unto the house of Israel Seek ye me and ye shall live 5 But seek not Bethel nor enter into Gilgal and passe not to Beer-sheba for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and Bethel shall come to nought 6 Seek the Lord and ye shall live leâ—t he break out like fire in the house of Ioseph and devour it and there be none to quench it in Bethel 7 Ye who turn judgement to wormwood and leave off righteousnesse in the earth 8 Seek him that maketh the seven Stars and Orion and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night that calleth for the waters of the sea and powreth them out upon the face of the earth the Lord is his Name 9 That strengtheneth the spoiled against the strong so that the spoiled shall come against the fortresse 10 They hate him that rebuketh in the gate and they abhor him that speakketh uprightly 11 Forasmuch therefore as your treading is upon the poor and ye take from him burdens of wheat ye have built houses of hewen stone but ye shall not dwell in them ye have planted pleasant vineyards but ye shall not drink wine of them 12 For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sinnes they afflict the just they take a bribe and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right 13 Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time for it is an evill time 14 Seek good and not evill that ye may live and so the Lord the God of hosts shall be with you as ye have spoken 15 Hate the evill and love the good and establish judgement in the gate it may be that the Lord God of hostes will be gracious unto the remnant of Ioseph 16 Therefore the Lord the God of hosts the Lord saith thus Wailing shall be in all streets and they shall say in all the high-wayes Alas alas and they shall call the husband-man to mourning and such as are skilfull of lamentation to wailing 17 And in all vineyards shall be wailing for I will passe thorow thee saith the Lord. 18 Wo unto you that desire the day of the Lord to what end is it for you the day of the Lord is darknesse and not light 19 As if a man did flee from a Lion and a Bear met him or went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him 20 Shall not the day of the Lord be darknesse and not light even dark and no brightnesse in it 21 I hate I despise your feast dayes and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies 22 Though ye offer me burnt offering and your meat offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat beasts 23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs for I will not hear the melody of thy viols 24 But let judgement run down at waters and righteousnesse as a mighty stream 25 Have ye offered unto me sacrifices and offerings in the wildernesse fourty years O house of Israel 26 But ye have born the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images the star of your god which ye made to your selves 27 Therefore will I cause you to go into captivity beyond Damascus saith the Lord whose Name is the God of hosts CHAP. V. 1. HEar what I have to say unto you O you children of Israel Though it be a sad Propheticall Lamentation yet I must speak what I am commanded and if that were not I cannot but speak it over you while I consider the deep misery and affliction into which you have drawn your selves by the weight of your own grievous sinnes 2. Israel should be like a pure Virgin in the sincere profession and service of the true God But now her spirituall whoredoms represent her as a wanton and impudent Harlot Therefore her fall from that Virginity hath produced so deep and great a fall into calamity and desolation that if she do not speedily prevent it by Repentance there is little or no hope of her rising again and recovering her wonted peace and prosperity She is levelled with the Earth like one ready to be buried in silence and oblivion and knowes of none that are able to raise her up and reduce her to her former estate 3. In this misery and captivity which I foresee as certainly coming upon her very few will be left in her Cities and Villages For thus saith the Lord God A City in Israel that could send out a thousand valiant men well appointed shall scarcely be able to show the tenth part of them left alive And that City which could send out a hundred shall have as little a proportion left for the house of Israel Not the tenth part but nine parts of ten shall be taken away by the sword or the famine or the pestilence 4. Yet this sentence is not so irreversibly concluded by the Lord against the house of Isaael but that if you will now seek after your mercifull God in that way in which only he may be found which is in the way of Repentance you may either remove or at least mitigate the decree of your most just and deserved punishment that will otherwise cut off so many by death 5. This Repentance must not be verball onely but active and reall You must absolutely renounce the service of your golden calf in Bethel You must have no more to do in the Idolatry of Gilgal or Beersheba For the right service of God will not consist with the worship of Idols Therefore if you forsake not these places you must perish in them For Gilgal must go into captivity according to the omen in her name And Bethel that carries in the name of it the house of God shall be turned to Beth-aven which promiseth nothing but iniquity vanity and desolation 6. Therefore keep close to that way of Repentance wherein God is to be found That 's the onely way to preserve you in life and safety And if you be not found in that way you expose your selves to extream danger and know not how soon the house of Ioseph as you call your kingdom of Israel from the tribe of Ephraim the greatest part in it and the Royal tribe may be compassed with those flames of war that will break out on such a sudden that the best of you and your friends will find no time wherein to quench or prevent them no not in Bethel the Kings Court and the eminentest place of all the kingdom 7. And how can they look for a milder punishment that turn Iustice the sweetest and loveliest of all vertues into injury and oppression which is as unwelcome and distastfull as the bitter wormwood and when they should exalt Justice and prefer her before all other respects whatsoever do rather suppress her and leave her on the ground as a thing of no value with them that are bribed high for injustice in the pronouncing
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
and connivence as I have formerlie used toward them 3. And their merrie songs in their stately Palaces shall be turned into fearful howling in that day saith the Lord God And many bodies of dead men shall want the honour of the wonted funeral rites being privily cast aside by them that will endeavour to conceal their miserie least their own men should be too much disheartned or the enemie encouraged by seeing what a number perish by famine pestilence or discontent before the sword come near them 4. It will highly concern you to take notice of this prophesie and vision that are are come to so high a degree of covetousnesse and oppression that you are ripe enough to be taken off from any further benefit of life You that could find in your hearts to devour the poor and meek and humble men and quite obliterate the name and memory of them from the earth that you alone might injoy the good things of this life 5. You that say When will the New Moon and the Sabbath be gone we like not these Festival daies they are prejudicial to us that might every day make our markets It were not amisse if they were quite put out of the Kalender that we might be wholly employed in selling our corn and opening our granaries of wheat and practising the art we have in making our measures lesse and raising the value of our coin and falsifying our weights by sleight and deceit 6. That when we have by these tricks cheated and beggered the poor we may have an easie purchase of them and their goods and all that they have