wife of thy youth thy lawfull and first love whom thou abusest after such a harsh and inhumane manner But she should be used as thy Dear Consort and Fellow-servant to the same God and the wife of the same Covenant not onely made thy wife by a solemn Covenant and stipulation mutually tendred before me for the securing of your mutuall love and affection but the wife that is interested in the Covenant made with God himself to serve and obey him Whereas neither of these so strong obligations to ingage thee to those wives that are superinduced and of meer strangers are made the proud Usurpers and Commanders of thy House 15. Now Echad i. Abraham whose example you pretend to follow did not so But he was of a more excellent Spirit And when he took a maid for his Concubine why did Abraham do it He did it not for lust nor with injury to Sarah for it was at her intreaty but onely desirous of a pious seed and a seed promised by God Himself Therefore take heed of being led by that violent and erring spirit of your own Think of Abraham's meek and obedient Spirit and commit not such a cruell fault as to suffer a stranger to domineer over the wife of thy youth 16. For thus saith the great Iehovah the God of Israel He that doth so hates to put her away He cannot do that for shame but he cloakes the injury that he doth to her by keeping her still in his own house saith the Lord of Hostes. But once again I warn you take heed of being led by your own unruly spirits and let me hear no more of this great fault 17. There is yet another thing in your ordinary talk wherein you have offended and wearied out the patience of Almighty God And wherein have we so tired and displeased Him will you say It is in using those wicked Proverbs of yours Every one that is evill is acceptable enough in the sight of the Lord and sure he takes delight in them for so you guesse by the preferment of wicked men And in your other said saw Where is the God of Iudgement that doth not rather presently punish those wicked men if he knew them to be such As if we were to limit and confine him for his times and his waies how and when He shall make proof of his Justice CHAP. III. 1 BEhold I will send my messenger and he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his Temple even the messenger of the Covenant whom ye delight in Behold he shall come saith the Lord of hosts 2 But who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth for he is like a refiners fire and like fullers sope 3 And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver and he shall purifie the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousnesse 4 Then shall the offerings of Iudah and Ierusalem be pleasant unto the Lord as in the daies of old and as in former years 5 And I will come neer to you to judgement and I will be a swift witnesse against the sorcerers and against the adulterers and against false swearers and against those that oppresse the hireling in his wages the widow and the fatherlesse and that turn aside the stranger from his right and fear not me saith the Lord of hosts 6 For I am the Lord I change not therefore ye sons of Iacob are not consumed 7 Even from the daies of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them return unto me and I will return unto you saith the Lord of hosts but ye said wherein shall we return 8 Will a man rob God yet ye have robbed me But ye say Wherein have we robbed thee in tithes and offerings 9 Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed one even this whole nation 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the store-house that there may be meat in mine house and prove me now herewith saith the Lord of hosts if I will not open you the windows of heaven and powre you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field saith the Lord of hosts 12 And all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land saith the Lord of hosts 13 Your words have been stout against me saith the Lord yet ye say What have we spoken so much against thee 14 Ye have said It is in vain to serve God and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinances and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts 15 And now we call the proud happy yea they that work wickednesse are set up yea they that tempt God are even delivered 16 Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another and the Lord hearkened and heard it and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord and that thought upon his Name 17 And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him 18 Then shall ye return and discern between the righteous and the wicked between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not CHAP. III. 1. NOw because you inquire after the Lord of Judgement and after his coming will you hear what himself saith of his first coming Behold I will shortly send my Angel or Embassadour John the Baptist my fore-runner who shall prepare the way before me by his Baptism and Sermons of Repentance and his Testimonie of Me and my coming and then the Lord the Messias that you so earnestly expect and inquire after shall sodainly come into his Temple before he is looked for the time being concealed from men to honour his Temple at Jerusalem with his bodily presence and there to teach and instruct his people of
