finde them out as cunning as they are and sith they are so fool-hardy as to walk upon iniquities Fire-works let them look to bee blown up and they shall have my prayers to that purpose In thine anger cast down c. It is Prophetical as well as Optative Vers 8. Thou tellest my wanderings Or thou cipherest up my stittings and hast them in numerato ready told up my vagaries whilst hunted up and down like a Partridge and hushed out of every bush so that I have not where to settle Saint Paul was at the same pass 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he we have no certain abode 1 Corin. 4.11 and so were sundry of the holy Martyrs and Confessors who wandred about in Sheep-skins and Goat-skins c. driven from post to pillar from one Country to another God all the while noting and numbring all their flittings yea all their footings Bottleing up their tears booking down their sighs as here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Mal. 3.16 See Mat. 10.30 The Septuagint for my wandrings or flittings have my life to teach us saith one that our life is but a flitting Put thou my tears into thy Bottle Heb. My tear that is every tear of mine let not one of them be lost but kept safe with thee as so much sweet water It is a witty observation of one That God is said in Scripture to have a Bag and a Bottle a Bag for our sins a Bottle for our tears and that wee should help to fill this as we have that There is an allusion here in the Original that cannot bee Englished Are they not in thy Book sc Of Providence where they cannot be blotted out by any time or tyrants Vers 9. When I cry unto thee then shall mine enemies turn back For how should they stand before so mighty a God Of the power of Prayer for the beating back of enemies besides the Scripture Histories are full that famous Victoria Halleâ—â—iatica for instance Vers 10. In God will I praise his word The Jew-Doctours observe that Elohim God is a Name importing Justice and that Jehovah Lord holdeth out mercy according to that Exod 34.6 Jehovah Jehovah Merciful Gracâ—us c. But if God should foem neither to show his Mercy upon us nor his Justice upon our enemies we must nevertheless adhere to his Word or Promise and patiently wait his performance which will be as sure as he is God and Lord. See the Note on vers 4. Vers 11. In God have I put my trust I will not be afraid c. When news came to Luther that both the Emperour and Pope had threatned his ruine he bravely answered Contemptus est à me Romanus favor furor I care for neither of them I know whom I have trusted See vers 4. Vers 12. Sunt tua post quam Vori. Arabâ— Thy Vows are upon me O God I am a Votary ever since I was at Gath there and then I vowed that if the Lord would vouchsafe to bring me out of that brake I would do as became a thankful man every way And now I am Damnatus votorum as the Latine expression is Vow I must and pay to the Lord my God Ecce ego Domine Lord I am ready do thou but set me up an Altar and I will offer a Sacrifice restore me to thy Sanctuary and I will do it exactly in the Ceremonies and Formalities thereof Mean while mine heart and lips shall not be wanting to give thee praise in spirit and truth I will render praises unto thee Vers 13. For thou hast delivered my soul from death Which was the very thing I begged of thee when I was at worst viz. that thou wouldest save my life which then lay at stake I also then solemnly took upon me such and such ingagements which lye upon me as so many debts and I am in pain till I have paid them This if I shall do effectually Wilt not thou deliver my feet from falling Yea I know thou wilt Lord for every former favour of thine is a pledge of a future That I may walk before God in the light of the living Called else-where the Land of the living that is in this present life spending the span of it in thy fear and labouring to be every whit as good as I vowed to be when I was in great distress and danger Pliny in an Epistle of his to one that desired rules from him how to order his life aright I will saith he give you one rule that shall be instead of a thousand Ut tales esse perseveremus sani quales nos futuros esse profitemur infirmi i. e. That you hold out to bee such when well as you promised to bee when weak and sick c. PSAL. LVII ALtaschith i. e. Destroy not David being in an imminent danger of destruction in the Cave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. might send up this short request as it were in a fright before he uttered this insuing prayer Altaschith in such an exigent might well be an effectual prayer as was the Woman of Canaans Lord help me and the sick mans Ah Father or these might now be his words to Abishai or some other of his Servants whose fingers even itched to bee doing with Saul as afterwards they were upon a like occasion 1 Sam. 26.9 Destroy not Saul See thou do it not Michtam of David See Psal 16. title When he fled from Saul in the Cave 1 Sam. 24.1 Or into the Cave for shelter and where when he might have cut Sauls throat he cut his Coat only and was inwardly checked for it nevertheless the Spirit came upon him which was no small comfort as Aben-Ezra here observeth and he said Vers 1. Be merciful unto me O God be merciful q. d. Now or never help at a dead lift Bis pro more rogantium ad corrober andum saith Kimchi Other Jew-Doctors give this reason of the repetition of his petition Be merciful c. lest either I fall into Sauls hands Midr. Tilli or Saul into mine lest desire of revenge prick me on to kill him Or Have mercy on me that I sin not or if I do sin that I may repent For my soul trusteth in thee An excellent argument so it comes from the soul so it be heart-sprung Yea in the shadow of thy wings c. As the little Chicken in danger of the Kite hovereth and covereth under the Hen. Vntil these calamities be over-past For long they will not continue Nubecula est site transibit said Athanasins of the Arrian Persecutions which for present were very sharp So Master Jewel about the beginning of Queen Maries reign perswading many to patience said often Hac non durabunt aetatem this sharp shower will soon over Vers 2. I will cry unto God most high Who can easily over-top Saul as high as he is and all his complices against whom I have this comfort that in the thing wherein they deal proudly
exorcism to conjure down our rebellious wills and as cords or chains to hamper our treacherous hearts that they backslide not like back sliding heifers Moist bodies as water must be put into close Vessels so must mans heart be bound together by strongest helps and resolutions Neither cast we any new snare hereby upon ourselves 1 Cor. 7.35 but rather a new provocation to the payment of an old debt we owe to God Such was that of Jacob Gen. 28.20 and 31.13 of David Psal 119.106 Of the Nazarites Num. 6.2 3. Rechabites Jer. 35.6 This shewes a very earnest desire to obey it sharpneth also our prayers and dishearteneth the Devil who seeing us thus peremptory and resolute will despair and depart Then Ezra rose up from before the House of God Where God had promised to hear prayers for Christs sake whereof that house was a type See ver 1. And went into the chamber of Johanan As a fit meeting-place where they might consider consult and give counsel Over the Counsel-chamber at Venice is written Let nothing be done here against the Weal-publike A Professour of the Turks Law proclaimeth before they advise or attempt ought That nothing be done against Religion Over the Town hall in Zant are set these two Verses in letters of gold Hic locus odit amat punit conservat honorat Nequitiam pacem crimina jura bonos Think the same we must needs of this holy Conclave or Council-chamber where the Sanhedrin was present and Ezra President He did eat no bread nor drink no water Though fasting and faint with much mourning yet no food would down with him till he had gone thorough-stitch with the work It was his meat and drink to do the will of his Heavenly Father So it was good Jobs chap. 23.12 and our Saviours Matth. 21.17 23. It was then when disappointed of a breakfast at the barren Fig-tree and coming hungry into the City he went not into a Victualling-house nor into a Friends house to refresh himself but into Gods House where he continued teaching the people all that day For he mourned because of the transgression It was not then a natural abstinence arising from sicknesse nor a civil for healths sake or for some other wordly respect but a Religious fast which is usually to be held out a whole day usque dum Stellae in Coelo appareant as an old Canon hath it till the Stars appear in the sky yet so as that nature be chastised not disabled for duty Verse 7. And they made proclamation Heb. They caused a voyce to passe viz. by an Herald or Cryer That they should gather themselves together And so the guilty might be brought to their answer in that general assembly Verse 8. And that whosoever would not come c. Lawes if they be not penal and compulsory will soon be slighted by lawlesse awelesse persons Howbeit Flies must not be killed upon mens browes with beetles peccadillo's must not be punished as haynous crimes Draco made it capital to be idle to steal pot hearbs c. Of his Lawes Aristotle saith that they were not worthy remembrance but onely for their over-great severity Ezra's Laws were more mild All his substance shall be forfeited This to men of their mettle was a forcible motive When some have a losse in their riches it is as it were raked out of their bellies a piece of their very heart goes with it Job 20.15 and they are filled with unmedicinable sorrowes Eccles 5. And himself separated from the Congregation Banished the Land or at least cast out of the Church Wo be to those that separate themselves Jude 19. Cainites you may call them Gen. 4.16 Our Church-forsakers Worship-scorners that last brood of Beelzebub Verse 9. Within three dayes They durst not outstand their time because their estates were at stake Why is there not the like care taken and speed used to make peace with God sith for ought we know 't is now or never to day or not at all Is it nothing to lose an immortal soul why then cry we Cras Domine why stand we trifling and baffling from day to day till it be all-too-late Remember the foolish Virgins and be wiser It was the ninth Moneth Which was the Moneth of May saith Diodate counting September for the first after the manner of the Persians Esth 2.16 and this great rain being out of the accustomed season was somwhat prodigious seemed to portend Gods wrath as 1 Sam. 12.17 Others make it to be in December the deep of Winter which though it be an ordinary time of raine whence in Greek also it hath its name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latine Hyems yet these showers were extraordinary more like spouts then showers and thence the peoples fear much increased by their guilt for as no body is without its shadow so is no sin without its fear quia nec sine conscientia sui Tertul. because it cannot shake off conscience Verse 10. We have trespassed We have disloyally or rather sacrilegiously trespassed by transgressing the Covenant Other mens sins are rebellions against God but the Saints sinnes are treacheries Let the Philistins bind Sampson it will be nothing so grievous to him as that his brethren should do it Mens offences are much increased by their obligations To increase the trespasse of Israel To adde to the heap which thereby is grown as high as Heaven chap. 9.6 and calls hard for fire from thence Psal 11.6 to revenge the quarel of the Covenant Draw water therefore before the Lord as those did 1 Sam. 7.6 Yea poure out your hearts before him God is a refuge for us Psal 62.7 Verse 11 Now therefore make confession This is the souls vomit which is the hardest kind of Physick Vomitus sordiū animae Naz. but healthsomest This the Devil knowes viz. that there is no way to purge the sick soul but upwards by casting out the vicious humour wherewith it is clogged and therefore he holds the lips close that the heart may not disburden it self by so wholesome evacuation Confession must follow upon conviction as here and be followed by reformation And do his pleasure and separate c. For they that confesse and forsake not their sins are onely dog-sick When they have disgorged their stomacks and got a little ease they will be as bad as before Wicked people make account of confession as drunkards do of vomiting that they may adde drunkennesse to thirst But the man that shall have mercy must both confesse and forsake Prov. 28.13 Open a veyn and let out his bad blood Verse 12. Then all the Congregation answered and said with a loud voyce But not with a true heart Heb. 10.22 For within a few years they returned to their vomit again As thou hast said so must we do These were good words and not unlike those of Laelius in Lucan spoken to Caesar Jussa sequi tà m velle mihi quà m posse necesse est But many of
finished And this he recordeth not out of ostentation but to shew that the love and feare of God constrained him as it did afterwards Paul that spiritual builder who laboured more then they all and denied himself to bring others to heaven as himself setteth forth 2 Cor. 11. In praising our selves our end must be that our light may be seene not our selves seene Matth. 5.16 Mens praise may be sought modò tibi non quaeras sed Christo saith Aretius so that Christ be thereby set up and served Neither bought we any land As easily we might have done with the surplusage of our revenue especially if we had exacted the utmost of our right But publike spirits mind not their own interests Joshua divided the land to Israel and left none to himself And that portion that was given him and he content withal was but a meane one in the barren mountains as Hierome observeth The late victorious King of Sweden a second Joshua in his reprehensory speech to the German plunderers hath this passage Mr. Clark in his Life I protest before God that I have not by all this warre enriched my self so farre as a paire of bootes cometh to yea I had rather ride without bootes then in the least degree to enrich my self by the damage of poor people Verse 17. Moreover there were at my table c. He did not eate his morsels alone as that Pamphagus Nabal and as many misers now-adayes who like little children though they have their hands full and their mouths full yet will part with none Ecce Deo similis vir dapsilis atque benignus Palingen Besides those that came unto me from among the heathen Either as State-Agents or upon other occasions Nehemiah entertained them that they might not lie upon the publike charge And herein he trode in the foot-steps of hospitable Abraham whom Synesius calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gods Host The Primitive Christians likewise won much upon the Heathens by their hospitality towards all Epist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Joan 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Julian the Apostate confessed all that he could say against them for it was that they did it all in hypocrisie and vain-glory which was an envious and false charge Verse 18. Now that which was prepared for me daily A very great table he kept at his own charge all yet nothing so great as Solomon 1 Kings 4.22 23. or as once Cardinal Wolsey here who besides all strangers that came had four hundred of family whereof one was an Earle nine Barons very many Knights and Esquires But then he had more yearly revenue then all the Bishops and Deanes in the land had take them al together Godw. Catal. And once in ten dayes Then he kept an extraordinary table inviting guesse for whom he had store of the best wines The Turkish Bashawes feast forreigne Embassadours with Rice and mutton and fair water out of the river wine is a forbidden ware with them Mahomet their Prophet having told them that in every grape there dwelt a Devil Yet for all this I required not This he did and this he here recordeth not for a name as Crates the Philosopher did when he cast his goods into the Sea meerly to be talked of and is therefore worthily called by Hierome gloriae animal popularis aurae vile mancipium Epist ad Julian cons a base slave to vain-glory but for better and higher ends see verse 16. Verse 19. Think upon me my God for good i. e. Both of grace and glory saith Lyra a confluence of all comforts and contentments especially spiritual blessings in heavenly things Ephes 1.3 He that first called riches goods was surely a better husband then Divine saith one Oftendam tibi omne bonum I will shew thee all good said God to Moses when he gave him a glimpse of himself Nil bonum absque summo Bono saith Austine There is no good without the chief good Say therefore with the Church Hos 14.2 Take away all iniquity and do good and as here Remember me O my God for good According to all that I have done for this people Here is nothing for Merit-mongers It is mercy in God to set his love on them that keep his Commandments Exod. 20.6 to reward every man according to his works Psal 62. ult A poor Gardiner presenting a rape root being the best gift he had at hand to the Duke of Burgundy was by him bountifully rewarded His Steward observing this and hoping for the like recompence presented him with a very fair horse The Duke ut perspicaci erat ingenio saith mine Authour being a witty man perceived the craft and therefore thought good to receive the horse and to give him nothing again Let those that dreame of merit expect the like disappointment and let them learn of Nehemiah chap. 14.22 the best glosse upon this text to urge not their merits with the Pharisee but their miseries with the Publican for obtaining mercy So Psal 25.11 CHAP. VI. Verse 1. Now it came to passe LO here another let to the good work in hand That in the fourth chapter was externall onely that in the fifth internal onely This here is mixt that is partly cast in by the Enemies without those cruel-crafties and partly helped on by the perfidious Prophets and ignoble Nobles within conspiring with the Enemy against the good of their own Countrey Thus Fluctus fluctum trudit And the rest of our Enemies The Churches Enemies are not a few 1 Cor. 16.9 She is like unto a silly poor maid saith Luther sitting in a Wood or Wildernesse compassed about with hungry Wolves Lyons Boares Beares assaulting her every moment and minute The ground of all is that old Enmity Gen. 3.15 That I had builded the Wall This Wall made Nehemiah as Winchester-tower at Windsor made William Wickam Godw. Catal. that is raised and renowned him and in a like sense as God is said to have made Moses and Aaron 1 Sam. 12.6 that is to have advanced them in the hearts of his people And that there was no breach left therein It had been but half-built chap. 4.6 and the breaches but began to be stopt ver 7. yet now all is finished amidst much opposition so shall the work of grace be in our hearts But whilest here a Christian hath his Vlteriùs still which was Charles the fifth his Motto his Superiùs as the guest in the Gospel that was bid to sit higher c. something is yet wanting to his ful and final salvation which he is still to work out Philip. 2. ver 12. like as here the doores were not yet upon their hinges Verse 2. Then Sanballat and Geshem sent unto me As if sollicitous of my safety and careful of the common good He that hateth dissembleth with his lips and layeth up deceit within him When he speaketh fair beleeve him not for there are seven abominations in his heart Prov. 26.24 25. Nehemiah