for a little sum of money or for as poor a thing as the present supply of a pair of shooes when they are cold and needy or by putting off to them at our own price the very refuse of our wheat that we know not otherwise how to dispose of 7. Therefore the Lord in his justice hath fully resolved and sworn by Himself whom all will acknowledge to be the glorie of his people Israel that since they so often forget the interest that they have in this high title or abuse it by making themselves guilty of such wicked deeds I will not forget to punish any of their evill courses I will surelie do it saith the Lord. 8. For Why should I not make the land tremble and all her inhabitants mourn for these things Why shall not this deluge of sin in this nation make her punishment overflow and overwhelm her in every part as the River Nilus in Egypt ascends by degrees and at last ovorflows her banks and covers all the face of Egypt with her inundations 9. When that day of revenge riseth upon them saith the Lord God I will make all their joy and comfort to vanish on a sodain as if the Sun of a clear day should set upon them in a dark and dismal cloud before he had run half his course 10. And I will turn your merry festivals and gaudy daies into daies of mourning and your pleasant songs into doleful lamentations your rich and loose apparel into course sackcloth girded about your loines and your neat heads of hair into bald pates that your outward garb may speak your inward sorrow for your heavy calamitie Nay I will bring the land of Israel to that passe and that high degree of mourning that in all the chiefest places men shall be found in as sad postures and bitter exclamations as a tender Mother useth to expresse in the funerals of her onely son And how jolly and chearful soever they have been they shall close up their last times in great bitternesse of woe and miserie 11. There is yet worse news behind if it were rightly apprehended Behold the time is coming saith the Lord God wherein I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread onely or a thirst of water but a want of spiritual food too and of the water of life a scarcity of the word of God specially of the word of prophesie which you neglect when it is offered and therefore it will not be heard when you long for it 12. For they that are now so coy and dainty that no Prophets can please them shall then compasse about from Sea to Sea They shall run to and fro from one corner of the Country to another to seek the word of the Lord purely and sincerely taught and shall not find it 13. Then shall even the succulent bodies of fair damsels and proper young men in the flower of their age be ready to faint and wither away for thirst 14. This shall happen to them that swear by the idols of Samaria near Bethel as if they had no true Deitie to swear by To them that have this form of oath as thy Diety lives O Dan in imitation of their former oath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as they Lord lives To them that swear thus as the living God is rightly worshipped in that kind of service which is used in Beersheba or as I wish that the course and religious way of Beersheba may thrive These men shall fall from their former prosperous estate and shall never be restored to that or so much as to their Country again CHAP. IX 1 I Saw the Lord standing upon the Altar and he said Smite the lintel of the door that the posts may shake and cut them in the head all of them and I will slay the last of them with the sword he that fleeth of them shall not flee away and he that escapeth of them shall not be delivered 2 Though they dig into hell thence shall mine hand take them though they climbe up to heaven thence will I bring them down 3 And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel I will search and take them out thence and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea thence will I command the serpent and he shall bite them 4 And though they go into captivity before their enemies thence will I command the sword and it shall slay them and I will set mine eyes upon them for evil and not for good 5 And the Lord God of Hosts is he that toucheth the land and it shall melt and all that dwell therein shall mourn and it shall rise up wholly like a floud and shall be drowned as by the floud of Egypt 6 It is he that buildeth his stories in the heaven and hath founded his troup in the earth he that calleth for the waters of the sea and powreth them out upon the face of the earth the Lord is his Name 7 Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me O ye children of Israel saith the Lord have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt and the Philistins from Caphtor and the Syrians from Kir 8 Behold the eies of the Lord God are upon the sinful kingdom and I will destroy it from
off the face of the earth saving that I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob saith the Lord. 9 For lo I will command and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations like as corn is sifted in a sieve yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth 10 All the sinners of my people shal die by the sword which say The evill shall not overtake nor prevent us 11 In that day will I raise up the Tabernacle of David that is fallen and close up the breaches thereof and I will raise up his cumes and I will build it as in the daies of old 12 That they may possesse the remnant of Edom and of all the heathen which are called by my Name saith the Lord that doth this 13 Behold the daies come saith the Lord that the plowman shall overtake the reaper and the tâ—eader of grapes him that soweth seed and the mountains shall drop sweet wine and all the hills shall melt 14 And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel and they shall build the waste cities and inhabit them and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof they shall also make gardens and eat the fruit of them 15 And I will plant them upon their land and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them saith the Lord thy God CHAP. IX 1. I Come now to a vision that chiefly concerns Ierusalem and the two Tribes I saw in the spirit a glorie representing the Majesty of God not appearing between the Cherubims as formerly he used to do but nearer the end of the Temple as if he were departing from that sacred place and leaving his Sanctuary by degrees For I saw the Lord standing upon the Altar of the Holocausts as ready to slay those wicked men of Judah that had highly provoked his Justice and Anger to be showed amongst them and to make such a sacrifice of them as he never calls for but when he comes to be revenged of great sinners And he said to some Angel attending at that time or as exciting the army of the Chaldaeans Smite the lintel of the door in such a manner that the posts may shake which signified a great blow by his own command to be given to them that were thought to be most eminent and most able to support and give aid to the Temple and the whole nation to whom it belonged He said moreover Cut them all or strike all through in thâ— head piece q. d.. Let them that are in the highest place the guides and governours of the people have the first and greatest blow that in them others may see their doom And after that I will slay the last of them also the lowest of the people with the sword of a cruel enemie and with such a slaughter that He who thinks to secure himself by flight or any other way of evading the stroke of the enemie shall no way escape that unlesse he fall into their power for a worse punishment of long captivity Which doth not yet exempt him from their striking hand when they shall have a mind to command his life 2. And if there were any way to escape the enemie yet none of them should escape me For who can run so far or so fast that divine vengeance shall not overtake him Where is such a secret corner to be found wherein that will