the house of Israel Even he shall come that is the great Angel of the New Testament whom you long for as your promised Messias Behold He shall surely come saith the Lord of Hosts 2. But who will abide the time of his coming and when he appears in person who shall be able to stand without great fear and terrour before Him to hear the discoverie and reproof of their sinnes and the Prophesie of that heavy punishment that will fall upon you for them and the many afflictions that must be expected and suffered by all those that will follow him For He shall be like a Refiners fire to make trial of us in the fire of affliction as well as like the Fullers purging herbs to cleanse and purge us in the Laver of Regeneration by vertue of his precious bloud 3 And when he settles himself to 〈◊〉 great work of trying and purging as the Refiner doth when he removes the drosse from the pure silver then shall He cleanse and purifie the sonnes of Levi reducing manie of them from the drosse of their false doctrines and traditions and other mistakes to the knowledge and profession of the truth And so being purged from what was amisse in them like silver and gold that comes out of the Refiners furnace they shall offer unto the Lord a righteous and pious sacrifice of humble prayers and divine praises and the constant exercise of all holy virtue 4. All these offerings and sacrifices of Iudah and Ierusalem shall be as acceptable and well pleasing unto God as ever were any of their most costly presents and oblations in former times and in the daies of old the daies of your good Patriarchs and Judges and Prophets 5. But if you will not forsake your drosse As you called for the God of Judgement so I will come near to you in the Acts of Iudgement and Iustice. saith the Lord And I that have been privie to all your secret sinnes which cannot be concealed from my all-seeing eye I will not be wanting to be a readie witnesse my self against such as have been tampering with Magick Arts and against adulterous and perjured persons and against all such as defraud the poor hirelings of their wages and the widows and orphans of that which is their due and against those that oppresse the stranger all which have the least means to relieve themselves and withall my Justice shall be showed upon all those that do any thing against the fear and reverence of my name saith the Lord of Hosts 6. For I am a God immutable in all my waies in my waies of Justice and in my wayes of Mercy the same God in the performance of all threats and promises upon all persons And yet you sonnes of Iacob doe not make an end of your wicked courses and either for fear or love of my immutable waies follow those good steps that your Father Iacob hath traced out before you 7. And so from the daies of all your fore-fathers you have gone astray from the way of my statutes and have not kept them as you should have done And yet return unto me by a true Repentance and I will return unto you in great mercy saith the Lord of Hosts But I know you will be ready to excuse your selves and ask wherein you should return For you would be accounted the onely Observers of my laws and cannot bethink your selves what it should be wherein you have offended 8. Therefore I will tell you wherein Will any man think it fit to rob and defraude God of his due Yet are you that justifie your selves guiltie of that fraude and injurie towards me If you ask wherein thse your fraudulent actions against me may consist I answer In your tithes and offerings which you have paid in a sordid covetous and deceitful way 9. And for that fraudulent detaining of my antient right from me there is a heavy curse hangs over your heads And the whole nation are in danger of it as the reward of a national fault if it be not averted by your speedie repentance 10. But let me see you faithfully and truely bring in all my tithes into my barnes that there may be a plentiful provision for those that attend the dayly service of my house And make triall of me now in this one point of your obedience saith the Lord of Hosts whether I will not open the windows of Heaven for your sakes and powre a blessed increase upon you in such a superabundant way of plenty that your barnes and vessels wherein you intend to lay it up shall not be able to contein it 11. And for your sakes will I hinder the devouring locusts that are destructive to your fruit and they shall not corrupt anie more fruit of your grounds And it shall be my care and providence that your vines in the field the remotest from your eyes may not cast their fruit before their due time to deceive your expectation of a good vintage saith the Lord of Hosts 12. And whereas by my curse upon you and my punishment of your great sinnes you lived a long time poor and despicable among the heathen now all nations shall call you blessed For you shall be a delightsome land worthy the love and admiration of all for your peace and plenty and specially for the exercise of the true Religion amongst you saith the Lord of Hosts 13. Yet are you no way worthy of these loving promises from me or these kind words from other people For you have used very bitter and wicked words against me saith the Lord of Hosts Yet you will be ready to deny it now and to say What is that which we have spoken so often and so ill against thee 14. This it is In saying that it is a vain and unprofitable thing to serve God and in asking what you have gained by observing those things that God would have you to observe and that in times of fasting and humiliation you have walked like pensive and sad mourners before the Lord of Hosts 15. And this also you have said Now when all is done we account them the happiest men not that have so humbled themselves but that have stoutly and proudly without any scruple showed themselves the contemners of all Religion And this too They thrive best in raising of their houses and families that dare do the worst things And yet more You say They that have tempted and provoked God most have been soonest delivered out of affliction or escaped the best 16. Such have been the impious and prophane words of the wicked But then they that fear the Lord have often had better discourses among one another And to their discourse God himself gave serious attention observing well what they said and causing it to be written down in his book of Remembrances for them that fear the Lord and think reverently of his name 17. And he dismissed them with this encomium and gracious