turneth the scale Verse 32. Now therefore our God the great the mighty It is an high point of heavenly wisdome in the beginning of our petitions to propound God to our selves under such holy notions and fit expressions as wherein we may see an answer to our prayers as here See chap. 1.5 Let not all the trouble Heb. The wearying the lassitude Afflictions are not joyous but grievous to the flesh which doth soone flag and even sink under the burden if not supported by the hand of heaven Seeme little before thee As if we had not yet suffered enough but as if we wanted weight must be made yet heavier by an addition of new afflictions 1 Pet. 1.6 God is apt to think a little enough and spare Esay 40.1 and to take care that the spirit fail not before him that his children swoon not in the whipping Esay 57.16 He knows that every child of affliction hath not the strength to cry out as Luther did Feri Domine feri smite on Lord smite on for I am absolved from my sinnes or as another did I thank thee O Lord for all mine extremity and I beseech thee if thou think good to adde to it an hundred fold more c. That hath come upon us As foul-weather comes afore it is sent for Heb. Hath found us for we sought it not but would gladly have shun'd it Since the times of the Kings of Assyria Who yet were their most favourable enemies and are therefore compared to a golden head in Nebuchadnezzars Image but any servitude is grievous and among the Greeks after that they were delivered from the tyranny of the Macedonians and Spartans the Cryer at the Namaean games was forced to pronounce the word Liberty iterumque iterumque again and again And how earnest are Gods people here in deprecating another captivity He heareth them and for their late seventy years captivity granteth them seven seventies of years Daniels weeks for the enjoyment of their own countrey Verse 33. Howbeit thou art just So Mauricius the Emperour justified God when he saw his wife and children butchered before his eyes by the traytor Phocas and knew that himself should be soone after stewed in his own broth he cryed out just art thou O Lord and just are all thy judgements So did the Noble Du Plessy when he heard of the death of his onely sonne slaine in Holland which so grieved his mother that soone after she died Verse 34. Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests c. But as there hath beene a general defection so a well deserved desolation wherein we have all justly shared Nor hearkened to thy Commandments And that because they testified against their contrary practises This wicked men cannot away with they hate him that reproveth in the gate as Ahab did Micaiah None but the gracious can say Let the righteous smite me be the reproof never so well tempered No sugar can bereave a pill of its bitternesse Now the eare trieth words as the mouth tasteth meats Job 12.11 And ungodly men as they write of some creatures have fel in aure and must get their eares cured ere they can be in case to hear Gods Commandments and his Testimonies In vita It is said of Gerson that he loved a friendly reprover and of Queen Anne Bullen that she not onely was willing to be admonished Her life by M. Clark but also required her Chaplains freely and plainly to tell her of whatsoever was amisse Scilicet Christus voluit aliquando etiam Reginam in Coelum vehere as Luther once said of Elizabeth Queen of Denmark These Kings and Princes of Israel were none-such Verse 35. For they have not served thee in their Kingdom As David did who held it his highest honour to be the servant of the Lord and as those three famous Christian Emperours Constantine Valentinian Psal 36. Socrat. and Theodosius who stiled themselves The vassailes of Jesus Christ And in thy great goodnesse that thou gavest them In the abundance of all things Deut. 28.47 they should have considered The more wages the more work and that thus to requite the Lord was to come under the censure of a foolish people and unwise Deut. 32.6 yea of idle and evil servants Mat. 25.26 And in the large and fat land But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked fulnesse bred forgetfulnesse saturity security Deut. 32.15 therefore he was worthily pent up and pined in a strange land where he had liberty little enough and prisoners pittance Neither turned they from their wicked works They quarrel not with their faults but with their friends that reprove them they turne not to him from whom they had deeply revolted Their impenitency maketh their sinnes mortal saith Saint John 1 Epist 5.16 immortal saith Saint Paul Rom. 2.5 they die in their sinnes as did those Jewes in the Gospel and perish for ever John 8.21 Verse 36. Behold we are servants this day This is twice here bewailed as a singular unhappinesse They that live under the Turkish slavery feele it so Poor Greece that was once Sol sal gentium terrarum flos fons literarum is now vel Priamo miseranda manus Princesse of Nations Queen of Provinces She was that now thus tributary is Lam. 1.1 Out of Greece and other Countreys that had sometimes received the Faith of Christ the Turkish tyrants draw with them to the warres great multitudes of wretched people whom they call Asape These carry all the baggage these carry wood and water for other souldiers of better account these serve instead of Pioners to cast up trenches and raise bulwarks and when battle is to be given if it be in plain field these have then weapons put into their hands and are thrust into the fore-front of the battle to blunt the enemies swords But if a City be to be besieged these serve as fit matter to fill the ditches with their dead bodies Turk Hist 325. 317. or to make bridges for other souldiers to passe over upon And if they shrink to attempt any thing they are commanded then are they more cruelly used by their Commanders then by their enemies And this the Ottoman Kings count good policy Verse 37. And it yeeldeth much increase unto the Kings As this Land once did unto the King of Locusts When it was stiled the Popes hortus deliciarum out of which he could fetch what money or any thing else he pleased so long as he could hold a pen in his hand In the year 720. Ino King of West-Saxons caused in all his Dominion Act. and Mon. in every house having a chimney a penny to be collected and paid to the Bishop of Rome in the name of Saint Peter and thereof were they called Peter-pence These continued till Henry the eighth's time who in his Protestation against the Pope speaketh thus England is no more a babe there is no man here but now he knowes that they do foolishly that give gold for
ordered it That when the King saw Esther the Queen c. Beautified by God in a special manner as was Moses Acts 7.20 Stephen Acts 6.15 c. And some faces we know do appear most orientally faire when they are most instamp't with sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That she obtained favour in his sight Josephus saith that at first the King frowned upon her so that she fell into a swoon before him Rex autem voluntate arbitror Dei mentem mutavit i. e. But the King as God would have it changed his minde and cheared her up How true this is I know not But this I know that the wrath of a King is as the roaring of a lion which is so terrible that it astonieth all that heare it Amb bex l. 6. c. 5. and that Omne trahit secum Caesaris ira malum Sir Christopher Hatton being check't and threatened by Queen Elizabeth died soon after Neither could the Queen having once cast him down with her word only raise him up again though she visited him Camd. Eliz 406. and comforted him Esther here was soon raised and relieved Dejicit ut relevet premit ut solatia praestet Enecat ut possit vivificare Deus And the King held out to Esther the golden Scepter He did not kick her out of his Presence as some Cambyses would have done neither did he command her to the block as Henry the eighth did his Anne Bullen upon a meer misprision of disloyalty neither yet did he cashiere her as he had done Vashti for a lesse offence but by holding out his Scepter shewes his gracious respects unto her This was the Lords own work as was likewise that of old that Laban should leave Jacob with a kisse Esau meet him with a kisse Gen. 33.4 where the word kissed hath a prick over each letter in the Original to shew the wonder of Gods work in changing Esaus heart from his former hatred Let a mans wayes please the Lord and men shall quickly befriend him This is compendiosissima hominum gratiam consequendis via saith Lavater here the readiest way to win favour with all others When David was once a man after Gods heart whatsoever he did pleased the people So Esther drew near and touched the top of his Scepter With her hand saith the Chaldee with her mouth saith the Vulgar Translation This she did either in token of submission or for the avoiding of danger for as Josephus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joseph Col. 3.19 He that touched the Kings Scepter was out of the reach of evil Wives should submit themselves to their own husbands as it is fit in the Lord. Submission includeth Reverence in heart speeches gestures and obedience to all their husbands lawful commands and restraints This is no more then is meet saith the Apostle Verse 3. Then said the King unto her He perceived both by this her bold adventure and also by her countenance and habit that she had some very great suit to him He therefore accosteth her as the Lord did the Angel Zech. 1.13 with good words and comfortable words And this way one man may be an Angel nay a God to another Gen. 33.10 Indeed it is God that comforteth by the creature as by a conduit-pipe The aire yieldeth light as an instrument the water may heart but not of it selfe The Lord put it into the heart of Ahashuerus to chear up Esther in this sort wherein also he did but his duty for no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church so ought men to love their wives as their own bodies He that loveth his wife loveth himself Eph. 6.28 29. What wilt thou Queen Esther That he called her by her name and with such an honourable attribution was a signe of no small favour The hearts of Josephs brethren were so big swolne with spite and spleen that they could not call him by his name but said Behold this dreamer Gen. 37.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 7.11 So the Pharisees called our Saviour This fellow And the Jewes sought him at the feast and said Where is he they could not finde in their hearts to say Where is Jesus So Saul asked not for David much lesse for his son-in-law David but for the son of Jesse by way of contempt Christ tells his disciples that their enemies shall cast out their names for naught Luke 6.22 and chargeth them courteously to salute their enemies calling them friendly by their names Mat. 5.47 And what is thy request q. d. Feare not to utter it I am very earnest to know it and fully resolved to grant it It was more troublesome to Severus the Emperour to be asked nothing then to give much When any of his Courtiers had not made bold with him he would call him and say Quid est cur nihil petes What meanest thou to ask me nothing Hitherto ye have asked me nothing saith the King of Saints to his beloved Esther Ask that your joy may be full John 16.24 he is worthily miserable that will not make himself happy by asking It shall be given thee to the half of the Kingdom A proverbial rather then a prodigal speech and much in this Kings mouth If some ambitious Semiramis had had such an offer what ill use might she soon have made of it The dancing Damosel made no good use of the like from Herod But a Bee can suck honey out of a flower that a flie cannot skill to do Esther prudently and modestly improveth the immoderate offer of the King and conceiveth good hope How much more may we upon those exceeding great and precious Promises given us by God of an exuberancy of love and a confluence of all comforts for this life and a better Especially since God doth not pay his Promises with words Pâ—â—t as Sertorius is said to have done neither is he off and on with his people nec mutatur nec mentitur but performeth all with the better as Naaman pressed the Prophets man to take two talents when he asked but one The widow of Sarepta had more then she could tell what to do with her cruse never ceased running till she had no room The Shunamite would ask nothing of the Prophet nor make use of his offered courtesie He sends for her again and makes her a free Promise of that which she most wanted and desired a sonne 2 Kings 4.16 Gods kindnesse is beyond all this he giveth his servants what they forget or presume to ask and sends his Spirit to help them and to forme their prayers for them and thereby to seale them up to the day of Redemption to assure them of the Kingdome Verse 4. And Esther answered She did not presently poure forth her whole heart into the Kings bosome raile against Haman beg for her people c. but prudently reserveth her selfe till a fitter opportunity Unadvised open-heartednesse is a fruit of
fool-hardinesse Prov. 29.11 A fool uttereth all his minde ye shall have it presently so near his mouth doth it lie that all will out suddenly but a wise man keepeth it in till afterwards or in an inner râ—m in ulteriori animi recessu as the word may be rendred till he see his time to produce it If it seem good to the King Princes must have silken words given them as the mother of Artaxerxes haply Esther told one The rule of old was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 short or sweet Let the King and Haman come this day to the banquet She knew that the King loved Hamans company and especially at a banquet It was policie in Rebecca to provide such savoury meat as the old man loved so here Be wise as Serpents David is commended for his prudent and thereby prosperous deporting himselfe in Sauls house 1 Sam. 18. God gave Solomon politick wisdom exceeding much Who is a faithful and a wise servant Mat. 24. Jam. 3.13 saith our Saviour c And who is a wise man and endued with knowledge saith St. James amongst you Let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meeknesse of wisdom But if it were policy in Esther to invite Haman whom she hated was it likewise Piety did she not dissemble R. Solomon saith She invited Haman alone with the King that other Courtiers might envie him and so undermine him But that 's but a sorry excuse neither doth Lyra's allegation of her good intention much mend the matter They answer better who say that she invited him that she might aneâ—â—e him to his face and some off all matter of his excuse or escape Hereby also she would shew saith Lavater that she accursed him not out of wrath or revenge but that she was drawen to it and as it were driven by meer necessity Verse 5. Then the King said Cause Haman to make haste Heb. Accelerate or hasten Haman sc to an ill bargain as it proved the very next day Look how thunder commonly happens when the sky seemeth most clear so Haman saw himself inveloped with a storme in one of the fairest dayes of his fortune Philosophers say that before a snow the weather will be warmish when the winde lies the great rain falls and the aire is most quiet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dic. when suddenly there will be an earthquake So the King and Haman 〈…〉 Who but the King and Haman So Tiberius called Sejâ—â— My Sejâ—â— Partaker of all my cares and counsels 〈◊〉 and made him his Colleague in the Empire But he soon cast him from supreme honour to extreme ignominy so that the same Senatour who accompanied him to the Senate conducted him to prison they which sacrificed unto him as to their god which kneeled down to him to adore him scoffed at him and loaded him with contempt and concumelies So Caesar Borgia that restlesse Ambitionist who emulating Julius Caesar would needs be aut Caesar aut nullus was shortly after Caesar nullus being slain in the Kingdom of Navarre Verse 6. And the King said unto Esther at the banquet of wine Which seemeth to have been after the other banquet of dainties and sweet-meats during which they drank water Only the King had aurum potabile a golden water prepared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athenaeus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Inter pocula which he and his eldest sonne alone might drink and none else might taste of it on paine of death At this latter Banquet they drank wine freely one to another and inter poculorum laetitiam as Josephus hath it when his heart was now merry within him after he had drunk wine abundantly as the Latine hath it the King said unto Esther What is thy Petition to the halfe of the Kingdome The Promise the King reneweth as supposing that Esther durst not propose her request because of the greatnesse of the matter and assuring her that she should have it though never so great And saith not the God of heaven as much to his servants and suppliants Esay 45.11 Jer. 33.3 Why then stand they off in a sinful shamefacednesse and improve not to the utmost this divine indulgence this precious priviledge why say they not with Luther who well understood the latitude of this royal Charter Fiat mea voluntas Let my will be done my will I say because the same with thine Lord why do they not grow upon God and work upon his Promise which is so exceeding broad Psal 119 96. as David did 1 Chro. 17.23 24 25 he goes over it again and yet still encroacheth verse 26. he presseth and oppresseth it till he hath expressed the sweetnesse out of it and so we have all good leave to do Esay 66.11 even to suck and be satisfied by those full-strutting breasts of divine consolation But what mean those foule great babies the Papists to pray the Virgin Mary to exhibit unto them the breasts of her grace Gab. Biel. c And what frontlesse blasphemers are they to say that God the Father hath shared his Kingdome with her keeping his Justice to himself and giving his Mercy to her to dispose of And this say they that they may not seem to be mad without reason was prefigured by Ahashnerus his saying to Esther I will grant thy request to the half of my Kingdom Verse 7. My Petition and my request is She bespeaketh the King in his own very words and so must we if we mean to speed in heaven Take unto you words and say Gen. 38.25 Take away all iniquity and give good c. Produce Gods own words in prayer and say as she did to Judah Whose are these He loves to be set upon in his own words to be pressed with his Promise to be sued upon his bond This David knew and therefore cries Psal 86.11 Vnite my heart to feare thy name it is as if he should say Ezek. 11.19 Thou hast promised Lord to give me one heart behold I finde mine heart divided my thoughts dissipated and my self disabled for duty for Anima dispersa fit minor Vnite it I beseech thee c. This is the way to make our prayers to be nigh the Lord day and night as Solomon phraseth it 1 Kings 8.59 Verse 8. If I have found favour in the sight of the King As she had not so much by her beauty and bravery wherein Vasht perhaps might easily have compared with her but by the finger of God who tameth to his Elect the fiercest creatures as he did the Lions to Daniel and other savage beasts to the Martyrs whom they would not meddle with and turneth the Kings heart as the rivers of water into what channel soever he pleaseth to put it Prov. 21.1 as the Plowman doth the water-course with his paddle or the Gardiner with his hand And if it please the King See verse 4. and submit to God James 4.7 And I will do to morrow as the King hath said She