not find him out If any of them could dig as deep as hell to fit themselves with a dark and obscure lurking place thence should my powerful hand pluck them out If they could climb as high as heaven far enough out of their enemies reach thence also would I tumble them down 3. If they could lie scouting and sculking in the unfrequented caves and holes upon the top of high Carmel where no enemy would search for them yet there would I hunt them out and cast them down from thence If it were possible that they could conceal themselves from my sight in the bottom of the sea I have Whales and Serpents of the deep that should pursue them and bite them and fright them out of that refuge 4. Could they be so subtle as to prevent the captivity of their enemies and be gone into theirs or some other land before they come near them yet thither will I bring the sword of those verie enemies to cut them off and spoil all their plots For the eye of my favour and providence shall not watch over them for good I will rather be intent upon what may help on the just and severe punishment of all their sins 4. Where then shall they think to be safe in the time of his anger that offend such a powerful God whom nothing will be able to resist He is the Lord God of Hosts whom all things obey as an Army ever ready for the execution of his mercie or justice of such power that if He do but touch a land with that touch he can make it melt like wax before Him and all the inhabitants of the land miserablie and lamentably to fade away and consume by some calamity that shall overwhelm them and drown them in sorrow and destruction with a sodain inundation like that of the River Nilus in Egypt when it breaks over ' all the banks 6. He fills Heaven and earth with the Majesty of his Glorie In Heaven he hath built his several Ascents by which we may climb to the speculation of it The nearest to us are the heavenly Orbes that are created and moved by Him and their peculiar degrees of elevation one above another Over those Orbes is his spacious Court and glorious Palace in a higher Heaven and in that his Royal Throne where he sits as in the highest Ascent of Majestie Vpon the earth if we consider not the whole globe together as one bundle and a little one too or a little handful in the eye of God we may observe the several bundles of united creatures that he hath placed over the earth which is as it were the foundation of all the rest As first that of the Elements that have their proper bounds then out of them that of the Vegetables and sensible and rational creatures that have their several waies of combination yet altogether make but a little handful before him that can measure the heavens and the earth with a span He calls for the waters of the sea in his anger by a deluge or in his love to ascend up in vapours that he may poure them down again into the lap of the earth to make her fruitful in all manner of store He that doth all this well may he have the name of the Lord and Commander of all 7. Therefore account not your selves onely to be the servants For in that respect what priviledge have you above all his creatures or above all other nations You that descend from
What do you now see this likely to be which you have begun in haste to raise up and cannot furnish with such wealth and ornaments as the other had by the beneficence of severall Kings of Judah Doth not this fabrick if it be compared with that seem to be of no great hope and expectation for state and glory 4. But yet be of good comfort O Zerubbabel saith the Lord and thou O Ioshua Son of Iosedech the High-Priest chear up thy self And let the rest of the People of the land be no way discouraged But go on chearfully with the work now in hand For I am with you to blesse and prosper you saith the Lord of Hostes whom all things serve and obey 5. Whatsoever I promised and covenanted to do for you when you came out of Egypt that will I make good in my mercifull protection of you and crowning your obedience unto me with all the blessings of that covenant And my Spirit shall be constantly with you by the ministery of my Prophets and other waies to direct you in this work or what else you shall take in hand for the like advancement of my service Therefore be not dismayed or discouraged at these little beginnings 6. For the time is coming on saith the Lord of Hostes and it is but a little while to be expected it shall be while this Temple is standing when I will once again make as great motions and alterations in the world in the Heavens and in the Earth and in the Sea and in the dry land as ever I did since I began to bring you out of Egypt And you shall find a great alteration and difference from my own workes then to be done and those done heretofore since your coming out of Egypt For the thunder and lightning from Heaven in Mount Sinai when I descended to give the law will be nothing to that opening of the Heavens wherein my holy Spirit shall visibly descend upon the Messias in Jordan and his Apostles in Mount Sion And again the bringing water out of the hardest and driest parts of the Earth or dividing the waters of the red Sea will be nothing to the Earth-quakes at the death of the Messias and his coming out of the grave and before that his walking upon the waters 7. And for the motions or commotions that I named before Those commotions and alterations in all nations shall be such by severall wars and tumults that they shall all be ready to shake and tremble at them But after the appeasing of those stirs the Messias himself the longing desire and expectation and the delight and sweet comfort of all people shall come in person And then will be the time when by his coming into my Temple who is the King of Glory I shall fill this house that you are building this second Temple with glory indeed saith the Lord of Hostes. 8. As for the outward splendour and rich offerings in the first Temple I prize them not so highly as you do And when I please to be honoured with them I can make this Temple as richly supplied as ever Solomon's was For all the silver is at my command and the gold is at my disposall saith the Lord of Hostes. 9. But in far higher respects than those of wealth and splendour shall the glory of this latter house exceed that of the former saith the Lord of Hostes. And the time of that glory shall be a time when I will give peace unto this place saith the Lord of Hostes. 10. In this second year of Darius upon the twenty fourth day of the ninth moneth which took up part of our November and December and by which time the materials being prepared the work began to be set forward with much alacrity the Lord spake again by Haggai the Prophet saying 11. Thus saith the Lord of Hostes Ask now the Priests a resolution of a case put in their own law wherein they are or should be able to decide any scruple in that kind proposed unto them and do it in these termes 12. If a man should carry any holy flesh that being offered up to God hath been sanctified by the altar and carrying it in the skirt of his garment should with that skirt touch any ordinary bread or pottage or wine or oyl or any kind of meat should that which is so touched by that wherein the holy flesh is be therefore holy To this quaere the Priests answered and said No. the common meat would not be sanctified by touching that wherein the sanctified meat was carried 13. Then again said the Prophet Haggai But if any one that is legally unclean by touching of a dead body should in that time touch any of these would that which he toucheth be unclean by the law And the Priests answer was that it would be unclean for the legall sanctity is not so easily communicated by one thing to another as the legall impurity is 14. To which the Prophet Haggai replied and said So is it with the impure and disobedient heart of this people that hath polluted whatsoever they offered upon their new altar which they made in Cyrus his time when they began