house by cutting off many people and hast sinned against thy soul. 11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber shall answer it 12 Wo to him that buildeth a town with bloud and stablisheth a city by iniquity 13 Behold it is not of the Lord of hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity 14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea 15 Wo unto him that giveth his neighbour drink that puttest the bottle to him and makest him drunken also that thou mayest look on their nakednesse 16 Thou art filled with shame for glory drink thou also and let thy foreskin be uncovered the cup of the Lords right hand shall be turned unto thee and shamefull spewing shall be on thy glory 17 For the violence of Lebanon shall cover thee and the spoil of beasts which made them afraid because of mens bloud and for the violence of the land of the City and of all that dwell therein 18 What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it the molten image and a teacher of lies that the maker of his work trusteth therein to make him dumb idols 19 Wo unto him that saith to the wood Awake to the dumb stone Arise it shall teach behold it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all in the midst of it 18 But the Lord is in his holy temple let all the earth keep silence before him The Sum of the second CHAPTER The Prophets Quaeries in the former Chapter were followed so eagerly in the behalf of his Countrey-men that St. Hierome and some others are almost angry with him and think he may well take the name of Chabakkuk from his touching so near and wrastling so boldly with almighty God Not onely in his prayer for them like another Iacob in his third Chapter but in the first Chapter too like a close Disputant in his pressing so hard upon God himself and his Divine Providence and disposall of humane afflictions But whatsoever was the true occasion of the name it seems that his open and patheticall delivery of his Questions did put them upon that conjecture and so upon the point that those learned men were as much troubled at his expression as himself was at the apprehension of that strange course of divine Justice Now this second Chapter resolves the holy Prophet as it may do us in that scruple and showes him the progresse of God's divine Iustice overtaking the bloody profane sacrilegious Chaldeans in the height of their securitie and falling the more heavily upon them for their abusing the power that was put into their hands when they were permitted to be the scourges of men that were better than themselves Which may read a Lecture to any who contribute too much to the malignity of such wicked dayes This may advise them while they have time of Repentance seriously to examine themselves and their own cause This being a Truth that is evidenced by this passage of holy Scripture and this example in the Jewes and Chaldees That God may be so angry with the sins of his own People or so willing to have their Pietie and Vertue made known to the world that it may produce some effects that are little expected So that either for the severe punishment of some to whom it is likely he means to show the more mercy in a greater and more terrible day Or for the Fatherly correction of others that by outward calamities he will hasten to a better amendment of life Or for the exacter tryall of the Faith Obedience Patience and Perseverance of others for whom he intends a weightier Crown of Glory in everlasting Mansions For these and the like respects it may please God to give way to the doing of many things which may well seem strange and wonderfull in the eies of men And while such things are in agitation He may let them see many cruell and malicious designes seconded with as prosperous successes as the evill hearts of the Actors could wish We found it true in the former Chapter of the Chaldeans and may elsewhere of others that were inabled to say that God goes in and out with their Forces that He fights for them in the head of their Armies and crownes their Actions with Triumphs and Victories over far more innocent and religious undertakers than they are All this being no more than the Prophet implies here and God himself speakes in effect by the mouth of his holy Prophets And yet this second Chapter may inform them that all this is not enough to secure the vain confidence of the Enemies of the Church and excuse the idle boasting of strange and fortunate attempts Which may end in as sad a Catastrophe as that of the Chaldeans did after all their pride and effusion of much blood as now we shall hear The Paraphrastical EXPLICATION of the second CHAPTER 1. AFter these sad and scrupulous Quaeries and Objections which presented themselves unto me I could do no other then as a Prophet a Watchman a Seer of Israel betake my self to my watch-tower and with all Reverence and Patience expect what the Divine Oracle would discover unto me and make me able to return as the best solution of those doubts and Interrogatories of my former Discourse 2. And such did the solution prove to be that others have as much reason to observe it as I have Therefore was I commanded by God himself so clearly to deliver and explain the Vision which I shall now relate that it might be given down to Posterity as a thing written in Tables of some durable substance and in fair Capitall letters so that he that runs might read it and see in it as in a little Map a draught of those waies of Gods divine Wisedome and Justice in the ordering and disposing of things below far beyond the reach of our weak judgement and apprehension 3. And beyond the little compasse of our time too For it lookes further than our short and euill dayes Yet as they that live to see it accomplished will account the hardest part of it to be slipped over as in a dream so we that by the eie of faith can look forward and fix our thoughts upon that end which will prove the end of our misery and the end of our Enemies prosperity may see it posting on as all our Times do with such speed as if it were carried upon the wings of the wind For all which speed nothing that is foretold of it will fail or come short of the truth Therefore let no seeming delay take off our expectation and hope in Gods promises which will certainly come at last and cannot come slowly to a heart that is ready and prepared for it and wants not that solace wherewith it