his countrey Far be it from me to out-live Troy Curtius telleth us that Alexander the great when he was extreme thirsty and had water offered him he would not receive it Curt. 17. but put it by with this brave speech Nec solus bibere sustineo nec tam exiguum dividere omnibus possum There is not enough for all my souldiers to share with me and to drink it alone I cannot finde in my heart I will never do it Compare herewith this speech of Esther and you shall finde it far the better as being full of those precious graces whereunto Alexander was a perfect stranger humility prudence faith zeal toward God and ardent love toward his people Oh how great is the number of those now adayes saith Lavater here qui ne micam Spiritus Estherae habent who have not the least parcel of Esthers spirit but are all for themselves and for their own interests Or how can I endure to see Heb quomodo potero videbo How can I and shall I see how should I do otherwise then sink at the sight as she did in the Romane history when her sonne was butchered and as the Virgin Mary felt a sword at her heart when she beheld Christ crucified Luke 2.35 Melancthon said that good Oecolampadius died of grief for the Churches calamities Nehemiah was heart-sick for the breaches of Joseph chap. 2.3 with Amos 6.6 Moses wished himself expunged and Paul accursed rather then it should go ill with Gods people Verse 7. Then the King Ahashuerus said unto Esther c. Here Hamans letters of Mart are reversed by Ahashuerus whose answer to Esther is full of gentlenesse and sweetnesse but yet such as discovereth a minde perplexed and cast into straits as Princes eft-soones are by the subtilties and malice of wicked counsellours Dan. 6.15 so that they cannot do as they would unlesse they will bring all into a combustion though usually where the word of a King is there is power Eccles 8.4 and the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh was wont to say that he knew not what an Act of Parliament could not do in England and King James in his speech in the Starre-chamber Anno 1616. said as much Behold I have given Esther the house of Haman i. e. I have done somewhat toward the performance of my Promise made to Esther chap. 7.2 and more I am willing to do only I must observe good order and do things with discretion Behold I give you potestatem plenariam omnimodam all the power I have that therewith you may help your selves only my former decree I cannot reverse but I shall stirre up great garboiles in the Kingdome Josephus indeed telleth us that Ahashuerus did retract the Edict procured by Haman and further gave power to the Jewes that if any withstood the Kings will herein they should kill them c. But we are not bound to believe him in all things as neither Herodotus Livy nor any of the Historians the Sacred always excepted for Vopiscus In vita Aure â—â—iani who was one of them confesseth nominem historicorum non aliquid esse mentitum that there is none of them that hath not taken liberty to lie more or lesse and it is manifest that Josephus his manner is to recite what he thinks likely to have been done and what is fit to be written of such a businesse Baronius annales facit non scribit saith one think the same of Josephus he rather maketh an history sometimes then writeth it And therefore that is but a sorry excuse that the Papists make for their sacrilegious forbidding the people to reade the Scriptures when they refer them to Josephus as having the History of the Bible more largely and plainly described Joh. Barclai M. Paraenesi Because he laid his hands upon the Jewes He did it because he designed it Like as Balak also arose and fought with Israel Josh 24.9 and yet the story saith nothing so But that is in Scripture said to be done that is intended or attempted And this the Heathen also saw by the dimme light of nature Hence that of Seneca Fecit quisque quantum voluit And another saith Quae quia non licuit non facit illa facit Polybius attributeth the death of Antiochus to his sacriledge only in his purpose and will This Josephus thinks could not be scil that a man having a purpose only to sinne should be punished by God for it Hence he derideth Polybius for the forecited censure but he had no cause so to do for the Heathens herein exceeded the Pharisees who helâ— thought free and Josephus was sowred with their leaven Verse 8 Write ye also for the Jews Here was one Syngram or authoritative writing crossing another What could the people think of this but that crownes have their cares and it were a wonder if great persons in the multitude of their distractions should not let fall some incongruities We must not think saith Lavater here if Princes or States command things different one from another that it proceedeth from lightnesse of minde but that they make Lawes and set forth Edicts according to the state and necessity of the times and as the publick good requireth In the beginning of Queen Elizabeths reign here when mens mindes differed concerning Religion and Reformation could not safely be wrought at once it was by one and the same Proclamation commanded that no man should speak unreverently of the Sacrament of the Altar Camd. Eliz. p. 9. Ib. 17 20 and both kindes were permitted in the administration Religion was changed without commotion by degrees after that the Romish superstition had stood a whole moneth and more after the death of Queen Mary as afore The sacrifice of the Masse was not abolished till half a yeare after nor images cast out of Churches till two moneths after that Here then let St. James his counsel take place Be swift to hear slow to speak to speak evil of Governours when they answer not our expectations but seem to command contradictories There are certain Arcana imperii secrets of State that most men understand not and must therefore dedicate them to victory as the Romanes did that lake the depth whereof they could not fathom nor finde out Besides we must know that there will be faults so long as there be men and faults will slip betwixt the best mens fingers as Bishop Jewel was wont to say And as we endure with patience a barren yeare if it happen and unseasonable weather so must we tolerate the imperfections of Rulers and quietly expect either reformation or alteration As it liketh you Having been so lately deceived in Haman and by him miscarried to the ratifying of that bloody Edict he will no more trust his own judgement but referres the managing of the Jewes deliverance which now he greatly desired to their prudence discretion and faithfulnesse Few Kings would have yielded to have retracted lest they should thereby seem light and inconstant
word of comfort And they rent every one his mantle His stately mantle his robe of state such as men of great honour used to weare Stolam regiam Some Hebrewes and Jesuites will have these three friends of Job to have been Kings such I believe they were as the three Kings of Collen so the Papists call those wise men Matth. 1.2 be they what they will they rent every man his mantle in token of greatest sorrow at their friends calamity a ceremony not unusual among other Nations then those of the East Suetonius telleth us that Julius Caesar when he had passed his Army th River Rebican In vita C. Jul Caesar and was marching toward Rome he made a speech to his Souldiers weeping and rending his garment that thereby he might testifie to them what a grief it was to him to fight against his Country which he would never have done had there not been a necessity And sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven They so threw it up into the air that it might fall upon their heads to import 1. That all things were full of sorrowful confusion as here earth and air were mingled 2. That themselves and all mortals were but dust Gen. 18. a little dirt neatly made up and to dust they should return Gen. 3 little deserving in the mean while to tread upon the earth or to be above ground Josh 7.6 See chap. 1.16 Verse 13. So they sat down with him upon the ground Though his sent and loathsomeness were intolerable yet they bare him company this was love and sympathy thus to sit by him on the ground then when every one loathed him and would not lend him a hand to help to scrape him Seven dayes and seven nights Not all this time but the most part of it without giving almost any regard to their ordinary rest and necessary sustenance Origen saith they were sustained and preserved all that while without sleep and meat by a miracle Others holding it a thing impossible have therefore judged this whole book to be a parable only And none spake a word unto him So great was their grief Curae leves lâ—quuntur ingentes stupent Calvin thinks they were too blame to be so long silent Belike they were loth to be troublesome and waited a fit opportunity looking that he should speak first and harbouring hard conceits of him For they saw that his grief was very great His paine was extreme and therefore no time to talk with him Besides though they came prepared yet altering their opinions of him they doubted how and what to speak till at length they became Satans advocates CHAP. III. Verse 1. After this AFter so long silence of his friends and to provoke them to speak who haply waited for some words from him first as knowing him wise and well-spoken Or After this After that Jobs pains were somewhat allayed so that he could breath recollect himself and utter his mind for some troubles are above speech Psal 77.4 they will hardly suffer a man to take breath Job 9.18 see Esth 4.14 with the Note or to hear any thing though never so wholesome or comfortable Exod. 6.9 Job opened his mouth But better he had kept it closed still either be silent saith the Greek Proverb or else say something that is better then silence But it may befall the best lest to themselves to speak unadvisedly with their lips as meek Moses did at the waters of Meribah for which sin of his some Jewes say that he was damned because we read not of his repentance And a like wretched censure they passe upon holy Job for his cursing his day here saying that although in words he cursed the creature only Confuted by Lyra and Hugocard in Josh 1 2. yet interpretatively and indeed he cursed the Creator like as he that spitteth upon a Kings picture or robe royal doth the same to the King himself But why do they not then say the same of Jeremy and pronounce him a Reprobate for cursing his birth day too chap. 20.14 R. Levi answereth because it appeareth to be otherwise by Jeremies whole prophesie besides And may we not say the like for Job if we wisely weigh his words in their right sense and the end which the Lord made Jam. 5.11 propounding him for a pattern of patience not of impatience whereof nothing is said against him though he had his out-bursts as here and must have his allowance as good gold hath when it comes to the scale that so he may passe If he had blasphemed God or denied his providence ascribing all events to the conjunction of the stars at a mans birth as the Talmudists falsely gather from this Chapter Satan had had his design upon him and God would never have justified him and preferred him before his friends as he did chap. 42. True it is that chap. 38.2 when he had spoken his mind over-freely and indeed sinfully as there is not a man upon earth that liveth and sinneth not as if the Lord had dealt unkindly if not unequally with him God in the end steppeth forth as it were from behind the hangings over-hearing him and taking him up Who is this saith he there that talketh thus how now After which Job was not only husht chap. 40.4 5. but humbled chap. 42.6 And truly it should be considered say both Ambrose and Chrysostome in Jobs defence that though patient in the two former Chapters yet now he begins to be wet to the skin yea the drops of Gods wrath began to soake into his soul the divel also set upon him with all violence as some conceive from the next verse Job answered and said so to some dispute with the divel Now therefore that he thus falleth a roaring and a cursing his day it is saith Chrysostome as a sick man who being under the Physicians hands of whom he is well perswaded useth all patience towards him but being in extremity of paine layes about him and strikes at the standers by c. Exemplo Jobi liquet saith another good Writer By this example of Job it appeareth that in extreme trials of the best it oft falleth out that paine and grief speaketh rather then the man himself and that in the sieve of temptations upon a more violent sifting Bucholc the holes being worn or widened not the offall onely but some grains of good wheat that is of faith do slip through which yet the right hand of a gracious God is wont to gather and to lay up in the granary of his grace Job cannot altogether be excused saith Ferus upon this chapter neither is he said as before not to have sinned in these following expressions Rather it is to be held that the Lord who before stood by him now for a time left him to try what is in man even the best man living if he be not strengthened by God continually David was most couragious when he went against Goliah but fearfull when Saul pursued
in Gods heart and which he was well assured could not have befallen him without Gods will and decree the mercies which in the former verses Job had recounted and reckoned up viz. his conception quickening preservation all which he looked upon as love-tokens coming out of the heart of God and from the spring of special love Here then we see whence we may fetch comfort when most hardly bestead namely from those effects whereby God sealed up his love to us in forming us in the womb but especially in his Covenant of Grace that bee-hive of heavenly honey whereby he hath ingaged to be our God even from the womb to the tomb yea to all perpetuity Hereunto Job had respect and so had David Psalm 22.10 11. and Psalm 25.10 Verse 14. If I sin then thou markest me Though through humane frailty only I offend niâ—is dedignatur mortalitatem qui peccasse erubescit Enphorm thou soon notest it thou followest me up and down as it were with pen ink and paper to set down my faults How then say some that God sees not sin in his children Job thought the Lord was over-strict with him which yet could not be and that he put no difference betwixt him and those that were notoriously wicked as the next words import And thou wilt not acquit me from mine iniquity That is from the punishment of mine iniquity Verba diffidentis saith Mercer words spoken according to the judgment of the flesh saith Diodate which holdeth Gods visitations to be punishments and vengeances Verse 15. If I be wicked wo unto me Here he bringeth a Dilemma whereby he declareth himself every way miserable faith Mercer whether he be bad or good suffer he must without remedy If I be wicked woe unto me wo is the wicked mans portion tell him so from me saith God Isai 3.10 11. Though he love not to hear on that ear but can blesse himself in his heart when God curseth him with his mouth Deut. 29.19 And a godly man setteth the terrour of sins woes before his flesh that slave that must be frighted at least with the sight of the whip Wo be to me saith Paul if I preach not the Gospel 1 Cor. 9.16 Or if when I have preached to others I my self should be a cast-a-way verse 27. which to prevent he kept under his body his corruption and gave it a blue eye for we are not debters to the flesh saith he Rom. 8.10 We owe nothing but stripes and menaces cursing it in every cruse c. And if I be righteous yet I will not lift up my head Indeed I cannot because I am so bowed down with changes of sorrows armies of afflictions my pains are continued and I shall surely sink under them much adoe I have now to keep head above water Others make this a description of Jobs humility I will not lift up my head viz. in pride but humble my self to walk with my God as that poor publican did who stood afarre off and would not lift up so much as his eyes to heaven Luk. 18.13 I am full of confusion Cast upon me by my friends who reproach me for an hypocrite and make my cheeks glow The fulnesse of an aspersion may possibly put an innocent person to the blush and it is the property of defamations to leave a kind of lower estimation many times even where they are not believed This was the confusion that Job complained of the stomack of his mind was full of it even to satiety and surfet Therefore see thou mine affliction My pressing and piercing affliction see it and remedy it as Psalm 119.153 Let not all my trouble seem little unto thee as Nehem. 9.32 See Lord see behold it is high time for thee to set in Verse 16. For it increaseth Heb. For it lifteth up it self it even boyleth up to the height or it waxeth proud as the proud surges of the sea Broughton rendreth it Oh haw it fleeth up Why how Surely as a fierce lion so it hunteth me it riseth upon me as a Lion rampant doth upon his prey or as a Lion when he is pursued gives not place hides not his head but comes into the open fields as holding it a disgrace to withdraw so some sense it Or Thou huntest me as a fierce Lion Tanquam â—e God when he afflicteth men is oft compared to a Lion or Tanquam leonem as if I were a ravening Lion so thou huntest me Isa 38.13 Hos 5.14 Hos 13.7 setting thy nets and toyls making thy snares and pits ut capiar ad occisionem so the Septuagint that I may be taken and destroyed as 2 Pet. 2 12. And again thou shewest thy self marvellous upon me Heb. And thou returnest Here Job sheweth saith an Interpreter what a confidence he had that God returning to him in mercy would do wonderfully for him in the end the word turning here Ab. Ezr. and the turning his captivity chap. 42. so aptly answering the one to the other to approve this exposition But others understand it of the continued or repeated acts of Jobs affliction unâ viâ—e post aliam as if he should say thou clappest on one affliction upon another my pains know not only no period but no pause thou layest upon me extraordinary sorrows as if thou wouldst declare in me alone quà m mirus sis artifex what an excellent artisan thou art when thou pleasest and what thou canst do against a poor creature surely thou hast made my plagues wonderfull Deut. 28.59 So the Apostles were made a gazing-stock a theatre a spectacle of humane misery 1 Cor. 4.9 Verse 17. Thou renewest thy witnesses against me These fresh witnesses were divels say some Jobs friends say others his dolorous sufferings rather saith Austir those open witnesses of some secret wickednesse in Job as the world would esteem them See chap. 16.8 Ruth 1.21 Thus the Jewes censured our Saviour Isa 53.3 4. The Barbarians Paul Acts 28. and those in the Gospel them that perished by the fall of the tower of Siloam And how many precious men as well as Job have been cast upon this evidence for traitors and rebels against the highest majesty Jâ—â—uâ— thinks that when Job uttered the words of this text he felt some new pains growing upon him and increasing Thou in reasest thine indignation upon me Or within me as chap. 6.4 and this was it that put a sting into his sufferings Gods heavy displeasure seemed to be kindled against him Be not thou a terrour unto me ô Lord said Jeremy and then I shall do well enough with the rest Changes and warre or armies are upon me or against me Variety of troubles come trooping and treading as it were on the heels of one another fluctus fluctâ—um â—rudiâ— there is a continual succession of my sorrows fresh forces sent against me c. We see then that Job complained not without cause though he kept not alwaies within compasse as appeareth by that which followeth