to lay the foundation of the Temple and would not afterward so proceed in it as I gave them direction Therefore I account no otherwise of this disobedient nation than of a nation impure in my â—ight saith the Lord. And this uncleannesse sticks to every work of their hands and to what soever they have offered at that altar being so polluted with the bold sinne of the neglect of that command of mine to raise the Temple For neither can that which is sanctified impart holinesse to that which is profane neither can that which is unclean but derive the like uncleannesse to that which was holy which showes you a little light wherein you may see the power of your sins above your vertues if you had them 15. And now to see the fruit of your unclean hearts and hands consider seriously with your selves what hath happened to you and what punishment I laid upon you before you setled your selves to this work of re-edifying my Temple and the builders went on with the foundation of it for the promoting of my service 16. From those times of your negligence and disobedience till that time wherein the fabrick was chearfully undertaken When a man came to a heap of corn in which he hoped well to be supplied with twenty measures there he received but ten the half of what he expected according to the usuall proportion of the increase of his feed And when a man came to the presse-fat where he had thought to have drawn fifty vessels out of the presse there he drew but twenty he could never see that blessed increase that he was in hope of 17. The reason was because I turned that blessing into a curse I smote the labours
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
CHAP. III. AFter this it pleased God to injoyn me once again to love a woman that had been dearly affected by her dearest friend her husband and yet had been false to him in no lesse a fault than whoredom And this was another typicall expression how great love God had shewed to the children of Israel who most ungratefully neglecting him cast their affection upon strange gods for love of those stagons of wine which being offered to such false Gods were then tasted with pleasure by their Idolaters 2. Conformable to this divine command the custome of the Jewes being to purchase their wives with mony or money-worth I procured such a wife at the set price of fifteen pieces of silver and a Homer and a half of barley 3. And I agreed with her that she should live a good while as a widow forsaking the love of all others reserving her self all that while for me as I would reserve my self for her 4. For this was also a type of the children of Israel that should expect my wonted favourable protection for many dayes abiding in the mean while without a King of their own nation and a peculiar Prince of their own Nay it was a figure of more than so that they should not onely want their former way of Polity and Government of the common-wealth but the wonted liberty also of those Ecclesiasticall rites and customes which they had used before in their sacrifices and pillars and Ephod and Teraphim in all which they took themselves to make sufficient expression of their love and service unto me 5. After which time expired the children of Israel should return by repentance and seek for a reconciliation with their God whom they had so much offended and apply themselves to Zorobabel of the line of David whom they should account as their King and then should they live in the fear of the Lord and acknowledge his great goodnesse and mercy toward them in the latter dayes CHAP. IIII. 1. Hear the word of the Lord ye children of Israel for the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land 2. By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing adultery they break out and blood toucheth bloud 3. Therefore shall the land mourn and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish with the beasts of the field and with the fowls of heaven yea the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away 4. Yet let no man strive nor reprove another for this people are as they that strive with the Priest 5. Therefore shalt thou fall in the day and the Prophet shall also fall with thee in the night and I will destroy thy mother 6. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee that thou shalt be no Priest to me seeing thou hast forgotten the Law of thy God I will also forget thy children 7. As they were increased so they sinned against me therefore will I change their glory into shame 8. They eat up the sinne of my people and they set their heart on their iniquity 9. And there shall be like people like Priest and I will punish them for their waies and reward them their doings 10. For they shall eat and not have enough they shall commit whoredom and shall not increase because they have left off to take heed to the Lord. 11. Whoredome and wine and new wine take away the heart 12. My people ask counsell at their stocks and their staffe declareth unto them for the spirit of whoredomes hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God 13. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountaines and burn incense upon the hils under oakes and poplars and elmes because the shadow thereof is good therefore your daughters shall commit whoredome and your Spouses shall commit adultery 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom nor your Spouses when they commit adultery for themselves are separated with whâ—res and they sacrifice with harlots therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall 15. Though thou Israel play the harlot yet let not Iudah offend and come not ye unto Gilgal neither go ye up to Beth-aven nor swear The Lord liveth 16. For Israel slideth back as a back-sliding heifer now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place 17. Ephraim is joyned to idols let him alone 18. Their drink is sowre they have committed whoredom continually her rulers with shame do love Give ye 19. The wind hath bound her up in her wings and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices CHAP. IIII. 1. IN the latter dayes it will be so But will you hear what is to be said for the present Hear the word of the Lord ye Children of Israel for the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of the land because there is none of that truth and mercy and knowledge of God in the land which they pretend to and so no true Acts of Piety 2. But rather by swearing falsly and as falsly denying that which is committed to their trust by murder and theft and adultery they have violently and impudently broke thorow all good lawes And therefore by way of punishment they shall be suffered so long to goe on in the current of those disorders till among the greatest of them that should have kept the people within their bounds one murder shall break out after another and other sinnes of a high nature that deserve death and effusion of blood come on so thick and frequent that you may say they are one contiguous to another 3. Whereupon though they would not mourn for this increase of sinne yet the earth it self seeming to put on her mourning-weeds for the destruction of her fruit shall be as an introduction to their own sorrow for the just increase of their calamities which shall come so hot and thick upon them those especially by Tiglath-peleser and Salmenasser that the inbabitants of the land shall faint under that grief and perplexity which must then be suffered For amongst other miseries such an universall want shall there be of food and nourishment and by the effusion of much blood such a corruption of the air and waters that together with those distressed inhabitants the very beasts of the field and the fowles of the aire and the fishes of their ponds near the sea shall many of them be taken away in that common calamity 4. In all this certainly it will be to little purpose for any man to admonish another whose sinnes have contributed much to this publick misery Therefore he were as good let it alone For this thy people are most of them past cure like those spoken of in the Law that will neither hearken to Prince nor Priest unlesse
debars us of the joy and pleasure that we were wont to take in our rich supply of sacrifices and offerings for the house of the Lord our God 17. For now not onely the corn above ground is destroyed but the very seed cast into the earth is putrisied under the clods so that our hope of a good harvest is buried with it and our garners are destroyed our barns emptied and ruined and our corn withered 18. O how the very cattel sensible of their wants in their loud bellowing seem to grone and cry unto God as elsewhere the hungry ravens are said to call upon Him who hath an ear for them and would much more be favourable to our prayers who are not so forward to bemoan our selves as the herds of bruit beasts are in their woful condition and perplexitie for lack of pasture And the flocks of sheep that as heavily though more remisly and silently expresse their sad and desolate case 19. I can not but crie unto thee O Lord the roaring of the poor beasts might put me upon it for that cruelty of our enemies that carrie all before them like a consuming fire destroying the fruitful places of the once-plentiful but now a most desert land and like a continued flame fearfully burning up all the trees of the field 20. And if I should leave crying and calling upon thee the beasts of the field every one of them as confuting the dulnesse and coldness of my affections and the too little pitty of my self and them would continue their louder and heavier cry unto thee because the great rivers of waters are dried up and the fruitful earth parched with heat is become like a drie and desolate wildernesse the pastures now deserve no other name among us CHAP. II. 1. BLow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain let all the inhabitants of the land tremble for the day of the Lord cometh for it is high at hand 2 A day of darknesse and of gloominesse a day of clouds of thick darkness as the morning spread upon the mountains a great people and a strong there hath not been ever the like neither shall be any more after it even to the years of many generations 3 A fire devoureth before them and behind them a flame burneth the land is as the garden of Eden before them and behind them a desolate wilderness yea and nothing shall escape them 4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses and as horsemen so shall they run 5 Like the noise of charets on the tops of mountains shall they leap like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble as a strong people set in battle array 6 Before their face the people shall be much pained all faces shal gather blacknesse 7 They shall run like mighty men they shall climb the wall like men of war and they shall march every one on his wayes and they shall not break their ranks 8 Neither shall one thrust another they shall walk every one in his path and when they fall upon the sword they shall not be wounded 9 They shall run to and fro in the city they shall run upon the wall they shall climb up upon the houses they shall enter in at the windowes like a thief 10 The earth shall quake before them the heavens shall tremble the Sun and the Moon shall be dark and the Stars shall withdraw their shining 11 And the Lord shall utter his voice before his army for his camp is very great for he is strong that executeth his word for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible and who can abide it 12 Therefore also now saith the Lord Turn ye even to me with all your heart and with fasting and with weeping and with mourning 13 And rent your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and mercifull slow to anger and of great kindnesse and repenteth him of the evill 14 Who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God 15 Blow the trumpet in Zion sanctifie a fast call a solemn assembly 16 Gather the people sanctifie the congregation assemble the Elders gather the children and those that suck the breasts let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet 17 Let the Priests the ministers of the Lord weep between the porch and the Altar and let them say Spare thy people O Lord and give not thing heritage to reproach that the heathen should rule over them wherefore should they say among the people where is their God 18 Then will the Lord be jealous for his land and pity his people 19 Yea the Lord will answer and say unto his people Behold I will send you corn and wine and oil ye shall be satisfied therewith and I will no more make you a reproach among the heathen 20 But I will remove far off from you the Northern army will drive him into a land barren and desolate with his face toward the east Sea his hinder part towards the utmost sea his stink shall come up his ill savour shall come up because he hath done great things 21 Fear not O land be glad and rejoyce for the Lord will do great things 22 Be not afraid ye beasts of the field for the pastures of the wildernesse do spring for the tree beareth her fruit the fig-tree and the vine do yeild their strength 23 Be glad then ye children of Zion and rejoyce in the Lord your God for he hath given you the former rain moderately and he will cause to come down for you the rain the former rain and the latter rain in the first moneth 24 And the floors shall be full of wheat and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil 25 And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten the canker-worm and the caterpillar and the palmer-worm my great army which I sent among you 26 And ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise the name of the Lord your God that hath dealt wonderously with you and my people shall never be ashamed 27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel and that I am the Lord your God and none else and my people shall never be ashamed 28 And it shall come to passe afterward that I will powre out my Spirit upon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophesie your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see visions 29 And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids maids in those dayes will I powre out my Spirit 30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth bloud and fire and pillars of smoak 31 The Sun shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into blood before the
these three unwelcom prophesies likely to be many waies prejudicial to him his fellow Priests if it should be known and believed by the people He sent to Ieroboam the son of Joas then King of Israel saying Amos hath done that which tends to rebellion and hath ventured to do it within thy own kingdom in the middest of thy leige Subjects the house of Israel divulging such strange prophesies and in such plain terms as the land cannot and should not endure being they do apparantly tend to intestine sedition and are sufficient to provoke the people to usurp that authoritie for the punishment of Amos which properlie belongs to the King or such as he shall please to impower Therefore it were not amisse to advise quicklie what shall be done with such a one 11. For thus saith Amos of the King King Ieroboam shall die by the sword and of the people he saith Israel shall be led away captive into a strange land as if God would cast off your Majestie and his people and forget the great cost and diligence which is bestowed in Bethel upon his publick service 12. Thus Amaziah accused the Prophet Amos with much subtiltie and impudence and verie falslie for he said nothing of the person but of the house of the King Yet least this his malicious accusation of the Prophet should not succeed according to his desire he fell to foul words and menacies and said Heark you you Seer You had best be packing hence into Iudah and there get a poor living as you may by your heretical