King Abaddon so the Divel is called Rev. 9.11 and so hell is called in this Text because thereinto are thrust all that are destined to destruction all the brats of fathomlesse perdition such as was Judas the Traytor who went to his place and all wicked ones who shall surely be turned into hel with all those that forget God Psal 9 17. This place is not covered saith Ferus here but open to God for whomsoever he will cast thereinto Verse 7. He stretcheth out he North ever the empty place Heb. Over Tohâ— Aristotle saith that beyond the moveable heavens there is neither body nor time nor place De calâ— text 99 nor vacuum But on this side of the heaven there are bodies time place and as it may seem to some an empty place for so the Air is here called over which and not over any solid matter for a foundation God hath spread and stretched forth the heavens which are here called the North because they are moved about the North-Pole and besides the North is held the upper part of the world according to that of Virgil Mundus ut ad Scythiam Riphaeasque arduus arces Consurgit premitur Libya dovexus ad anstres Hènce it is here put for the whole heaven which held up by the Word of Gods power without any other props leaneth upon the liquid Aire the Aire upon the earth and the earth upon nothing And hangeth the earth upon nothing Terra pilae fimilis nullo fulcimine nixa Aere sublato tam grave pendet onus Ovid. 6. Fastor The earth hangs in the midst of heaven like Architas or Archimedes his Pigeon equally poised with his own weight Of this great wonder This is the very finger of God Aristotle himself admireth it De Cal. l. 2. c. 13 the Philosophers after much study can give no good reason because ignorant of this that God hath appoined it so to be even from the first Creation Psal 104.5 Heb. 1.2 The Poets fable that Atlas beareth up heaven with his shoulders but we confesse the true Atlas viz. the Lord our God who by his Word alone beareth up heaven and earth And it is here fitly alledged as an Argument of his Almightinesse The greatness of this work of God appeareth hereby saith Merlin that men cannot spread aloft the thinnest curtaine absque fulcris without some solid thing to uphold it Verse 8. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds Heb. Clouds which yet have their name from thicknesse because they arise from Aire condensed In these God bottleth up the rain and there keepeth it in by main strength as the word signifieth though those vessels are as thin and thinner then the liquor that is contained in them This duly weighed were enough to convince an Atheist especially if he consider how The cloud is not rent under them And so causeth a cataclysme to drown the earth as sometimes at sea especially great hurt is done this way among ships by a spout as Mariners call it the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Dutch Ein Wolckenbruch or Heavenbreach viz. when clouds cleave asunder and discharge themselves all at once for a great mischief to mankind Now that God thus binds up these heavy vapours and keeps them in the clouds as a strong man in a Cobweb till brought by the winds whithersoever he pleaseth to appoint them they drop upon the earth buy little and little to make it fruitful this is a wonderful work of God and should bring us to the knowledge of his Power Wisdom and Goodnesse Rom. 1.19 20. see Job 38.37 Jer. 5.22 Verse 9 He holdeth back the face of his Throne i.e. Of heaven Isai 66.1 which he eftsoons overcloudeth and muffleth up or masketh with a vail mystically by the Face of his Throne we may understand the knowledg of his glory for this is held from us so in this world that we cannot perfectly know him as he is but must content our selves with a learned ignorance 1. Joh. 3.3 Here darkness is and will be under his feet Psal 18.9 And spreadeth his cloud upon it It is fitly called his cloud because 1. It is his handy-work Psal 18.11 Gen. 9.14 Job 28.26 27. and 37.15 16. and 38.9 Psa 104.5 His Sun draweth up those vapours which being thickned in the middle Region of the aire by the cold encompassing and driving them together become a cloud 2 He used it of old as a sign of his glorious Power and gracious presence with his people Exod. 13.21 and 16.10 2 Chron. 5.13 14. And as a figure of Christs guiding and protecting his Church through the wildernesse of this world Isai 4.5 6. 3. He still rideth in state upon the clouds Isai 19.1 Christ was by a cloud coached up to heaven Act. 1.9 and shall come in like manner Apoc. 1.7 and 10.1 We also shall then be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the Aire and so shall we ever be with the Lord 1 Thessal 4.17 O mora Christe veni Verse 10. Trem. He hath compassed the waters with bounds Decreto circinavit superficiem aquarum He hath as it were with a pair of Compasses drawne a circle about the sea that it may not passe to drown the earth Confer chap. 38.8 10 11. Psal 33.7 and 89.10 and 104 9. Prov. 8.29 So he drew a circle round about the earth Prov. 8.27 doing all with infinite Wisdome Pondere mensura numero c. He founded the earth not upon solid Rocks but fluid waters And that it floteth not upon them nor is shaken with them as oft as there is a tempest in the Ocean that begirteth it neither yet is overflowed by them this is the wonderful-work of God Aristotle in his Book De Mirabilâ—bus admireth it and acknowledgeth Gods providence which elsewhere he denyeth Terminum aquis prescripsit saith Job here And this either he had from Moses Gen. 1.10 or if he lived before Moses as it is most likely he did he had it as he had many other things by tradition from the Fathers Saylers tell us that as they draw nigh to the shore when they enter into a haven they run as it were down hill And yet men are said to go down not up to the sea in ships Psal 107.23 See a reason hereof in this Text and Psal 104.96 An vero non stupendum est saith Lavater But is it not a wonderful thing that so fierce an Element so huge a masse of waters tossed by the winds should be bounded and bridled by sands confined and kept within their prescribed place and shore Especially if the water be as some affirm ten times bigger then the earth the air then the water the fire then the air Vntil the day and night come to an end Heb. Until the consummation of light with darknesse that is till time shall be no more till the end of the world when all things shal be let loose to devastation and the sea
him For although he were put on by his domesticks who seeing their Master despitefully used would have torn those his enemies in pieces yet he was not moved thereby but contained and kept them in from such violence Beza thus paraphraseth this text And yet I protest that I wanted not setters on even amongst mine own houshold servants who still perswaded me to requite those injuries which I received with most bitter revenge nay their minds were so incensed that they cryed out That they should never be satisfied on them no not though they had eaten them up quick Oh that we had of his flesh So barbarous and bruitish is revenge See Psal 27.2 Erasmus telleth of a Frier Augustine of Antwerp that he openly in the Pulpit wished that Luther were there that he might bite out his throat with his teeth Epist lib. 16. ad obtrectat I can hardly forbear with these nailes of mine to be thy death said Frier Brusierd to Bilney the Martyr At the town of Barre in France the Italians in hatred of Lutheranisâ—e Acts Mon. fol 914. Ibid. 1951. brake forth into such fury that they ript up a living child took out his Liver being as yet red hot and eat it as meat Christiern King of Denmark pulled the dead body of his Enemy Steven the Swedish General out of the grave Val. Max christian 138. inusitataqus rabie dentibus adpetiit and like a mad dog tore it with his teeth The Jewes in Trajans time having one Andrew for their Captain cut in pieces about Cyrent many Greeks and Romans eating their flesh besmearing themselves with their blood and clothing themselves with their skins The like they did also about Cyprus and in Egypt Xiphil in Dist. to the slaughtering of above four hundred thousand people Tacitus noteth of the Jewes in general that they are very kind among themselves but contra oâ—uts alies hostile adium against all others they bear hostile hatred Home homini 〈◊〉 We cannot be satisfied But with his heart blood It is as easie to quench the fire of Aetna Planeè inexplebile est vindictae desiderium Mercer as the thoughts fired by revenge See Psal 124.3 14.4 Verse 32. The stranger did not lodge in the street Job was so far from liking and commending those enraged stomacks of his servants that he would not suffer strangers to lodge abroad in the night season Gregory noteth here that he speaketh first of his pacifick disposition toward his enemies and then of his hospitality because saith he the heart must first be freed from malice and wrath and then charity is to be exercised that we might be accepted Abraham neither set up an Altar to God nor shewed himself forward to entertain strangers till Lot and he were reconciled Hospitality is commended to our practise both by the Prophet Isaiah chap. 58.7 by St. Paul Rom. 12.13 Heb. 13.2 and by St. Peter 1 Epist 4.9 Of Cranmer Tremellius testifieth that he was home 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nec minù 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 humane and hospitable Epist 57. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the example of Abraham and Lot whom Synesius therefore calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God-entertainers Julian the Apostate reckoneth the hospitality of the Primitive Christians Chrys in Joan. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hinc tot olim Xenodochia among those three things that caused their Religion to be so generally embraced Of the Waldenses also those ancient Protestants in Germany it is reported that they could travel from Colen to Millain in Italy and every night lodge with Hosts of their own profession who would bid them heartily welcome But I opened my doors to the Traveller I bid the weary wayfaring man welcome to my house Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dicebatur Ad viam vel versus viam and kept a good table for such Mensares sacra est per quam Deus honoratur praeses amicitiae hospitii Job was known to be a good house-keeper and was much resorted to he set open his gate in the high-way so Beza after Mercer rendreth this text It was his will That that part of his house which bounded upon the high-way-side should alwayes lye open to harbour Passengers Verse 33. If I covered my transgression as Adam A transgressour then Job yieldeth himself the lives of the best alive are fuller of sins than the firmament is of stars or the furnace of sparks But he did not Adam-like or after the manner of men cover or conceale them extenuate or excuse them denying them as Cain did Gen. 4.9 and Gehezi 2 King 5.25 and Ananias Act. 5.8 or at least dealing with them as the unjust Steward did who for an hundred set down fifty Adam went about to hide his sin alledging non causam pro causa that for the cause of his flight that was not the true cause thereof viz. the voice of God his fear thereupon his nakedness c. thus sin and shifting came into the world together Secondly when that would not do but that he was driven from that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then he seeks to excuse it by accusing God and transferring the blame upon him for giving him a woman to tempt him Gen. 3.12 The like hereunto do they that plead Predestination or Constellations or natural inclination c. that put God to his proofs as they did Jer. 2.35 Job was none such but made it his daily practise to acknowledge his iniquities against himself Psal 32.5 and with utmost aggravation from all the circumstances laying open how many transgressions were wrapt up in each sin as it is Levit. 16.21 lest as Samuel once said to Jesse Are here all thy sons so God should say to Job Are these all thy sins and there being but one only covered that one should prove destructive to his soul as that bastard Abimelech did to all his brethren But now that he freely and fully confesseth his offences he is sure to find mercy Prov. 28.18 No man was ever kept out of heaven for his confessed badness many are for their supposed goodness By hiding â—inâ— iniquity in my bosom As silly men think to do 1 From God who is all-eye and every man before God is all-window so that he needs not a window in his bosom as the Heathen Momus wisht for God to look in at Job 34.22 2 From the world which yet they cannot alwayes do for God that descryeth will also discover all sooner or later else how should that be fulfilled The name of the wicked 〈◊〉 Broughton rendreth it By hiding mine iniquity of self-love So Kimchi also readeth it Tremellius to the same sense Ex dilectione mei And surely it is this sinful self-love that closeth up mens lips and keepeth them from pouring out their souls as water before the Lord. Some deal with their souls as others do with their bodies when their beauty is decayed they desire to hide it from themselves
c. and be wise by others woes enjoy their follies and gather with the Bee sweet honey out of those bitter weeds Poena ad pancos metus ad omnes Verse 27. Because they have turned back from him To pursue after lying vanities broken cisterns which whosoever do as they fall into two foul sins at once such as heaven and earth have cause to be astonished at and afraid of Jeremiah 2.12 13. so they are miserable by their own Election Jonah 2. vers 8. And would not consider any of his wayes Wisely consider them as David did Psal 119.168 All Gods lawes were in his sight and all his wayes in Gods sight This was the general cause of their destruction The special followeth Verse 28. So that they cause the cry of the poor c. These they compel by their oppressions to wash the earth with their tears and to importune heaven with their complaints Senault as One phraseth it The wicked do as it were bring up to God the cryes of the poor oppressed and so pull upon themselves inevitable destruction for he is the poor mans Patron and heareth the cry of the afflicted The grand Signior would have the world take notice that such as lament unto him shall be sure to have redress and succour from him Grand Sign Serag 147. Wherefore also he calleth himself Awlâ—m Penawâ—â— The worlds Refuge A title far more fit for the God of heaven than for any earthly Monarch 〈◊〉 Manl. loc 〈◊〉 were he far more gracious than the great Turk from whose courtesie freely offered him Luther blessed himself with a Deus me tutatur à tali benefice Domino God defend me from such a gracious Lord. Verse 29. When he giveth quietnesse who then can make trouble Ipse tranquillabit quis inquietabit This is like that of the Apostle saith Brentius Rom. 8. If God be for us who can be against us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect c It is he alone who giveth peace both of countrey and of conscience Peace peace Isai 26.3 Pacem omnimodam external internal eternal and then who can disturb or unsettle Surely as Isaac once said to Esau concerning Jacob He is blessed and he shall be blessed so may it be said of such as have made their peace with God Peace shall be upon them and Mercy contra gentes whosoever saith nay to it yea though it be the Devil himself that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he is oft called the Troublesome one who ever since he was cast out of heaven keeps ado on earth and seeks to disquiet all such as by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honour and immortality Rom. 2.7 And when he hideth his face who then can behold him Him Whom God who dare look upon him or toward him for help when he is throughly displeased and looketh irefully Or the party frowned on by God who will smile upon him or shew him any favour and furtherance Here Aben-Ezra giveth a good Note Aversio vultus Dei c. The turning away of Gods pleased countenance is the cause of all Wars and other disasters The Physiologer in Epiphanius telleth of the Bird Charadius that being brought into the room where a man lyeth sick if he look with a steddy and fixed eye upon the sick man he recovereth but if he turn away from him and look another way the disease is to death Apply this to God and it fitteth Whether it be done against a Nation or against a man only All 's a case as they say to God he stands not upon multitudes as men use to do in case of Mutinies or the like to punish the tenth man or so in terrorem for a terrour to the rest This is not Gods way of punishing but as a thousand years are to him but as a day and one day as a thousand years so when he proceeds to execution of Justice whether it be done against a Nation c. All Nations to him are but as a drop of a bucket or dust of a balance Isai 40. And hence he buried a world full of people in one universal grave of waters And the wicked be they never so many shall be turned into hell With whole nations tht forget God Psal 9.17 God seemeth to say Fiat justitia ruat orbis Verse 30. That the hypocrite reign not That he reign no longer Almighty God taketh order by putting these mighties from their seats and exalting them of low degree Luk. 1.52 And why 1. Lest the hypocrite or the impure and impious man reign Such as was Jehu Herod Julian our Richard 3. Pope Sixtus Quintus of whom One saith Spec. Europ that he was the most crouching humble Cardinal that ever was lodg'd in an oven and the most stout proud Pope that ever wore Crown What pride equal to his making Kings kisse his Pantofâ—es What humility pretended greater than his shrieving himself daily on his knees to an ordinary Priest He calleth himself the servant of Gods servants and yet stamps in his Coyn That Nation and Countrey that will not serve thee shall be rooted out he also suffereth his Parasites to stile him Our Lord God the Pope Is not this a notorious hypocrite and when such a one reigneth and taketh upon him to be Lord of all both in spirituals and temporals may not we conclude that God hideth his face as in the former verse from his people May we not cry out as Basil once did Epist 17. Num Ecclesias suas dereliquit Dominus hath the Lord utterly forsaken his Churches It is doubtless a very great judgement upon a people when an hypocrite or a prophane person is set over them who pretends the publick good to his own designes and self-interests and by his crafty inventions undoes his subjects robbing them of their lawful liberties and enslaving them Some read the words thus Vulg. Speâ— Ab. Ezra He causeth that the hypocrite reigneth for the sins of the people It is threatened as an heavy curse Levit. 26.17 If you still trespasse against me I will set Princes over you that shall hate you mischievous odious Princes odious to God malignant to the people Such as was Phocas that bloody Tyrant who when he had slain his Master Mauricius and reigned in his stead there was an honest poor man saith Cedrenus who was earnest with God to know a reason why such a thing was suffered to whom it was answered That a worse man could not be found and that the sins of Christians required it We read of Attilus King of Swethland that he made a Dog King of the Danes in revenge of a great many injuries received by them Sr. Rich. Berkley's Sum. Pon. p. 387. Gunno likewise King of the Danes made a Dog King of Norway and appointed Counsellours to do all things under his Title and Name That which these men did spitefully God somtimes doth righteously setting up tyrants for a
Palace his Rags into fine linnen c. yea as Jeremy's rags helped to draw him out of the dungeon so do afflictions work out to Gods people an exceeding exceeding eternal weight of glory Here perhaps they may be held under but to him that overcometh wil the Lord Christ grant to sit with him in his throne Rev. 3.21 The deluge of calamities may assault them but it shall certainly exalt them They shall have Crownes on their heads and Palmes in their hands and walk arm in arm with Angels Some of the Hebrewes by Kings here understand Angels as if it were written 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not Melachim but Maleachim Yea he doth establish them for ever and they are exalted Or When they are exalted This no earthly Prince can promise himself Dionysius who thought his Kingdom had been tyed to him with cords of Adamant was at length driven out of it But Christs Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and he will not raign alone if we suffer with him we shall also raign together Rom. 8. Verse 8. And if they be bound in fetters If it so fall out that through abuse of their prosperity and preferment they wander as they are men out of the right way and God sends out afflictions as his Pursuivants to attach them and say them in cold irons for their correction and to prevent judgement Psal 107.10 And be holden in cords of affliction Or Poverty so that irretiti funibus miserè vixerint as the Tigurines here translate they have onely prisoners pittances which will neither keep them alive nor suffer them to dye Verse 9. Then he sheweth them their work By these sharp waters he cleareth up their eye-sight and gives them to see their sin the mother of their misery Vexatio dat intellectum Smart makes wit Manasseh for instance and the Prodigal Herodot lib. 1. Liv. decad 1. l. 5. and King Croesus with his Nocumenta documenta and Tullus Hostilius with his excess of devotion when once he had paid for his learning And their transgressions that they have exceeded Heb When they prevail that before they grow too potent they may cast them away Ne illis victi in Gehennam descendant lest they hale them into hell Mercer Verse 10. Hee openeth also their eare to Discipline See on chap. 33.16 And commandeth that they return from iniquity Unlesse they will have it to be their ruine whereof obstinate sinners who refuse to return seem to be ambitious Affliction sanctified is Lex practica a practical Law saith One it is Verus Scripturae commentarius an excellent Comment upon the Scripture saith Another David could not learn Gods Statutes till taught by this Free-School-master curst enough and crabbed but such as whereby God openeth mens eares to Discipline and speaketh to them to return from iniquity which is a piece of learning that people cannot pay too dear for Verse 11 If they obey and serve him they shall c. Heb. They shall finish they shall spend and end their dayes in prosperity and their yeares in pleasure as Joseph Job and some others have done who lived and dyed with glory Howbeit this Promise is to be understood with exception of the Crosse which yet God both can and to his will make