doctrine and false prophesies For here is no place for such as you are 13. Let us hear no more of you at Bethel For here is the Kings Chappel and the Kings Court Therefore it cannot but be verie dangerous for you to hanker hereabouts but in Iudah I believe your prophesies against us may passe with the good liking and applause of all 14. To this virulent and threatning speech Amos made answer with an humble but an undaunted spirit and said to Amaziah I did neither usurpe nor ambitiously affect the place or title of a Prophet nor had I by birth or succession or education in the Schools of the Prophets any claim or pretense unto it For indeed I was brought up among flocks of sheep and herds of cattel not in the Schools not in the Court but as a gatherer of sycomores for bruit beasts rather then an instructer of men 15. Though it pleased God to take me from following the stock and lay this necessitie upon me of prophesying to his people of Israel Therefore I must obey the divine calling rather then your pleasure and advise or the command of the King if he should so injoine me as you would have him For who shall excuse me when he saith Go prophesie unto this people 16. Now therefore hear thou the word of the Lord. Thou that saiest Drop not thy Prophetical words against Israel We desire not that one drop of them should fall upon our nation For we take them to be no drops from heaven but meerlie from your own lips 16. Therefore as imperious and peremptorie as thou art I will prophesie a little plainer of what will nearlie concern thee Thus saith the Lord. Thy wife in this very City shall have her body abused before thy face by the Assyrian souldiers This will rub the memorie of that spiritual whoredom that hath been practised and maintained by thee as chief Priest in this Citie Thy sons also and thy daughters all nuzled in the same idolatrie shall be cut off by the Assyrian swords And thy idolatrous Country shall be divided by line among those strangers which the King of Assyria will send hither And thou shalt die not in this holy Citie as thou accountest it but in a prophane land among the heathen And all Israel as I foretold shall be carried captive from hence into Assyria for contenming the fair predictions and gracious admonitions that were afforded to them CHAP. VIII 1 THus hath the Lord God shewed unto me and behold a basket of summer fruit 2 And he said Amos what seest thou And I said A basket of summer fruit Then said the Lord unto me The end is come upon my people of Israel I will not again passe by them any more 3 And the songs of the Temples shall be howlings in that day saith the Lord God there shall be many dead bodies in every place they shall cast them forth with silence 4 Hear this O ye that swallow up the needy even to make the poor of the land to fail 5 Saying When will the new Moon be gone that we may sell corn and the Sabbath that we may set forth wheat making the Ephah small and the shekel great and falsifying the balances by deceit 6 That we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shooes yea and sell the refuse of the wheat 7 The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Iacob Surely I will never forget any of their works 8 Shall not the land tremble for this and every one mourn that dwelleth therein and it shall rise up wholly as a flood and it shall be cast out and drowned as by the floud of Egypt 9 And it shall come to passe in that day saith the Lord God that I will cause the Sun to go down at noon and I wil darken the earth in the clear day 10 And I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation and I will bring up sackcloath upon all loins and baldnesse upon every head and I will make it as the mourning of an onely son and the end thereof as a bitter day 11 Behold the daies come saith the Lord God that I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread not a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the Lord. 12 And they shall wander from sea to sea and from the North even to the East they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it 13 In that day shall the fair virgins and young men faint for thirst 14 They that swear by the sin of Samaria and say Thy God O Dan liveth and the manner of Beer-sheba liveth even thy shall fall and never rise up again CHAP. VIII 1. A fourth vision likewise did the Lord God show unto me And behold It was a basket of ripe summer-fruit 2. And that I might the more heedfully observe the meaning of the vision the Lord said What seest thou Amos I answered A basket of ripe summer-fruit Then the Lord said unto me The end is coming upon my people of Israel For as when fruit is fully ripe men use to pluck it from the tree least it should rot and corrupt the sooner so they being ripe for judgement shall be taken from their Countrie I will passe by their sins no more in such patience
mother-City shall be led away captive and in that capacity shall the inferiour townes like so many of her handmaids attend upon her driven along like so many herds of cattle lowing as they go or like so many mournfull doves all the way lamenting and striking upon their hearts and breasts to a heavier sound within than their enemies could beat upon their drums 8. Thus do they lament the emptying of Nineveh which anciently indeed was very populous and in that like a Fish-pond richly stored with water if that Citie may be compared to a pool so inclosed as the people are often compared to water And to follow the metaphore when it is let open this people will be as mute as fishes They will run all out of their Citie as fast as water out of a pond A man may cry to them stay stay run not so fast from your richest Citie but not a man will look back to give a word of retreat 9. Will you now hear the commission and power that God himself will give to the Babylonians for the compleating of this work upon the Ninevites It is as much as if he should say to them Take all their silver and gold as a spoil that I allot to you for this service with all the infinite store which the Ninivites have hoorded up and the pompous and stately furniture which they abounded withall above all that a man might desire 10. With no other commission is Niniveh so emptied and laid open and exposed to all injury and miserie In the sense of it their hearts shall melt within them and their knees smite together and extream pain seize upon their loines as upon a woman in travaile which shall turn their very faces into a black and mournfull hew 11. When this Prophesie comes to be fulfilled you may well ask the question What is now become of the high and mighty Assyrians that domineered over other nations as the Lion doth over other creatures and made their Court like the Lions den where their young ones were crammed and enriched with all variety of spoiles There the Lion was wont to strut himself the old crafty Lion and the youngsters the Lions whelps which none could make afraid 12. This Lion hunted and preyed sufficiently where he list for his young ones He strangled other creatures at his pleasure to be made food for his Lionesses and so filled his dens and every corner in them with rapine 13. This I winked at for a while saith the Lord of hostes but now have at thee For Nineve's chariots that were wont to fetch home her prey shall now at my command be consumed and vanish in their smoak and her young gallants which were as her fierce young Lions shall perish by the sword in which weapon they gloried and presumed so much and by which I will cut off all her ability of ranging about the earth to prey upon whom she list so that Nineveh's proud messages and commands hereafter shall find none that will give them the hearing CHAP. III. 1 WO to the bloody city it is all full of lies and robberies the prey departeth not 2 The noise of a whip and the noise of the ratling of the wheels and of the praunsing horses and of the jumping chariots 3 