profitable and pleasant as he did to that godly Prince who being asked How he could so well endure so long and hard imprisonment answered That he had therein felt the divine Consolations of the Martyrs But Haud facilè invenies multis è millibus unum Virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui Verse 12. But if they obey not they shall perish by the sword In gladium transibunt they shall passe away by the sword that is some evil end shall befal them and worthily because they would not be warned which is both a presage and desert of utter ruine Lesser and lighter judgements where they work not are foretokens of greater and heavier at the heels of them as the black horse in the Revelation followeth the red And as clouds cluster against a storm one following in the neck of the other unlesse the Sun break forth and scatter them so do Gods judgements usher in one another and every lesse a greater unless Repentance and better obedience take up the matter And they shall dye without knowledge Heb. Because they were without knowledge and wilfully so It was not a bare â—escience but an affected ignorance that undid them Some render it Non praesentientes they shall dye suddenly and before they have bethought themselves It should be our care that death do not suddenly surprize us No guest comes unawares to him who keeps a constant Table Every sharp affliction is a warning piece and let us so conceive of it Stillicidia praecedunt ruinam Verse 13. But the hypocrites in heart heap up wrath Or Yet Or Howbeit q.d. These fowle sinners that have turned repentance into a form and converted conversion it self into sin though they see bad men made good and good men made better by their afflictions and incorrigible persons destroyed before their eyes yet they amend not by Gods hand upon them but are the worse for it as Iron grows more cold after a heat and as naughty boyes are more stupid and more stubborn after a whipping Hypocritis nihil stupidius These hollow hearted ones heap up wrath against the day of wrath as St. Paul makes up this saying Rom. 2.5 which shall fall upon the Jew first because of his pretence to Religion and then upon the Gentile Nemo enim magis iram meretur quam amicum simulans iniÌ„micus saith Bernard No man more deserveth wrath upon wrath then a feigned friend but true enemy Such are all hypocrites whether gross or close And hence our Saviours severity against such in the Gospel but especially Mat. 23. Neither let any such Goat in sheep-skin think to steal on Christs right hand at the last day He shall uncase such and cashiere them yea cast them into the hottest fire of hell whereof hypocrites are as the Free-holders and other sinners but as Tenants to them for they shall have their portion with the Devil and hypocrites Some render it Ponunt irâ—m and expound it incandescunt in Deum When they are afflicted they wax hot against God they gather wrath as a toad swelleth when handled as a Serpent gathereth poison to spue out at those who meddle with him They cry not when God binds them Cry they do after a sort as Hogs do when to be stuck or dogs when tyed up from their meat Murmure they do and expostulate a wrong with God as those Isa 58.2 3. Non ita Deos coluimuâ— as that heathen hypocrite said We have not served God so well that he should serve us no better but pray they do not unlesse it be as those hypocrites in Zachary chap. 7. who fasted to themselves and prayed for their own ends more to get off their chaines then their sinnes They bear fruit
Disciples whensoever they hear the Cock crow by night to say this Benediction The Lord be praised who giveth understanding to the Cock scil to awaken men and to announce day The Septuagint render it Who hath given to women skill to weave and art to embroyder But they do best that take the word though found only in this place for the Heart Mens quasi imaginatrix figuratrix dicta quod omnia pervideâ—t cognoscat as that wherein are painted and imprinted the imaginations and representations of things as the word seemeth to import Verse 37. Who can number the clouds in wisdome Quis sapphirinas efficit nubes Who can make the clouds like Sapphire that is bright and clear so some read it Others Who can declare the clouds scil their number nature and uses Or who can stay the bottle of heaven i.e. the clouds fitly compared to bottleâ— as those vessels that hold the rain and powre it out on the earth when God pleaseth to turn the mouths of those bottles downward This is a great Miracle saith Lavater that whereas water is fluid and beareth downward yet it abideth in the lofty and soft aire nor can fall but where and when God appointeth Verse 38 When the dust groweth into hardnesse c. When the ground hath had its fill so that the light dust is turned into lumps of earth and that which was tossed with every wind is clodded and agglutinated by water into an heavy substance Hic enim simplex est nativus hujus loci sensus saith Merlin Danaeus discoursing of stones Physic Christ l. 2. c. 31. how they are made of earth saith That this Text is a compendium of all the large Discourses of the natural Philosophers concerning that Subject Verse 39. Wilt thou hunt the prey for the Lion Heb. For the old Lion as Neh. 2.9 that cannot hunt for himself Plin. Aristot scribunt Leones multa solida fine dissectu devorare Prey he must have as being a very ravenous creature but wilt thou provide it him With what great charge do Princes maintain a few Lions But God maintaineth all and all other creatures Psal 104.27 28. and 145.15 putting it into the young Lions to provide prey for the old and causing these creatures to keep for most part in the Deserts where they feed upon Camels and such as they can light upon Ammianus Marcellinus writeth That in Chaldaea there are an huge number of Lions which were like enough to devour up both men and beasts throughout the Country But withal he saith That by reason of the store of water and mud thereof there breed yeerly an innumerable company of Gnats whose property is to flye into the eye of the Lion as being a bright and Orient thing where biting and stinging the Lion he teareth so fieâ—cely with his clawes that he puts out his own eyes and by that means many are drowned in the Rivers others starve for want of prey and many the more easily killed by the Inhabitants Or fill the appetite of the young Lion Which is very greedy and insatiate Some render it Catervam the Troop or company of young Lions But God in mercy to mankind hath so disposed it that as devouring Creatures are more rare the Lioness seldome brings â—orth more then one in all her life so they go not often by troops but range alone seeking their prey Verse 40. When they couch in their dens c. When both by might and slight they provide for themselves Hunters with all their paines and means cannot catch a beast so soon as the Lion can An Ape he hateth in a special manner as being too crafty for him And yet he feareth man although as the Poet saith Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis Ennius Whereof no other probable reason can be given but the small remnant of Gods Image left as yet in man who once had dominion over all the Creatures and is still fearred by the fiercest of them And abide in the covert to lye in wait Where they crouch counterfeit themselves asleep lye quiet and close as Cats that would catch Mice or Foxes birds But if this way they speed not Basil saith they set up a loud roar whereby the Beasts are so amated that they have no power to stir out of the place they stand in till the Lions have taken them Verse 41 Who provideth for the Raven his food Though the Raven be a most vile creature and hated almost of all in some places there is a reward appointed for those that shall kill them up Though an unclean creature and therefore abominable Lev. 11.13 15. Though unmerciful to her own and pitilesse to other birds though an inauspicate creature a sign both of mans punishment and Gods curse Isai 34 11. Though he cryeth with a hoarse and harsh voice whence also he hath his name in the Original and so unfit to move pity yet God provideth food for him What then will he do for his faithful servants Matth. 6.26 Where our Saviour fetcheth not an example from the Israelites miraculously fed in the wildernesse or Elias in the Desert but from Fowles of the Aire and among them Corvus incuba 20 diebus pullos nido expellit Plin. Arisâ— Arist hist Animal l 9. c. 31. not from Eagles Hawks Nightingales but Ravens c. Consider the Ravens Luke 12.24 When his young ones cry to God Though by implication only they cry and not directly being forsaken by the old ones and left bare they are fed by God with flies and wormes bred in the nest out of their excrements till able to flye and leave the nest they wander for lack of meat to take it where-ever they can meet with it CHAP. XXXIX Verse 1. Knowest thou the time when the wild Goats of the Rock bring forth THe History of the living Creatures is of singular use we see to set forth the Goodness Power Wisdom and other of Gods Attributes clearly shining in them And therefore they have very well deserved of all sorts who have put forth such Histories and discourses as Aristotle Elian Pliny Gâ—sner Aldobrandinus c. of whom I may say as once Eâ—tus Sylvius afterwards Pope Pius 2 did of Learning in general That Popular men should esteem them as silver Noblemen as Gold Princes as Pearles and not so slenderly reward them Joh. Manl. loc com 572. as Pope Sixtus did Theodorus Gaza who translated and dedicated unto him Aristotle De Natura Animalium paying him only for the rich Binding and Bossing forty Crowns but bountifully encourage them as Great Alexander did his Master Aristotle for that same Work he gave him saith the History eight hundred Talents which is foure hundred and foure score thousand Crownes The pleasure of reading such Authors is not so great as the profit for thereby we may attain to the knowledg of God and of our selves of his Will and our Duties Hence we are sent
Pageants And by this passage some conjecture that not the Whale but the Sea-dragon is here described Let it be what it will it must needs be a great heat within this great Fish that sendeth forth as it were burning lamps and sparks of fire and a strong sulphurous breath he must have like the out-bursts of Aetna by this description Aristotle saith the Whale is of an hot fiery nature and that he hath Lungs and breatheth a pipe or passage also he hath in his fore-head Lib. 4. 〈◊〉 anim cap. 〈◊〉 whereat he throweth out the water he hath taken in either by his breathing or eating This transparent water thus with a force thrown up against the Sun-beams may bear a shew of lightning or burning lamps Verse 20. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke c. Whiles his meat heateth in his stomack for concoction Sufflati as if fire were put under some great reaking pot or Caldron boyling Heb. blown for of blowing comes boyling Verse 21. His breath kindleth coals Or Would kindle coals as a Smiths bellows if there were any to kindle Such a kindle-coal was Arrius and Hildebrand of old the Jesuites at this day and not a few others Prov. 26.21 Es 33.10 your breath as fire shall devour you Some mens tongues are like Gun-powder which touched with the least spark will instantly be in the face Jam. 3.6 A flame goeth out of their mouths enough to set the whole course of Nature on fire Verse 22. In his neck remaineth strength Aristotle saith that among Fishes De part 〈◊〉 lib. 3. the Dolphin Whale and such as breath have necks proportionable to their bodies The word rendred remaineth is in the Hebrew lodgeth or abideth all night so spoken saith One because the Whale as also the Dolphin sleepeth with his head erected above water And sorrow is turned into joy before him i.e. He knows no sorrows he fears no hurt but alwayes rejoyceth bearing himself bold upon his strength God having made him to sport in the sea Psal 104.26 Others read it And before him danceth fear Pavor Pallor Tullus Hostilius his two gods men dance or start for fear Verse 23. The flakes of his flesh are joyned together Heb. The fallings Meland Tremell or the refuse and vilest parts as the word is rendred Am. 8.6 Now if God be so punctual in the description of these also can any one think that he hath let passe any thing in the holy Scriptures that belong to our Salvation What need is there then of humane traditions They are firm in themselves Heb. Moulton Firm they must be because so joyned together Vis unita fortior but dissention is the mother of dissolution England is a mighty Animal saith a great Polititian which can never die except it kill it self They cannot be moved Or He cannot be moved He may say as Terminus of old Nullicedo I give place to none unlesse I please Verse 24. His heart is as firm as a stone He is corpore corde validissimus Of the sword-fish Plutarch saith that he hath a sword but not an heart to use it But the Whale hath courage to his bulk his heart is as firm as a stone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his head saith Scaliger is as hard as a flint In the hearts of some creatures saith Aristotle is found a bony or grisly hardness but the Whales heart is all as it were a bone and this bone as a stone As a pair of the neather milstone Metae upon which the whole weight lyeth the Greek call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 18.6 the Mill-Ass because it is the bigger and harder of the two The vulgar here for the neather Mill-stone hath the smiths-Anvil which by hammering is made harder Verse 25. When he raiseth up himself the mighty are afraid When he shewes himself like some moving mountain upon the surface of the water the most assured Pilotes or passengers are seized with fear of death and seek to make peace with God as those Marriners did Jon. 1.5 6 c. By reason of breakin gs Broughton reads of shiverings They purifie themselves Expiantse they beg pardon of sin and prepare to die Others render it aberrant they are dispirited and know not what course to take Others again they purge downwards their retentive faculty being weakned with fear they let go their excrements as Loper the traytour did when he was upon his tryal before the Lords of the Council and as God somewhere in Ezekiel threatneth his rebels that for fear of his displeasure they shall not be able to hold their water Verse 26. The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold So close are his scales so thick his skin that there is no wounding of him There was not of old it seemeth But now there is a way found of shooting and piercing of him so that he dieth with an horrible noise and out-cry Nor the Harbergeon A defensive weapon will be as uselesse as those other offensive for the Whale will soon swallow up the armed as well as the unarmed Verse 27. He esteemeth iron as straw and brasse as rotten wood He makes nothing of any thing that shall be done against him Bears and Lions may be wounded with hunting-weapons other Fishes with Eele-spears and the like not so the Whale or not so easily Verse 28. The arrow cannot make him flee Heb. Sons of the bow as chap. 5.7 Sparks are called sons of the coal Arrows were then as much in use as bullets are now Sling-stones are turned with him into stubble Those stones which the sling castes with so much force make as little impression upon his body as a festraw would which the hand of a child should push Verse 29. Darts are counted as stubble When any thing in the Decrees or Decretals likes not the Pope he sets Palea that is stubble upon it or Hoe non credo so doth this Leviathan upon all kind of weapons he slightes them The word here rendred darts is as strange as the weapon it signifieth is to us unknown lapides ballistae an engin whereby great stones were thrown against Walles or Towers as now Cannon-bullets to make a breath in them Catapulta aries vel simile aliquod tormentum Be they what they will the Whale fears them not no though they were as terrible to others as those two great pieces of Ordnance cast by Alphonsus Duke of Ferrara the one whereof he called the Earthquake the other Grandiabolo the great Devil Verse 30. Acumina testacea Sharp stones are under him Heb. Sharp pieces of the potsheard which prick him no more than if he lay upon the softest couch◠so hard is his belly He spreadeth sharp-pointed things upon the mine When he might lye softer he scorns it as our hardy forefathers some two or three hundred years agoe who ordinarily lay upon straw-pallets covered with canvas and around log under their heads instead of a bolster Hollinshed As
his head to a beam over him that so when he did but nod by reason of sleep he might be awakened thereby Is not this check to our oscitancy and carelesnese of searching the Scriptures and making them our daily and nightly study Hierom exhorted some godly women to whom he wrote Hier. ad Eâ—â— De custed Virgin not to lay the Bible out of their hands until being overcome with sleep and not able any longer to hold up their heads they bowed them down as it were to salute the leaves below them with a kiss Vers 3. And he shall be like a tree An Olive-tree say some from Psal 52.8 which is green all the year saith Pliny that in Noahs Floud kept its greenness though it had been so long time under the water and is therefore made an Embleme of the Resurrection Others will have it to be the Palm-tree from Psa 92.12 Nâ—t Hist 〈◊〉 16. cap. 20. Gen. 8.11 Purch Pilgri v. 2. p. 1466 which likewise is always green and very fruitful Plutarch saith that the Babylonians make three hundred and sixty Commodities of it The Tree whereon the Coquonuts grow in the Indies is said to be such as where with alone a ship may be built and furnished to Sea with Meat and Merchandize Let it be what tree it will that is here meant if Plato could say that Man in a tree inverted with the root above and the branches below and that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and heavenly Plant Plato Homer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as another hath it Much more may we say so of a godly man that Plant of renown rooted in Christ and fruited by the Spirit of a right constitution and righteous conversation Gal. 5.25 See Jer. 17.8 Ezekiel 47.12 Planted by the rivers of water In locis irriguis in moyst places where most trees thrive best understand it of those waters of the Sanctuary Ezek. 47.12 together with those never-failing influences of grace and consolation that are in him as a Well of water bubling up to eternal life Job 4.14 That bringeth forth his fruit in his season There are no barren trees in Gods Orchard and yet they may have their fits of barrenness as an Apple-tree sometimes hath but they will reâ—flourish with advantage as those Philippians did Chap. 4.10 see the Note there and bear fruit in the right season Nec praecocem nec serum Now every thing is beautiful in its season Eccles 5.11 and it was no small shame to Achitophel when it was told him by Hushai the Archite Thy counsel is good but not nâ—w 2 Sam. 17.7 His leaf also shall not wither Heb. fade for want of sap or safety from Christ the root but as the Olive of Palm-tree Semper in sue genere viret vigetque retaineth its green leaf and hath for its Motto Nec premor nec perimor so doth the good Soul persevere and persist in the profession and practise of the truth which is after godliness Tit. 1.1 Maugre the malice of Earth and of Hell Plin. l. 12. cap. 11. Aug. de C. 〈◊〉 lib. 21. cap. 〈◊〉 Of Tylos an Indian Island Pliny and Austin say That no tree therein growing doth at any time of the year lose their leaves Certain it is that saving faith cannot be lost altogether though it may suffer some decays Isa 6.13 And whatsoever he doth shall prosper So Josh 1.7 8. This and the like Promises must be understood with an exception of the Cross as need requireth 1 Pet. 1.6 Gain his prosperity that of the Soul I mean he shall be sure of Rom. 8.28.37 Temporal also so far as may make for his etenal good Pintus out of Pliny tells us That the Palm-tree will not grow well in a fat ground but in a light an sandy and that if the foyl be strong and fertile they must cast salt and ashes at the root to qualifie the strength of the ground As Christ is the true Vine so his Father is a good Husband-man and knoweth well how to order his trees of righteousness but usually Piety hath prosperity an is profitable to all things 1 Tim. 4.8 And outward prosperity if it follow close walking with God is very sweet as the Cypher when it followeth the Figure addeth to the Number though it be nothing in it self Vers 4. The ungodly are not so Not like any such tree afore described but rather like the Cypress-tree which the more it is watered is the less fruitful or like the Cyparit-tree whereof Pliny writeth that it is good for nothing no not for shew shadow or smell Saint Jude saith They are trees indeed but such as are twice dead pulled up by the roots vers 12. Twice dead they are said to be 1. Because a Spiritual death is so great a death that it may well go for two 2 Because those ungodly ones were dead both in regard of fruit and leaves truth of grace and any outward actings of grace Their fruit if any is but Hedge-fruit their leaves of formal profession wither and come to nothing if they prosper in the World as Sigonius observeth of Pope Zachary that he dyed Rebus non tà m piè quà m prosperè gestis Not over-pious and yet every prosperous it is that they may be cut down for ever Psal 37.2 such a temporary prosperity Plus deceptionis habet quà m delectationis saith Lactantius is more deceitful than delightful and is therefore well called by Bernard Misericordia omni indignatione crudelior a gift-less gift c. But are like the chaff Not so they are but much worse in many respects as it is fit they should be God will surely set a difference Mal. 3. ult See the note there A profane Souldier at the siege of a Town passing a place of danger was heard swearing and when one that stood by warned him saying Fellow Souldier do not Swear the bullets fly he answered They that swear come off as well as they that pray But what came of it Soon after a Shot hit him and down he fell The wicked is as chaff driven away in his wickedness but the righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 The word here rendred Chaff is Palea tenuissima minutissimè contrita chaft beaten to dust and therefore good for nothing but apt to be whiffled up and down with every wind of Doctrine with every puff of temptation A good man is as a tree stedfast and unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult An evil man as chaff light and worthless Religionem habens Ephemeram constant in nothing so much as in his inconstancy serves God by fits and starts flies in his face when afflicted as chaff doth in the face of the Winnower whiles the weightier Corn falls low at his feet See Job 21.18 〈◊〉 steris trent Psal 55.5 Hos 13.3 Mat. 3.12 with the notes Vers 5. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgement i. e. Causâ
cadent damnabunâ—ur at the Great Assizes they shall bee cast and condemned Revel 6.17 For the great day of his Wrath is come and who shall be able to stand If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear 1 Pet. 4.18 Surely no where but in Hell their own place Acts 1.25 not before God for he is a consuming fire Heb. 12. ult and they chaff or stubble fully dried See Isa 33.14 Not before Christ for he shall come in flaming fire rendring vengeance c. 2 Thess 1.7 not in Heaven for it 's an undefiled inheritance neither may any dirty Dogge trample on that golden pavement Revel 22.15 Not any longer on Earth defiled by their iniquities and therefore to bee purged by the fire of the last Day for the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 R. David Kimchi by Judgement here understandeth the day of the wicked mans death and indeed his Deaths-day is his Doomesday when he must take a fearful farewell and breath out his Soul and hope together with the breath of the same dying groan Job 27.8 11.20 Hinc illae Lachrymae hence that loth-to-depart though some set a good face upon it when to dye as Sir Thomas Moore who dyed for the Popes Supremacy with a light jest in his mouth Vespasian likewise dyed with a jest and Augustus in a Complement This was but the Hypocrisie of mirth for Death is the King of terror to a Natural man See Heb. 2.15 1 Sam. 15.32 28.20 Saul at the message of death swooned quite away and fell all along Quantus quantus erat as Peter Martyr phraseth it yea good Hezekiah wept when sentenced to death and the approach of it was to him Mar mar bitter bitterness Isa 38.3.17 he must have his faith at his fingers ends as one saith that will dye actively But all men have not faith 2 Thess 3.2 and those few that have are not always assured that their hearts shall live for ever as Psal 22.26 and that Death the Devils Serjeant to drag wicked men to Hell shall be to them the Lords Gentleman-usher to conduct them to Heaven as Mr. Brightman expresseth it Nor Sinners in the Congregation of the righteous They shall never set foot within heavens Threshold within that general Assembly that sacred Panegyris ample Amphitheatre the Congregation-house of crowned Saints and glorious Angels Tertullian saith of Pompies Theatre which was the greatest ornament of old Rome that it was Arx omnium turpitudinum a receptacle of all kind of Ribaldry and Roguery Not so Heaven There shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lye Rev. 21.27 Augustin The Irish air will sooner brook a Toad or a Snake than Heaven a Sinner Mali in area nobiscum esse possunt in horreo non possunt Chaff may be with Gods good Corn on the floor but in the Garner it shall not For Christ will throughly purge his floor and gather his Wheat into the Garner but will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire Mat. 3.12 Vers 6. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous Or acknowledgeth approveth administreth and ordereth all things to their eternal Salvation as may appear by the opposition wherein there is a Rhetorical Aposiopesis Gods knowledge of men and their ways is not meerly Intuitive but Approbative of the good and Vindictive of the evil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Providence which is the carrying on of his Decree is that helm which turns about the wholeship of the Universe with singular skill and justice Dominus diligit dirigit viam id est vitam omne institutum justorum See Psal 37.18 142.4 Nahum 1.7 Prov. 2.8 with the notes there God knows the righteous by name Exod. 33.17 knows them for his own looks upon them and their whole course with singular delight and complacency they are his Hephzibah Isa 62.4 the dearly beloved of his Soul Jer. 12.7 Verba notitiae apud Hebraos secum trahunt affectum But the way of the ungodly shall perish Their practices and persons shall perish together be done away be lost for ever And why because the Lord knoweth them not unless it be for black Sheep as we say or rather for reprobate Goats Mat. 25. Hence their Souls are flung out as out of the middle of a sling when the Souls of the Saints are bound up in the bundle of life with the Lord their God 1 Sam. 25.29 PSAL. II. Vers 1 VVHy do the Heathen rage Why or for what The Psalm beginneth abruptly with an angry interrogation q.d. What are they mad to attempt such things as whereof they can neither give any good reason nor expect any good effect The Lord Christ of whom David was both a Father and a Figure as here appeareth shall surely reign maugre all the rage and resistance of his enemies who may seem to be ambitious of their own destruction and are therefore in this Psalm schooled and counselled to desist Nothing is more irrational than irreligion Why do the Heathen tumultuously rage or hurtle together Fremunt ferociunt When the Philistines heard that David was made King in Hebron they came up to seek him and to unking him 2 Sam. 5.17 so the Heathen and People that is Gentiles and Jews would have dealt by Christ Acts 4.25 26. The Devil ever since hee was cast out of Heaven tumultuateth and keepeth ado so do unruly spirits acted and agitated by him Dan. 6.15 Then those men kept a stir with the King against Daniel it is the same Hebrew word that is here and possibly Daniels spirit might think of Davids terms John 11.33 Jesus troubled himself but after another manner than these his enemies his passions were without mud as clear water in a Chrystal Glass what was an act of power in Christ is an act of weakness if not of wickedness in others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 4.25 The Apostles Greek word for this in the text denoteth rage pride and fierceness as of Horses that Neigh and rush into the Battel And the people imagine Heb. meditate or mutter a vain thing an empty design that shall come to noting Niteris incassum Christi submergere puppem Fluctuat at nunquam mergitur illaratis Dipt may the Churches Ship be but not drown'd Christ will not fail her enemies to confound Some think that by this muttering people are meant such as act not open outrages against Christ but yet in words murmur and mutiny whispering Treason Vers 2. The Kings of the earth set themselves Or stand up as if they would do the deed and bear down all before them The many had acted their part vers 1. and now the mighties shew themselves but go off again with shame enough The Spanish Frier used to say there were but few Princes in Hell and why because there were but few in all It was a
wasted the Fig-tree Christ cursed so forcible is his curse Vers 37. Mark the perfect mâ—n c. As we must treasure up experiences our selves so we must stir up others to do the like There is a wo â—o such as consider not the operation of Gods hands Isa 5.12 For the end of that man is peace Though his beginning and middle may bee troublesome yet his end his after-and at least shall be peace He shall by death enter into peace rest in his bed Isa 57.2 Vers 38. But the transgressours c. Here the end is worse than the beginning Sin ever ends tragically The end of the wicked shall be cut off Their end is not death but destruction they are killed with death Rev. 2.23 life and hope end together Vers 39. But the salvation of the righteous c. 〈◊〉 ut paâ—oâ—i◠〈◊〉 coâ—â—lectar their salvation temporal and eternal is of the Lord so is also the destruction of the wicked as is here necessarily implied He is their strength c. That they faint not sink not under the heaviest burden of their light afflictions which are but for a moment Vers 40. And the Lord shall help them c. He shall He shall He shall Oh the Rhetorick of God! the safety of the Saints the certainty of the Promises PSAL. XXXVIII A Psalm of David to bring to remembrance Made purposely for a memorial both of what he had suffered and from what he had been delivered See 1 Chron. 16.4 Exod. 30.16 Lev. 2.2 6.15 Recordatâ—â—â— autem intelligitur miserie ex misericordia Psal 132. Isa 62.6 63.7 It is probable that David had so laid to heart the Rape of his Daughter Tamar the Murther of his eldest Son Amnon the flight of his next Son Absolom and other troubles that befell him Basil thinks Absoloms conspiracy Ahitophels perfidy Shimeies insolency c. that it cost him a great fit of sickness out of which hardly recovering he penned this and some other Psalms as the 35.39 40. but this especially for a Momento to imminde him of his own late misery and Gods never-failing mercy to him Both these we are wondrous apt to forget and so both to lose the fruit of our afflictions by falling afresh to our evil practices as Children soon forget a whipping and to rob God our Deliverer of his due praises like as with Children eaten bread is soon forgotten Both these mischiefs to prevent both in himself and others for we are bound not only to observe Gods Law but also to preserve it as much as may be from being broken David composed this Psalm for to record or to cause remembrance See the like title Psal 70. and for a form for a sick man to pray by as Kimchi noteth not to be sung for those in Purgatory as some Papists have dreamed Vers 1. O Lord rebuke me not in thy wrath He beginneth and endeth the Psalm with Petitions filleth it up with sad complaints wherein we shall finde him groaning but not grumbling mourning but not murmuring for that is not the guise of Gods people He beginneth with Eheu Jehova non recuso coargui castigari Correct me O Lord but with Judgement not in anger lest thou bring me to nothing Jer. 10.24 See Psal 6.1 with the Notes Vers 2. For thine arrows stick fast in me i. e. Sicknesses of body R. Obadiah Deus amatquod sagittat Aug. and troubles of minde Job 6.4 Psal 18.14 the Jew-Doctors say that he had a Leprosie for fix Months and that the Divine presence was taken away from him so that he complained not without cause But these were sagitta salut is saith Chrysostom Arrows of Salvation Love-tokens from the Lord not unlike Jonathans arrows 1 Sam. 20.36 and he had been fore-warned of them by Nathan the Prophet 1 Sam. 12 and so bore them the better Praevisa jacula minus forinnt Darts fore-seen are in a manner dintless And thine band presseth me sore Heb. Thou lettest down thy hand upâ—s me Now Gods hand is a mighty band 1 Pet. 5.6 and the weight of it is importable but that Vna eademque manus c. Vers 3. There is no soundness in my flesh because of 〈…〉 This was the immediate cause of Davids misery it came from â—ove displeased and 〈…〉 sins seldom â—â—â—pe better But blessed be our Almighty 〈…〉 who 〈◊〉 health out of sickness by bringing thereby the body of death into a Consumption Neither is there any rest in my bones â—is repetit mere lâ—gentium He saith the same thing twice as Mourners use to do but with an aggravation of his pain reaching to his very bones Because of my sin This was the remote cause of his present sufferings and is the true Mother of all mans miserie Now when these two Gods wrath and mans sin meet in the soul as physick and sickness in the stomack there must needs be much unrest till they be vomited up by confession T is as naturall for guilt to brâ—â—d disquiet as for putrid matter to brâ—â—d vermin Let God therefore be justified and every mouth stopped Vers 4. Sicut aquae praevalentes in quibus erat absorptus Kimchi For mine iniquities are gone over my head So that I am even overwhelmed by them and almost drowned in perdition and destruction The Gospel is post naeufragium tabula and assureth us that God hath cast all our sins into the bottom of the Sea and this keepeth the head of a sinking soul above water As an heavy burden How light soever sin seemeth in the committing it will lye full heavy even as a Talent of lead Zach. 5.7 or as an huge Mountain Heb. 12.1 A facie irae tuae A facie peccati mei A facie stulritiae meae when once we come to a sight and sense of it when Gods wrath and mans sin shall face one another as the former verse hath it according to the originall Vers 5. My wounds stink and are corrupt What his grief or disease was we read not some say the Leprosy some take all this allegorically the word rendred wounds Livores vibices turnices signifieth stripes scarres wailes mattery soares running ulcers the effects of the envenomed arrowes of the Almighty Could we but foresee what sin will cost us we durst not but be innocent That we do not is extream foolishnesse as David here acknowledgeth Because of my foolishnesse In not considering aforehand the hainousnesse of my sinâ—nor the heavinesse of the divine displeasure The word signifieth unadvised rashnesse Prov. 14.17 and t is probable he meaneth his great sin with Bathsheba wherein he was miscarried by his lusts to his cost See Psal 107.17 18. Because of my foolishnesse i.e. Quia non praveni Nathanons confessione saith R. Obadiah because I prevented not Nathans comming by a voluntary confession of my sin unto the Lord. Vers 6. I am troubled Heb. wryed I am bowed down c. Incurvus et prorsuâ— obstipus arroque vulâ—u squallidus
greatnesse before Absolens disturbed mee and drove mee out though he could not but be sensible of such a losse we know what miserable moans Cicere made when fent into banishment how impatient Cato and many others were in like case so that they became their own deathsmen but after Thee Lord and the enjoyment of thy publick ordinances from which I am now alasse hunted and hindred After that Gods holy Spirit hath once touched a soul it will never be quier untill it stands pointed God-ward Vers 2. My Soul thirsteth for God More than ever it did once for the waâ—er of the Well of Bethelem and that because he is the living God the fountain of living waters that only can cooll and quench my desires Jer. 2.13 17.13 so as I shall never thirst again Joh. 4.14 whereas of all things else we may say Quo plus sunt pota plus sitiuntur aqua The Rabbines note here Ovid. Kimchi Aben-Ezra that David saith not so hungreth but so thirsteth my soul because men are more impatient of thirst than of hunger they can go diverse dayes without meat Curt ex Diodoro but not without drink Alexander lost a great part of his army marching through the Wildernesse of the Susitans by want of water When shall I come and appear before God Heb. And see the face of God viz. in his Tabernacle Eheu igitur quando tandem mibi miserrimo dabitur ut te in aede tua conspiciam These earnest pantings inquietations and unsatisfiable desires after God and his ordinances are sure signes of true grace But woe to our worship-scorners c. Vers 3. My tears have been my meat day and night Hunters say the Hart sheddeth tears or something like tears when he is pursued and not able to escape Hereunto David might allude Sure it is that as Hinds by calving so men by weeping cast out their sorrowes Job 39.3 Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor And Act. and Mon. 1457. Affert solatium lugentibus suspiriorum societ as saith Basil sighs are an ease of sorrow Of Mr. Bradford the Martyr it is reported that in the midst of dinner he used oft to muse having his hat over his eyes from whence came commonly plenty of tears dropping on his trencher 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The better any are So Psal 80.5 the more inclined to weeping as David than Jonathan 1 Sam. 20. Here we have him telling us that his tears were his meat or his bread as Gregory readeth it and he giveth this reason that like as the more bread wee eat the dryer we are and the more thirsty so the more tears of godly sorrow we let fall the more we thirst after that living fountain springing from above Davids greatest grief was that he was banished from the Sanctuary and next to that the reproachfull blasphemy of his enemies hitting him in the teeth with his God as if not able or not willing to relieve him now in his necessity and bitterly upbraiding him with his hopes as altogether vain Whiles they continually say unto mee Where is thy God Violenti certe impetus saith Vatablus here these were violent shocks indeed and such as wherewith Davids faith might have been utterly overthrown had it not been the better rooted and withall upheld by the speciall power of the Spirit of grace Other of Gods suffering Saints have met with the like measure At Orleance in France as the bloody Papists murthered the Protestants they cryed out where is now your God what is become of all your prayers and Psalms now Let your God that you called upon save you if he can Mr. Clarks Gen. Martyrol P. 316. Others sang in scorn Judge and revenge my cause O Lord Others Have mercy on us Lord c. The Queen Mother of Scotland having received aid from France forced the Protestants for a while to retire to the High-Lands whereupon she scoffingly said where is now John Knox his God My God is now stronger than his yea even in Fife but her braggs lasted not long for within a few dayes Mr. Knox his life by Mr. Clark six hundred Protestants beat above four thousand French and Scots c. Gods Servants fare the better for the insolencies of their enemies who when they say where is now their God might as well say betwixt the space of the new and old Moon where is now the Moon when as it is never nearer the Sun than at that time Vers 4. When I remember these things viz. My present pressures compared with my former happiness Cic. de Fin. 1. 2. Sen. deben 1.4 c. 22. Miserum sanè est fuisse felicem The Epicures held but I beleeve they did not beleeve themselves therein that a man might be cheerful amidst the most exquisite torments Ex prâ—teritarum upluptatum recordatione by the remembrance of his former pleasures and delights David found this here but a slight and sorry comfort though he better knew how than any of them to make the best of it and his delights had been farre more solid and cordial I pour out my soul See Job 30.16 with the Note For I had gone with a multitude Heb. A thick croud or throng of good peole frequâ—â—ting the publick Ordinances and David in the head of them One rendreth it In umbra vel umbrella sicut mos est Orientalium ambulare umbrellis contra ardorem solis accommodatis I went with them to the house of God Lente Itabam I went with a gentle pace Gressâ—â— grallatorio He speaketh saith Vatablus of the order observed by the faithful when they went to the Sanctuary viz. in comely equipage singing praise to God Kimchi in 〈◊〉 Radiâ— and confessing his goodness Vers 5. Why art thou â—ast down O my soul Here David seemeth to be Homo divisus in duas partes saith Vatablus a man divided into two parts as indee devery new man is two men and what is to be seen in the Shulamite but as it were the company of two Armies Cant. 6.13 David chideth David out of his dumps So did Alice Benden the Martyr rehearsing these very words when she had been kept in the Bishops prison all alone nine weeks with bread and water and received comfort by them in the midst of her miseries Act. Monâ— 1797. And why art thou disquieted in me A good mans work lieth most within doors he hath more ado with himself than with all the world besides he prayeth oft with that Ancient Libera me Domine à malo homine meip so Deliver me Lord from that naughty man my self How oft do we punish our selves by our passions as the Lion that beateth himself with his own tail Grief is like Lead to the soul heavie and cold sinking it downward taking off the wheels of it and disabling it for duty like as a Limb that is out of joynt can do nothing without deformity and pain Keep up thy spirit therefore and watch against