The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear and there is a multitude of slain and a great number of carcas's and there is none end of their corpses they stumble upon their corpses 4 Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wel-favoured harlot the mistress of witch-crafts that selleth nations through her whoredomes and families through her witchcrafts 5 Behold I am against thee saith the Lord of hosts and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face and I will shew the nations thy nakednesse and the kingdoms thy shame 6 And I will east abominable filth upon thee and make thee vile and will set thee as a gazing-stock 7 And it shall come to passe that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee and say Nineveh is laid waste who will bemoan her whence shall I seek comforters for thee 8 Art thou better than populous No that was situate among theâ— rivers that had the waters round about it whose rampart was the sea and her wall was from the sea 9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and it was infinite Put and Lubim were thy helpers 10 Yet was she carried away she went into captivity her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets and they cast lots for her honourable men and all her great men were bound in chains 11 Thou also shalt be drunken thou also shalt be hid thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy 12 All thy strong holds shall be like fig-trees with the first ripe figs if they be shaken they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater 13 Behold thy people in the midst of thee are women the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies the fire shall devour thy bars 14 Draw thee waters for the siege fortifie thy strong holds go into clay and tread the morter make strong the brickkil 15 There shall the fire devour thee the sword shall cut thee off it shall eat thee up like the canker-worm make thy self many as the canker-worm make thy self many as the locusts 16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven the canker-worm spoileth and fleeth away 17 Thy crowned are as the locusts and thy captains as the great grashoppers which camp in the hedges in the cold day but when the sun ariseth they flee away and their place is not known where they are 18 Thy shepherds slumber O king of Assyria thy nobles shall dwel in the dust thy people is scattered upon the mountains and no man gathereth them 19 There is no healing of thy bruise thy wound is grievous all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee for upon whom hath not thy wickednesse passed continually CHAP. III. 1. WO to the bloody City that hath filled up her measure in the heaviest sins of lying and extortion and when she had got a trick of spoil and rapine could never be brought to leave it 2. For this must they hear the sound of the lash held over them and the noise of the ratling wheels in the Chariots of war and of the fierce galopping steeds in those swift chariots that seem to skip and dance as they passe along in their speedy pace 3. Among these the horseman shall advance his glittering spear with his sparkling sword After which so great multitudes of the slain and so many heaps of dead carkasses shall be thrown np together that by the continual accesse of the dead corpses a man shall not stir but he shall be ready to stumble upon them 4. And all this is but the just recompense of the
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
may in the mean while support it self 4. But that heavie faint distrustfull Soule that drawes back with feares and sad apprehensions of danger faster than affiance in divine promises can incite it forward that Soule is not yet in the right posture wherein it should be Nay it wants that which is the very life of a Soul that is in the right indeed For it is by a true constant Faith that the righteous man layes hold upon Life It is Faith and confidence in the truth of Gods word and promise which makes him accepted in the sight of God and is a good meanes both to keep him a constant servant of God in all Piety and Obedience which prepares him the more for the waies of his present delivery and to furnish him with a modest security of Happinesse hereafter For He that is made righteous or justified by Faith shall live for ever 5. Now he that labours for such a Faith is a fit Auditor for such a Prophesie as this which after this Preface I will now proceed to declare that you may with me in this Vision and Divine speculation from my Propheticall Watch-tower plainly foresee what our common Enemy the Chaldaean will prove after all the insolencies and presumptions upon his own fortunate successes our sad afflictions You might see him then drunk with wine drunk with pride and as a drunken man so shall he afterward be tottering in his fortunes various and inconsistent to himself and to what he was every way reeling and wavering and tumbled about from his highest and most prosperous estate to worse and worse It was his own covetons and ambitious desire that set him on work and thrust him forward till he got up at last to that high pitch of honour and abundance of wealth from which he must begin his heavier ruine and downfall For the longing of his greedy Soule in his filthy Avarice was enlarged like Hell as if he would have the Devill and all and in his Malice and cruelty he gaped after our destruction like Death and the Grave that will never be satisfied The Addition of whole nations and severall sorts of People either slain by his sword or subdued and united to his former too vast Empire could not work so much upon him as to make him think that he had enough either of their blood or of their wealth 6. Will you see after all this how he shall be exposed to the scorn and derision of them whom he hath rifled and plundered and abused at his own pleasure The time is coming on apace when they shall take up a gibing taunt and Parable against him and say Woe to him that had too much of his own and yet would never leave scraping and heaping more and more together out of others little store How long will he thus toyle and bustle in the world to take from them And how little a while shall he live to enjoy it His heaps of gold and silver which he studies to multiply without end are but heaps of Earth a little more resined than that thick mire and clay that shall after awhile stop his own greedy mouth 7. For as he lies gaping after us and ours so others shall arise up from a place he little suspects that shall gape after him and his Nay they shall more than gape and threaten and show their teeth It shall not be long before he feels that they can bite too And well might I say that they should arise For though in his supine ease and securitie he may conceive them to lie still and have no such intentions against him unlesse it were in a dream yet shall they suddenly awake rouse up themselves and him too muster up their forces make toward him shake him in pieces and divide him as a rich prey 8. Thus will they do and thus will they speak of thee and thy just doom thou proud Chaldean And as thou hast preyed upon many nations and enriched thy self with their spoiles so shall all they that are left about thee help to expose thee to the like spoil and rapine All which may justly come upon thee for thy bloudy cruelty and other most injurious acts of thine which ever attended thy too furious execution of Gods anger upon ours and other Cities and Countries and them that dwell in them 9. Woe be to his covetous and foolish Ambition that longs for that which cannot but prove the ruine of himself and his own house For while he thinks of building his nest so high as may set it out of the reach of all danger that very rise doth not onely expose it to the greater hazard but make the fall so much the more fearfull when it doth come 10. Whosoever thou art Chaldaean or other that couldst entertain a fancy of such a vast and high building thou wert