and God will receive you graciously pouring the oyl of his grace into your broken Vessels This comforted Bernard on his death bed he dyed with this sentence in his mouth Je. Manl. loc com 73. Austin caused it to be written on the wall over against his bed where he lay sick and dyed Many poor soules even in times of Popery had Heaven opened unto them by meditating on this Psalm and especially on this 17. vers Vers 18. Do good in thy good pleasure unto Sion Having made his own peace with God he now prayeth for the Church and the rather because by his foul sins he had hazzarded or rather exposed both Sion and Jerusalem Church and State to divine displeasure Delirantreges plectuntur Achivi Build thou the walls of Jerusalem i. e. Protect defend and maintain the civill State grant all things necessary for its safety and well-being supply of all wants confirmation and increase of all blessings Thus pray we Jer. 29.7 Psal 122.6 7 8. for except the Lord keep the City c. See Isa 5.1 2 3. 27.3 Hee is a wall of fire Rev. 20.9 of water Isa 33.20 21. say therefore as Isa 26.1 and beware of security sensuality senselesnesse c. Vers 19. Then shalt thou bee pleased with the sacrifices c. i. e. Such as are offered in faith and according to the will of God Psal 4.6 Then shall they offer Bullocks upon thine Altar They shall be free-hearted and frequent in thy work and service va torpori nostro Woe to our dulnesse and backwardness in these happy dayes of peace and free profession which we had need improve as they did Act. 9.31 Otherwise we may desire to see one of the dayes of the Son of man and not see it Luk. 19.22 Go to Shiloh c. PSAL. LII A Psalm of David Of the same time and argument likely with Psal 58. Maschil Or to teach that the end of the Wicked is evill Redarguit pravos mores saith the Syriack When Doeg the Edomite When Abiathar escaping the slaughter-slave the blood-hound as Edomite may signifie came and told David what was befaln the Priests and their City This was no small affliction to David the rather because by telling the Priest a lye himself had occasioned that Massacre Hereupon for the comfort of himself and other good people who were startled at this sad accident and might be deterred thereby from succouring David he penned this Psalm When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul c. Doeg is a fit name for a courtier for it signifieth a solicitous or busy-headed fellow a catch-poll a progging-companion an informer one that listeneth after rumours and carrieth tales to curry favour An Edomite he was by Nation but a Proselyte in pretence at least and one that was at that time detained before the Lord either by vertue of some vow or because it was the Sabbath-day and he would not travel on it or to perform some other religious service 1 Sam. 21.7 this dissembled sanctity was double iniquity and he became a type of Judas as some make him He came and told Saul Like a Parasite and a pick-thank as he was when as he should rather have told Ahimelech that David was out of Sauls favour and sought for to the slaughter as Kimchi here noteth on vers 3. but he concealed that that he might accuse Ahimelech and so slew three at once saith another Rabbine viz. himself Saul and Ahimeleck calumniatorem calumniatum calumniam audientem And said David is come to the house of Ahimeleck Few words but full of poyson Verba Doegi erant pauci sed multum nocua Kimchi Midrash Tillin leviter volant non leviser vulnerant See the story more at large 1 Sam. 22 9. c. The Rabbines say from Levit. 14. where the same word is used of the Leprous house that is here vers 5. of Doegs doom that he was for this fact smitten with leprosy and afterwards sent to Hell which they gather from Psal 120.4 Vers 1. Why boastest thou thy self in mischief thou mighty man Or Thou Giart for so he seemed to himself when he had slain tot inermes nec repugnantes so many naked men not making any resistance though they were the Priests of Jehovah and afterward had smitten the innocent inhabitants of the City of Nob together with the women the infants and the Cattel like another Ajax flagellifer or Hercules furens and now vaunted himself in that mischievous prowesse Egregiam veroâ—undem c. The Hebrew word for boasting here signifieth also madness when it is taken in the worse sence as Jer. 46.9 See Prov. 2.14 and to boast of his hearts desire is the note of an Atheist Psal 10.3 The goodness of God endureth continually Maugre thy spitefulness R. Solomon Kabuenaki Midrash Tillin God is good to Israel to the pure in heart and will be so The Rabbins make this the sense If Ahimeleth had not releeved me God would have stirred up some other to have done it Some others understand it thus The goodness of God towards thee a wicked wretch endureth all the day This should lead thee to repentance But thou after the hardness c. Rom. 2.4 Vers 2. Thy tongue deviseth mischiefes i.e. Cogitat id est eructat venteth the mischievous devices of thy minde being an inter preter and an instrument fit for such a purpose Such another Doeg was Nicholas saunders Priest the Fire-brand of Earl Deswâ—â—â—ds Rebellion in Ireland Anno 1580. a restless and wretched man whose foul mouth was at length stopped with famine that had been ever open to stir up rebellions against the State that had uttered so many Blasphemies against God and his holy Truth and invented so many loud and lewdlyes against men Like a sharp razor working deceitfully That instead of shaving the hair launcheth the flesh or missing the beard cutteth the throat Exscindit carnem cum crinibus R. Solom Consutro aberrans jugulum petit whence Dionysius the Tyrant would not trust any Barber no not his own Daughters to shave him but singed off his own hair with hot coals The slanderers Tongue as sharp as a razor or as the quills of a Porcupine flasheth and gasheth the good names of others and that many ways viz. both by denying disguising leslening concealing misconstruing things of good report and also by forging increasing aggravating or uncharitable spreading things of evil report not for any love to the truth nor for respect to justice nor yet for the bettering of the Hearer or the Delinquent but only to prejudice the one and to incense the other This was Doegs sin and denominateth him a Lyer vers 3. though hee had spake but the truth Vers 3. Thou lovest evil more than good Indeed evil only and not at all good whatever thou pretendest Thy heart is naught and thence it is that thy tongue is so mischievons as stinking breath cometh from corrupt inwards And
knowing it the most that they are able to do They present it therefore to God as that Grecian did his small gift to Augustus saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If I had a better thing I could well beteem it thee That I may daily perform my vows Which till they be paid a true-hearted Votary is in pain for he accounteth them due debts to God PSAL. LXII APsalm of David Who being well assured that his prayers in the former Psalm were heard and should be answered breaketh forth into this triumphant profession of his faith Lo here the happy fruit of faithful and fervent prayer Vers 1. Truly my soul waiteth upon God Waiting is nothing else but Hope and Trust lengthened and hereof David giveth us an excellent example in his own person Idque tantâ tamque vegetâ cum magnitudine animi cul ipsa quoque sententiae vocâ—s respondent and that with so good a courage set forth in suitable expressions that he who hath this Psalm by heart and hath laid it to his heart cannot but be transformed into the same Image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord 2 Cor. 3.18 From him cometh my salvation Take it in the full extent not only as it signifieth the privative part of mans happiness but the positive part also and preservation therein Vers 2. He only is my rock c. See Psal 18.2 3. I shall not be greatly moved Non labascam multo lapsu Vatabl. Tehom Nabi bah for the Lord putteth under his hand I shall not be moved greatly or into the great abysse as Aben-Ezra hath it into Hell as other Rabbines sense it I shall not be tempted above that I am able as 1 Cor. 10.13 persecuted I may be but not relinquished cast down but not cast off 2 Cor. 4.9 shaken but for my better settlement at last Vers 3. How long will yee imagine mischief against a man What though I am but a man and in your eyes a mean despicable creature yet know yee that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself Psal 4.3 where David bespeaketh his enemies with like sharpness as here for their malice and madness against him The Hebrew word rendred imagine is found only here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Irrnitis the Septuagint and Vulgar Latine render it How long will ye rush against a man Austin Quousque apponitis super hominem sc Onera opprobria how long lay you load of injuries and indignities upon me Yee shall be slain all of you Or Will yee be murthered Will yee run upon the Pikes Are you ambitious of your own ruine As a bowing wall shall yee be Born down by the weight of your own wickedness As a bulging wall standeth not long and as a rotten Hedge if but trod on breaketh under a man so shall yee be suddenly destroyed and with little ado Thus he threatneth his enemies the proudest of them being himself gotten upon the rock that was higher than he Psal 61.2 Vers 4. They only consult to cast him down from his excellency Or yet they consult q. d. Notwithstanding all that I can say or that God will do to them they will on in their evil devises and indeavours against me there is no reclaming of them Deus quos destruit dement at They delight in lyes Not only he that maketh a Lye but he that loveth and delighteth in it when made by another shall bee shut out of Heaven Revel 22.15 See Rom. 1. â—lt They bless with their mouthes Heb. With his month that is every one doth so neither is there ever a better of these glavering companions dissembling scrubs Vers 5. My soul wait thou only upon God They trust not God at all that is not alone He that stands with one foot on a Rock and another foot upon a Quick sand will sink and perish as certainly as he that standeth with both feet on a Quick-sand David knew this and therefore calleth earn and earnestly upon his Soul for his business lay most within doors to trust only upon God See vers 1. For my expectation is from him If he will not help me none else shall but it is he that saith Look unto me and be saved for I am God and there is none else Isa 45.22 Vers 6. He only is c. Versus amaebaeus see vers 2. I shall not be moved Before it was I shall not be greatly moved now upon further exercise of his trust it is I shall not be moved Ita in lucta crescit lux fidei sides fit firmior faith is made stronger by trials Vers 7. In God is my salvation and my glory c. By these many Adjuncts and Attributions David helpeth his faith and quelleth the Commotions of his head-strong affections See Psal 18.2 Vers 8. Trust in him at all times As well in the fail of outward comforts as in the abundance of them trust him without a pawn trust in a killing God as Job did Pour out your hearts before him sc In prayer 1 Sam. 1.11 first rent your hearts ut effundatur peccatum saith Kimchi and then your them out as water Larn. 2.19 not as Oyl which sticks to the sides of the Vessel that held it but as water that will out every drop make a plain and full confession of all your sins in prayer lest God say to you of your sins as Samuel did to Jesse of his sons Are these all See the practice hereof in those penitent Israelites 1 Sam. 7.6 and give not over the practice of Mortification till you feel your hearts fall asunder in your bosoms like drops of water If iniquity be harboured there prayer is obstructed and if it do break out it will have the scent and savour of that iniquity upon it God is a refuge for us A safe and sure refuge not as men who are a lye vers 9. and were never true to those that trusted them Vers 9. Surely men of low degree are vanity Man is a depending Creature and like the Vine must have somewhat to lean upon apt he is to leave God and cleave to the Creature to make either Men or Means his refuge David therefore dehorteth from both in this and the next verse shewing that men of what degree soever are in no wise to be confided in The word rendred Vanity denoteth a vain light thing such as is the breath of ones mouth or a bubble on the water Men of high degree are a lye There is no more truth nor assurance in them than in a false tale also they frustrate mens hopes as a barren Fruit-tree Habbak 3.17 They are altogether lighter c. Put all Mankind into one bundle into one balance and vanity into the other and it will weigh them down Vt ascendant ipsi pra vanitate simul Vers 10. Trust not in oppression c. In the fail of Persons some may think that Things may be trusted to as Wealth Wit Power
14. For all the day long have I been plagued Gods best beloved are most afflicted neither have any out of hell ever suffered more than the heirs of heaven See my treatise called Gods love-tokens And chastened every morning Singulis matutinis I am no sooner awake than some new misery seizeth mee quasi egisset excubias as if it had laid wait for mee Vers 15. If I say I will speak thus If I should give way to such a wicked thought c. Here the Spirit beginneth to get the upper hand to gain the wind and the hill of the flesh The Spirit would alwaies get the better of the flesh were it upon equal tearms But when the Flesh shall get the hill as it were of temptation and shall have wind to drive the smoak upon the face and eyes of the Combatant that is to blind him upon such a disadvantage he may seem to be overcome Behold I shall offend against the generation c. As if they were no children because so sharply chastened whereas the Saints are unto God as the apple of his eye that little man in the eye as the word signifieth The eye is a tender part yet when dim and dusky we apply sharp powders or waters to it to eat out the web pearl or blindness and yet love it never the lesse No more doth God his Children though he apply corrosives or causticks to their flesh if need require Vers 16. When I thought to know this it was too painfull for mee Heb. It was labour in mine eyes labour in vain I could do no good on 't sed labyrinthis Maeandris inextricabilibus implicabar I did but tread a Maze for Gods Judgements are unsearchable and his wayes of providence are past finding out they are farre above the reach of human reason Vers 17. Untill I went into the Sanctuary of God And there consulted with the Scriptures heard the lectures of the law prayed went thorough all the exercises of Gods School Then understood I their end To be such as God pronounceth of them in the Scriptures and as the effect and common experience sometimes declareth For some wicked God punisheth here In Psal 36. lest his providence but not all lest his patience and promise of Judgement should be called into question saith Austin Vers 18. Surely thou didst set them in slippery places Where they can have no more certainty than if they went upon the smoothest Ice or walked upon a mine of gun-powder The Turks seeing so few of their Visiers to dye in their beds have taken up this proverb Hee that is even in the greatest office is but a statue of glass Thou castedst them down into destruction Improbos ex magna prosperitate tanquam ex Tarpeia rupe in barathrum perditionis praecipitasti Haman for instance Vers 19. How are they brought into desolation c Such as the Psalmist expresseth by an exclamation caused by an admiration at Gods dreadfull Judgements which his faith beheld as present and unavoidable and such as astonied the beholders See it in the literall and mysticall Babylon Jer. 51.37 41. Rev. 18.10 17. They are utterly consumed with terrours Heb. They are ended they are consumed with troublesome frights especially when from their death-beds they behold that three-fold terrible spectacle Death Judgement Hell and all to be passed thorough by their poor souls Vers 20. As a dream when one awaketh Such is the wicked mans pomp and bravery now what are dreams but pleasant follies and delusions the empty bubbles of the mind Children and tales of fancy idle and fruitless notions meer bawbles Sic Mycillus apud Lucian See Isa 29.7 8. The Fisher-man in Theocritus dreamt that he was some demy-god but when he awaked all his golden hopes vanished The Chaldee explaineth it As the dream of a drunken man who sleeping on the steep of a rock may think himself a King and starting for joy may soon break his neck at the bottom So O Lord when thou awakest thou shalt despise their image That is that whereof they dreamt and whereon they do still doat viz. their worldly pomp and pride which is nothing else but magnum nihil a glorious phancy a non-entity Some read it thus When thou shalt raise up the dead thou shalt despise their image that is their souls they shall rise to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 Vers 21. Thus my heart was grieved Heb. Leavened and soured sc with the greatnesse of godly sorrow quasi aceto acri perfundebatur it was steeped as it were in Vineger So Peter wept bitterly waters of Marah flowed from his eyes And I was pricked in my reins Pricked at heart as those Act. 2. put to as much pain as those that have the stone in the kidneyes exceedingly grieved for my mis-construing and mis-censuring of Gods wayes and people Vers 22. So foolish was I and ignorant By this be-fooling and be-beasting himself hee retracteth and bewaileth his former fluctuation and folly vers 2 3. This is the proper fruit of his godly sorrow verse 21. I was as a beast before thee Heb. Behemoth as a great beast or as many beasts in one Thus he aggravateth and layeth load upon his sin and so must we Vers 23. Nevertheless I am continually with thee Or yet I was always with thee sc when at worst Infirmities discard us not The Marriage knot is not dissolved by every falling out not the League betwixt Princes broken by the wrongs done by Pirates Thou hast holden me by my right hand That I should not utterly fall from thee there was still a supporting grace Quando 〈◊〉 mens vacilâ—â—baâ— Aben-Ezra Vers 24. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel We had his repentance vers 21 22. his faith 23. and here we have 〈◊〉 hope of safety here and salvation hereafter And afterwards receive me As thou didst holy Henoch Vers 25. Whom have I in heaven but thee I would I were in heaven with thee so Aben-Ezra rendreth it and to the same sense Beza paraphraseth Apage terra quod utinam Deus in calo jam tecum essem quid enim est in terra quod me vel tantillum vetineat Vers 26. My flesh faileth and my heart faileth Some think that the Psalmist through egression of affection unto God having spent and exhaled his spirits fell into a swoon out of which he recovered again by the joy of the Lord which was his strength even the rock of his heart The Greek saith The God of my heart Vers 27. For loe they that are farre from thee shall perish How can they do otherwise when as Salvation is farre from them Psal 119.155 And upon this ground it is that I do so earnestly desire to be with thee sith Thou hast destroyed or shut up from punishment all them that go a whoring from thee Having their hearts full of Harlotry as appeareth by their courting the Creature Vers 28. But it is good for me to draw nigh
c. Heb. That they would confess it to the Lord both in secret and in society This is all the rent that God requireth he is content that we have the comfort of his blessings so he may have the honour of them This was all the fee Christ looked for for his cures Go and tell what God hath done for thee Words seem to be a poor and slight recompence but Christ saith Nazianzen calleth himself the Word Vers 9. For he satisfieth the longing soul c. This is a recaâ—iâ—ulation of the first part vers 5 6 7. and setteth forth the reason why the Redeemed should praise God out of the sweet experience they have had of his wonderful providence and goodness toward them And filleth the hungry soul with good things This flower the blessed Virgin picketh out of Davids garden among many others out of other parts of holy Scripture wherein it appeateth she was singularly well versed and puts it into her Posie Luke 1.53 Vers 10. Such as sit in darkness c. Here come in the second fort of Gods redeemed or rescued Ones viz. captives and prisoners whose dark and doleful condition is in this verse described And in the shadow of death In dark caves and horrid prisons where there is Luctus ubique pavor plurima mortis imago Such was Josephs first prison Jeremies miry dungeon Lollards Tower the Bishop of Londons Cole-house c. Being bound in affliction and irâ—â— Or in poverty and ivâ—n as Manasseb was Many are the miseries that poor prisoners undergo Good 〈◊〉 had the experience of it and Zegedians and the Mattyâ—â— and divers of Gods dear servants in the late waâ—â— hâ—tâ— A certain-pious Prince discoursing of the dangers that were to bâ—e then expected for the profession of Religion said Nibisse magâ—s metuere quâ—m diururnos carceres that he feared nothing so much as perpetual imprisonment Vers 11. Because they rebelled against the words of God Sin is at the bottome of all mens miseries as the procreant cause thereof For God afflicteth not willingly nor grieveth the children of men Lam. 3.35 but they rebel against his words written in the Scriptures or at least in their hearts and so he is concerned in point of honour to subdue them And contemned the counsel A foul fault See Luke 7.30 Verse 12. Therefore he brought down their heart That proud peece of flesh Quod erat elatum verba Dei contempsit saith Kimchi which had stouted it out with God and thought to have carried it away with a strong hand as Manosseh that sturdy Rebel till God had hampered him and laid him in cold irons Vers 13. Then they cryed unto the Lord See vers 6. And be saved them c. This is comfort to the greatest finners if they can but find a praying heart God will find a pitying heart and rebels shall be received with all sweetness if at length they return though brought in by the cross Vers 14. He brought them out of darkness He sent his Mandamus as Psal 44.4 and that did the deed as Act. 5.19 and 12.7 Vers 15. Oh that men c. See vers 8. Vers 16. For he hath broken the gates of brass If Sampson could do so how much more the Almighty whom nothing can withstand Nature may be stopped in her course as when the fire burnt not Men may not be able to do as they would Angels good or bad may be hindred because in them there is an essence and an executive power between which God can step at his pleasure and interpose his Veto But who or what shall hinder the most High Vers 17. Foâ—ls because of their transgression Propter viam defectionis suae by means of their defection their departing away from the living God through an evil heart of unbeleef Heb. 3.12 And because of their iniquities The flood-gates whereof are set open as it were by that their defection from God For now what should hinder Are afflicted Heb. Do afflict themselves procure their own ruthe if not ruine and so prove sinners against their own souls as those Num 16. Vers 18. Their soul abborreth That is theirâ—st mach loatheth it as unsavoury though it be never so dainty An appetite to our meat is an unconceivable mercy and as we say A sign of health And they draw neer to the gates of death Jam ipsum mortis limen pulsant as till then little sense of sin or fear of the wrath to come See Job 33.19 20 21 22 23. with the Notes Vers 19. Then they cry c. Quando medicus medicine non prosunt saith Kimchi when Physicians have done their utmost See vers 6. Vers 20. He sent his word and bealed them He commanded deliverance and it was done unless there be an allusion to the essential Word who was afterwards to take flesh and to heal the diseased And delivered them from their destructions Heb. From their corrupting-pits or graves which do now even gape for them And he calleth them theirs quia per peccatum faderunt eas saith Kimchi because by their sin themselves have digged them Vers 21. Oh that men c. See vers 8. And for his wonderful works Men are misericordiis miraculis obsesse and it were no hard matter to find a miracle in most of our mercies Vers 22. And let them sacrifice c. If they have escaped sickness let them offer a Passeover and if they have recovered a Thank-offering Heathens in this case praised their Esculapius Papists their Sebastian Valentine Apollonia c. Earâ— of wax they offer to the Saint who as they suppose cureth the ears eyes of wax to the Saint that cureth the eyes c. But it is Jehovah only who healeth us And declare his Works c. Memorize and magnifie them Vers 23. They that go down is the Sea in ships Here we have a fourth specimen or instance of Gods gracious and wise dispensations towards men in their trading or traffiquing by Sea These are said to go down to Sea because the banks are above it but the water is naturally higher then the land and therefore Saylers observe that their ships flye faster to the shore than from it But what a bold man saith the Poet was he that fiâ—st put forth to Sea Illi robur et triplex Circa pectus erat qui fragilem truci Commisit pelage ralem Primus Hec timuit praetipitem Africum c. Harat. Od lib. â— 3 That do business in great waters Merchants and Matriners who fish and find Almug or Coral saith Kimcht who do export and import commodities of all sorts Vers 24. These see the works of the Lord c. In Sea-monsters as Whales and Whirlepools and sudden change of weather and the like not a few Ebbs and Flows Pearls Islands c. These are just wonders and may fully convince the veriest Atheist that is Vers 25. For he commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind c. Of this Seneca
my rest for ever It was so because God was pleased to make it so hee rested in his love hee would seek no further Zeph. 3.17 For I have desired it This alone made the difference as it a so did betwixt Aarons rod and the rest that were laid with it Vers 15 I will abundantly bless her provision Her stock and her store Viâ—tico ejus affatim benedicam Tâ—em so that she shall not want necessaries which yet shee shall hunt for that is labour for as the Hebrew word importeth and know how shee comes by therefore it is added I will satisfie her poor with bread Dainties I will not promise them a sufficiency but not a superfluity poor they may be but not destitute bread they shall have and of that Gods plenty as they say enough to bring them to their Fathers house where is bread enough Let not therefore the poor Israelite fear to bring his offerings or to disfurnish himself for Gods worship c. Vers 16 I will also cloath her Priests c. So that they shall save themselves and those that hear them 1 Tim. 4.16 Thus God answereth his peoples prayers both for temporalls and spiritualls See vers 9. and that with an overplus of comfort they shall shout aloud Vers 17 There will make the horn of David to bud A metaphor from those living creatures quorum ramosa sunt cornua which have snags in their heads as Deer have which are unto them in stead of boughs For horn some read beam of David confer Luk. 1.78 I have ordained a Lamp i. e. A successor cui lampada tradat and that a glorious one at length Christ who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Light essentiall Joh. 12.46 Of Ascanius the son of Aeneas and likewise of Tullus Hostilius it is storied that light flames were seen about their heads when they lay in their cradles and that thereby was foresignified that they should bee Kings Vers 18 His enemies will I cloath with shame Shame shall bee the promotion of all such fools as set against Christ and his people yea they shall bee cloathed with it so that it shall bee conspicuous to all men But upon himself shall his Crown flourish His royall Diadem Nezer whereby hee is separated and distinguished from other men Alexander dropt his Diadem once into the water and because hee who fet it out put it on his own head whiles hee swam out with it hee cut off his head Our Edward the fourth hanged one for saying hee would make his Son owner of the Crown though hee only meant his own house having a Crown for the sign in Cheapside PSAL. CXXXIII VErs 1 Behold how good and how pleasant it is This David is thought to have said to the people when after eight years unnaturall war they came together to Hebron to anoint him King over all Israel 2 Sam. 5. Behold bee affected with that happiness of yours which no tongue can utter Accipe quod sentitur antequam discitur as Cyprian saith in another case How good and how pleasant Precious and profitable sweet and delectable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dainty and goodly as Rev. 18.14 Communion of Saints is the next happiness upon earth to communion with God For Brethren Whether by Place Race or Grace which last is the strongest tye and should cause such an harmony of hearts as might resemble that concord and concent that shall bee in Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—thenaeus â—â— 3. The Thâ—bans in their armies had a band of men they called The holy Band consisting of such only as were joyned together in the bonds of love as would live and dye together these they made great account of and esteemed the strength of their armies To dwell together Heb. Even together that is even as God dwelleth with them Psal 132. to bee kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love Rom. 12.10 to bee as those Primitive Christians were Act. 2. of one heart and of one soul The number of two hath by the Heathens been accounted accursed because it was the first that departed from Unity Vers 2 It is like the precious ointment This similitude setteth forth the pleasure and amaenity of it as the other from the dew the profit and commodity Sic miscuit utile dulci. This ointment was most rich as made up of the chiefest spices Exod 30. and very fragrant refreshing the senses not of Aaron only but of all about him â—al 5. so doth Christian unity and amity that fruit of the Spirit far beyond that common friendship so highly extolled by Cicero and other Heathens and is therefore here fitly compared to that Non-such odoriferous ointment Upon the head that ran down upon the beard So the Spirit of grace that oil of gladnesse Psal 45.7 poured out abundantly even to a redundancy upon Christ the head runneth down upon all the members of his body mysticall even to the meanest so that they have grace for grace Vers 3 As the dew of Hermon Moisteneth and maketh fertil the Country of Bashan Hermon is a very high hill ever covered with snow whence ariseth a perpetuall vapour the originall and fountain of dew to all Jury And as the dew that descended The spirituall dew dispensed from God in Sion where hee is sincerely served For there the Lord commanded the blessing A powerfull expression highly commending brotherly love as a complexive blessing and such as accompanieth salvation PSAL. CXXXIV VErs 1 Behold bless yee the Lord This short Psalm the last of the fifteen Graduals is brâ—ve Sacerdotum speculum saith an Expositour a mirrour for Ministers who are first excited by a Behold as by the sounding of a trumpet or the ringing of a Sermon-bell And secondly exhorted to praise God and to pray unto him whereunto if wee adde their teaching of Jacob Gods Judgements whereof Moses mindeth them Deut. 33.10 what more can bee required of Archippus to the fulfilling of his ministry and if hee bee slack hee must bee told of it Col. 4.17 yet with all due respect and reverence to his office 1 Tim. 5.1 And it were fat better if they would rouse up themselves with the wakefull Cock and not keep sleepy centry in the Sanctuary All yee Servants of the Lord Yee Priests and Levites who are Gods Servants but of a more than ordinary alloy servants of noblest imployment about him Such are all faithfull Ministers each of them may say with Paul Act. 27.23 whose I am and whom I serve Which by night stand in the house of the Lord Keeping watch and ward there in your turns Num. 58.1 2 c. 1 Chron. 9.33 The Rabbins say that the High-Priest only sat in the Sanctuary as did Eli 1 Sam. 1. the rest stood as ready prest to do their office Vers 2 Lift up your hands in the Sanctuary Or Lift up holy hands as 1 Tim. 2.8 One readeth it out of the Hebrew Lift up your hands Sanctuary that is ye
sing in a strange Land Quid nobis cum fabulis cum risu saith Bernard in hoc exilio in hoc ergastulo in hac valle lachrymarum Let us cast away carnall mirth and groan earnestly to bee cloathed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 Vers 5 Iâ— I forget thee O Jerusalem As I might seem to do should I herein gratifie these Idolaters or otherwise obey them rather than God The Jews at this day when they build an house they are say the Rabbines to leave one part of it unfinished and lying rude in remembrance that Jerusalem and the Temple are at present desolate At least they use to leave about a yard square of the house unplaistered on which they write Leo Modena of the riâ—es of the Jews in great letters this of the Psalmist If I forget Jerusalem c. or else these words Zecher lechorban that is The memory of the desolation Let my right hand forget Fiat abalienata atque emortua Let it bee paralyticall and useless unfit to touch the harp Vers 6 If I do not remember thee Hi gemitus Sanctorum sunt gemitus Spiritus sancti these are the very sighs unutterable that precede joys unspeakable and full of glory Either our beds are soft or our hearts hard that can rest when the Church is at unrest that feel not our Brethrens hard cords through our soft beds If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy Heb. If I cause it not to ascend above the head of my joy Christ in his Ordinances must bee our chiefest comfort overtopping all other and devouring all discontents whatsoever Vers 7 Remember O Lord the Children of Edom Those unbrotherly bitter enemies The Jews call Romists Edomites Rase it rase it Discooperite discooperite Diruite ex imis subvertite fundamentis Buchanan Darius hearing that Sardis was sacked and burnt by the Athenians commanded one of his servants to say to him thrice alwayes at supper Sir remember the Athenians to punish them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herod Tâ—rp Vers 8 That art to bee destroyed Spoliatrix saith the Syriack Isa 33.1 Happy shall hee bee i. e. Well rewarded with wealth and good wishes Vers 9 That taketh and dasheth thy little ones So at the destruction of Troy Sed palam raptis heu nefas heu Nescios fari puerâ—s Achivis Ureret flammis etiam latentes Mâ—tris in alve Horat. l. 4. Od. 6. PSAL. CXXXVIII VErs 1 I will praise thee with my whole heart Which no Hypocrite can do though hee may pray in distress from the bottom of his heart A gratefull manis a gracious man viz. if hee come with a true heart as the Apostle hath it Heb. 10.22 Aben-Ezra Before the Gods will I sing praise unto thee That is before Angels who are present in holy assemblies 1 Cor. 11.10 as was represented by those Cherubines pictured in the Temple as also before Princes and Potentates see vers 4. Kimchi Vers 2 I will worship toward thy holy Temple Wheresoever I am the face of my soul shall turn like the needle of a Diall by sacred instinct Abbot towards thee in the Ark of thy presence in the son of thy love For thy loving kindness and for thy truth For thy grace and truth which come by Jesus Christ the Ark and Mercy-seat were never sundred Gods loving kindness in Christ moved him to promise his truth binds him to perform and hence our happiness For thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name Or Thou hast magnified thy name in all thy Words Or Thou hast magnified above all things thy Name by thy Word that is Thou hast got thee a very great name by fulfilling thy promises and by setting on thy Word with power Vers 3 In the day when I cryed c. This hee worthily celebrateth as a singular favour a badge of grace Psal 66.18 and pledge of glory Act. 2.21 And strengthenedst mee with strength in my soul With strength in the inward man Ephes 3.16 20. with spirituall mettal with supporting grace keeping head above water My body is weak my soul is well said that dying Saint I am as full of comfort as heart can hold said a certain Martyr The Apostle speaketh of the new supplies of the Spirit of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.19 the joy of the Lord is strengthening 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neh. 8.10 Vers 4 All the Kings of the earth shall praise thee Such of them as shall read these Psalms of my composing or otherwise shall hear of thy gracious dealing with mee according to thy promise Such also as shall hereafter bee converted to the faith for though Not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1.26 yet some are and these shine in the Church like stars of the first magnitude Vers 5 Yea they shall sing in the wayes of the Lord As having tasted the excellencie of the comforts of godliness far surpassing those of the Crown and Scepter and felt the power of Gods Word subduing them to the obedience of faith whereby they come to rule with God to bee faithfull with his Saints and to sing their songs Vers 6 Though the Lord bee high c. Even the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity Isa 57.15 See on Psal 113.6 7. Yet hath hee respect unto the lowly This maketh that Ancient cry out Videte magnum miraculum See here a great miracle God is on high thou liftest thy self up Aug. de Temp. and he flieth from thee thou bowest thy self down and hee descendeth unto thee Low things hee looketh close upon that he may raise them higher lofty things he knoweth a far off that he may crush them down lower The proud Pharisee pressed as near God as he could the poor Publican not daring to do so stood a loof of yet was God far from the Pharisee near to the Publican The Lord Christ is a door to Heaven Aug. in Johaâ— but a low door hee who will enter in thereby humiliet se oportet ut sano capite intrare contingat saith Austin hee must needs stoop to save his head-peece But the proud hee knoweth a far off As not vouchsafing to come anear such loathsome lepers For pride is like a great swelling in the body apt to putrifie break and run with loathsome and foul matter Hence God stands off from such as odious and abominable hee cannot abide the sight of them Superbâ—s à calo longè propellit as the Chaldee here paraphraseth he driveth the proud far enough off from Heaven yea hee thrusteth them into Hell to their Father Lucifer that King of all the children of pride as Leviathan is called Job 41.34 Vers 7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble Even in the vale of the shadow of death so that I seem little different from a dead man Thou wilt revive mee That is restore mee from so great a death as 2 Cor. â— 10 Thou shalt stretch