not well advised to take this for the best course of advancing thy self and thy Posteritie This was not to make way to your honour but to your shame And know this that while thou resolvest to raise thy self and Thine by the utter ruine of many other People thou sinnest against thy own Soule and makest thy self the greatest meanes of thy own down-fall and their rising again 11. For rather than such crying sins shall not be silenced with the execution of Justice the very stones out of the wall will help on the Cry and the beam out of the Timber-work will answer them in as loud and true a testimony against such cruelty and oppression 12. And the joynt cry of all together will be nothing but woe Wo to him that layes the foundation of a Town in blood and most injuriously makes preparation of raising a City to himself out of others ruines 13. Upon this cry of the Wood and Stones that they have heaped together mark if this Sentence proceeds not from the Lord of Hostes that This wicked warlike People have in all their great toyle to get from others but onely laboured to kindle a fire wherein all they have shall be consumed Or at least all that they have so unjustly gotten if it be not justly taken away shall serve them and theirs for some other use which shall show them the vanity of their own dangerous attempts 14. For ere it be long as the immense waters do fill and cover the bottom of the vast Sea so shall their spacious Land be covered and overflowed with that which is more unruly than any waters with innumerous troupes of several Nations and People that shall come against the Chaldeans and let all the world know in the finall recompense and revenge of our enemies what cause they have every where to joyn with us in giving all Praise and Glory unto God 15. And that universal glory to God shall be accompanied with another particular woe to our insulting Enemies Wo be to him that gaines so far upon his Friend and Confederate
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
which I was wounded in the house of my friends 7. Awake O sword against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of hosts smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones 8. And it shall come to passe that in all the land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein 9. And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried they shall call on my name and I will hear them I will say It is my people and they shall say The Lord is my God CHAP. XIII 1. ALl this mourning wherein their eyes become like fountains of teares if it be seasonably undertaken may end in a great blessing For even them shall a fountain be opened to the House of David and the Inhabitants of Ierusalem the mourners that were named before as a particular instance for the rest a fountain that shall wash away the guilt of all their sins though they be such as have made them most foule and polluted Soules 2. And then also will the time come saith the Lord of Hostes wherein I will begin to take away the very name of Idolatry from off the Earth by the conversion of the Gentiles so that in many places there shall be no more mention of Idols And with them will I make the false Prophets and the Divinations by help of unclean Spirits to vanish out of the lands that have been polluted with them 3. And such shall be the common zeal against Idolatry and false Prophets that if a man should yet venture upon that way of pretended Prophesie even his own Parents shall be ready to call for Justice against him and tell him that he is not worthy to live because he broacheth false doctrine under the colour of a message in the name of the Lord. Thus shall his own Father and Mother that were the meanes of his life become the meanes of his death too and in a zeal like that of Phineas presently run him through as one not to be suffered any longer to breath after such a fault against the God of the spirits of all flesh 4. And in these dayes you shall see it often come to passe that the divulgers of false and erroneous doctrine under the pretence of a Vision to usher in what they teach or foretell shall soon be confuted and made ashamed of those waies Neither shall they venture any more to take the outward Habit of a Prophet as a sufficient cloak for their deceiving and misguiding of others 5. Nay when any one of them is examined whether he be a Prophet or no he shall not dare to avouch it but he shall rather confesse and say I lay no claim to the spirit of Prophesie I am but a plain Husband-man fitter for plowing than prophesying and one man or other hath still trained me up that way and had me as a servant under him in that kind of drudgerie from my youth upward till now 6. And if any one say but what is the meaning of these markes that have taken such deep impression in thy hands Are they not such marks and figures as the false-Prophets have that acknowledge themselves devoted to some false Gods Or shall we call them blows or wounds that have been otherwise received Then to purge himself from all suspition of Idolatrie he shall say These were blows indeed that have made some impression in me for the better the signes of such correction as I deserved while I was in the house of my Friend Therefore I shall take them for no other than love-tokens 7. But now I will go on with the Prophesie of the death of the Messias to show what more the Lord is pleased to have foretold concerning those passages of his Passion that will be like a sword to pierce him to the heart Arise O sword against the Shepherd of my flock saâ—th the Lord of Hostes and against my dear Companion that is nearest to my love Smite the Shepherd and let the Sheep be scattered Yet for the same hand that dispersed them with that sword will I return my gentle hand to that little innocent stock that forsook their good Shepherd out of mere infirmity while the storm fell about them 8. And for the greater flock through the whole Earth this shall come to passe saith the great Iehovah that of those that shall professe themselves to be of my fold two parts therein will be cut off and perish for want of perseverance but a third part in it shall continue to the end in obedience unto me 9. And that third part will I lead along under a fiery triall for by many temptations I will prove them of what mettall they are as the Goldsmith makes proof of his silver and gold to see what drosse there is in them till they are refined as he would have it And he that under this tryall will call upon my name and so endeavour to improve himself I will acknowledge he is one of my people and he shall persevere to professe me to be his God CHAP. XIV 1 BEhold the day of the Lord cometh thy spoil shall be devided in the midst of thee 2 For I will gather all nations against Ierusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and residue of the people shall not be cut off from the Citie 3 Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle 4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Ierusalem on the east and the mount of Olives shall â—leave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west and there shall be a very great valley and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north and half of it toward the south 5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountaines for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal yea ye shall flee like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the dayes of Vzziah king of Iudah and the Lord my God shall come and all the saints with thee 6 And it shall come to passe in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark 7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to passeâ— that at evening time it shall be light 8 And it shall be in that day that living waters shal go out from Ierusalem half of them toward the former sea and half of them toward the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall it be 9 And the